Seeing Dots

This has been a busy week . . . I'm on vacation . . . Yay!  On Sunday I did my 3rd triathlon and I'm pleased to say that I finished 9 out of 18 in my age group.  If I was just one year older I would have taken the 3rd place medal . . . drat!!  Why couldn't I be OLDER??!!  What??  That's insanity!!  Next year, I'm looking to podium!!  Hee hee!!

On Monday I had high hopes of making it to bootcamp at 5:15 a.m., but that didn't happen.  Neither did the 6:30 p.m. Monday bootcamp.  But, I was out there bright and early Tuesday morning for an hour of brutality, er, I mean high intensity exercise.  I was back at it again this morning and I have one more session tomorrow morning.   My body is totally beat up, but I need it so I'm determined to get out there and do the best that I can.  I'm trying to talk myself into a little run when I get through with this post.  I'm thinking maybe I should write a really, really long post and then it'll be too late to run!! 

But, unfortunately I have nothing to say, so I'll just share a couple pictures of the projects I've been working on during my week long hiatus from work.

This week my niece turned 13.  Coincidentally, "Happy Birthday" is 13 letters long and I sent her 13 presents for her birthday.  I got to use some of my handmade tape to wrap the packages.

 D9P

Backside of the D9P

Okay, the color is totally wong in this picture; I'm not sure what happened with the camera (operator!!).  The fabrics are all shades of purple (mostly dots) and the circles were made with the longarm.  The fabric is light purple dots in that area.   This quilt is being added to my stash of giveaway quilts for the kids at the hospital.

This is the backside of the quilt.  It's a lavender color.   I really should go take some better pictures . . . but you know, there's that pressing running issue!! 



A New Mess

I had an idea . . . (they all seem like good ideas in my head . . . must be sleep deprivation) and I cut up some fat quarters and experimented making a drawstring bag.  I didn't like the execution so much so I decided I would cut the fat quarters into smaller sizes and make some blocks.  When I finally decided on the design I realized that I needed 2 more blocks to finish my quilt and of course after carefully measuring the existing blocks I set about cutting some more fabric.  Yep, you guessed it, I cut the wrong size.  Well, actually, I cut the correct size first and then went back and measured and decided that the strips were 1/4" too large so I trimmed them up.  Right after I sewed the first set, I knew they were wrong.  So, out came the seam ripper and a new design was born!!  Oh, the beauty of creating on the fly . . . gotta love it!!  It still needs work, but there's a new idea percolating around my brain right now so we'll see how that design turns out!!

The start of something new - looks nothing at all like the original design, but hopefully it'll be acceptable!!

The other day I was listening to a podcast with Marisa from Creative Thursday and I had to jump on over to her Etsy shop and look at her adorable paintings.   Do you remember the Memory game?

I loved playing this game, but we played with a deck of plain 'ole ordinary playing cards.  These are so much more fun, don't you think?

There are two each of these little prints all painted by Marisa.  They were just too darn cute.  I have plenty of grandnieces and nephews so even though I'd like to keep them all to myself, I'm sure they'll make their way to a new home soon. 

Marisa has her first line of fabric debuting this Fall.  Check it out here.

Busy, Busy

Where does the time go anyway?  It's already Saturday evening . . . hmm . . . maybe if I hadn't taken that nap!!

I read an article this week about the price of cotton going up in the coming year and the price of cotton fabric is also expected to increase.  So, my dilemma is to get on board and go stock up on my stash (which is already more than I will ever need) or pay a higher price in the coming years.  Ugh! 

So, I made a trip to JoAnn's today (not to stock up; just to look).  I think this is only the 2nd time in a year that I have gone to JoAnn's and I was totally surprised to find fabric selling for $9.99/yard.  At JoAnns!!!  Incredible . . . especially when I pulled a bolt out and the date on the selvedge was 2006!!!  Uh, no . . . fabric that old needs to be a whole lot less than $10/yard.  Am I wrong??!!

Anyway, what was my point??  Oh, yeah, I think that I'll probably pass on trying to stock up before the price increase and just be happy that I have plenty (probably too much)of cotton in my house.

Donna and I met for lunch this past week and did our Christmas present exchange.   My packages from her are all wrapped so pretty.  I feel I'm cheating her on my packaging skills.  It's the thought that counts, right??!!

 Presents from Donna . . . aren't they pretty?

This bag is getting heavy and I'm loving how it's filling up nicely!!

I cut up the rest of my fabric tape so now I am ready for some wrapping.  Unfortunately I don't have anything to wrap right now.  Hmm . . .



I have two quilt tops ready for the longarm and I'm in the process of making another quilt top.  I guess I'll go load up one of the quilts and get ready for some longarm action tomorrow.  I hope everyone is having a very creative and inspiring day!!