It's getting warmer......

Spring has arrived and it will probably be Summer next week.  I have finally summoned up the motivation to run again and have run one mile for the last two mornings.  Not a huge achievement, but a beginning.  I am looking for a recumbent exercise bike and I plan to work up to the half marathon.  So my first run is a 5k on May 11th - the 'Crawdaddy Dash' so when I'm done we can go and eat crawfish!

So to quilting news.  The girls from Charlotte came down for another lesson and had a really good time.  I am so grateful to them, they motivate me and are so happy with the frame and what they can do with it - it really makes me feel so good about the whole process.  They also had some wonderful ideas the I will share soon - I can't tell you how much fun it is when my PQ3000 customers come up with good ideas for making it better!

The one block wonder class was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to teaching it again.  I need to send in my show entry for Grand Rapids tomorrow, and then it is time to work on the Hoffman Challenge.

So, I have a baby clothes quilt to complete and then a few classes to work on - both classes are hand work - Cathedral Windows and English Paper Piecing.

Time for bed - I had a lovely weekend that included a really excellent production of 'King Lear' by USC in Columbia.  I love Shakespeare and have spent many happy Saturday afternoons at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon watching a matinee performance.  I think it is fabulous that good Shakespeare performances are so prevalent here in South Carolina and in Charlotte, North Caroline.

Happy days with warm temperatures and sunny days - I love this place!  Sunshine makes the world seem better and all is well.

It has been an interesting day......

scanning documents and sending them via email to my attorney sounds like it should be really easy.....technology sucks sometimes!  Files were too big, then they were zipped and they took hours to send, then the zipped files were too big, so tomorrow we have to scan stuff again in smaller batches.  Grr!  Ok - rant over.

I had a fun evening with J.R. who is so excited about her PQ3000 frame now that she has tried it out.  We spent time investigating ideas for patterns that she could do using the limited throat space on her machine.  I just love it when someone goes home happy with their PQ!

Then I received some goodies in the mail.  I am trying to spend the thousand of reward points that I built up on my credit card because I wasn't paying attention and didn't know I could spend them.  So today's haul was a box of meats from Omaha Steaks, a pair of oven mitts made out of some rubber stuff, a docking station/Alarm clock for the iPod and an electronic scribble pad.  Woo hoo!

So - I'm off to the grocery store.  I'm out of wine and milk - just the essentials of life.

Oh.oh.....

Tornado watch - got to keep on eye on it as there is a whole procedure to follow at the kennel if it becomes a warning.  Could be a long night......

There is a thunderstorm brewing........

so this may be a very short post!

'Dear Jane' has been returned to her rightful owner, who seemed very pleased with how she turned out - I was very proud of the work done on that quilt, but I won't be sorry if I don't see another one for a while.

It's been a hectic week - lots of quilts in the studio, a rush job for a baby shower, paperwork by the bucketful and now visa application.

Bandit is doing just fine and seems fairly perky!

Anyway - this storm is here - just got a gust of wind that felt like it was blowing the house down.  So time to unplug and I hope I can get some pictures out soon.  We are doing a second One Block Wonder sample that will probably mark us for life as totally insane!

And how did it get to be Friday again tomorrow.......??

Not so long this time....

but probably long enough. 

The excitement regarding the One Block Wonder is wonderful. 

 

The class is filling up and I can't wait!!

 

I had a lovely day today with a couple of new friends from Charlotte who came for PQ3000 class.  We all got so carried away it was about an hour past the class finishing time before we even knew what time it was - fun!!

 

I have decided (again) that it is time to get back to running, so I am signed up for a race in Charlotte in July but I need a couple of races before then for motivation.  I don't understand why it is that I feel so much better when I am running but I don't do it - it's the human nature that has the self destruct gene!!  I still think all is not well with my arm.  I can feel my fingers but there are still weaknesses in the muscles and I am not ready to risk tennis - quilting is bad enough without adding tennis to the problem!  So running it is - treadmill tomorrow - I'll let you know.

 

I checked out my credit card reward points a couple of weeks ago.  I sort of knew that they were building but I had not done anything about it because I had enough to do (and John used to take care of all that kind of stuff).  So I logged on and found that I had 78,000 of the little so-and-sos!!  So I checked out what I could get and now I have a complete set of new pans and skillets and a really cool new knife block set.  And I still have 50,000+ points to spend - amazing for a girl who hates shopping!

 

Still sorting out stuff for the garage sale - I love to clear out clutter.  But I do still need to finish the painting in the house.  And there is the Hoffman Challenge to sort out and an entry for Grand Rapids. 

 

So it's probably time to head for the couch, then bed, to see if my head can come up with something amazing to translate into a quilt - all my best ideas come to me overnight - including staying in bed for an extra ten minutes after the alarm goes off!!

 

Bandit is still doing well - keep quilting - and enter shows - you would be surprised at what gets a ribbon - maybe even your quilt!

Spring - finally.......

The Bradford pear tree has almost finished blooming and has leaves.  The squirrels are running around the back yard trying to remember where the last of their nuts are hidden and the bluebirds are getting ready to do what bluebirds do in the spring!

I have almost completely recovered the feeling in my fingers so I am assuming that the pinched nerve has almost healed.  I will still wait a while before playing tennis but I am looking forward to getting back into it soon.

I have a bunch of paperwork to do but 'Dear Jane' is finished!!! 




I am really happy with the final result.  All that stitch in the ditch really was worth the time and effort - 'Dear Jane' has been in my life for almost four weeks.  I am really ready for a change!

 

Each square is 4 1/2" finished - that's a lot of pieces in a very small space. 

So I am going to teach the 'One Block Wonder' technique at the quilt store on April 20th.  Oops - just remembered that the engineer has a neighborhood garage sale that day - guess I can't help much although class doesn't start until 10am so I can help with the earlier shift!

Anyway - 'One Block Wonder'.  It's a stack and whack technique and it is a lot of fun and produces the most diverse quilts.  Below is the sample we are making laid out on the design wall - just one kind of block and one fabric!  We still have some changes to make but it's looking good.

 

And then Carly wanted her picture taken too.....

 

But we couldn't ignore Bandit although he wasn't as keen to get in a photo.............

 

So the end of another busy day of quilting - it's time to start thinking about the Hoffman Challenge entry (due July) as well as the Cathederal Window class sample and I really need to finish the painting in the house.  I am so sick of the house at the moment - when I started the complete renovation over two years ago I was ready to get it done but now I think I am just done in!  I keep trying to set target finishing dates but something much more interesting keeps coming along.  Oh well - I'll get there eventually.