Pay it Forward

Hey everybody! Some time ago, I agreed to participate in a Pay it Forward game on Debbie's blog and I'm finally getting around to posting about it. Here is how it works. If you would like me to send you a homemade little something, then you sign my comments saying you would like to participate. But here's the catch: you have to pay it forward to three other people. You snarf the pretty picture above and put it on your blog, and you ask for three people to sign on and participate, and you send three chosen commenters a little homemade giftie, and then they do the same, and etc. etc.

If I get more than three people asking to participate, I'll draw the lucky three. I'm going to hold this open until my birthday, April 12th. (Hey, I didn't mean for that to be a hint or anything. Ok maybe deep down I did. But it's a day I won't forget so it's a good mark for me.) I'll contact the participants shortly after that.

Oh, and btw. Some time ago...ok, in NOVEMBER...I gave away a little prize to two people to celebrate my second blogiversary. I saw Freeblady, so I just delivered hers in person. Poor Joyce has been patiently waiting for me to get off my bum and get to the post office for months! What's really pathetic about it is I've had the little giftie since January. I'm so sorry Joyce! I did jokingly say that it would take me awhile to get the gifts out but I didn't mean for it to drag out so long. Hopefully I will have it out to you soon.

In other news...Freeblady and I went to a really fun event yesterday. The Original Sewing & Quilt Expo! It was so much fun. We had a free-motion quilting class with Sheila Finklestein, and a binding class with Connie Spurlock. I got to try out a pretty fancy (for me) Viking machine in the free motion class. I signed up for the binding class because I was hoping they would have some advice about binding an inside curve on a quilt. The Girl's quilt has about a jillion inside corners to bind. Of course the instructor did not really know, and her basic advice was, "don't do it." Oh. Um. Huh. Well, then...

And I almost forgot to mention: Freeblady won a prize! Unfortunately not a sewing machine, but a prize is a prize! Woohoo!

Calico Clues

For some time I have been looking for Barbara Brackman's "The Clues in the Calico". It is supposedly a really great book for helping to determine the age and history of a quilt. I don't know why I never thought of it before but I finally looked at the library for it. My branch didn't have it but they requested it from another branch for me! How wonderful! I can't wait to get it.

Oh, and if you look to the left there you will see that I finally set up my blog for RSS feeds. At least I think that is what that little icon means. Wee!

Checking in

Well of course I fell off the blogging wagon for awhile. It seems to happen to me periodically. I guess the main reason that happened is I made a big stink about wanting to lose weight at the beginning of the year. I lost one pound and then promptly gained it back. Now that I have lost a grand total of 3 (yes you read that right, 3!) pounds I am feeling like I can blog again. February was just stagnant but I've made progress in March. I've been weighing myself almost daily for a week to be sure that it wasn't just some weird dip where I spontaneously weighed less than usual. Some days I've only lost two pounds, some days 4, and some days 3. So we'll go for an average and say 3. I'm so glad to finally be making progress.

And here's the kicker. I didn't do it by dieting, really. Well, it is but it isn't. I decided that I was tired of eating so much processed foods & meats and I should be trying to eat closer to nature. I wouldn't call myself a vegetarian because I am still eating meat, just not very often. Ok, the last three days I ate it. But today is Friday and I'm Catholic so today I'll be meat free. I've also made a real effort to eat more salad and fresh fruits and vegetables. Take today...so far I've had oatmeal with raisins, a dried cranberry, sunflower seed and peanut snack mix (made it myself!), a whole wheat pita with roasted garlic hummus and avocado slices. (I am very proud of my little pita sandwich...it was tasty.) I'll be downing a little baggie of carrots, a banana, and an apple by the end of the day, too. Not sure what is on tap for dinner but I've been working a lot of hours and so that will probably be up to The Husband. That means it most likely will not be "nature" food. Oh well, you can't win them all. Also I am supposed to be training for a 10k run in May but work has put a damper on that this week. I'll have to take it up again next week. Oh, and I'm not training to win the 10k. I'm training to be able to finish the 10k.

On to quilt things. I stopped work on all other projects to work on a little blankie for a friend's baby. The baby was born in September and I really have to get my butt in gear. I kept postponing because I wanted to make her something but I finally realized the poor kid would be in college before I could make her what I really wanted to make. I saw in a quilting magazine not too long ago (sorry, I can't remember which one) that a fun way to make a quilt without doing patchwork is to get a nice large-patterned fabric and just quilt the lines on the fabric. That's what I'm doing for little Liesl. I wanted it to be a yard square to keep with the tradition of giving babies a yard of cloth for luck. I read about that in a Fons & Porter book...the Quilter's Complete Guide. (It was my first quilting book and I love it dearly! So dearly it is falling apart.) I'm about halfway done with the quilting on it, which I am doing by hand. This week work has been stomping on all of my quilting time so I didn't progress too much this week. I hope to have it done by the end of the month.

In other news...The Girl got glasses. She apparently is "extremely far-sighted" as the doc put it. Really? How on earth was she able to function? I can't figure it out. But she is happily wearing her new specs without any argument, in spite of being three and having very definite ideas about what she does (dresses) and doesn't (pants) wear.

Oh and t-ball is about to start for The Boy. I can't believe it is already time for that again. This year he seems much more eager. Some friends of ours got their son on the team too so now he'll have a team buddy.

I'm so glad Spring is on it's way. This is Ohio so I know the cold weather could drag into May. I sure hope it doesn't, though.