Made: December Sugar Block

sewing, , , ,

dec sbc

And I’m done! I finished up the last Sugar Block of 2013. This month’s is a paper pieced block, and I love paper piecing! The end result is always precise and perfect, but I like the process. Stitch, trim, press, fold, stitch….

And I’m a little bit sad. I mean, I’m a lot excited to have the blocks finished and all ready to put together into a quilt top. But I can’t believe that it is December. And that the year is just about over. *sigh*

I am not sure how I’m going to arrange these 12 blocks just yet. But Amy just posted on her blog some pretty suggestions for block arrangement – some of them I hadn’t even considered. I’ll probably also poke around the flickr group in hopes that someone has already finished their quilt top.

I’m really excited that Amy’s hosting another round for 2014.

dec sbc-2

I Gave Up

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So… for my sister’s quilt, I scrapped the whole Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt. The more I worked on it, the less I liked it. The more I looked at the blocks, the less I liked it.

So. Yeah. I stacked the blocks neatly into a bin, put them away and started over.

Well, that’s not exactly true. I didn’t start completely over, I pulled these nine-patch and solid green blocks from the back of my closet.  I added solid squares of pink and gray. I arranged them somewhat randomly on my design wall. Then I started sewing them together.

Not too bad.

seester 9 patch

seester 9 patch 2

seester 9 patch 3

#mileaday

photography, running

mileaday

Hello December!

I don’t have a post that outlines my goals this month. But just because I didn’t post them, does not mean I don’t have goals.

One of my goals is to run a mile every day – until the New Year. I started on Thanksgiving day with a 4.5 mile run around the neighborhood – and what a beautiful morning that was here in Denver. There were tons and tons of people out running, walking, playing touch football at the park. It made me happy to be out there with them, too.

So. A mile a day. I read an article in Runner’s World awhile ago, and is just seems like a good idea. (Here’s a link to the 2013 version of that same article if you are interested.) I’m planning on posting photos to instagram (I’m fivebaht if you want to follow along with me) with the hastag #mileaday.

Happy December!

 

November Review

random,

november-review

So… November was a crazy, but fun month. I didn’t get nearly everything accomplished that I wanted to, but I’m ok with that. I’ll just move them on to December. Here’s an update:

Crafty:
* Red Sweater: complete 25% – Ha. Nope. I didn’t even pick up the knitting needles at all in November.
* Complete the November block in the Sugar Block Club   Done!
* Complete the FRMQG Adventure Block for my swap partner  Done!
* Finish the quilt for my seester! – So, I decided to scrap the scrap quilt for her and do something different. Stay tuned for a blog post highlighting this quilt for her.
* Re-do the binding on my Supernova Wall Quilt  Done!

Run:
* 10k: Not sure if this will be a race yet or not, but I want to run the distance this month. Done! Ok, so I squeaked this one in on November 30th, but I did it.
* Add speed work at least once a week  My speed work included 800m repeats (on a track no less!), a 3ish mile tempo run, quarter mile-ish pick ups during a midweek run and during a longish run, I ran the last 10 minutes at a ridiculous pace. That last one sucked, if I’m being honest.

Yoga:
* focus on hips and quads – work in progress.
* medidate (at least try to meditate) – I’ve been reading The Upanishads for a 6 week yoga workshop. I hadn’t been exposed to this before, and the reading and reflection has been good.

House:
* organize the kitchen and pantry
* create a family command center on the blank wall in the kitchen Done!

2013 Photobook Status

photobook, photography,

One of my goals this year is to get my photos off my computer, and printed into photobooks. I’ve made specific ones for certain events and as gifts for family. I’ve been working all year on a 2013 photobook (I made one last year as well), and as of this morning, I’m 42% complete.

Yes, I use a spreadsheet to keep track of my progress.

Yes, the sheet calculates how much of the year I’ve documented.

PL-Tracking-Sheet

 

What can I say? I love spreadsheets.

I use Lightroom to organize my photos, and I filter my photos by date. It makes it easier for me to focus on just that week and choose photos for the album. I build the pages in Photoshop, using templates from Becky Higgins and digital scrapbook kits from Paislee Press. Within Lightroom, I can send photos to Photoshop and back to Lightroom pretty easily.

PL-LR

I take notes each week, and record them in my notebook.

daily capture

This morning, I worked on weeks 19 and 20. You can see week 20 below.

Week 20Week 20 Left

Week 20 Right

 

I’m hoping to get the year documented by the end of the year. Meaning, in the next 4 weeks, I need to catch up.

It is a lot of work, and most of the time I enjoy the process. Some of the time it feels like a chore. After working all week, mostly in front of a computer, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of my computer here at home. There are some weekends where I don’t even turn it on.

But I love looking through my photobooks. I love when family comes to visit, and they look through the photobooks. I love doing them digitally and that the books don’t take up much space. And I can re-print them if I need to.

It took me awhile to refine my process. But now, documenting the little things is a habit. Recording the highlight of the day, or a funny thing Miles said, the songs he’s singing or the books he’s reading – all go in my notebook. I love looking back, and I know that 10 years from now, I’m going to love looking at this book.

 

Lots and Lots of Quilt Blocks

sewing, , ,

Let me just start out by telling you that I’ve been feeling awful. For longer than necessary. I’ve ingested so much over-the-counter medicine that we probably should buy stock in Walgreens. nov15-4

I didn’t work today, partly because I’m sick, yet mostly because I’m way over my hours for the month. Already. I don’t really think of myself as a workaholic, but I just find that this new job is a lot of work. A lot more work than my old job. I’m getting used to working 9-10 hours a day, and that’s not including the commute. I didn’t have any meetings scheduled today, so I planned a day off.

And I spent it sewing. Its a good day.

Here’s a block for Andrea. She’s my person this month for my quilt guild’s Adventure Block Swap. She chose a wonky churn dash block, requesting it in orange, teal and brown. This one was really fun to put together.

nov15

And here’s this month’s Sugar Block called “First Frost” except today its 65 degrees and sunny! No frost yet crosses her fingers. I just can’t believe:

1. that I’ve kept up with this block of the month series

and

2. is there really only one month left in 2013?

I really like the blocks that Amy designed and the resulting sampler quilt is going to look amazing. I’m really excited about it.

nov15-2

And then there are these:

nov15-5

bleh. I’m pretty sick of sewing these trip around the world blocks. They are easy and they come together really quickly – I’m just ready to move on to something else. I need a few more blocks before I call it done though. The quilt needs to be just a bit bigger.

Unrelated to sewing, I’m currently listening to Amy Tan’s latest, The Valley of Amazement.  I’ve read most of her books and heard her interview about this book on Morning Edition last week. I like it so far. I just finished up Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, which was beautiful and complex and well narrated. I highly recommend the book, even though it is categorized Young Adult fiction.

I’m kind of a fan of these audiobooks, and I didn’t expect to be.

nov15-3

Friends, that’s all I’ve got to tell you today. Happy Friday!

Improv. Not As Easy As I Thought.

sewing, , ,

comfort-zone
See that? Me. Outside my comfort zone.

I was fortunate enough to take a class from Jacquie Gering this weekend. Hosted by my quilt guild, a group of us gathered to learn Scrappy Improvisational Piecing from quilter/instructor/author/blogger Jacquie Gering.

jgclass

Quilt making without a pattern, block dimensions, or even an illustration was tough. And I’m pretty sure I was over-thinking the process. Jacquie was amazing and encouraging throughout the class, and I slowly got into the groove of slicing, stitching and pressing an assortment of fabric into different sized blocks.

Which turned my workspace into this mess:

messy

All day Jacquie shared her approach to design and improv piecing – emphasizing the flow of negative space throughout the quilt, reminding us about contrast and value when choosing the fabric. She’d shout out little nuggets such as:

squares and rectangles are your friends!
when in doubt, slice it!
remember your background fabric!

We had design walls set up all around the room, and as the day went on, it was really fun to see the blocks come together.

collage2webAnd here’s the one I took home with me:

scrappyimprovblocks

I think I’m finished making blocks. And I’m not quite sold on this particular layout. Taking this class was amazingly fun and incredibly inspiring. If you get a chance to take a class from Jacquie, DO IT! She’s amazing.

November Goals

random,

 

novgoals

Yikes. I’m looking at my November calendar and it’s just nuts. It’ll be Christmas before I know it!

I sat down and wrote out some goals for the month. And to provide some accountability, I’m posting them here.

Crafty:
* Red Sweater: complete 25%
* Complete the November block in the Sugar Block Club
* Complete the FRMQG Adventure Block for my swap partner
* Finish the quilt for my seester!
* Re-do the binding on my Supernova Wall Quilt

Run:
* 10k: Not sure if this will be a race yet or not, but I want to run the distance this month.
* Add speed work at least once a week

Yoga:
* focus on hips and quads
* medidate (at least try to meditate)

House:
* organize the kitchen and pantry
* create a family command center on the blank wall in the kitchen

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