Quilt Work Resumed

I tried a new company, Quilting Delights in Milwaukie, to get my sewing machine repaired and I got it back in record time so I resumed work on my quilt blocks today. I've finished all of the half blocks.

I just need to make 4 more corner blocks and I'll be able to assemble the rest of this quilt.

Hopefully, I'll finish tomorrow.

Next up is a denim quilt, like this one, made from cut up old jeans.

Weight Loss Success

Last April, Jeff and I found ourselves at our highest weights ever. We had spent years sitting around playing video games and eating terrible food. I was struggling to get around and with knee troubles, having a hard time getting up and down the stairs. That is, in part, what prompted us to start looking for a one-story house in Prineville.

Jeff does all the food shopping and I asked him to please stop bringing home cookies and sodas. Back then, I had very little willpower to avoid them even when I should. He was also uneasy about his weight, having just gone for a visit where family members told him he looked fat and having gotten exhausted on a hike with a friend.

Together we decided we were ready to tackle a new project: Our health.

That day Jeff joined Noom. He really benefitted from the lessons and constant reminders throughout the day to log his food. He learned a lot about nutrition, and though I never paid the subscription, much of what he learned rubbed off on me. I decided one subscription in the house was enough, but I eventually installed the free app to track my food and weight.

I will admit the beginning was difficult; I had severe sugar withdrawal. I had dizzy spells and struggled with sugar cravings. And, having so many problems physically, I struggled to exercise. We bought a stationary bike and the first day I rode it for 30 minutes. The ride strained my knee and I could barely get up the stairs for the next few days. So, I throttled back and focused on my eating and doing chair exercises.

Jeff zipped through losing 60 pounds. He lost about 3 pounds a week. He walked everywhere and exercised relentlessly. He reached his goal weight last fall and is now in maintenance. (He's written a bunch of blog posts about his journey if anyone is interested.)

Mostly, Jeff prepared all the food we ate. He did an amazing job. We eat a ton of fruit and vegetables now. It’s nice on Noom that nothing is off limits, but you learn about serving size. For dessert, we might have a big bowl of fruit with a tablespoon of ice cream. Ultimately, we cut out lots of food we used to eat because the calories just aren't worth it. And we've discovered lots of healthy alternatives that fulfill our cravings.

Sometime last fall I tried tasting a Coke, my former addiction. It tasted gross; like chemicals. We poured it out and recently I gave away all the coke we had squirreled away in the pantry.

On average, I have lost about 1.3 pounds a week for a total of more than 50 pounds and it has made a huge difference in my ability to exercise. Stairs are no longer a chore. I ride the exercise bike for 30 minutes daily, as well as walking around the neighborhood when the weather is nice. I spend a lot more time cleaning.

I am still hoping to lose another 50 pounds, but I am feeling proud of what we’ve accomplished in the last year.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

I thought I was almost finished with the Fire Dance quilt.

I finished all the blocks and sewed them together yesterday. I thought I only had to add the border. But then I measured it and it wasn't wide enough. Oops. I couldn't figure out what I did wrong. I thought when I designed it, I'd double-checked the measurements on the quilt's size and it would be large enough to back the other batik quilt.

It took me a few minutes, but I finally figured it out. This quilt was meant to have blocks that were 12.5-inches square but when I printed out the block instructions I had accidentally made them 10-inches. Obviously, there's no fixing that mistake.

Jeff suggested I finish the central lines into the border, so I decided to do that. I designed some half-blocks to finish the edges and once I make those it should be wide enough to back the batik flower quilt.

I had expected to finish the quilt today, but now it will be at least another week or two.

Update on Sunday: Making some progress.

I had planned to take my sewing machine in for service right after finishing this quilt, and I would have made it if I didn't have to make additional blocks. But no. My machine has decided it is done. The tension is all messed up and nothing I can do will fix it, so this project is put on hold temporarily while the machine goes in.

Trying to Write

I am trying to not spend all my time sewing right now. I am splitting my time between reading/writing and sewing, so the Fire Dance quilt is taking a bit longer than usual. I have 17 blocks left to make.

We are really enjoying Habitica. It has been fantastic for getting us to do daily/weekly tasks that we should do but often didn't (things like change the bird cage, scrub the bathroom).

And we have turned more of our attention to reading and writing. I finally got my library access restored (my sign-in stopped working last year) and I have started downloading audiobooks/ebooks again.

I am currently trying to slog my way through Moby Dick. It's a book I've heard about so many times throughout my life, it seemed like I should have read it. I am trying, but it is written in 1850s English. We shall see if I make it.

Better Colors

My batik fabric finally arrived! I made a new test block and I like it much better.

I've already made all 24 of the easy block (on the right), now I just need to finish 23 more of the block on the left.

This design is based on Fire Dance from Batik Beauties by Laurie J. Shifrin. 

This is my plan for the finished quilt. Now that I have the fabric I need, I hope to finish it this coming week.

Rag Quilts Finished

I finally dragged myself into a laundromat and washed the rag quilts to fray up the seams. I quite like how they turned out. I am definitely going to make a couple more to toss down into the basement family room.

It was a fairly significant investment of time to snip all those seams, but it paired nicely with our new subscription to Disney+.

Once it's washed, I think I prefer the 3/8" seam over the 1/2" seam; it just looks a little tidier.

Trying Something New

As our long-time readers probably know, since 2012 we've been having an ongoing issue with spending too much time playing video games. We wasted about five years of our lives playing a variety of RPGs and though we finally gave up those, we still play too much Forge of Empires (FoE). In an effort to try and find something that can compete for our eyeballs, we're trying a new website that will help our gamify our life priorities: Habitica.

We started yesterday, not specifically because it was a New Years' resolution, but because we revisited our goals for 2019 and confirmed that we didn't do too well on our writing-related goals so we went looking for a way to stay on track better. When I found Habitica, we installed the apps and spent several hours yesterday entering all kinds of tasks. So far, our results look promising. I barely looked at FoE yesterday and spent a lot more time working on cleaning and writing tasks.

We shall see how this goes, but early results look promising.