An update on the weightloss/exercise

I know I said I was bored of the diet and I wouldn’t talk about it for a while, but I think that was mostly because it wasn’t going so well. I seemed to plateau for a week or two, around that annoying stone marker and it was a bit depressing. These last couple of weeks, however, have been better. I’m not sure why. I don’t think I’m eating any differently and I don’t think I’m exercising any more (in fact I know I’m not), so I’m not sure what’s happened there. I have changed my exercise regime in the gym a bit. As any long term reader will know I don’t enjoy running. Or to put it more honestly, I hate that bit when running when you can’t really do it and it’s far too hard work to even run for five minutes. I don’t mind it so much when I’ve built up from that and can “comfortably” run for longer – that’s achievement – but I hate the back at zero stage. So after a week or so of doing some speed splits (2 mins walking at 6.5 km/h, 2 mins running at 10 km/h) and then a couple of weeks of really not wanting to be at the gym at all, I decided to ditch the running and use my time on the treadmill to walk uphill, fast, instead. I set the programme to ‘Rolling Hills’ and the speed to 6.5 km/h and off I trot. I’m quite enjoying it as it’s still a sweaty work out (I aint no mountain goat), but I’m not having to run. Hoping to see some benefit too if Flâneur and I ever get out into those hills I pass every day on my way to work...

I’ve also started using the bike more, to do a bit of different exercise, and I’m quite enjoying the rolling hill programme on that too. It’s sore on the arse, and I have a tendency to slip a bit off the seat every now and again, but it’s good to be doing something a bit different and not letting the gym routine get stale. That’s what I tell myself anyway!!

On the weight loss front, I’m pretty pleased as I have now lost (drum roll please) just over half a stone, since starting on this latest kick. Ok, so over the course of however many weeks it’s been (quickly checks back in the blog, oh, 8 weeks – eek!) that’s not so much, but it’s a good steady loss and it is loss and I’m now down to X-2 stone 10 lb, which is nearly what I was just after Christmas. I must be doing something not quite right though as according to the food diary I’m supposed to have lost double that. I must be going off the rails somewhere…. Still, I’ll take a half stone loss at this point over no loss!!

Some of my friends are coming down to visit for my birthday this weekend, so I had better be careful not to put those pounds back on. We have a habit of eating a lot when we get together… hmmm… wish me luck!

A little bit behind...

I'm running a little behind with the quilt along. I had meant to sew up my pieces this weekend, but a short notice visit from my parents on Friday night/Saturday morning, shopping and a bit of a hangover on Saturday afternoon and a job to apply for on Sunday and it just didn't happen. Sunday was definitely supposed to be the sewing day, but it took me about 5 hours to sort out the personal statement and a new version of my CV for the job application that had to be done by today, that I just didn't have the energy or time in the end... *

What I did manage to do, however, was work out the arrangement of the quilt top. I used our bed as I'm not sure how clean the floor is and I didn't want to totally disrupt Flâneur who was trying to write some lectures, and started roughly in the middle, as it seemed to be the easiest way... I tried to do it in a considered way, trying to make sure that none of the edge fabrics repeated in any rows or columns, but in the end held a pile of squares in my hand and stood thinking, 'Right. Where will this one go...'

This is the final layout I ended up with:

I didn't quite manage to get all the squares in the picture as our bedroom isn't big enough for me to stand far enough back!! But you get the general idea...

When I see it like that I'm rather pleased with it. Up close some of it does mess with your eyes a bit, but I must say it's turning out pretty well for my first go at a quilt that isn't just made up of ordinary squares!

*I don't want to say too much about the job I applied for, other than it's a permanent one, which would trump the temporary one I have at the moment. Fingers crossed eh?

Quilt Along update

Having cut out all of the pieces last week, this week's task in the Fat Quarterly Quilt-Along was to piece it. With 80 blocks to sew, not small feat! I had meant to do a little each evening, but after a trip to the gym on Monday evening left me knackered I was slow to start... I then got a cold at the end of the week, which saw me taking two days of work, so no chance for sewing then either. Boo hoo... I had matched up all the fabrics into their blocks at the start of the week, deciding on a random approach. Well contrived random (as Flâneur put it), as I went to great lengths to make sure that a border fabric wasn't used as the centre fabric for any of the borders made of those fabrics. Hmm.. convoluted. Basically I tried to make sure that over all the 80 blocks I never got the same pairing of fabrics. Tricky, but I managed it!

I think this took me most of Monday or Tuesday evening to do! It was tricky trying to make sure the fabrics went well together whilst not repeating the pairing - and some I'm still not entirely convinced work... No doubt it will look better when it's all finished.

I was feeling better yesterday so I decided to take that as a signal that I should start the sewing. I was still pretty tired after the cold (they tend to hit me with major lethargy regardless of how severe the cold actually is), so only managed to sew 28 of the blocks. Which is pretty good going really. As the next stage starts tomorrow, however, and I didn't want to get behind, it did leave me with the hefty task of sewing up the other 52 blocks today! Phew! Still, the weather was typically Mancunian (rain, rain and oh, more rain) so I had no intention of leaving the flat anyway. So I chained myself to the machine and set myself a sewing. And this was the outcome:

A neat little pile of 80 pieced blocks. I'm pretty pleased with them, especially having never tried this style of patchwork before. Here's a picture of a selection of them:

I think you'll agree that some look better than others, and that some really do mess with the eyesight:

The two top left and one bottom left are among my favourites and some of the ones that I think work particularly well. The other three, well, let's just say they'll take some getting used to! I think the whole thing should look pretty good when I'm finished though. Fingers crossed!

Because I want it...

It is no secret that I am becoming increasingly obsessed with fabric. In a way that Flâneur is about paper (particularly Japanese paper), only I like to think with more commitment at the moment. My stash isn't that big, but it is growing. A trip to Liberty here, a Festival of Quilts there, so many online sources and an obsession grows and grows... I might even start blogging about some of the lovely stuff that I buy so you can all appreciate it too... I'll start when my Saffron Craig parcel arrives - so excited about that!!

While reading the blogs of friends I also read the blogs of quilters and other crafters (in an attempt to motivate myself, which does work sometimes) and from here I often find fabulous fabrics being promoted or mentioned and the drooling starts again. One such occurrence at the moment is on Sarah Fielke's blog The Last Piece. One of her recent posts was just a sea of fabulous fabrics that she has designed and had just had delivered. Oh my but it's lovely. And now she's giving some of it away.... Oh please let one of the lucky people be me... If it's not, well, maybe I'll just have to buy some of it anyway (if my paltry budget allows), as it's so pretty... I have one of her books 'Material Obsessions' and the other is on my Amazon wishlist, but to have some of her fabric too would be brilliant.

Keep your fingers crossed for me readers!

Redesign

I've been looking at my blog a lot recently as I have been posting to it more and I have decided that the red template that I recently changed to was just a bit too red, a bit too much. So I've changed it again. Quite pleased with the new version, what do you think?

Let me eat cake!

In a further 'I have a wonderful husband' post, just to make sure you know how lovely he is (and maybe to make you sick a little), I post the following:

Yup. Today my lovely husband made cupcakes. Yummy! And delightfully put them in alternating coloured cupcake cases. Ah, the things that make me happy... ;o) While he needs to learn some piping skills (he'd be the first to admit that too, so I'm not doing him down, promise!), they looks very tasty. Especially that lovely large one two from the right... ;o)

From the top! On a cool plate he bought in New York. I don't care that they don't have perfectly formed piped icing. They look delicious.


Post script - and taste it too! Yum! ;o)

My cute husband...

...went up to Edinburgh for a couple of days for a seminar and left this scene on our bed:

We started writing letters to each other when he was in Manchester and I was still in Edinburgh, and occasionally, when we are apart, we still do. So he left me a letter on our bed, and decided that his little green knitted dinosaur Raar (a birthday present from me last year after seeing the one belonging to a friend's 2 year old) should deliver it to me:

Hiding behind the letter with Raar is our little Koneko Basu, a fabulous little cutie from the Gibli museum in Tokyo...

My husband really is a wonderful man and really knows how to cheer me up!

All cut up and ready to go...

The diet can take a back seat for the next few weeks (I'm bored bored bored of it). I am mostly going to concentrate on the sewing project. I am still trying to lose weight, as ever, and still logging all the eating and exercise, but it just bores me to talk about it at the moment. On the sewing front, joining a quilt-along, I have realised, is fantastic motivation not only to do more sewing, but also to do some fabric/sewing related fun in the evenings and not just at the weekend or on a day off. Hurrah, just what I hoped.

This is week 1 of the quilt-along and that means cutting up the fabric. Something it often takes me some time to get round to plucking up the courage to do! But I have followed the instructions and my lovely Moda jelly roll (Hello Betty) is now ready to sew:

(The lovely jelly roll bought in New York on our Honeymoon 1)

(All the pieces cut up - 12 2.5 x 2.5 inch squares and 8 2.5 x 6.5 inch rectangles in each fabric)

I'm loving the colours, the teals, the reds and browns. Hmm... lovely! (That dark solid colour is brown, by the way, even though it looks black).

I think I need a bit more practice with my camera though - it was new before going away in March and I still haven't quite got the hang of it beyond auto shooting. It was a total lust object, an Olympus Pen EP-1 , a micro four thirds interchangeable lens, retro beauty. Ideally I'd like to do a beginners digital photography course so I can learn (in a class room based environment) how to use all it fabulous features, but I am scunnered by there being no such course in central Manchester. I don't want to rant, but this town is so rubbish for interesting evening classes. The art school has decided that it's too good to do that sort of thing and the local college is only interested in getting you back into work. What happened to learning for the sake of learning? Honestly... If we lived in Didsbury, there might be more going on, but that's a half hour bus ride from us, and after the train ride back from work I don't want to then head off somewhere on a bus!

Anyway, so I need to practice more at the moment, at the very least. Meantime, roll on next week and the start of the sewing!

Sewing Motivation!

Having spent some time sewing over the last week I am determined to do more. So much so that I'm going to try and join in the Fat Quarterly Quilt-a-long (see new button on the side bar). In an attempt to drive me on to actually doing something!! Sewing motivation for once (rather than exercise motivation!) Ah, if only I didn't have a full time job...

Just have to hope that neither of us goes crazy over the next few weeks with my sewing machine constantly being out on our dining table... dum di dum...

Will consult my stash and get a started tomorrow and hopefully have some progress to report on the old blog shortly!

(On other progress notes - I am now nearly 6 pounds lighter than when I started my latest eat less and exercise more regime. Not bad, eh, particularly given the weekend away in Edinburgh and a week off and a weekend in London...!)

Holiday sewing projects

(Warning - lots of pictures in this post!)

Have just had a week off and as well as spending one weekend in Edinburgh and one in London, I also spent a little bit of time doing a little bit of sewing. I finally got the quilt for H and CMcM's wee one finished (I only started it, what a year ago??):

(The finished article, laid out on the table.)

This is only the second quilt I have every made, and the first one that I have actually properly actually quilted. I'm still not confident enough to do binding yet - hopefully with the next one, but I think it looks ok without it. I love the colours in this - always a wrench to give it away! I stitched in the ditch to quilt it, which helped keep my lines straight, but not always very straight:

(Spot the slightly wobbly lines...)

The back was a single piece of teal fabric. I'm pretty pleased with it all in all. :o)

(I quite like the squares on the back caused by the quilting, as well as the colours!)

(The final item, all nicely folded and ready to be given to the new owner. I hope she loves it as much as I do!)

I also made myself a ring pin cushion. I saw some (frankly much more finished versions) at the V&A quilting exhibition, which were lovely but £35, which was really just a bit too much for me to pay. After a wee search online, I realised that it wouldn't be that hard to make. All I needed was a bottle top from a 2 litre bottle of coke or lemonade (Schweppes in my case), some stuffing and a bit of fabric and some elastic (and some glue) and I'd have a rudimentary version.

(Not bad eh? Can you guess where the little fabric scrap came from for it?)

To really finish it off I ought to cover the bottle top itself in fabric, but that's perhaps something for another day (and I sort of like it in its raw state). Anyway, it's very very useful. And anyone who doesn't have one, should - they're so easy to make!

And then, finally, I made one more project. We've needed a new door stop in our flat for our bedroom door, since we moved in a couple of months ago. I have a great pattern from a Lotta Jansdotter book Simple Sewing, that I have used twice before, so I broke it out and a cool bit of fabric from my stash that I was just waiting to know what to do with. I mostly stuff them with soft toy stuffing, but then add some rice at the bottom (in food bags) to give it the necessary weight. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out though:

(Loving the funky fabric)

Here it is next to the other two that I made:

(They look cute all lined up, eh?)

The robots on the right was the first one I made - a present for Flaneur for Christmas a few years ago - and I clearly went crazy on the stuffing as it looks very 'comfy' next to the others! The chickens was used in the kitchen in the old flat. Unfortunately the freezer leaked a bit once and it got a little wet. I use it in my 'utility cupboard' now (the cupboard in the hall with the washing machine in it - it's great to keep the cupboard door open so I can use the blinking thing). I'm pretty pleased with my little family of door stops. And I think the last one I made is definitely technically the best.

Just need to work out what my next project is going to be now!