1/31/13

Put A Bird On It


If you're here for the January linky party, click right here.

So, are you enjoying the party?  Sorry I didn't make any hors d'oerves.  I was busy getting the cat off the roof.  (And if that makes no sense to you whatsoever, you'll have to read Smitty's post from earlier today.)


So it's been a busy day today, and I haven't had a chance to get around to see all of your NewFO's, but I will be stopping by each and every one of your blogs to see what's up.

Speaking of hors d'oerves, I started my Curves diet on Monday.  So far, the food has been fine, although last night's entree kind of left me cold...even though it was a hot dish.  The other dinners have been fine.  Breakfasts and snacks have been great, and the Skinny Cow frozen desserts are surprisingly delicious.  I'm not feeling deprived at all, although I do wake up ravenous in the morning.  I've also worked out twice now, and it has actually been fun.  For one thing, Curves is limited to women, and all of the women I've been working out with have been my age or older.  As I've mentioned to some of you, there are also no spandex-clad babes in sight, the presence of which can be hugely demotivating. 

This morning I timed myself and figured out that it takes me one hour and ten minutes to drive to Curves, do the circuit and the stretching, then drive home.  This is a time frame I can live with.  So, I'm feeling very positive about my prospects for success on this program.  I think it will be something I can stick with until I reach my goal of losing 27 pounds.  And, to that end, I was 2 1/2 pounds lighter this morning when I stepped on the scale.  I'm not naive enough to think that I will continue to lose weight at that pace, but it's certainly a great motivator to see the numbers on the scale heading in the right direction.  And before I leave this topic, I was interested to read this article in this morning's New York Times about Myths of Weight Loss.  If you don't want to read the whole thing, you can skip to the bottom to read some of the myths, ideas not yet proven true or false, and facts supported by good evidence.  Very interesting.

So what else have I been doing?  Yesterday, I worked on two different projects.  This is my scrappy flannel Salt Water Taffy quilt.  It's the project in my current group that I least want to work on.  I added another two rows to it, which meant five pieced blocks.


I still have five more rows to go on this one, and then I'm planning to hand or machine tie it.  I have machine tied quilts before using the little eyelet buttonhole stitch.  That works pretty well.  I expect to be working on this one for another couple of months before it's finished.  I considered starting to sew the blocks together, but then decided to wait.  I keep adding more colors to it, and I want to be able to move them around when all the blocks are made.  It looks a little ho-hum light this, but I have made this quilt before, and I was surprised at how much I liked it when it was finished.  Flannel is so soft and cozy.

Then I made the next two blocks for the Debbie Mumm Anniversary Sampler.


Yesterday, I made the two largest log cabin blocks.  You see them kind of in the middle of the quilt in the row with the apples.


When I work on this one again, I'll be making the apple blocks.

Then today, I put the red birds on my White Trees quilt.  But first, I had to deal with a little item.  Do you see where my pen is pointing in the image below?


It's a little cut in the fabric that I didn't notice until I had already made this block.  Apparently it was there when I bought the fabric.  It was annoying to discover it, to say the least.  Still, it was easily fixed.  I put a bird on it!  


This is Portland after all!  In Portland, you can put a bird on it and call it art!  Check out this video from Portlandia:



Hahaha.  Hohohoh. Heeheehee!  My kind of humor.  (Ahem.  Composing myself now.)

So with that little item fixed, I added the other two birds.  


Oh, and did you wonder if I sewed any of those white tone on tones so that the wrong side of the fabric was up?  Why, yes!  Yes, I did!  Because I don't think a quilt is actually finished until you've made every conceivable mistake possible.  (Conceivable?  Possible?  Is it redundant to use both in the same sentence?)

So tomorrow I'll do the top-stitching on the birds, and then I'll be ready to start sewing the blocks together.  This one is getting close to the end.  

Also tomorrow I'm having breakfast with my son Erik, and after that, getting in one more Curves workout for the week.

How did your Thursday go?



22 comments:

Eunique said...

Ha ha ha! Cut fabric, wrong side up, on a diet, and owns a killer cat! My kind of woman. (I am laughing WITH you) :)

The Thimblemouse of Country Crossroads said...

Yikes....I thought I was really watching so well for the 'linky party' - and yet I missed it...but never fear - I found it...and will join in soon...Love the cat on the roof - we soooo indentify with that - except x 5 at least...LOL

Snoodles said...

Maybe it's the diet and exercise that are causing the mistakes.....naaah! It's Smitty! He's so cute he is distracting you! :)

Kate said...

I like the "put a bird on it" thought. And I do believe you can use conceivable and possible in the same sentence. Love your bird blocks!

Anonymous said...

HI! YOU+SMITTY CRACK ME UP!
THANKS FOR SHARING!

msstitcher1948@yahoo.com

Holli said...

You are so hilarious! The birds are great! (p.s., I couldn't find the linky, just the button.)

Liz said...

When I read the subject of your post, I really, really hoped that the scene from Portlandia was what you were referencing. Thank you. :)

Liz said...

When I read the subject of your post, I really, really hoped that the scene from Portlandia was what you were referencing. Thank you. :)

Lynne said...

Boo hoo! The video is not available to Australia!

The birds look great! No one will ever know you added them to disguise a flaw!

I love the colours in your Salt Water taffy quilt.

Congratulation on your 2.5 pounds weight loss -- I just hope I don't find it! ;-)

Donna said...

Smitty, or should I say you, had quite an adventure. My friends once spent an entire afternoon attempting to get my indoor cat they let out by accident out of a tree. I hear it was very interesting - wish I had pictures. I arrived to upset friends and a cat in a tree.. I turned on the electric can opener. Cat immediately jumped out of the tree (all by himself!). Can opener = tuna fish = cat at alert by bowl!

Dana Gaffney said...

It's not a mistake, it's adding more depth and texture, stopping the redundancy.

Vickie said...

I would love to see the machine tied quilt you talked about. I tried that a long time ago but didn't have any pretty stitches back then, "sew" I thought that quilt was a dud ! I love the birds on your quilt, those little guys eat bounty from my feeder every day. I'm gonna go hunt around on here to look for more posts about the white trees, I really like that ! Your positive attitude about your goal is great, I'm rootin for ya ! No cake pictures from me either !

Anonymous said...

They say cooks cover their mistakes with mayonnaise. You cover yours with birds!

Diane Wild said...

You must have tucked these projects away for a while. Nice to get them out and working on them, again. The bird is perfect.

kathy-o said...

That video was hysterical! Now I want to "put a bird on it"....on something!!! Thanks for the laugh today!

Anonymous said...

The bird(s) is a perfect addition! And a huge congrats on your first Curves week! The closest one to me is 40 min. one way...ugh! Especially after receiving the notice that my insurance offers membership free!! Will have to be satisfied with walking my rural road! The flannel quilt is so nice and a cozy warm thought right now.....-8F outside!-( Have a great day!! Hugs, Doreen

Anonymous said...

Love your birds. They make the quilt even better. I was thinking of something similar today when I discovered that two squares I used for a 9 patch had holes - tiny little things almost invisible! Grrrr!

Angel, Kirby and Max said...

I love the Debbie Mumm Anniversary Sampler. so many colors. The birds ate pretty. too. Yes, I nearly always get one tone one tone white upside down!

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Congrats on the weight loss. Keep it up.

Linda Big D said...

Love all your post! Newcomer to portlandia. They crack me up!

Rachel said...

Put a bird on it. Pretty sure that could be the duct tape of the quilty world...Laughing here, WITH you!

quiltzyx said...

Yes, I have sewed white on white fabric back side up. What the heck - I paid for both sides of the fabric, didn't I?

Put a bird on it!!!