On December 1st I crossed off an item on my bucket list for lack of a better term. I ran cross country in high school and since then have wanted to run a full marathon. For one reason or another I didn't run for the last 20 or so years. In 2005 I signed up and walked the Disney half marathon with Team in Training, the leukemia and lymphoma society group. I started running after that and signed up for the Lewis and Clark full in 2008. The morning of the race, Hurricane Ike made a detour through the St Louis region. I think about half of the people signed up for the race still started. The course was flooding so the course for both the full and the half marathon were shortened to 10 miles. Very disappointing but who can boss mother nature around? Ha. I developed a wonderful case of plantar fasciitis in training and spent way too much time working through that. But finally started running again this year. We signed up for the St Jude's marathon in June. A week later I sprained my ankle pretty badly and spent the next month sitting. So training wasn't going quite as well as I hoped. A good friend of mine and I planned to run together. She was having IT band issues so hadn't run in the last month or so. So the race was pretty questionable for both of us. With her wonderful help, some gel packets and bit of craziness, both she and I and my husband completed our first full marathon. A wonderful experience and we were all able to walk the next day. Ha!

I’m my mother’s daughter and possibly have more projects than I’ll ever complete (sorry Mom!). But that doesn’t always keep me from buying more. I only have 1 complete quilt top (also known as a flimsy apparently) ready to go and it’s just waiting on me to get some charity quilts done. A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a piece of fabric I wanted for another project and must have found at least 5 other quilts in various stages of being completed. Well, the top/flimsy being completed that is. One of them was called the flower of the month and I have 2 months completed on it and a 3rd almost done. I’ve also done a wall hanging with one month and it’s about halfway hand quilted. But it’s a very pretty flower series of fabric that came out probably 4 or 5 years ago. This is one of the two months I’ve completed. It’s moved up to the sooner rather than later pile of projects. As well as finishing the wall hanging. I actually have someone in mind to give that to for Christmas so I guess I should get a move on.

I've been working on a mystery quilt with the proceeds from it going to a cancer patient. It's been alot of fun and is almost done. There are 6 clues and we have thru clue 5 received. I haven't sewn the last one together. You sew them into strips. I did lay the current blocks out and compared ways I like them being put together. Although I may wait until clue 6 comes out to actually sew them together to see if there is something in that clue to make a difference. Currently, here are the blocks arranged in a couple of different ways. Here are photos of two of the different options. Anyone have any thoughts on these?

Check out my 365Project at: http://365project.org/jubileequilt

I've been asked to put Texture Magic on this wall hanging to give it more of a 3D effect. This is mine but I have a lady who wants one made as well. My thought was to just add it to the boy and the bear to make them stand out and look more alive. The lady would like the whole quilt done. I am planning on doing mine with just the boy and the bear, but just thought I'd see what others thoughts were. Or if anyone has any other totally different ideas. I like the wall hanging itself and I have teddy bear fabric for the backing that I think will looks awesome with this one.

Check out my 365Project at: http://365project.org/jubileequilt/365/2012-10-28

Spiro purse

In the middle of September I went to the Quilting with Machines show in Huron, Ohio. It was a great show as I believe I've said before, but I watched Dusty do Spiro quilting and loved it. I used to love my spirograph when I was a kid. He mentioned it made good purses and accents on quilts so I set my mind to making a purse. I've never made anything like that before but figured it was worth a shot. I happened to have a purse pattern I'd bought at Appletree Quilting in Columbia, MO. It's really neat, has a lattice pattern for the sides of the purse. So I just substituted that for a spiro design and made my purse. I've been working on it for awhile (have gotten side tracked a time or two with other items), but finally the purse is done. I love it and am very proud of it for a first attempt.

Check out my 365 Project http://365project.org/jubileequilt/365/2012-10-22

Making progress

I've been working on my Millenium, learning how to make it dance. We're working on learning to walk at this point, but it's getting better slowly. I have a quilt on the frame now that I may have jumped the gun on, but it's getting better all the time. I am really liking how it's turning out, even if it's not perfect. It's a slow process and I'm amazed at how long it really is taking to do the job I'm doing on it, but then it's all a learning process so I guess it's to be expected. I am excited tho because I hope to have it finished by tomorrow. That's not too much longer. I'm doing a pantograph (actually in different sizes based on the size of the area to quilt) in the sashes and borders and the braiding in the middle, I'm doing stitch in the ditch. The learning curve on the stitch in the ditch is more than I anticipated but I'm working on it. But it sure looks nice when you look at it right before you roll the quilt on the frame. I'm happy with the work so far.

Spiro quilting

The 3rd week of September I went to a Quilting with Machines show in Huron, Ohio. They had classes on long arm quilting and vendors and a quilt show. The quilts in the show were awesome. Simply amazing what some people can do with a quilting machine. One of the instructors that I had is a man, Dustin Farrell, and he is one of those who makes amazing quilts. He was nice enough to share how he does the spiro quilting in one of the classes. By luck, I took that class. I loved my Spirograph when I was a kid and love the look of these designs. So I've worked with them a little so far and plan to get better at it. But here are the sides to a purse I'm making with a couple of spiros I've made so far. I'll post photos of the purse when it's done. I'm very excited about it.