swoon

I finished up baby Ingrid this afternoon.

The backing is a red polka dot Bliss flannel, found at my LQS. I was nervous about bleeding, but prewashing with a Shout color catcher took care of it no problem.

The binding is Kona Butterscotch. I bought it to use on my big orange wall quilt, but once it was auditioned for this quilt, I fell in love. I'll just buy more!

It's hard to give this up. But I'm thrilled that it's going to be gifted with a lot of love.

baby Ingrid

A local woman contacted me on Monday asking if I could do a modern baby quilt for some special friends in time for a shower this weekend. Luckily, it's a mellow week for us. After chatting with her a bit, we decided to do a baby-sized version of my favorite quilt, Ingrid!

This was the original stack of fabrics. I added a few other shot cotton bits and a sweet white pindot.

And here is the completed top.

This has been SO MUCH FUN to make! I'll have it quilted up and ready for more photos on Friday.

(Oh, and I received a link to the professional photos from the marathon. After initially whining about my appearance (I imagined myself looking more buff and graceful, and it ends up I still have cheesy arms and feet that don't appear to lift off the ground), I remembered to be grateful for my healthy body. If you want to see proof that I actually did run the thing, here they are.)

I did it!

Thank you for all of the well-wishes for Saturday's marathon! I read every comment but still haven't had a chance to reply.

I had a great time doing the race. The weather was beautiful and the atmosphere was exciting. I finished the marathon in 5:20:16, and I'm very happy with that time even though I was hoping to make it under 5 hours. I was right on track until around mile 20 when my lower back tightened up and I had to pull off the trail every few minutes to stretch it out. Oh well. I had various family members cheering me along the way, so hopefully I'll get some of their photos to share soon! The only one I have right now is a very unflattering self portrait of myself eating Cheetos after I was done.

Surprisingly, I'm not sore today, just a little tight in my hips. I'm even excited to get back on some shorter runs later this week. But for now, I'll relax and do other things.

ready to run

My race day "things" are all laid out. Two nights of good sleep (I love you, Tylenol PM!) and copious amounts of Emergen-C have helped me kick the sore throat that was threatening to derail my months of training. I'm ready.

Around this time tomorrow, I hope to be crossing the finish line with a big smile on my face. Please send all the good vibes you can up my way!

some things are more simple than others

First off, thank you for giving me so much advice on my big orange wall quilt! It's funny that the opinion is divided pretty evenly between making it square or rectangular. Lucia gave me some really great ideas for changing things up even more. I've been busy making up more blocks so I can play around with the layouts and make a final decision.

Finishing it up will have to wait another week though, since the Mayor's Marathon is on Saturday! Ack! I picked up my race jersey tonight.

I've been hit with a case of insomnia, which obviously is not good before a big race. I haven't slept well for over a week. I was up at 2:30 this morning and was not able to go back to sleep. It's not normal for me at all. The only good that came out of it was that I finished up this simple baby quilt for a cousin who is due next month (the baby's gender will be a surprise).

I sewed up the top and back and basted everything together yesterday while Cooper napped. This morning I was able to quilt and bind it in a couple of hours. Super fast.

While I really like the log cabin square and the pieced back, I feel kind of "meh" about using the Kona Snow for the background. I wish I had used something darker to set off the yellow. I'm trying to use items in my stash though and the only dark solid I had in yardage was Kona Charcoal. Too dark for a baby. I'm also wondering if the quilt as a whole is really right for a baby and if I should try another color scheme. Hmmmm. Maybe a good night's sleep will help me gain some perspective!

mulling it over

I've got the busiest week ever coming up. Yet I have decided that I MUST finish the quilt that is destined for the big orange wall. The block pattern is "Kathy's Block" from Gwen Marston's book Liberated Quiltmaking II. All but a couple were made by members of the Bee Liberated group of Flickr. I'm expecting two more blocks that are winging their way in from the Bahamas any day now, then I'll be making the rest. That is, when I decide how big to make this baby. I need your help!

My original thought was to make the quilt a 5 x 5 square. Now that it's up on the wall, I'm not so sure that's the right choice. Thoughts? Do I go 4 x6? 5 x 6? This is one of those times where I wish I had photoshop so I could do a mock up.

I'll also take suggestions on how to quilt it. Oh, and any other way to spice up my boring living room. I may have to cave and do some throw pillows for the couches. I think the quilt is a good start though!

I succumbed to the pressure

Okay, so no one was forcing me to join another quilt-a-long (sorry, unfinished Single Girl!), but I just couldn't resist all of the hype that's going on with The Farmer's Wife. This sampler quilt has 111 different traditional blocks. I started on the first three this morning.

Just 108 more to go! Needless to say, it's a long term project.

Now that all of my quilting bees are done, I joined back up with the do. Good Stitches charity bee and made my first blocks for the "Love" group. Lee designed her own block, "Hexing Around," for this quilt! Totally fun.

It's shaping up to be a good weekend. Rob and I have date night, and then tomorrow I'll be running the 5-mile Run for Women with my marathon team! I feel like I'm getting my sewing groove back too, so maybe I can squeeze something in besides blocks. What will you be up to?

Winner Creek

Please excuse the blogging break! It's harder than I expected to find time at the computer with all of the kids running around. I did do a bit of sewing with Avery and Claire last week though, so I'll share more of that in another post.

We really make an effort to get outdoors as a family in the summer. Yesterday we packed up and trekked down to Girdwood, which is also where we downhill ski in the winter, and hiked the Winner Creek trail.

 

The Winner Creek trail is really well maintained and perfect for families.

And the scenery is just amazing.

The coolest part of it though is the hand tram that you take to cross the gorge.

It was an amazing day. We even came home to rainbows!

I hope your weekend was just as beautiful.