How did that happen????

My life is pretty mundane - just like the rest of us. BUT I was so excited last night I could barely sleep. And I am VERY glad of that. I have had trouble sleeping a couple of times in the last week and I thought "oh oh - I am no longer able to tolerate caffeine after dinner". I stopped having a cup of tea after dinner - and when I say a CUP of tea - I mean a BIG CUP!!!!!    Well - it is excitement, NOT caffeine that is keeping me awake. Phew - that is good news. I can have tea tonight!!!!!  

And yes - I have VERY addictive behaviours. The tea - well it is just a substitute for the hot chocolate. I need something. And while the tea may not be perfect, it is better than hot chocolate. I really must drink MORE green tea, but even that I am sure has some properties that isn't good for us. Perhaps I could even graduate to HOT WATER with lemon?????   ICK - that sounds so bland.

I am currently reading Michael Pollan - In Defense of Food. I am "reading" it on my iPod. That is a totally bizarre experience and I am not sure that I like it. Let me rephrase that - I do like it. But so far I have been "doing other things" - cutting fabric, loading a quilt and I find it hard to focus 100% on the content of the book. It is much easier when I am sitting doing hand work. But perhaps I can train myself to focus????   Just goes to show you that my brain is constantly thinking - when I load a quilt - what design will I do? - what are the next projects to quilt?, when I cut - I am calculating how the quilt will go together - how many pieces cut, how many more to cut - that sort of thing!!!!!!


Anyway - let's chat about the book. OH BOY - if you want to read something that will open your eyes - read this book!!!!!!!!!!!!    A very interesting concept that he talks about - we do NOT EAT FOOD any more. Seriously - we do not. Look at the diets, look at the packaging on food, look at the promises, look at the health issues.   See something in common?????   NONE of them talk about food - they talk about NUTRIENTS and that is NOT FOOD.   A box of cereal promises FORTIFIED with vitamins and minerals - yet is LOADED with sugar. Light this and light that??    But at what expense to our health. Oh yes - this is a very interesting book. And do you know what started this all??????    White flour - yep - white flour!!!!   Back in the late 1800's (if I had the actual book - I could look that up!!!) - anyway - once rollers were discovered to crush the grain - they were able to produce WHITE flour. But it was expensive so only the rich could afford it. Then it became a status symbol. And so people WANTED that product for the looks and the smell  (lack of the rancid smell caused by some of the oil from the grain), NOT for the nutritional value of the flour which was essentially EMPTY of all nutritional value.

Then the marketers got hold of that concept - people want to eat the "latest" diet, the latest hot nutrient and the food companies and their marketing arms have had a HEY DAY with us - messing with our diets depending on what the LATEST fad is. Pretty scary!!!!!!!!!!!     Don't believe me - have a look at the grocery store!!!!!!!!!!!      All products promise something but NOT enjoying the actual food - because it is NOT food. It is a product that looks like food, but has been genetically modified and has chemical nutrients added.

And interesting about the food allergies/tolerances. At one point, the human body could not digest milk. Once you were past a certain age - something turned off in your body that did not allow adults to digest milk. Then some trigger happened and we slowly developed to digest milk. It looks like our race is moving back to that time where we could not digest milk. And the whole thing about cholesterol and heart disease - well - he has pretty interesting facts about that as well. I may get the book and re read it.

One more thing he talks about and that is all the testing that has gone on. There are so many factors involved in any kind of food study that to conclusively say "fat is bad" is such a misnomer!!!!!      Oh my - this book will make your head spin.


Michael's motto is EAT FOOD, NOT A LOT, MOSTLY PLANTS.


I am still "reading" the Now Habit book as well (on CD). With all these NON-FICTION books - I am going to become a total disaster. Don't eat this, don't do that!!!!!!!!!!    But I LOVE all this stuff that is based on psychology. And it is all based on how our brain reacts to stuff. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

OK - enough about that!!!!!!!!    I know you are dying to hear why I am so excited!


Yes - I did get a small quilt quilted yesterday. Trying to get a couple done before the machine under goes major surgery.

Community project quilt

And it was a pain to do because it had this decorative flat piping on it. While the piping is nice and adds colour - it is a pain for overall quilting!!!!!    But it is done - will get trimmed and binding on hopefully today????    There is another one HALF done on the machine. Will finish it as soon as I am done this post. 

Then I decided that I better get some of Easy Street (last year's Bonnie Hunter mystery) on the wall so I could evaluate the grey fabric.

What do you think?????    Is that grey OK??????   

Part of me is OK with it. I asked M and she says it is fine.   I still think it could be darker, but the problem would be - WHAT COLOUR???????????????     You see I have a sample of blue/purple in the top right - but that is not the right colour. We tried red - didn't like it. I even looked up the colour wheel for ideas. I have a classic tertiary colour scheme here - the three colours are equi-distant from each other and I guess I could take a darker shade of one of them - I think it would have to be the purple??????    Oh heck - no wonder it got put away. And I seem to be missing that last set of instructions so I had to find a picture on the internet and put it up according tot hat. No idea what colour is supposed to be in the center of those blocks but I think I still have those instructions. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   (Linda W or Linda VL - can either of you scan Clue 8 and send to me???)

And thanks to Barbara who suggested I put the rejected four patches on the back!!!!!    Brilliant idea - I don't think of that enough!!!!!!!

But that is still not what got me excited. I have to make a gift for someone. Since they may be reading the blog - I can't go into details. BUT this fabric has been languishing on my shelves for a LONG time. Someone gave me more to go with it (the theme is VERY SPECIFIC). It got moved to my 2014 shelf. Well a slight change of plans for the year and I NEED to make that gift NOW.    So I dug up the fabric. Hmmmmm - it seems that the original piece I started with is NOT here. Oh well - I will find it. Then I searched my stash to find some companion fabrics. Started with SOLIDS and that was GROSS. Then on a whim! (got to stop that) - I thought of something that would accompany it perfectly. Landscape prints. Bought a few at Ruti's and YES - they were perfect.

Then I was looking on the 2014 shelf for something yesterday and OH MY GOD - here is ANOTHER BAG of fabric for this same project, including the original piece. OH BOY - what am I going to do?????

Well a few quick calculations (Mary would be proud of me) and I started to cut. Cut strips - as I am going to make a Hopscotch pattern. Heck - there is ENOUGH, that I could make TWO hopscotch.

Hey - there are some squares in the grouping - and there is a LOT of fabric so I started to cut squares as well as strips. OH my - there are some pillow panels and some smaller squares in panel form. Oh boy - a few more calculations and VOILA - I ended up cutting not one, not two, not three, not even four, but FIVE quilts last night!!!!!!!!!!!    I know - who would have thought!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    And that was JUST from the theme fabric. It is so specific that I don't want to keep any of it. So I am going to make all five quilts. I am short just a smidgen and going to check out one thing today - then will cut up the landscape to fill in the gaps. And ALL of this fabric will be GONE and the project is OFF the shelf!!!!!!!!    Even though it was on the shelf, I had not started it - so yes I do get a chance to start new stuff!!!!!!!

Now that they were all cut out - I wanted to sew, but it was getting late. I might as well have stayed up since I couldn't sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I did get some sleep and was up early and already working on it. I have to say that for what it is and how it came together, the first one on the design wall looks AMAZING. Even M thought it looked pretty cool.   I really really hate to do this to you and not show you pictures, but I can't. But you will see me (in person) working on them as I need to get them done ASAP.    Then EVERYONE can see them.

Now here is a lesson in WHY labeling is so important. I was searching that shelf trying to find the missing fabric and had to go through a few boxes because I didn't know what was in them!!!!!!!!    Even had to dig out a chair to reach the top shelf!!!!!!!!!!!   No time for labeling!!!!!!!!!!    (Actually the fabric was sort of together. It wouldn't fit on the shelf if I put it all in one bag, so I had to split it - that is how packed that shelf is. The two bags were together, but I forgot about the second bag!!!!)  Good thing I went digging around last night and found that other bag.

The shelf. 

I won't even show you the rest of the room - it is a disaster, but will only take a few minutes to tidy up and now I have space on that shelf to put the current projects. I LOVE THAT!!!!!!!!


So yes - I am excited about making some simple quilts - but the exciting part (for me) is making something that looks pretty neat out of basically a pile of stuff that no one wanted. That gets me going every time!!!!!!


Well - off to tape my wrist - it is killing me from all that cutting last night and typing doesn't help!!!!


Have an AWESOME day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    (and with the temperature going to zero!!! - how nice is that!)



Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!