TODAY is THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes - I had ONE appointment this morning ( a metabolic test at the gym).  That measures how efficient your body is at burning fat and how fit you are.   Well after all the measuring and testing and also looking at weight and body fat and all that good stuff - turns out I am PRETTY DARN FIT!!!!!!!!!!!!     Much fitter than when I took the test last year (before my bike ride).  

It is going to be harder to improve on the fitness level, but there is room for a bit of weight loss, a BIT of firming and just maintaining the cardio.

I am pretty excited. It is a TON of hard work, but I feel so amazing that how could I NOT continue.  I ran into Alwin who is convincing me that I need to get back into some weight training as well which he is going to help with. Oh yeah - I see six-pack abs in my future!!!   (NOT!!    hmmm - could be a goal?????)


Anyway - while I have a TON of things to do today - I don't have anything that NEEDS to be done TODAY.  Does that make sense????   Well I am FIRED UP!!!!!  

Here is a quick peak at what I have been doing and what I am going to do..........



And I tell you between the girls at Monday Motivators and the Pampered Sit n Sew days - they are messing up my plans on what to take to the retreat.  I want to make everything they are making!!!

Thanks to Mary and Marlene - I got NINE of the blocks done for the Amish with a Twist quilt.  I "borrowed" some of the fabrics from them in order to get this far (the two blocks on the right are for the borders).  I have cut and sewn as much of the rest of the quilt as I can.  I ordered the remaining fabric that I am missing the other day so hopefully it comes quick. 

DID not have any solid black left so made a pit stop to Ruti's Needlebed on my way home from Monday Motivators. And CUT CUT CUT when I got home.

The setting corners for the blocks - cut (as much as I could) and ready to go to the retreat

The sashings cut (as much as I could) and ready to go to the retreat

I am going to have to have a trunk show of UNFINISHED Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts.  I have THREE of them on the go.  The units for Easy Street are DONE - they just need to be sewn into blocks. That was going to come to the retreat, but got bounced for something else. There there is Orca Bay - that was the mystery from a couple of years ago - the units for that one are NOT done and it was in the retreat bag. It got approval to STAY in the retreat bag.

And then there is Celtic Solstice. I am still working on those chevrons. We need 100 of them.  I did some trimming last night and I have 64 done. Only 36 more to go.   I use those components as my enders and leaders and they also got approval to stay in the retreat bag.

64 chevrons - DONE

There is ONE more unit that needs to be made for this quilt. It is not cut and I don't think I will have time before I leave to make that happen. I must remember to print off the last part of the instructions before they disappear from her web site.

Pam gave me a couple bags of scraps. The premise was to use them for charity quilts. So I sorted through them.  A bag of scraps is USELESS unless it is sorted.  There was a quilt top (that came from Nancy) and that is in the pile that needs backings (when I get back to that stage of the game). There were a couple of pieces that were made from blocks, but a mishmash of pieces so I ripped them all apart. Pressed them and there is enough (with extra stuff from my stash) to make TWO Christmas themed tops. Big lap sized ones!!!!

Here are some of the squares for the FLANNEL Christmas one.  I have cut 160 squares, but I need 224 so another 64 to go.  I do have a bag of scraps that I am going to use up to make the extra squares and if I still need more once I process that bag - then I have a piece of Christmas yardage that I can use. But I think I will have enough. 

The rest of the pieces that Pam gave me went into the box of flannel scraps. I then sorted the whole thing by coloiur. I have a red pile, a yellow pile, a blue pile, etc. And then there is a "quiet" pile. These are the more homey colours. I am NOT dealing with them at this point - just the brights and kids prints.

I did find some squares already made up. All those scraps got put away and I had forgotten at what point I was in the scrap flannel cleanup.

Squares already made up in the bottom of the basket

I took the pink pile to Monday Motivators and had a couple of fun hours sewing and cutting, sewing and cutting and.................

VOILA - I ended up with a total of 37 - SIX inch pink blocks

I threw the bag of yellow scraps into the retreat bag and I hope to deal with the Christmas flannel today.

 I know it sounds bizarre, but I just LOVE LOVE LOVE getting a bag of scraps and seeing what I can make from it.  NOW - that is NOT an invitation to give me bags of scraps.  I do have plenty at the moment and I have my own that I have to deal with.  But what was I going to do with my flannel scraps????   So I mixed up Pam's and mine and now we can get a LOT of nice quilt tops from them that can be donated.


A win win win - for everyone. And I love doing it.  You want to know why?????   Oh yes - it is NOT the sewing. It is the ORGANIZING!!!!   Yep - what can I do/make to use up/clean out.  I just can't help it!!!!


And it didn't help that Barb brought in stuff from her stash for sale yesterday at Monday Motivators. I bought a small kit and a bunch of strips.  I have already done the first cut on the kit - hope to make the second cuts later today and it has approval for the retreat bag. The strips (Christmas theme) also has a purpose and it requires that I cut another TEN Christmas strips from my stash. Which I plan to do today as well and it also has approval for the retreat bag.


Do you see a theme here?????   Now to be fair - I did go through the basket of projects for the retreat and did put about half of them in the newly packed retreat bag!!!   There will be about 10 projects in all. All cut - all marked - all ready to SEW!!!!!!!!!!!!! Better wind a few bobbins and be prepared.


I have LOTS of stuff that is hanging around that I say "oh yes - I will get to that - it won't take long".  Well there are TOO MANY of those kinds of things hanging around or I keep taking them to Monday and then never do them.  Well today and tomorrow are the days to GET EM DONE!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a NUMBER of embroidery blocks that needed the lightweight fusible interfacing cut and fused to the wrong side of the blocks that were traced. So here I am cutting the interfacing

And now everything is repacked into the box and YES - it has approval for the retreat, but it will go in the box AFTER we have embroidery club tomorrow morning. 

My biggest issue is PAPER - I just can't read fast enough, process paper fast enough and deal with all this fast enough.  I am a PILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!       I am going to have to book a week and just deal with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And so this is what the studio looks like this morning.  

I am hoping that by this evening, it will look a bit better.


And on that note - I am out of here.   I am PUMPED to get some cutting done, some sewing done and some tidying!!!!!!!!!



YAHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   It is going to an AWESOME DAY!!!!!!!!!!!


Have a super duper day!!!!!!!!!!!1



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