Sugar!

No, I did not have a breakdown and eat sugar. Granted, I eat sugar every day, in my blueberries, in my watermelon or whatever fruit or vegetable that I eat. What I love is that I no longer crave sugar. Oh, shoot, I thought I had saved an article on sugar but I found these breakfast recipes that I saved instead. Some great recipes for breakfast with minimal sugar in them.  The article that I was looking for was exploring how the author felt after eliminating sugar from her diet. One of the things  she noticed was that she no longer felt bloated!!!   Seriously???  I bet that is why I felt so awful (well - it wasn't that bad) after the retreat. I felt bloated.  Once I got back to my regular diet, I was fine and I bet it was the sugar. I sure don't feel that way when I eat my new normal!!!

Even if you don't want the recipes, read the first part.  It's shocking at how many of our "normal" diet calories are sugar!!  I have no idea how many sugar calories I used to eat, but I know it was a LOT. MyFitnessPal allows me 74 grams of sugar per day. Most days, I don't go over, but there are a few days when I go over slightly. But sure a lot less than what I used to eat, no cravings for sugar or food in general and that's the most important thing. I think I've managed to stabilize my weight. I'm still below my goal but that is OK. There is a little bit of leeway in there and my body fat is down as well which is a super good thing.

I went to yoga this morning. I've been meaning to go forever and always found an excuse. But lately, I find that I'm stiff and my back is tired at the end of the day. I got to the gym and then double checked the type of yoga. It wasn't what I planned on and I almost turned around and went home. Then I thought, how bad could it be?  It was great, but my neck and shoulders are STIFF. I could barely move at the beginning of the class but soon loosened up. Let's just say that I should be going to yoga more than once every six months. I must, MUST MUST plan on going more often.  Right M?   My daughter is a big yoga (or should I say yogi) and I know she'll be agreeing with me when she reads this!!!

Well, enough about all the other stuff, lets' talk quilting.

We had Céleste Compion from meerkat trading as our guild speaker the other night. Oh my, while I've known Céleste for a number of years after seeing her as a vendor at many shows and we now belong to the same modern quilt guild, I never knew the history behind the South African fabric that she imports and sells.  It was super informative and I couldn't help myself - I bought some. I've got a very specific plan for these fabrics. The fabric is called shweshwe. OK -- let's be honest, I already had some, but not these colors.

Reds (and a few oranges) of shweshwe fabric

 The fabric has a very distinct look and because of the sizing in the fabric, a very distinct smell to it, but it washes up amazingly brilliant and makes gorgeous quilts and clothing (beautiful drape). Matter of fact, they have fabulous skirt panels as well which are very cool.

I think if you "like" meerkat on Facebook, there is a sale coupon in honor of Mother's Day.  Be sure to check that out.


So while I was tidying up the other day, I noticed this basket of Asian fabric sitting on the floor of the studio. I remember taking it off the shelf for a reason. Some quilt that I was going to make with the fabric. What quilt?  No idea. I've forgotten, so the basket is back on the shelf. Not like I needed to start a new project anyway!!!

The Asian fabrics are out because????

Here's a kit that I bought at the CreativFestival. It's so cute and very farm orientated. I just loved it and I finally broke down and bought the kit. I chatted with the store owner and when she had the kits for sale at a western show, she sold out of them. I was the only one that bought one here in Toronto. I wonder why????   The collection is called Homegrown by Deb Strain for Moda.  The shop I bought it at is Hamels Fabrics from Chilliwack, BC.

Quilt kit

 But the quilt isn't big enough for me. It's only 51" by 56" and that's just too small unless I make it as a wall hanging and what's the point of that.  When we stopped at a quilt store (Country Concessions) on our way home from the retreat, I found some of the collection in their shop and bought a couple of meters so I can make the border and the binding. Yeah!!!  I don't think this one will take too long to make. Ah - just need the time to get it started.

Border fabric to make the kit bigger

And for some reason, I can't stop buying "road trip/camping" fabric. I have no idea why - I do love the vintage look of this kind of fabric. Ronda showed me some that she bought and I swear it had a brown background, but she assured me that this was the same fabric. God - I have no memory!!!

Road Trip fabric

 Well, I just checked the manufacturer website (Clothworks) and I can't find the darn collection on their site, but if you do a Google search, there are loads of images that come up. None of them have the dark brown background that I was thinking Ronda has bought. Damn memory!!!!  Well, it wasn't so much the memory, but I obviously didn't pay attention to what she had bought!

I walked to the library again yesterday. Yep - another book came in. Nothing to return yet, but I'm reading my e-book. It's OK, but not the same as having a book in my hands. But now I have a new problem. The Bluetooth for my FitBit isn't working so all those steps (almost 15,000 yesterday and 30 K on the spin bike) were NOT registered. Drat. I'll have to e-mail FitBit to see if it can be fixed or perhaps I'll get a new one for Mother's Day???

But I was also at the long arm yesterday and happy to report that TWO more of the #Humboldtstrong quilts are done and ready for pick-up today.

#Humboldt strong quilt - DONE

And a second #Humboldtstrong quilt - DONE

That leaves two of these quilts left. So that is great news. I hope to finish them today. Loading up the pattern seemed to go better yesterday. I think I actually held my finger on the file folders until they opened. Not sure why I need to do that - the rest of the system is pretty responsive. Ah - it's all a learning curve!

Two #Humboldtstrong quilts left

 One of them is loaded on the long arm and ready to go later today. But I have a bunch of urgent stuff to deal with this morning. Well, not super urgent, but it's paperwork that has to be dealt with. Someday there will be a light at the end of the tunnel???  I doubt it because then I'll need to start going through all the crappy paper stuff that I've been setting aside.

This is how I shop when there is no longer a quilt store open near me. I need bindings for FOUR of the #Humboldtstrong quilts. I searched my two green fabric buckets and found these fabrics which will work. There isn't enough of some of them, but I'm going to mix and match and hopefully with everything I've pulled, I'll have enough to get three bindings. One of the quilts has a black border, so I'll use black for that one or I might use green. I'll see how it goes today.

Fabric for binding

Now wouldn't it be great if I did this for all projects???  Well I have lots of fabric and it's easy to get my hands on and it's sorted by color so I think I'll start using the stash a whole lot more. I've got a couple of other quilts to make binding for as well so I'll be digging through the pile for those fabrics.


I did some tidying up on the desk yesterday. I found this quote. Oh yes - that's me. It's great to have dreams, but let's just DREAM BIGGER.  Why not - if you set the goal too low, you'll easily reach that and then what?  Dream big and you never get there!!!   These quotes are from the Page a Day "Today is going to be a Great Day"  from 2017.  Yes - I'm behind on that calendar!!

Inspirational quote of the day!

 But here's my Dream Bigger goal for the next two days. DH is due home late tomorrow afternoon and of course, I get the cleaning/sorting bug. I'm trying to deal with some of this mess which is in the office.

A mess of stuff to deal with

Most of this clutter is to be given away to someone - it's just a matter of sorting through it and making that happen. I have moved some of the stuff to the kitchen - my staging area and I plan to take some time today to get it sorted. Unlimited garbage day will soon be here and the city is hosting a shredding day as well in the near future. I'd like to be ready for both. And then I'm going to schedule a pick up of the household items that can be reused so that will get a lot of stuff out of the house.

Wouldn't it be great knowing that you have to move and have NOTHING major to tidy/clean up???  That is my goal, but at this point, I'm going to have to live a long, long life to make that happen. There's a lot to clean up, but seriously it's not that bad (not counting the studio).  I bet that if I took one solid week, I could be through it all. And I'm getting very good at not letting new stuff accumulate.  Yes - DREAM BIGGER.

On that note, I'm out of time. Time to get to work - e-mails, patterns, and other fun stuff to get done today.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!