Weigh in Wednesday

I know, it's Thursday.  I worked yesterday and forgot to get to this.

214 pounds, 1 pound lost, 8 so far.  Slow, but going the right direction.  I don't think there's any difference in my pictures, yet.  If I keep losing 1 or 2 pounds each week, there's got to be a point that I can tell it in the pictures.  I'm looking forward to having less belly.

2 nights ago, we had homemade hummus on homemade flatbread.  Even though this little one likes hummus, it took awhile to talk her into trying what came out of the food processor.  Then we had to keep telling her to get her finger out of the bowl.

This is the first time I've made it myself.  Well, I had lots of help.  Her big sister was right with me the whole time.  I wish I'd had the camera out for that.  Next time.  She put most of the ingredients into the processor and ran it.  She added most of the bread ingredients to the mixing bowl and stirred and kneaded the bread.  I was so impressed that a 5 year old could be such a lot of help.  After the bread rested for awhile, I cut it into 8 pieces and rolled out the first bread.  She wanted to try, I thought I'd have a mangled bread to save, but she did it perfectly.  All I did was put the flour on the board and she rolled out all remaining 7 breads.

We ate the flatbread sandwiches with chicken, cucumber, bell pepper, red onion, lime, cilantro and spinach.  What a great dinner!

Finished Pillow Covers

I decided to work on two pillow covers at the same time.  It's a lot easier than making one after another.  I'll list one in my Etsy shop.

I sewed all the pieces to a 16 1/2 inch piece of muslin.  It helped stabilize the stretchiness of the wool and get it the right size.

I sewed some "fronds" with some dark purple iridescent glass beads.  Each one came out a little different.

 Finished front.

Finished back.  It has a really deep overlap, it might not need any buttons to stay closed.  Now where is that 16" pillow form?  The back is made from the leg of a cast-off pair of khakis, that's the bottom hem.  I love the worn in look of khakis, just about the time the rest wears out.

Weigh in Wednesday on Friday

 215, 2 more pounds lost, 7 altogether.  I usually have Wednesdays off.  This week I worked that day and it threw me off in getting my picture taken and posted.  This is really a rough looking picture of me.  It might be time to start wearing a little bit of make-up again.  I went years on end barely putting even lip gloss on.  I've never been one to think I couldn't leave the house without it.

Two Little Birds

I've taken so much time off from making any new items for my Etsy shop.  It's a love-hate relationship.  I love making things and listing them and when someone buys one of my items, it's a joyful feeling.  The things I've loved and listed and have gone unsold, make me sad.
That doesn't mean I want to stop making things.  I've sewn two other pillow covers very similar to these two and they sold.  There's enough of this sweater to make four more.  I started two more tonight.  There's something about the little blue birds that makes me smile.  Tomorrow, I need to find another black sweater to fill out the second pillow top and look for fabric for the backs.

In applique news, I cut out all the parts for the last 20 flowers for Rachel's quilt.  Hard to believe that I can hold all these pieces in the palm of my hand.  For reference, the largest piece is about 2" tall.  It'll take me the next week or two of evenings to sew them onto the quilt.  I feel like each flower is a tiny masterpiece.  Thank goodness for my Ott light.  I don't know how I ever did any handwork before I bought it.

Weigh in Wednesday

217 pounds.  5 pounds lost in 3 weeks.  Not great, but 5 more than in that many months.  I'm sure there's a direct relationship to how many times I went to the gym. *cringe*  I'm not really comfortable going yet.  If I went more often that would change, I know.  I have stuck to my diet, however, that's probably the only reason for any loss, at all.

This is the last large flower, cut, glued and basted in place.  I'll sew it tonight and then I have 19 (20, poo, I miscounted) to go!  I'll sew the smallest flowers next.  There are very few of them.  The middle-sized flowers are the easiest, I'll save them for last, like dessert!

More Flowers Done

I've been working away on Rachel's quilt this week.  21 flowers to go!  That's out of the original 80.  I got close enough to the end to just work on the largest, most time consuming, flowers.  There are 3 sizes and it's nice to see the hardest ones coming to a finish.

If I ever make another large applique quilt, it'll probably be a traditional Hawaiian design.  Two colors, maybe aqua and white, with one continuous line of hand-sewing.  Not 330 individual pieces in the large flowers, alone!  Boy, I wish I hadn't thought that out.

I can hardly wait to get the flowers done. There will be so many hours of quilting to finish this, but that will be a nice change.  A quilt this intricate will have a lot of stitching.
Sadly, I already know which quilt top I'll begin piecing as soon as I begin quilting this one.  I've had a kit called "delectable mountain" picked out for child number 2 since shortly after starting this one.  It won't need nearly the hours to complete it.  It originally called for white fabric to complete it and I had always thought I'd replace the black print with a green and use black fabric for the main color.  Now, I see so many quilts using gray and love the look.  A light gray would be perfect for the completion.
Back to these flowers, I feel so much accomplishment and not a little excited to see it taking shape.

Weigh in Wednesday

218 pounds.  That's 2 more pounds.  Not going fast, but it is going.
The day almost got away from me.  I'm not in the habit of taking my picture, ever, so this might be hard to remember some weeks.
I had a lot of help, my littlest granddaughter wanted to be in the picture too.  Oh boy, she sure looks tiny next to all of me.
I treated myself to some new things for the gym.  Once I got my membership, I realized that I didn't have much to wear.  I got shoes, two pairs of pants and two sports bras today.  Now, I need to find some tank tops.  Shirts with sleeves, stick to you as you sweat, ew!