Back from Chicago {Lots of Pics}

This weekend, I went to Chicago for a business trip.  I managed to get the start of a bad cold the day before travelling and I'm still experiencing the worst of it...ugh!  Anyway, the city was beautiful and amazingly clean.  I am from CA and was expecting Chicago to be like LA, but it was so different!  I had such a great time, both on and off the clock.

We stayed at The W Hotel...very swanky :o)

 Lobby and Ceilings at The W 

We ate lunch at Giordano's...amazing Stuffed Pizza!!

I had to take this one....Quincy is my maiden name :o)

All of these pics are from Willis Tower {formerly Sears Tower} 

Our hotel from the top of the Willis Tower...looks so tiny!  My room was on the right hand side...I had a great view of the buildings and the train.

Not gonna lie...I was SCARED TO DEATH to get out on the Sky Deck to take these 2 pics!!  I was103 floors in the air and the glass is only 3 1/2 inches thick!!

Thanks for letting me share my trip with you!!

Fit Tuesday - Losing Weight on a Budget

It's been a full 4 weeks now since starting Fit Tuesday!!  I've been trying to stay on track, making small changes, with small results.  Time to kick it up another notch!

If you've dieted at all, you know that sometimes it is way more expensive to buy healthy foods than unhealthy.  However, in the long run, your expense is less since the health risks are so much less when eating healthy foods.  I just wanted to share some practical things I am doing in my home to try to eat healthy without breaking the bank.

1.  Use any free online resources available for losing weight and staying on track.  There are so many of these sites popping up...a favorite of mine is sparkpeople.com.  Everything is free and it is so motivating!  It does take more independent work for these types of programs, so I realize this isn't an option for everyone.

2.  Buddy Up!  This goes right along with #1.  I remember losing weight a while ago and it was a HUGE motivation for me to go to a weigh-in where someone besides myself saw the scale.  I was also paying $12 a week for that accountability.  Find another person who can be your weigh-in buddy!

3.  Don't buy food you won't really eat.  Seems obvious, but honestly, if you're not going to eat tofu, don't buy it just because it's in a healthy recipe you think you should eat.  Along those same lines, don't buy junk food.  If it's not in the house, you can't eat it!

4.  Eat at home!  This is a huge money-saver.  Period.

5.  Be realistic about meal and snack planning.  If you know you are always starving between lunch and dinner, plan a small snack.  This not only keeps your diet on track, but also your budget.

6.  Drink water.  This is one of the hardest things for me!!  Realistically though, it's just cheaper and so much better.

7.  Be careful of buying the latest and greatest exercise program.  You can borrow exercise videos from the library, or live-stream from Netflix, for no extra costs.

I haven't been able to weigh in this week yet.  I will post an update when I am back from my biz trip to Chicago!

Machine Quilting - Stippling

When I first started quilting, I never even knew there was such a thing as long-arm quilters.  I started out machine piecing and hand quilting.  Once I bought a machine that was able to handle the strain of machine quilting, I've been machine quilting ever since!  I'm self-taught and thought I would share what I've learned with you here!

Stippling seems to be the go-to quilting pattern for a lot of quilters....it's easy, fast, and works well on almost every quilt! It's also a great "beginning" quilting pattern. Drop those feed dogs, use a free motion foot, and go to town.  I always try to make my stippling very rounded at the turns.  I try to think of the curves as the letter C and it's easier to me.

Questions??  Shoot me or email or leave me a comment!

Finish It Up Friday - Swoon

I am so excited to be featured today on Knotted-Thread!!

Please head on over and see Jennifer's awesome blog :o)

I finally got some pics of my finished Swoon!  I still need to put the binding on....I'm thinking of the darker, plummy purple for the binding.  That may have to wait until next week, but I feel awesome to have this one *almost* checked off the list!  I love this pattern, and I am thinking of doing another one :o)

Quilt Stats:

90 inches square

fabrics used were Heirloom by Joel Dewberry

machine pieced and quilted by me

This is the backing....one of my favorite thing to do is to lay under the quilt, and hold it up to the light so you can see the light through all of the sewing spaces.  It reminds me of a light brite....I know, I'm a little on the nutty side :o)

I am linking up to Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish It Up Friday!

WIP Wednesday

Hi all!  Just wanted to join in with Lee's WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced this week!  It's been a long week, already, and I just wanna take a nap :o)

Here is some of my progress!  First up is my paper pieced quilt....I am up to 74 stars now!!  I estimated needing 100 total, so that's only 26 left!  I cannot believe I'm so close.  I plan on making up a ton of stars this weekend.  I'm taking a short business trip to Chicago, so that means quality time on the plane and in the hotel room after hours.  I'd be lyin if I said I wasn't just a bit excited about spending 2 nights in a QUIET room....heaven!!

I started using this leather thimble at the start of this project.  It's looking a bit worn out just in that one little spot, but still works like a champ.  I know it's more cumbersome, but it's my favorite kind of thimble!

Next on the WIP list this week is a HUGE finish...my Queen-sized Swoon quilt. It's raining this morning, so no full-length picture until this afternoon {hope}. I finally got the quilting done last night around 12:15.  It's taken a lot of hours and gobs of thread, but when I showed my husband, he told me "I think you are the most amazing quilter in the world"  Talk about *swoon*  Love that man!!  We slept under it last night, even though the binding isn't finished and it was heaven :o)

Head on over to Lee's and take a look at all the other amazing projects!!

Fit Tuesday #3

Welcome to Fit Tuesday!  Google is awesome...this week I found a huge food list HERE broken down with WW points!  And I found a WW calculator HERE.  Awesome!

This week was so busy that it wasn't super easy to keep track of my diet this week.  I tried to make the best choices I could, but I'd be lyin if I said those M&Ms didn't get opened.  Ugh!!

So, how are yall doing this week??  Did you meet any goals set?  I am definitely buckling down this in this week ahead!!

This week's stats:

Pounds lost: 1
Total Pounds lost: 6
Pounds to go: 94

Machine Quilting ~ Clamshell Filler

::UPDATED::  Just wanted to update this post with another video better showing the stitching with contrasting fabric/thread.

I thought I would share a short video of an easy filler design that I have been using on all the white fabric on my Swoon quilt.  It really is easy once you get the hang of it!  Usually, I like to sketch designs on paper first, but I am TERRIBLE at drawing.  Quilting is so much easier for me....but it took me a while to get my groove.  I think the key word for me is fearless....which may be why I quilt so close to my fingers {which also explains why I have sewn thru my finger on occassion!}

Hard to see white on white, but I hope you get the idea! If you get stuck in a corner, simply "retrace" over another line of stitching to work your way out. Questions?? Shoot me an email or leave a comment!

Fit Tuesday #2

Welcome to another Fit Tuesday!!  I have to say that just when I start getting rolling, the hubs comes home with 2 large bags of plain M&Ms....love that man, but, dang it, what are ya doin to me???  So, I admit that I opened them and had about 10 and then closed those suckers back up again!  The other bag is unopened. So, once in a while, I may get an M&M since it's almost impossible to survive without chocolate....you can google it, hehe!

This week I thought I would share a recipe that I am lovin for lunch these days!

Homemade Healthy Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

1 rotisserie chicken, cut up and chopped/shredded {no skin}
1/3-2/3 cups light mayonnaise {to taste}
1 stalk celery, chopped
20 seedless grapes
1/8 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 onion {optional}
a couple hits of Texas Pete {optional, but oh so good!!}
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together.....really, that's all there is to it!  I bought these great squishy rolls from the bakery section and they were sooo good!!  The hubs isn't a big fan of "salads" but my girlies LOVED these sandwiches!!  Dayna is my foodie daughter, and she ate 1 1/2 sandwiches :o)  It's very filling and packed with protein.

Serves 8

Chicken Salad {without bread} points value: 6 per serving using 1/3 cup light mayo

This week's stats:

Pounds lost this week:  3

Total pounds lost: 5

Pounds to go: 95

What about you??  How have you been doing this week? I love reading about everyone's plans for getting fit, and small successes are STILL success!!

Connecting Threads

I have a few preferences when it comes to buying fabric.  I spend a lot of time on making things and want them to last for a while, so I try to buy the best fabrics I can.  Most of the time it comes from the quilt shop, but I have found it is getting more and more expensive!!  Enter....Connecting Threads!  I have made several purchases from them and absolutely LOVE their fabric!!

Their prices are great, they offer free shipping over $50 web orders, and offer pre-cuts with no additional charges for cutting.  I have ordered their thread, too, and it's great to work with!  AND when their fabrics go on sale/clearance, it makes it even better!

They have started carrying a large collection of solids and I wanted to try them out...so I bought a couple of charm packs for less than $2.50 each.  The colors are so pretty and the feel of the cotton is just as nice as Kona.  Normally Kona is around $7.99 a yard, although fabric.com offers them for under $5.50 a yard.  Connecting Threads cotton is priced at $4.96 a yard.

I recently bought 2 solids charm packs, and almost 20 yards of fabric for $53!  I am planning to use these larger cuts of fabric for quilt backings...aren't they great!  Anyway, if you have't tried them out, you should!!

I have some ideas for a pretty quilt top with the solid charms....can't wait to cut into them.!!

{Connecting Threads did not pay me for my endorsement, although I wouldn't turn them down, hehe}

WIP Wednesday

Hey all!  I hope you've had a great week so far...can't believe it's already Wednesday again (I think I say that every week!).  It's been busy around here, but we are making time to slow down.  The girlies are getting to the end of the school year, which means end of year testing, final fund raiser, and all of the end of year activities.  I just cannot believe I will have a 4th and 2nd grader soon...doesn't seem possible!

*wiping tears* Okay, I'm good!  On to the progress for this week in the world of quilting!

Swoon....finally got it basted.  It took me a couple of hours of moving my dining room furniture and pinning on my knees to accomplish this.  There has got to be an easier way!!

Last night, I started quilting this bad boy.  I wanted to do something special, more than just an all over pattern.  Next time I think that way for a 90 inch quilt, shoot me!  I have quilted all the "flowers" and have started on the white space....10 bobbins later.  As much as it's a bear, I am loving how it's coming together!

This quilt is making me want a long arm quilting machine in a bad way!

Still plugging along with my EPP project...no real progress with that since I've spent the last 2 nights working on Swoon baby above!  Here is a pic of the itty-bitty stitches...I'm weird, I know.

Linking up to Freshly Pieced!  Go on over and see other amazing projects!