It's finished

This quilt is finished and will be picked up today.  This lady really prefers minimal quilting which is why I do simple designs.

I did a leaf and daisy design on the outside border.

Line dancing on the pieced blocks and a loop design on the inside border.

A leaf design on the solid blocks to carry the leaf design from the outside border.

The photos are kind of dark because my batteries were getting low.  Here's the border from the back.

Another of the border.

The blocks.

Before I start another quilt I'm going to spend some time picking out the border of this one along one side. 

I had been working on it a few days ago but removed it from the machine because I was really unhappy with how the design was working on the border.  There is about two inches of extra fullness in one area.  There were too many little tucks and looked really bad.  I'm going to fix that area in a different way then quilt the design again.  The owner is in no hurry to get this one so I can take a little more time with it. 

Later today I'll put another quilt on the machine to keep on schedule but I also want to work in my backyard for awhile too.  Providing it doesn't rain.  There's lots of tree bark and small branches that need to be raked up before my raised bed can be made.  I'm so looking forward to having a small garden again!  It's been too many years since I actually spent time in my backyard gardening.

Ugh! Menu planning

Being told by the doctor that I must change everything about how I eat is hard to hear.  The doctor is telling me to change everything I know about shopping and creating meals around the discount foods I find. 

 I hate menu planning!  But.... I spent a whole day yesterday trying to create a 30 day menu plan. 

What's wrong with menu planning?  Well, for me, it's not something I really like doing.  Counting calories, and counting carbs, and counting fat grams, and counting this, and counting that in order to create a balanced diet gives me brain fuzz.  My eyes start to loose focus and my mind starts to grow numb.  The numbers seem to be waving across the pages.  Pretty soon those numbers start to grow horns and forked tails.... then start laughing at me. "You can't do it... you can't do it.... ha, ha, ha." (Like the lighbulb man at the spelling bee in the Jimmy Dean commercial.)  I take frequent breaks to walk around and clear my head.  I go back to the stack of cookbooks, the lists I've made, and my calculator to give it another try... but it all starts again.

I look at the pre-designed menus in the diabetic books.  You know what I mean?  The menus that are perfectly balanced with just the right amount of fat grams, sugars, carbs, and that sort of thing.  Gee whiz!  Who the heck designed those menus anyway.... Donald Trump?  Many of the ingredients listed are expensive and most recipes call for only one or two teaspoons from a full container..... but, the expensive ingredients are listed in only one recipe.  Not listed as an ingredient in several or all of the recipes so that it would actually make sense to buy a full container.   Ok, not all of the ingredients are extremely expensive but here's an example of a cheaper one.  On one two week menu it calls for one teaspoon of marinara sauce for one meal.... but that's it.  No other recipe calls for it.  So how would I use up a whole jar before it goes bad using one teaspoon at a time every two weeks?  That's if I would use the same menu repeated every two weeks.   Can my budget stand up to buying several items for the sake of using only one teaspoon?   Ok, I could omit one teaspoon from a recipe but what about the other items calling for only a tiny bit?  Eliminate those too and then the whole menu changes.

I'm telling ya.... the weight loss industry has clearly got a lot of people dupped into shelling out millions of dollars every payday on things that many believe they need.  There are things like diet books, health clinics, club memberships, expensive "healthy" foods (fresh fish or salads daily), appetite suppresents, exercise equipment, and prepared meals delivered.  Then there's the crutch (free) foods like diet sodas, diet shakes, and artificial sweetners.  There's the personal chef type frozen food plans that take all the thinking out of creating meals like Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, and other frozen diet meals.

For a long time I've been thinking about how many of our foods are "fake" foods.  Foods made from corn to imitate actual food and those so called genetically altered foods.  Is it any wonder that it's hard to control weight when we are not even sure of what we are eating because it might be fake or altered?  How long has ketsup and mayo been made with corn?  How long has bread been made with corn as an ingredient?  Ok, it's often called high fructose corn syrup or maltodextrin but it's still corn.  Cheetos is cheese flavored cornmeal. 

I'm abandoning the idea of creating a menu plan based on someone else's idea of what I should eat.  Don't get me wrong, I'm following my doctor's advice and changing my diet.  It's my skills at living frugally that will help me loose weight and eat healthy.  Counting calories is not much different than counting pennies.  Like saving money, loosing weight can be achieved through thoughtful means.  My healthy eating plan is about self honesty, learning a few new tricks, and following through. 

No more late day snacks of highly sugared foods simply because it was bought discounted and my body says "feed me" now.  No more high fat content meals or snacks.  No more worry about buying expensive ingredients just for a spoonful either.  My plan is simple... eat more fruits, veggies, and less than the amount I can burn off each day.  

Emergency preparedness show

I saw that a special show about emergency preparedness is being shown tonight on CNBC at 9 pm.  It's about the "extremes" some people are going in their belief that the end of the world will happen December 2012.  Whether you believe in this or not, it might be interesting to see what others do for preparedness.

I do believe in being prepared for emergencies such as an economic downfall, major illness, or loss of a job and I believe in being prepared for natural disasters because I've been through several in my lifetime.  What I am NOT going to do is become an "extreme" preparedness person who thinks the world is going to end on a certain date. 

I have my faith.  I have my will to live life the best I can with honesty and value.  I do what I can, everyday, to leave this world a better place than when I came into it.  No one truly knows when things will end.  The end of the world for me (or anyone) can end with the next heartbeat.  A drunk driver coming out of no where to plow into a carload of people.... and someones world could end.   An earthquake can happen.... and someones world could end.  A tsunami can happen.... and someones world could end.  A sniper bullet can end the world for someone.  You see what I mean? 

It is always a good idea to prepare for some things.  I look at the news regularly and the troubled times do worry me.  But, I can't live my life in fear of the unknown.   Fear is a killer by itself. 

Ok, I've got to get back to work on a quilt.  I had not intended for this to become a full blog post.  I was supposed to be only passing along knowledge of an interesting show to be aired.  I thought some one might want to watch it.  Just remember the media like to show "extremes" for these shows.

*** UPDATE ***

I watched the show and I was not impressed with all the extreme people.  Millions of dollars spent on a theory?  Aw, come on now, use some common sense.  Well, some people have nothing better to do than spend money foolishly.  It's the believers and followers who are being duped into spending just like they were duped before Y2K.  People are giving up hard earned dollars to those who create the fear, with no guarantees of a refund if the world does not end.  Do any of the doomsayers offer full price refunds?

All the 2012 fear is based on a round stone ancient calendar.  Well heck, doesn't anyone realize a circle must end someplace?  Like a clock that goes from one to twelve and starts all over again at one.  Just because the clock goes past twelve it doesn't mean time will end.  A round calendar stops and begins again and should not be feared that the end of days is upon us anymore than a flip page calendar.

If you must spend money for preparedness.... at least spend it on practical preparedness.  Know which natural disaster may happen in your area and spend your money on things to help you through that disaster if it should happen.  Watch for signs of another economic down turn or a possible lay off from your job and stock up on groceries to see you through that time.  Watch for signs the price of gas or heating oil will be going up and set aside extra money for that.  What I am saying is..... Plan for real possible emergencies instead of imagined ones. 

One question

I've been watching the news lately about the possibility of the government being shut down if there isn't a balanced budget passed.  I have one question and I don't know who to ask so instead I'll just write my question as a blog post and hope someone, somewhere will be asking the same question to the right person.  Hmm.... a very agressive political reporter might be the one to ask but I don't know how to do that.

My question is:

Why is it that the ordinary workers are the ones who will suffer from a government shut down instead of the politicians? 

The politicians arguing over budget stuff will not have their salary cut in anyway if there is a shut down.  They will still receive their paychecks and their perks while the park rangers and the secretaries in small government offices and the ticket takers at museums will be the one's to suffer a pay loss. 

Ok a second question which is actually part of the first question: 

 Why are the senators and the representatives not "fined" the amount of their daily salary and taken away their perks for every day there isn't a balanced budget? 

I'm pretty sure none of them have even considered cutting their own paychecks or giving up their perks as one way to cut the deficit.  Yet, they plan to cut social services for the poor.  Well darn it!  Don't they know that the more poor people they create with their antics.... the more poor people that will need those social services?  The very people who will be out of work from shutting down the government are the ones who will need the social services which won't be open.  The politicians have lost their common sense!

Ok, I'm going back to my work.  I was just type-talking some thoughts that maybe others agree or disagree about. 

Sunshine at last

The last few days have been busy around here.  Sorry to have been absent so long.  Remember the trees that were giving me too much shade to have a garden?

Well a big part of them are gone.  I now have enough sunshine to plant a small raised bed garden.  There will be enough sunshine during the day that plants can actually grow.  I traded the making of two memory quilts for getting these cut down and several branches cut from the others.  I wish I could get all of them cut down to the ground so I could plant some fruit trees.  You see how the builder dealt with the trees when the house next door was built?  His solution was to build a bump out in the fence around them and leave me with the ugly mess.  I have the chain link fence and the young girl next door has the wood fence.  I hope to have the memory quilts finished by the end of this month to finish my part of this trade.

I need to deal with this stuff though.  The smaller branches will be shredded.  I thought about using it for mulch around my raised bed garden but have decided it would be too much temptation for termites.  Now that I've gotten rid of those pesky critters I don't want to invite them back.

A neighbor will be taking these to burn in his wood stove.  I'm sure glad someone wanted these so I don't have to deal with getting rid of them.  I also had the cherry tree topped out.  It was supposed to be a mini tree but turned out to be a tall tree.  Now that it's been topped out the side branches should fill out more making it easier for me to pick cherries closer to the ground. 

I was working on this quilt and taking pictures to do another tutorial about working with wonky on point quilts.  I was really unhappy with how the quilting was turning out so I took it off the machine.  I'm going to frog stitch (pick out) all the stitching of the three borders and do those over before finishing the quilting.

I put this one on the machine to work on until I finish the frog stitching of the other one. 

The cancer spot that was removed from my face is healing.  It looks quite ugly with a dark scab right under my nose and was pretty painful for a couple of days.  The three places on my back are healing as well.  I also have a new printer thanks to another trade.  How do I find trades? 

Well, with the memory quilts, while we were talking about his wife's clothing being made into memory quilts for his daughters he mentioned what he does for a living.  When he mentioned his work I simply asked if he wanted to trade.  We both feel it's a fair trade.  The trade for a new printer came about because I had posted about my printer quitting.  A reader contacted me about trading a new printer for some quilting work.  I'm very happy with the printer she had and hope to make her just as happy with the quilting I'll be doing on her quilt. 

I don't do trades all the time.  I do have bills to pay that can't be done by trades.  But, trades like these are great when they happen.  Back in the early days of machine quilting, when customers were very hard to find, I traded for lots of things when I couldn't afford to pay cash.  In those days I traded for finished quilts instead of machine quilting services.  I could spend a whole day talking about the trades I made back then.  A used refrigerator and a set of tires for my car.  A coat and shoes for my daughter.  Flooring.  Yup, I could spend a whole day talking about trades.  Hmm... I even wrote an article for Unlimited Possibilities magazine about trading for quilting.  Gosh, that was a long time ago. 

Mom is behaving herself for now.  She has a birthday next week and I'll be visiting her this weekend.  I'm trying to get my sugar under control, my blood pressure back down, and to lower my cholesterol.  Which is why a garden is so important to me this year.  Healthier eating, exercise, and plenty of sunshine all at the same time.  This is just the next step in my journey back to a simpler life.  I like it!