So if you read my last post (half a year ago) you know that I’ve been taking weight loss medication, and lo and behold, it’s working! All those things about being fat that average sized people don’t think about are starting to become standard for me. I’m by no means skinny, and I don’t aspire to be, but there’s significantly less of me than there used to be.
Recently we had Thanksgiving here in the U.S. of A., and I was lucky enough to score a visit from my boy (grown up man) who lives in another state. I hadn’t seen him in a while, and when he looked at me for the first time he was a little bit thrown for a loop. He actually told me that it’s going to take him some time to get used to the way I look now. I weigh less now than I have at any point during his lifetime, so I can see where he’s coming from.
Honestly, I don’t want to stay on this medication forever, partly because I don’t enjoy giving myself shots, partly because gagging when I brush my teeth is unpleasant, and partly because who knows what the long term effects of this medication are. Oh, and the cost. There’s that factor too. But for right now, and the foreseeable future, I’m sticking with it (see what I did there? stick, like needle? pretty clever, right?).
My sweetheart doesn’t love the idea of me being on this medicine for an extended period of time. He’s convinced that I’ve “learned better habits and can continue making those better decisions.” Right. Like having cinnamon bears for dinner. Yes, I’m eating considerably less, but still not always the best choices. I try, but some days I really just don’t want to. Yes, I occasionally get cravings, even with the medicine, but FAR less often or intensely than without it. I haven’t learned better habits, I’ve always known what they are. It’s not knowledge that’s the issue, it’s putting it into practice, and that’s where I have struggled all my adult life.
I’ve fallen and I can’t get up! Remember those ads? I sort of have felt like that when it comes to blogging. I’ve loved blogging over the years, but recently I just haven’t been able to add it into my routine? Why? Absolutely no reason whatsoever.
When I began this blog in 2013 (was it really that long ago?!) I did it as a way to keep myself accountable in regards to my health and fitness goals. Well, it’s been a long up and down and up again struggle, but the war rages on. Last year I became one of the Noomies (my own term, but feel free to use it), and it was the right thing for me at the exact right time, because I lost over 50 pounds and was feeling great. Then, around last November, I started to use it less and less, but oddly my weight stayed stable. For a while. Once again, I’m at a place where I know what to do, but just need to do it. UGH.
Teaching-wise, I’m loving being a teacher of gifted kids. I’m not going to lie, the kindergarten and first grade kids scared me a little at first, but now I love working with them. Gifted 5 and 6 year olds are quirky, funny people, with little to no filter. They are so much fun to teach.
I’m also looking forward to a retire, re-hire situation with my school district. It’s a little complicated, but the gist of it is that I can keep working, but start drawing my retirement. I’m all for it. There are just a few paperwork (well, website work) challenges I have to overcome, but I’m looking forward to that next phase of my career.
Other than that, the doggy is doing fine at the ripe old age of 14, the kid is also doing fine, but still pounding the pavement (or internet) for a chemical engineering position (anyone hiring? let me know). I’ve been traveling to visit my mom more frequently, since she does not appear to be getting any younger. Have I mentioned how much I dislike flying? I’m pretty sure I have.
Finally, I have a new love in my life. It’s K-pop. Yes, I’ve been enjoying it for a few years now, but I finally discovered BTS (I know, I know… I’m SUPER late to the party) and there’s no looking back. I never got onboard with Leif Garrett or Shaun Cassidy, but I’m like a tween when it comes to BTS. Thank goodness for YouTube so I can get my fill of them whenever I feel like it. I hope you enjoy a few minutes of happiness.
I’m so pleased this braid quilt is done. I was going to say finally done, but that’s not really the case. I have a quilt tops that have been around for 20+ years, but not this one.
This one was started this past spring while school was still in session. I was teaching full-time, working on finishing my National Board materials (not a small task, let me tell you), and trying to finish out the spring months with my sanity intact. Although I already started this quilt, I put it aside knowing that I just did not have enough time to do everything. In fact, it sort of motivated me because each time I looked at it thinking I wanted to work on it, I told myself to go work on my National Board submission.
Fast forward just a tiny bit, and school was out for the summer, and my National Board materials were submitted. I stopped and took a couple of deep breaths. Now I could quilt.
Since I recently bought myself a massive long arm quilting machine, I figured I better put it to good use. What better way to practice, then on a quilt that will end up in the hands of someone whose eyesight is not so great. That would be my mom. Unfortunately, she has developed quite a few problems with her vision, but she can still see bright colors. That’s what she asked for. A quilt with bright colors.
I got to work in my scrap bins, and cut up all these little pieces. Fortunately many of them were already in 2 1/2 inch wide strips. I put the pieces into a paper bag, and pulled them out at random to make the braids. Once in a while I re-pulled if the color was too similar to the one before it.
Putting the braids together was a lot of fun, and really a great stress reliever. It was getting the whole thing stitched together that was a little bit more of a challenge. I’m glad I saved that part of the project for after school let out. First, I had to decide what I wanted to put around the braids, if anything. I tried out a few different colors, and decided the turquoise was the way to go. I also was debating between either white or black in between. As you can see, I chose the black. My mom wants to use this on a bed in what used to be in my bedroom. Grandkids stay over regularly, so I figured the darker color would be a little easier to maintain. I love the way the black sets off all the bright colors.
The thing about this type of a quilt, is that when you do the braids you end up with a lot of bias edges. If you don’t sew, you may not realize that the bias edge is extremely stretchy. That makes it a little bit tricky to sew with, because those edges like to change size. Getting those turquoise frames around each strip ended up being kind of a hassle. Still, I got it done and loaded onto my quilt machine.
That’s where the fun really began. You see, I am a novice at this. I only have loaded the quilt machine three times. Well, actually four. The thing is when I put it on the quilting machine I forgot to check my tension before I started quilting. No big deal, right? Wrong. I got pretty far across the quilt before I realized that stitches were being skipped. That’s not good. However, I decided to ignore it and finish quilting the row. Big mistake.
When I got to the end of the row I looked under the quilt, and to my horror, there were tangles of thread all the way across the quilt. It was time to tear out stitches. Thousands of stitches. What took me five minutes to create took three days to undo. I even had time to order a new seam ripper and have it delivered before I had the job done. Once all of the stitches were out, I took everything off the frame and reloaded it.
This time I made sure to check my stitches on the side of the quilt before I got going. They looked pretty good to me, so off I went. Unfortunately, after a short while my thread broke. Maybe I threaded it incorrectly? I unthreaded the machine, re-threaded it, and tested the tension again. Then, it broke again. What was I doing wrong? I had to take a break, and watch a few videos to see if I could figure out the problem. I changed my needle, rethreaded the machine, changed the bobbin, and still it broke. Then I started to mess with the top tension, and all of a sudden the stitches looked a lot better. Yes, I thought they were fine before, but I was wrong. New tension setting in place, off I went to finish the quilting. Lesson learned.
The good news is that my quilting was better the second time around, so there’s that silver lining. I also ended up with an almost perfectly squared off quilt, which seems sort of miraculous considering how much fiddling I had to do with the turquoise and black strips. I had plenty of the black fabric left for binding, and much to my surprise the binding went on smoothly, and looked really good, if I do say so myself. Usually I hand stitch it down on the back of the quilt, but I decided to be brave and try a machine binding again. This was the first one I did that I’m actually happy with.
Mom’s quilt is done, and I learned a lot along the way. I also had the opportunity to use up some scraps, and to practice my longarm quilting skills. I love the bright colors, and I know she will too.
BulgingButtons 