OMG February

I can't believe I just wrote the word February. But if it is almost February, that means winter is almost half over. My OMG will be to machine quilt Simple Simon on my Brother. There will be a two inch border all around and a reddish binding.

And the  RSC colour for February is aqua or turquoise so now I can pick some Bright Jane blocks to work on for the next month.

Linking with
http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/p/omg-one-monthly-goal.html
http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/
http://estheraliu.blogspot.ca/

Blessings,
Chris

 

Denine: One mother's journey with a profoundly handicapped child

The first books have arrived.

I really am an author.

Me and My Book

Books can be purchased at:

amazon.ca

friesenpress.com

or signed copies from me. 

There will be a website in the near future.

I am So Blessed, 

Chris

January 2017 OMG Finish

I did complete the Simple Simon top. This was one of the workshops Linda Collins gave at the Shipshewana Retreat in November. It took about two weeks longer than I had intended, but I did not plan to take the three hour drive my daughter three times in the past two weeks to help with the boys who were all sick and she was not getting any sleep. I did shush the baby each night and he even slept through the night twice in a row the day he turned one. But no more after I left.

Simple Simon Flimsy

I have yet another helper in the quilt room. Devan is three and a half and certainly has a mind of her own. It was her idea to put the blocks on the design wall. But this after I had suggested it and put the blocks on a chair in front of the empty wall and went to do something else in another room.

New Helper

She pushed the step thingy around herself and patted, not petted, the blocks to stay on. You pet the dog she told me. Okay. Now I know.

Miss Independence

Ta dah! She even pulled the antique princess feather block off the shelf to add it to her masterpiece. We had to (cringe) pin it on since it would not stick.

I back basted the wreath onto this BTCT block. This is the one I inadvertently pressed the markings off last week. I am stitching on this this weekend watching foot ball with my Sweet Farmer. Not that I care about foot ball (horrors) but I do like to spend time with my Sweetie. And why am I back basting the wreath? This way there will be no seam to join or connect.

BTCT Block # 9

Connecting to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/  
http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.ca/2017/01/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-some-fun-projects.html 
omg-one-monthly-goal. 
 needle and thread network.
Esther's WOW 

Blessings,
Chris

January 2017 RSC Purple

I came to the party late so have only one block done. This Bright Jane block will finish at four and a half inches.

Bright Jane L-9

Wonder what the colour will be for next month?
Blessings,
Chris

Mid January Update

Has it really been 2 weeks since I last posted? Unfathomable! Life never gets dull when you are a grandmother. The little darlings have all been so generous and sharing sickness with each other and now, finally, Gramma has it.  No voice to sing with them but still can give lots of snuggles. I have made the 3 hour drive to my daughters 3 times now to help with the baby who is not quite sleeping through the night. Almost. But the rest have been sick everyone needs a bit of sleep.

It is mid January already. Where has the time gone? Oh yes. Snuggling little boys and babysitting little girls. Stitching away on Simple Simon. All 36 blocks are done and now to stay home long enough to sew them all together. And I had planned on being home for 4 weeks in a row. Not much appliqueing going on. I did complete the leaves and buds on one block and was pressing some green fabric to back baste the wreath around the leaves, and didn't I press the block and obliterate the frixion pen marking! I put everything in the project box and cleared away all the clutter in my quilt room for my Q@F friends to come over Saturday to quilt all day. I pulled some dill pickle soup out of the fridge for lunch. That messed up my whole30 clean eating program since it contained sour cream and butter (dairy) and flour. Not sure if I will start counting from Day 1 again or just carry on. I did notice that after 11 days of clean eating, I can close my right hand into a fist without pain. Nice! The left can close more than it used to, but not quite tight. Back to the program and no more cheating. 

Got home the other night to find an email from my publisher to tell me that I am a published author. Yay me! We are planning a book release event for mid  February after the first shipment of books arrives. I will have more information when I know what we are going to do. In the meantime, you can check it out at http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore/title/119734000015785209.

I decided to join the Rainbow scrap challenge 2017 and work on my Bright Jane blocks in the designated monthly colours. January is purple.   

Blessings,
Chris

Whole30

Yesterday I started another Whole30. What is the Whole30 you may ask? Well, I will tell you anyway. It is not a diet. It is  not a cleanse. It is not a detox. However, it will do all those things. 

Simply, it is a program to help reset your digestive system and heal your gut by eliminating a lot of foods from your diet for 30 whole days in a row. At the end of the 30 days, you reintroduce each of the forbidden foods one at a time to see if any of them are causing you problems. It is not meant for you to eat like this forever, just for 30 days. It is basically clean eating.

When I did it 2 years ago (chanting 'no cheating' through out the days)

• the bloat in my body left immediately 
• I could pull on my socks and climb the stairs instead of crawl 
• I could bend over and pick up something off the floor
• I could get down on the floor and back up again without help
• the dry itchy scales on my head cleared away
• the headaches went away
• the pain in my knees and hands went away
• I had great energy
• I was more positive
• I dropped 18 lbs

However, I reintroduced foods too quickly and did not identify any specific food triggers. When I had the ice cream was it the dairy, the sugar, the fat, or the chemicals that immediately gave me the zits? 

One thing I have avoided since then is store bought cookies and pastries. I can still pull up my socks and climb the stairs, but my hands and knees hurt and I have  less energy than I would like. 

Below are some links to the Whole30 program if you are interested in reading more. I bought the book It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig and read up on the effect of many foods. I set a date to start 3 months in the future when I was home for 30 days so I could focus on it. I had to change my attitude and be willing to give up dairy for 30 days. I am, after all, a dairy farmer. Within 3 days, I saw the first effects and got excited to go the distance. 

http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/
 http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-shopping-list.pdf
 http://whole30.com/2013/08/revised-timeline/ 
 http://laurenhartmann.com/2014/07/the-lazy-girls-guide-to-the-whole30.html

Turns out that I have little girls taking turns visiting this week since school does not resume until next week. 

blessings, 
Chris 

Welcome 2017

It is new Years Day and Sunday. I have been doing a bit of handwork on these BTCT blocks this weekend. I stitched those 8 single leaves sitting in the back seat of a van on the drive to Shipshewana back in November. Was that really so long ago?

The buds and leaves are done now to prep the not-so-round wreath. I will be doing it by back-basting.

It has been a month of visiting and having visitors. Our daughter and the boys left yesterday. My sister from China left this morning but not before we spent some time auditioning center layouts for one of my 17 for 2017. Pictures will come when I think I have figured out what I will do. Ava will be going home later today. I have been putting different quilts in progress up on the design wall to see how far I have come and what is next. I like to think of this as a stretching exercise as I step up and down the step stool and reach and pin and stretch and unpin then put away the blocks.

So what is next? I do not do New Years resolutions, but I have been waiting until this festive season is over and I will be home for nearly 4 weeks in a row. I have planned out a lot of things that I want to be doing. Some people say to make small changes in your life but I plan to do a whole bunch of changes at once. Kind of like when I went back to school and suddenly had to give up my leisure time and drive into town a couple of days a week and sit through lectures, read lots of books, write papers and do exams. Well, the exams are all done on my 5 courses, but still have to do several book reports and reflection papers. Focus. That is the key. Stay off the computer, at least the games and blogs and facebook. I have to use the computer to write my papers after all. 

Also, I plan on doing another whole30 clean eating program. I did one 2 years ago and experienced significant changes in my health and movability. I start tomorrow. I will blog about it a bit. 

So I am colour coding my daytimer and getting ready to take 2017 to a new level of achievement. 

Blessings, 
Chris