Week 38 Tuesday To Do: The Golfing Quilter & Walking the Walk


A lovely September Tuesday to you all.
 It's now Week 38 of Quilt Schmilt's Tuesday To-Do 
link-up so after you've checked out my progress,
hop on over to see what everyone else has been up to.

I skipped another TTD last week when I decided to join hubs
on an intern-recruiting trip to the University of Arkansas.  
I thought I'd check out the LQS'but there were none.  Nada.
(What is up with that, Fayetteville??)


So I switched gears and looked into my other love:  golf.
(Maybe I should rename myself  "The Golfing Quilter"??)


Day 1 Morning:  Coffee shop
Afternoon:  Golf
Evening:  Dinner w/hubs
Day 2 Morning:  Golf
Afternoon:  Coffee shop
Evening:  Birthday dinner (in Tulsa on the way home)

 Rough life right?  Well it was my birthday after all.
I really enjoyed the course (just outside of Fayetteville) so
suggested hubs take that recruiting trip every September!

Well let's get down to the progress.
Lucey is now back up and running.  I was a little slow
to get started but it's picking back up here and there.
 (Sometimes you kinda lose your mojo when things break.)

* * * Week 36 Priority * * *
Quilt Simply Pumpkin & finish


Not quite.
Quilting is done and binding is going on.

2)  Quilt Fair Isle Friends; label and finish


Not quite.
Quilting is done; next in line for binding.

3) Finish Barberry Bramble top; quilt, label and finish
Not quite.
Top finished; still need to make backing and quilt.

4) Finish pumpkin pillows



DONE and on the sofa.

Other things going on...

In the Garden


The first pumpkins are ripening! 


 I'd hoped for more gourds (where are they??) 
but the garden got hit hard with aphids last month.


Right when every day counts, the garden shop was out of ladybugs
so it was about a week before I could hire these little workers.


But they went right to work, and they've been quite,
ahem, busy at making many more ladybugs.


So now there are oodles of pumpkins appearing all over
 the garden and that makes my little fall-loving heart happy.
(Now for hubs to get that bug house built before the cold hits!)


Btw, I have about 8 of the extra-big pumpkin variety growing
so be watching for those.  It doesn't look like it but the above
pumpkin is so big that my arms can't fit around it.  I think it
has stopped growing so I've transferred my hopes of beating
my Great Pumpkin Record over to a few others in the patch.


In about a month I'll be bringing in the choicest of our herbs
in for the winter so I like to harvest them right now.
This gets all of the older stems cut off and then allows for
establishing new growth right before I bring them in.  As green
as my thumb is outside, I'm not very good at indoor plants.
Generally these potted herbs will die off by the end of winter but
getting even another 2 to 3 months of fresh flavors is so worth it.
Every year I seem to get them to last a wee bit longer though
so I must be getting better at it. 

Reading (audiobooks)
I used to be such a prolific reader but don't make time for it
anymore unless it's an audiobook.  I'm behind on my reading
challenge for the year so I'm working hard at catching up.
Some of the slowing is that over the years, my interests have
turned to heavier reading--non-fiction, biography & history.


I love war history and lately while I sew, I've been listening
 to The Splendid & the Vile  (Erik Larson) which follows
Winston Churchill through England's WWII years.  Not all
heavier books are easy to listen to but this one is holding
my attention very well.  With books like Schindler's List,
which I tried recently, I want to stop and ponder things over
so much that those end up in my "physical reading only" list.

Healthier Living:  Walk the Walk!
A couple years ago I dropped 45lbs and felt really great.
Almost half of that has sneaked back on and I do not feel great.
I've been trying to get back at it, and boy has life been getting
in the way but darn it, I really want to get that weight back off 
so that my fall clothes (my fave!) fit, so that I'm not so tired and
so that everything doesn't hurt so much!
I've dusted off the treadmill and am off and running walking!
(Ha, as much as I'd love it, my running days might be over.
Might.  Who knows?)


Last week I was inspired by Roseanne over at Home Sewn By Us
when she committed to fitting in 10K steps daily and we decided
to buddy up for accountability.   On golf days, I can rock this goal
but those non-golfing days when I'm sitting at the sewing machine?
Those are the ones I badly need this accountability thing for!

I started this last Thursday* so here are my official results so far:

Th 9/14:  10,140
Fr 9/15:  10,908
Sa 9/16:  15,902
Su 9/17:  11,485
(*I'll be using a Monday - Sunday weekly schedule)

If you'd like to join along, simply walk the walk and then every
Tuesday talk the talk by sharing your results.   How about calling
 it the Walk the Walk Challenge...or something like that?
What a great way to head into the holiday season, right?
(It's also more quality audiobook time!)

Well, hey, now that we're feeling all motivated,
 let's talk about all of next week's goals:

* * * Week 38 Priority * * *
Finish binding Simply Pumpkin & Fair Isle Friends
Take pics and list.

2) Finish Barberry Bramble, pic & list

3) Work on next wool project


I have been very unsuccessful in finding my background
fabric for this project so I'm getting nowhere.  At this point
I'm just waiting for the Shop Hop (Oct) to do this.

4) Get in 10K steps daily (at least 6 days/week)
Hopefully this (and our beautiful weather) will have the mojo
back up to par soon.  I still have so many fallishly-fun
quilt plans yet to bring to fruition!

5) Start next quilt: this will be my submission for the
Monster Mash Blog hop so it'll have to stay a secret.

I love an early tee-time!  (Local course)

Happy golfing, walking and quilting!

Comments

Arkansas very much lacks quilt shops - there are none in central Arkansas that I know of where I live. In the NW corner there are some but in the smaller outer towns none in Fayetteville. There used to be a nice one in Rogers but I don't think it is there anymore.
Linda said…
I think "The Golfing Quilter" is perfect for you! How fun your trip sounds, where did you eat in Tulsa? Happy Birthday btw. :D Hubs recently bought a treadmill and is using it, then the other day he bought a stationery bike. Have I used them? Nope, not once. I have gained about 10 lbs in 1-1/2 years, and it makes me tired and unmotivated. I need to get busy - you are inspiring me. Your pumpkins are amazing!
Karin said…
You are one busy lady. Enjoyed reading your post as there was just so much in it to which I could relate. Love the pumpkin quilt!
Home Sewn By Us said…
Good morning! No quilt shops in Fayetteville?? That seems like a large enough city to support at least one. Odd. AND, Happy Birthday belatedly. {{Hugs}} It sounds like you had a wonderful birthday . . . golf, coffee, hubs. What more would you ask for?! Beautiful quilts nearly finished - I just LOVE those blue pumpkins. Oh gosh, I love Erik Larson's book called Dead Wake and the Lusitania. History is so interesting to me now - I can't get enough whether it's fiction or non-fiction. I haven't tried audiobooks yet but might need to with our walking challenge!! I love the name Walk the Walk Challenge - and my posting days are to be determined. HAHA! When I remember, or more likely on Thursdays as a love. Thanks for the nice writeup! {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne
Bonnie said…
Wow on your pumpkin crops -both in the garden and on the quilts. I like the Buttermilk Basin pattern -- hope you find the background fabric soon. I never realized that lady bugs are good for the garden. Thanks for that tidbit.
Kate said…
We used to head to Fayetteville for swim meets when Grad Girl was part of the swim team. There is a really nice quilt shop in Siloam Springs, Saper Creek Quilts. So If you took 412 out of Tulsa that would be on the way. There is also a very nice coffee shop in town, so it wasn't hard to convince My Guy to stop for a bit. I'm in the same boat with the weight loss, except I put all 50 lbs back on. Back problems have made it hard to get back on a good schedule, but I'm back to walking 4 days a week. Now that I'm retired, it's a lot harder to get in those 10,000 steps a day in. Good luck with your efforts.
Happy belated Birthday! Next time you are in Tulsa, eat at Zio's on 71st & Mingo. We've been going there since 1995 (when we moved to Tulsa). We still go when we are in Tulsa.
It sounds like you would qualify as the Walking Golfing Quilter these days. Great goals and I will be rooting for you and Roseanne to keep it up. Lots of other great goals here and lovely quilting going on. Happy Stitching from me!