Time to Quilt

I’ve been practicing some hand guided quilting… on a white board… too chicken to try it on a live quilt.  But, I think I’m ready!

I’m trying one of the design’s from the Pajama Quilter workbook.  I have both DVD’s too.  I don’t think they are still available anywhere but, if you ever see a used one for sale, grab it!

I’ve had them forever but, I get stuck in the same ole design and afraid intimidated to jump off the twig and see if I can fly.  (Of course if you’re following the metaphor, chickens don’t step out on twigs nor do they fly.  So, there’s that. lol)

And, the front of the companion workbook to the DVD.

The 3rd quilt top from the Safe Haven is pretty ugly so I’m not sure if I can make it worse with the quilting.  We’ll soon find out.  I had 4 large 20″ blocks made that I didn’t want to waste.  I added some of the original bird border and an outer border to bring the quilt up to a usable 57″ x 72″ size.

I’ve never deliberately set out to make one with that objective so, I ask the lady we were delivering the donated quilts why.  She told us that a homeless person, if given a choice, well seek out the ugliest one.  It’s less likely to be stolen.

It was something I’ve never forgotten.  There’s someone who will love even the ugly quilts.  If that’s true, they’re really going to love this one!

The original post below is from December 21, 2020.  Today is August 11, 2025.

I was feeling tired today and disappointed that I’ve once again re-gained the weight I’d lost.  I know that’s why my knees hurt and I get tired quickly.

It’s time to get back on the wagon and I hope by seeing how happy I was when I’d reached my Weight Watchers goal this day that I’ll feel motivated to make a few changes.

I reached a big goal today!  I’m normal now, at least in size.

I’ve spent most of my adult life hoping, wishing, and making multiple attempts to reach “normal”.  I always gave up.  Not because it was too hard to eat healthy food or, because tracking what I ate became too tedious.  I quit because I got impatient.

I’ve had success in accomplishing goals in the past.  Some were easier to achieve than others and many took a lot of work and dedication.  None of them, however; challenged my ability to stay motivated like losing weight has.

One of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to overcome is looking in the mirror and not getting discouraged.  It’s hard to persevere when the first thing you see every morning is the consequences of your bad choices staring back at you.

While I was working on losing the weight, people would often say “this is a marathon, just be patient”.    They were wrong.  Not the part about being patient, that’s important, but their analogy was incorrect. Losing weight isn’t a marathon, it’s navigating a maze.

You walk into brick walls, take wrong turns,  and have to continue trying to figure out the path that moves you forward.  Time and patience alone won’t do it.  Staring down that image in the mirror and vowing to keep going (even when you run into that proverbial brick wall) is the only thing that works.   Knowing with everything in you that there is no going back to where you began – no matter how familiar that path might feel.