Happy Groundhog Day!

I think the groundhog says we are having 6 more weeks of winter. Of course, the calendar says the same. LOL I have been missing from blogland for a few days. We had such a nice Friday and Saturday that I didn't even get on the computer much. On Friday I worked around outside and did some cleaning in the house. Time passed quickly. Saturday was so beautiful with highs in the lower 60's. (big grin) We went to town to do the errands that my sweetie wanted to do. We bought a whole pickup load of lumber. (More about that some other time.) Dh got that unloaded while I went back to town for some things that we needed. K didn't want to stop at Wal-Mart or Sams with the pickup so loaded down, so we drove home through the back roads at 45 miles per hour. He kept asking me to check and make sure nothing was falling off, even though he had 4 straps on the load. LOL He didn't really need to ask because I always watch when we have a load we are hauling. I guess he just needed to be reassured. (grin). I ran into my daughter, Carolyn and her husband, Bob, while coming out of Wal-Mart. We stood for a few minutes visiting, then I got my hugs and was on the way. I do not like to drive after dark. Always, good to get a hug from the kids. Anyway, by the end of the day, Saturday, I was pooped. I didn't even sew any, but did manage to come down with a cold. Bummer!

I got up early Sunday morning and visited my mom, helping her get her bills in order and medicine ready for the month. I met K. on the way home. He was going after a load of water. We have to haul our water. I finally got my sweet potatoes started. Here I have everything I need laid out. They gave me a head start. See the little leaves starting out on the ends.

Here they are, all ready for a sunny window sill. I just hope I can keep my cats from eating the leaves off. LOL I have started my sweet potato plants this way for over 30 years. As the leaves grow out the top. I pinch them off and stick them in water. Then roots will develop and as soon as it is warm enough they can be planted. I don't plant them till late May, but it usually takes quite a while to get enough starts, so I start them early.

After getting the sweet potatoes started I helped K change the oil in the car. Then he said we had done everything he wanted to for the weekend, so we could spend the rest of the day doing whatever we wanted. Guess what I did. Yep, sewed the whole afternoon away. We never even put the Superbowl game on. Neither one of us are football fans. We didn't even know who was playing. LOL Anyway, I got all the blocks done on the Savannah Star quilt I am working on, but not without some troubles. See the block on the left. Does that look square to you? Yep, I sewed an extra strip on 16 blocks before I figured this out. Let's just say my ripper and I were real good friends yesterday. LOL At least I caught it before I trimmed all of them.Strip piecing is easy, but one drawback is if you booboo on something, you might booboo on lots of blocks before you catch it. I had ripped all of them out before I thought to take a picture so you could see what I mean by the strip piecing I was doing. So I took a picture of the next section before I cut them apart and trimmed them up. First I pressed the green strip along the top up, then cut them apart and did any trimming needed.Here you have it, 64 - 5 1/2 inch blocks completed. I even ripped out and corrected, any time a seam got turned and sewed the wrong way on the back. I told you I was good friends with the ripper. LOL

I took a break after I got all the blocks finished and watched some tv with K. This morning after my Bible study, I started sewing the blocks in rows. First I laid them all out on my bed. Glad I had a diagram to look at, cause it is real easy to get these blocks turned around. Here they are in rows all ready to be pressed. I will sew the rows together this evening, then deside whether or not I want to put any borders on it. The original pattern doesn't call for borders, but I have lots of the center star fabric left. I may put a 3 inch border around it.
I had it all laid out pretty like the above on our bed. I went out to get the mail and came back to this. I think some naughty kitties were involved in some foul block play. LOL
That is it for pictures for today, but now for the exciting news. I started on the Atkins diet last Monday. I stay on it pretty good, but do drink a light Dan Active immune boost drink every morning. I haven't been real good about exercise, but have walked quite a bit. Now for the exciting news (for me at least LOL), I lost 4.2 lbs in the past week. Yahoo! I also lost 1 inch off my waist and 1 inch off my hips! Now I know that I won't do this well every week, but it is a start. I usually lose the most in the first week. I hope to incorporate more exercise this week. I was just so excited to get on the scales this morning and see the numbers. I was practically jumping up and down. LOL I still have a long ways to go, but baby steps, baby steps.

See what happens when I miss a few days of blogging. I end up writing a book for you all to read. (grin) I have 3 queen size quilts started. One has all the blocks done and just needs to be put together. One has half the blocks pieced, but the rest cut out. One has a long ways to go. Then I have a queen, twin, and a couple of lap size tops that need quilted, plus various table runners and wall quilts. So I am trying to finish a few of these, but it is hard. Every time I see a pretty pattern, I get the itch and just have to try it. Today I found one of my quilt books called 'Grandma's Best Full-Size Quilt Blocks' published by Better Homes and Gardens. Carolyn gave me this book a few years ago. It was in a different section of the bookcase, so I haven't looked at it for a while. Now don't you know I am going to find something in this book that I just have to make. (grin) I plan to sit and look at it tonight while I watch tv. So I will probably be telling you tomorrow about this darling quilt that I just have to make. LOL Everyone have a good evening. Thanks for visiting.