In the sewing room...

Sewing:

Made it into the sewing room this weekend.  I managed to start and finish a tote bag using up the last of the Pop Century bed spread fabric.  Hope Mom likes it!

The tote bag has 6 outside pockets, zippered closure and 5 inside pockets.  As I couldn't get to the fabric store I pulled out a dollar store polyester table cloth.  It frays something terrible, so I closed all the seams with an extra zig zag and the inside seams are encased in left over binding from quilting projects. 

Now on to the long arm.  I'm determined to figure out how to quilt feathers.  After many a session with the seam ripper I purchased a stencil.  Then I found that the only pen that shows up on the fabric is a black Crayola washable.  I'm really hoping it does wash out as advertised. 

Even with the stencil lines guiding the stitches the result still isn't great.  Deb from hearts2hands quilt group suggested visualizing half hearts.  Sew the stem of the feather, then stitch half a heart all the way on one side then stitch the other half.  I haven't tried it yet, but really believe this will help.  I can free motion hearts with no problem at all!  Finishing this quilt is my project for today and tomorrow.

Exercising???

Well I can't really call it a work out, but I made a promise to myself on Feb 10 to get at least 10,000 steps on my FitBit every day until at least April 10.  On April 10 I'll decide what's next.

So far I've managed to get the steps in.  To make sure I do it, I joined a FitBit group.  The Be Our Guest group has a challenge to get 17 million steps in the month of February.  We have over 60 members so you wouldn't think it would be difficult.  Especially since some of the members are runners.  They get in 30,000 steps a day.  So what's with the rest of us?  Its going to be a challenge to get those 17 million steps in.

Classes:

I finished the Linux course with 89%  Not great when one considers it was an open book test.  No excuse.  Just misunderstood three of the questions.  My darling husband has declared that the questions were poorly worded.  What a sweetie.

Now I'm on to a cooking class.  No gasps please.  I know I don't cook.  But I'm enjoying the instructor's take.  Think about why different cultures use different flavours and spices.  Loads of history lessons.  And that's what I'm enjoying.  The cooking...not so much.  Not having all the groceries required is a pain.  We don't grocery shop often so I use what I have on hand.

Plus few of the recipes are gluten free.  Today was Greek pizza so I used chickpea flour pizza crust.  Not great.  It's all eaten but I'll be looking for a different gluten free recipe if I make it again.