Attempting to fall in love again...with running

Some time back, I was sucked in by the P3R Megaticket.  Oh, this isn't something like going out to see some series of concerts.  That would be entertaining.  No, no, no.  This would be one sign-up for THREE local races.  More specifically, entry to run in three races.  The P3R Megaticket was one fee (~$130 or so) to do the 2016 Liberty Mile, 2016 EQT 10-miler and the 2017 Pittsburgh Half Marathon.  

I realize I posted nothing for a very long stretch. (Ok, reality here....I'm guessing there are about three people that read this and that is generous).  I have NOT been running much at all. In fact, signing up to train for the 10-miler was the first I really did any real running in the last couple years.  I just have not been able to find the passion for it.  Fleeting moments tell me it's still there, I just need to find a way to hang on and not let go.

Today was the EQT 10-miler.  I run two of the previous three instances of this race and trained (and carried less weight) both times.  I admit, 2014 was not exactly stellar training, but I could still hang.  Not so much today.  My first week of training was fine. I almost felt good and felt it would all be find.  And then I caught some sort of cold and then I just wanted to focus on crafts and then there is the inconvenience of work.  Add in the fact that my longest run was just over eight miles and I rarely managed to run the whole distance on the planned long distances.

All that, I really did not feel good going into today. At .5 mi, I was ready to turn around and go back down the hill (yeah...it started out UP HILL) and go home.  I manged to continue on.  A few other rises, but OK and then another turn uphill.  Not exactly good to start walking under two miles in.  That hill messed me up b/c it caused my shin and calf to hurt.  Once it worked out, my ankle really hurt and I did worry a bit.  Partway across the first bridge, I started to pick up the run and kept going.  I pushed through to run where I could and then would take time to walk (especially on the hills and the bridges). 

About mile five, I felt good. One of the bridges was an out-and-back kind of thing, so I was able to see some friends as we passed by each other.  It lifted my spirits a bit and kept me going.  Around mile seven, I started to hate the course.  It's flat, I knew there was a turn to head into town and instead of being a logical turn to loop around, it was this weird go left to go right kind of thing.  Seriously, I despised the course and whomever designed it at that point.  

From there, I did a lot of run / walk to the finish.  My legs, chest, hips, feet, toes, fingers-practically everything--hurt.  I did wish I could trade shoes with somebody.  I ran in my Brooks Ghosts from four years ago.  I know they are done and I know they have no cushioning and yet, I ran them.  I have a new pair of Ghosts in my closet and in my clearly-not-functioning-well mind, it is worse to run in new shoes than broken down ones.  Pure. Genius.  

I did manage to finish in under 2:30 (2:23:37).  To put that in perspective, I ran a half marathon in 2:18:43.  That is 3.1 miles further in 0:04:54 less.  My big lessons from this:

• TRAIN.  No really, lace up the shoes, get out and RUN.  And cross-train, too!
• Wear good shoes.  
• Fuel properly.  My current method of just eating whatever I choose is not exactly good since I rarely choose well.
• Have fun

I foresee a rematch of this course next year.  First, I need to to conquer the half-marathon in May 2017.  Better get to it. Well, after I take a nap and maybe raid the Halloween candy and a few other things.

Jelly Cake Quilt

About two years ago, I started on a quilt with blocks pieced from a jelly roll and a layer cake pre-cut (Flashback). Let me just say,  pre-cuts are awesome.  Blocks really work up quick!  I finished piecing the top in August 2014.  There are ten rows of eight blocks with a solid brown border and then a wider coordinating border.  This helped widen the quilt to be a queen size.  And...that's about where things stayed for the next two years.  Until this past June. 

First up was piecing in the backing.  For the record, I suck at sewing in a straight line and even more so to iron.  I used the technique of ripping the fabric to get a straight line and then sewed the resulting two pieces together.  Due to the amount of fabric I had available to me, I had a very slight amount of extra width.  Once that was done and pressed as best I could, I had to do a bit of furniture re-arranging in order to lay it all out for basting.  I had just enough room for the length of this, though it did mean I was a bit pinched between a floor lamp, easel and the french doors.  I used blue painters tape to secure the back to the floor.  I found it to work well b/c it sticks to the flooring (in this case, parquet, but works on carpet, too), but doesn't leave a residue.  It's also easy to re-position.  I would recommend to use the wider roll rather than this narrow one.  

The pictures below show this whole thing happening.  As you can see, there were wrinkles to start, but I managed to work most of them out.  

 

I pin-basted rather than using thread.  It was June and this room is not air conditioned and opening the window would not have provided ventilation, so no chance to experiment with spray-basting.  This really took all day to do.  My strategy was to pin in quadrants to make it easier to avoid inadvertent puckers. My poor knees and back--really could have used a few more stretch breaks.  Next time (because, let's be honest, I have plenty of other projects planned), I'll keep more space between the project and the wall.  Nothing like being stuck in a corner.   

After doing all the basting, I removed the tape and (carefully) picked this up off the floor.  It took me a bit to finally get everything arranged back to normal.  The added bonus, though, was, nicely dusted floors and end table.  I also purged some old periodicals and such.  

It took me a little bit to be ready to tackle the next part--quilting!  Long back (and I'm sure I'm repeating myself), I enrolled in Anne Petersen's Craftsy class, Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine.  It proved helpful, once again.  I used smoke invisible thread for my top thread and Aurifil white for the bottom as I did the stabilizing stitches for all rows and columns.  This wasn't too bad, but then I was stuck (again).  I really had no idea how I was actually going to quilt this thing.  

 I eventually decided I would do a really large scale meander through the top blocks.  I used the same bobbin thread for the bottom and clear invisible thread for the top.  I threw in an occasional in-and-out spiral just because.  The brown solid border was filled with a continuous spiral chain with smoke as my top thread.  I really wasn't sure if I wanted to use invisible thread to do the quilting, but it turned out well and I have soooo much of it.  Seriously, I have no idea why bought so much of it.  By the time I hit the outside border, I was so eager to have this done that it was just a random line around the bunches of flowers--nothing fancy.  

The last bit of work was to attach the binding.  I had lengths of fabric of the large and small scale mosaics.  Sadly, my memory is bad--doesn't everyone remember the intent of orders from two years prior???  I could not remember which was for the binding and which for pillows.  In order to decide, I put off the binding and made two pillowcases instead.  

For the pillows, I searched for ideas.  I was sort of looking for an easy sham and when I asked my husband for his opinion, he indicated he's more for a case, so...that's what I did.  I found this pattern for French seam pillowcases and it was soooo easy.  I had enough of the solid brown leftover for the accent strip.  I decided the large scale would be better for the main body of the case and the smaller scale for the outer edge.  As you can see, no pesky threads or unsightly seems.  These really are so incredibly easy.  My girls decided they need pillowcases, too.  (I'm catching on to their little game.  They ask for something, I spend the time to make it and then....not interested.)

 As a result of my pillowcase decision, the quilt binding became that of the smaller scale print.  I estimated what I thought were the quilt dimensions. I really should not do that since it resulted in me cutting and piecing together two extra strips.  I attached them on the diagonal and it's such a pain.  Before attaching the binding to the quilt, I squared up the edges and cut off the extra binding and back.  I have enough of the mosaic fabric for more pillows, so maybe I'll do the strip with the polka-dots to match the back of the quilt--goodness knows some of the scrap strips are wide enough.  But I digress.  The strips were machine attached to the front of the quilt.  I prefer to hand-sew the other side of the binding so it's invisible and I get the bonus of sitting under a warm quilt while watching TV.  The first night, of doing this, I almost felt defected.  The photo below shows where I was after the first couple hours of hand-sewing.  I pretty much only made it across two blocks and the border.  It was pretty discouraging and I wondered if maybe it wouldn't have been better to just sew it all on.  

It did get better and I did finally get around the whole thing.  My corners turned out pretty well. OK, there is the one corner that I think I had more than 1/4" allowance and it screwed it up a little, but who is going to actually look at the corners.  

I forgot to mention, with the exception of the solid border, this was made with "Sun-Kissed Spa" by Michele D'Amore for Benartex.  The blocks were from one layer cake and one jelly roll of the same collection.  The yardage for the border, back and pillows are also from the same collection.  

Here it is, though.  The finished quilt and matching pillowcases.  It only took just over two years, but it's DONE.  Whew!

Time Travelling - BOM 2012

Way back in 2012, I started the Craftsy 2012 Block of the Month.  It's all a bit fuzzy, but if memory serves, I had a really hard time picking the fabric I wanted for this.  I swear it took months of searching before I decided on Tula Pink's "Birds and Bees."  Then it took me forever to finally start it.  I ended up making the first couple blocks the end of 2012.  I posted about some of my progress way back (Plodding Along).  Since then, I did finish all of the blocks and put them all together.  The block "themes" (in order) are:

1. Slashed blocks
2. HSTs
3. Foundation piecing
4. English paper piecing (hexies)
5. Wonky log cabin
6. Modern 9-patch
7. Dresden plates
8. Stars
9. Curved piecing
10. Paper piecing

I enrolled in Free Motion Quilting a Sampler taught by Leah Day.  It used this sampler as the basis to learn FMQ techniques like stippling, feathers, fans, pebbles, spirals, echo, shell, etc.  It was definitely a good learning resource and I really need to do some more practice.

**Warning:  Detour**
Speaking of practice, I decided to finally finish these two snap bags that sat among the other UFOs for, well, a long time.  Anyway, the top I tried to follow along and there is a bird in there that I tried to outline.  The bottom was from some batik fabric and had a tie-dye spiral type of look I tried to replicate.  They aren't overly fancy, but I know the recipients appreciated them.

 

**End Detour**

After doing all the FMQ, here is how the top turned out.  This was after I did the final trimming and before the binding attached.  

 I used another Tula Pink fabric (Oh. My. Goodness, have I fallen in love with Tula Pink) for the binding.  Funny story:  I could not find where the fabric went.  It was a 1/2 yard and still in it's little plastic bag from MSQ and I searched everywhere in the room of disaster.  I emptied drawers, looked under furniture, looked on shelves.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.  I broke down and took things out of the "crap" closet.  I eventually found it near the floor between the wall and mini ironing board. R-E-L-I-E-F.  Anyway, I machine stitched on the binding and then settled myself in front of the to hand stitch it to the back.  I know some people prefer to machine stitch the whole thing or to do a faux binding.  I don't sew in a straight line well (I think we've established this already), so doing the whole thing by machine wouldn't look as nice.  (And, yes, am aware the irony of that.)  Faux binding meant having more left around the edge of the back that I didn't have.  And, well, I like the calm and comfort of that bit of hand stitching.  Bonus for being under the quilt when it's chilly.

Here it is, though, all finished and in it's new living room home.  It's already become a fought-over blanket for television watching.

Stay tuned...more to come.  

Oh my! (Otherwise, entitled, yes, I'm still alive)

Not so hard to believe it's already been six months since a post.  It's definitely a good thing (for a lot of reasons) I'm not a professional blogger. 

Here is a quick run-down (more details to follow):

Running:  I registered for three races within the next year.  A 1-miler in August; a 10-miler in November and a half marathon in May 2017.  I can barely do three miles at present so definitely have my work cut out for me.  It doesn't help that we are now in hot-and-humid season.  I did manage two Sunday group runs and oh, I really missed my run family.  I'm going to keep pushing myself to get up and get out there so I can fall in love with it again.

Pilates:  I am so out-of-practice.  When running, I realize how much Pilates contributed to my ability to run and recover.  I need that strength and I need the peace and confidence that came along with it.  The thought of Pilates and movement are becoming more common thoughts and I need to just let them come at me until I'm ready. 

A big thing I am making an effort to accept and work on is I can't force myself to do anything big or drastic and expect it to stick.  Case in point, I joined a challenge group to lose weight and be healthy.  I had a meal plan, did my weekly meal prep (breakfast, lunch, snacks, etc.) and it was great.  I felt great and it was all making such a positive difference.  That was, until the normal chaos of life reminded me of it's existence.  Family events, unexpected changes in schedules, holidays and the all-to-common feeling of dread felt when I need grocery shop.   Even though I was making progress and being successful, I just couldn't stick with it.  It was just more than I could sustain.  

Crafts:  I didn't do near what I wanted.  I had an idea I'd help with the school craft fair, but I just couldn't get my act together to actually have something to sell.  I did work up a few book covers.  I even managed to finish up a sweater for me eldest.  I am not overly fond of how the button band turned out, but considering it has yet to be worn, it isn't a big deal. 

I have a few other things in progress, so will definitely be sharing a bit on those (and pictures!).  

Good-bye and Good Riddance

If the fact that I started this post last night and only just now posting is any indication....I'm happy to say "Adios!" to 2015 and "Hellooooo 2016." 

 

It isn't that it was an all-around bad year; it was just a year with a lot of change and challenge thrown at me.  Don't get me wrong; Change is good and sometimes a good challenge helps to break monotony.  There is a fine balance between having too much, though, especially for those (like me) who struggle to maintain some sense of identity aside from "wife," "mom" and "employee." 

 

I didn't achieve most of the goals I set for the year, but there really isn't a reason to go into detail or dwell upon it.  Rather, best to focus on the positive.  I did manage to accomplish quite a bit with sewing and crafting.  The quilt I started forever ago is done and nicely upon our bed.  The 2012 BOM just needs to be quilted.  A few other little things complete, too. 

 

So for 2016--the goal is to find contentment and appreciate a least one small thing everyday.