Progress - on two fronts

It is utterly amazing what a little reading can accomplish. I've been trying to start quilting without the benefit of a teacher or even a book, and even though I put 4 squares together a few days ago, the result was less than stellar. I finally found a great beginner website, www.sewaquilt.com, and discovered that I was doing everything all wrong! Fancy that!

Now my corners come together beautifully, at least the 4 corners of the 4-patch I made today. I ran out of anything like contrasting fabric, though, so my brilliant work is a bit hard to see on camera. You'll just have to trust me until I get more fabric.

when I finally get this business of piecing all worked out, my first major project will be something called a watercolor quilt. If you Google the term, you might come across some quilts that look neat in their background, but then get all ruined, in my opinion, by some cutesy applique on top of it. To me, a true watercolor quilt takes small squares of fabrics, and creates abstract designs using a color and tone shift from dark to light. My inspiration came from this Etsy store, and I purchased my first set of squares from this artist as well. I mounted a big piece of cardboard (n lieu of corkboard, for now) and arranged my first 126 squares thusly:



And, in other news, I have not gained any weight! There is a small possibility that I am down a pound or so, but the current state of my monthly water retention is surely masking it. I also recently read that obese people (and oh, god, I cannot believe I actually fall into this illustrious category)need to exercise for an hour every day, rather than the 30 minutes they've been saying is okay. So I had a talk with my husband and we worked out an arrangement where I can go to the gym for an hour in the morning before the kids are all awake, and he can handle any early risers. So this morning, I got up at 5, hit the gym at 5:45 and hit the showers at 6:40. The idea is to do this every day, and if only to get the time alone in the car without having to listen to Sesame Street or Backyardigans songs, I'm totally up for it.