Lots to say

What a busy few days I've had. Sunday was the Plymouth Half Marathon. We were up really late as next door decided 9:30pm was a great time to set fire to a vast pile of cardboard, and were still burning it at nearly midnight! Managed to get some sleep and set off in tme for the race. It was incredibly hot, warmest day of the year so far, so my plans of walking the drink stations and run-walking the hills looked to be a good one. What I'd not banked on was a) needing so much water at the stations that my walk lasted longer than I'd anticipated b) the later stations running out of water completely and c) just taking so much longer because of the heat. Still I finished it, so that's my first Half since my operations done. Next one is 21st June in Torbay.

About 4 miles



Relaxing in the Athletes' Village



No blisters anywhere, my worst problem seems to be a really sore toe nail, feels like it's been bashed against the end of my running shoe. So after the race, the next day was Bank Holiday, and I'd decided to bake!!

Apricot and Almond Cake:



Not much left of it now, except the plate!

My finish for this week's quilting was the ballet raffle quilt. I'd had a major crisis of confidence and ended up sitting in front of my machine for ages just gazing at it and not having any clue how I was going to quilt this one. This in spite of planing it weeks ago in my head. For some reason what I'd planned just wouldn't come through. Eventually, I did a small bit of FMQ on some scrap fabric, weeded and pruned the flowerbed, hoovered (I know that's how desperate I was!) and about 2 hours later made a very tentative start. I like how it's turned out, but I hated feeling so helpless in my sewing. Anyway, FMQ-ed in lop-de-loop with frequent heart meanders throughout the top, in a sugar pink thread. I bought the binding fabric from Janet a month or so ago, and I have to admit I love the way the bias stripes have worked. I'd have preferred more pink/white, but this pink/multi gives a definite "end" to the quilt and makes quite a statement. The corners I cut using a side plate for the curves!

Another race, another quilt!

So last Saturday evening was the return of the Ivybridge 10K. I did it last year in my slowest ever time, so I had a date with that big hill going towards the viaduct. You do about a mile, then the second one is vertical! I just took it easy and didn't try to run the whole hill, but I ran a fair lot of it doing run/walk. I'd been timing myself and the K that the hill was in was a full minute slower than every other K in the race. My unofficial time was 50 seconds slower than 7 minutes per kilometre, so I know exactly where I have to make time up next year!



This shot is of the club before the start, and



This one is of me with less than 150 yards to go.

Still nothing with both feet off the ground!

And today I've been working hard on finishing my block of the month from my online group. It was a machine trapunto block, so I was keen to have another go at the technique. I loved doing it, but on reflection, the quilting pattern has mad my fabric look a bit like lizard skin. Ooops



My other finish this week is the next of the Plym Piecemakers Round Robin. No sneaky peek yet, as I've got to press the blocks for a final time, then another close close-up so the person it's for can't tell what it is.

I'd love to know what mine's looking like...as long as there's no Sunbonnet Sue, I'll be thrilled with it. I put the lime green fabric in my bag in the end, so each row will have some of it in there.

This time next week, I'll have run my 3rd Plymouth Half, and my 5th Half Marathon ever!

Log cabin paradise

What a fabulous day it is here in sunny Devon!! Mayday Bank Holiday weekend, and lots planned. It's funny before we got the car, I'd not even thought about day trips out to the Moors, but tomorrow, we're all piling in for a trip out to the wilds of Dartmoor. Must remember the camera! Tonight, me and Mike are off out to a Jazz festival in the Barbican, and then on Monday they're holding a New Orleans style umbrella parade through the streets, so we're all going down for that. More camera opportunities.

I've finished piecing the log cabin quilt for H's ballet group, and know exactly how it's being quilted, after practicing it on the April challenge quiltlet. Loop de loops with random hearts thrown in for good measure. I took the top to ballet this morning to shown them and they all seem to like it, so with luck they'll raise lots of money for this year's charity.



My other recent finish is the wallhanging for my mother in law. I've finished sewing round all the silk flowers to hold them in place, and have to admit it's looking better than I expected! I've found some gorgeous hand dyed fabrics that I bought in Birmingham last year and haven't used yet, and one of them's the exact shade of blue I was thinking of using for the border. I'm going to play with widths this afternoon. I'm thinking about 2" would look good.



The vase and background are from fabric I dyed myself last summer and didn't quite know what to do with them afterwards.

April challenge completed!

This is my April challenge quiltlet from the BQL online group. Paper pieced handbags, hand embellished and machine quilted with random loop de loop squiggles and hearts. Although I didn't particularly enjoy the hand embellishing, the final piece is OK. I'm waiting now for the password for next month's piece...hope I feel more inspired than I have been with this one!

The reason for the particular FMQ design was I've just finished piecing the pink and white log cabin quilt for H's ballet group raffle in June. I'll be quilting it using the same FMQ idea, and hopefully using a pale pink thread.

This weekend I'll be working on a small wallhanging which will be going to my mother in law in August as a thank you for looking after B and H while Mike and I are in Boston. Win, win both ways, I get to try a new technique that's not really "me", and give a gift to Margaret, and if she doesn't find it to her taste either, she only has to hang it if we visit her!

And I got my number for the Plymouth Half last night...eeek!

April quilt progress

I've finally got back from holiday. This time it was a week long narrowboat trip between Alvechurch and Stratford on Avon up in the midlands. We had a fab time, very relaxing, and even managed to get through the locks without too much trouble. By day 3 we'd realised that if you wait a bit longer than you think you really need to, anyone can open the gates.



I even managed to get a few snaps of some paintwork that will go into my inspirations file for possible trapunto or applique designs:





Once we got back, I knew I had to put a lot of work in on the outstanding projects so I can have time to do some paid sewing work. On Sunday I pieced the Jacob's Ladder blocks. Originally I was going to make them into a baby quilt but not for anyone in particular, so they've been made into a table runner instead. There's a couple of spare blocks that I'll make into pot stands.



I did some work on the Plympiecemakers Round Robin. Not too much detail in case the person I'm making for reads this:



Finally, I went round to a friend's house last night, and accidentally came home with 5 metres of fabric OOOPS!!!! I've not started stealing people's stashes, she sells it. Her workroom/stockroom was amazing, lined on one wall with bolts of fabric sorted by colour, then boxes under counters with pre cut FQs, more with threads, but these could have been her own, and rolls of wadding hanging on wooden poles from the ceiling. Talk about envious!! Here's my haul:



The cream is just for stash enhancement, you can never have enough light neutrals. The pink stripe is for the binding on the raffle quilt for Hannah's ballet group and the hand dye look alike is for the stash.

Why I've not blogged recently

I've been getting the bathroom and kitchen refitted and it's all just been too, too traumatic!



Bathroom before



Bathroom after



Kitchen before



Kitchen after.

The sharper eyed amongst you may have spotted the floor in the kitchen isn't down yet and there's no oven. Despite ordering it in January, it's still not arrived. Guess how thrilled I am about that? Should be here tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath. We're off on holiday soon, so no floor until we're back.

I've also done a race. Teignbridge 10 (miles) which even though I've not been training fully, I managed to take 6 minutes off my previous best time for the distance. Luckily no photographic evidence of this as I went up with a workmate. No medal but a handy T shirt which will double as a tent should we decide to camp while we're away!

Thyroid update

Sorry no nice photos for this one. I really should get some done of my neck scars to illustrate these posts!

It was my first three monthly check up on Thursday. My bloods have come back well within expected limits, although she didn't explain how they'd fallen from what they were a month ago. I'm guessing it's because I've increased my activity levels, but I've not found anything scientific to support this. Anyway, she poked my neck - they all do, but at least she didn't get me to repeatedly dry swallow which I hate - and pronounced it fine.

I asked her about my lack of taste (not my clothes or husband!) and it seems there's no clear cut answer, I'll start getting taste back slowly. I knew this as I can taste things like blue cheese and other strongly flavoured foods.

Bit of a bombshell that the nuclear medicine consultant wants me to have a repeat scan. Mike insists I was told this in January, but I really don't remember it. I asked about coming off thyroxine and she said something about injections but they'd have to be at Derriford. I was getting confused, and she was making moves that she needed to go, so we left to come home.

Big session of googling later and I was more confused than ever. Thank goodness for nuclear medicine! Mike phoned as I had to get to work, and once the consultant was free, he phoned back and spent quite some time discussing everything with Mike. How cool is that?? We've now got a much clearer picture of what needs to happen, and why.

Regime is Day 1: injection at Derriford, bring ampoule of stuff home & keep in fridge. D2: injection at GP to save me having to get back to Derriford. D3: RAI injection at nuclear medicine. D4: scan. D5: Back to GP for blood test. I'll need to be on the low iodine diet for a month. No fish enriched olive oil this time, honest!! I'll also need to stop my thyroxine tablets for the week, but the injections will counter the effect of that.

I'm waiting for a letter from nuclear med with all the info and dates in. He said he's happy for us to change dates if they clash with "important family things". I've checked with work, and the very end of June is looking good for staffing levels, and by amazing coincidence it also fits in well with Half marathons (June 21st) and starting training for the full one I'm planning in October. I just want to clarify how long the hypo effdects will last afterwards, as obviously I don't want to be sleepy for the Boston trip.

I'm planning a buying trip to La Senza for new scanties ready for the injections! ;¬)