Run Cara Run - a Finished Quilt

  And she is a big one!

Way bigger than my fence. Thirty shirts and sashing combined to make a king size quilt worth snuggling under. {Seriously. With a flannel back, this sucker weighs a ton.}

The pattern is subtle - the outside is alternating lights and darks, and the inside is a staggered rainbow.

I *love* this guy built out of running words. {And the sponsors. But whatever. He's still cool.} And that brings me to the fun part of this one! Cara mentioned something about "grey on the inside, red on the outside." I took the idea and ran with it {pun absolutely intended} - sashed grey with red cornerstones on the inside, and red with grey cornerstones on the outside. And then I scored red and grey chevron binding to bring it to perfection. I love it when things are just so slightly different!

Chevrons are both Riley Blake, binding is Wilmington Prints.

Can't resist quilting in a hidden Mickey. And hey - I was at that race!

I also snuck in her Marathon Maniacs number...

...and her Half Fanatics number. I really think they ought to number the Double Agents, too - I'd like to see how many truly insane people there are. {Even though Marathon Maniacs can become Half Fanatics just by training runs.}

The rest of the quilting is loops and stars, a good allover pattern that doesn't distract from the t-shirts.

Two that I had to put side by side - I ran the half at Little Rock in 2013. In fact, I was wearing my Little Rock shirt when I opened the box and started sorting. Which makes me think I'm the only person who actually wears their race shirts all the time.

And seeing OKC always makes me smile. I thought that all but one of my t-shirt quilts had an OKC shirt, but I don't think either of the first two did, even though I know Amy and Dolores both ran it. Several times. Because that's what you do when you live in Oklahoma.

The backing is bright pink shoes flannel. And I even cut them so the shoes would be going to same direction! Planning is a good thing. ;)

As an added bonus, she sent a shirt that wouldn't fit no matter what I tried - at 20", it was just too big. So I made it into a pillow cover.

Seriously. She's massive. 87x104"

My ALYOF goal, and on the FAL list, too!

#instagramminis - finishes!

I started participating on Instagram last year, mostly because my Facebook friends were tired of CC pictures. And you know what people in IG are never tired of? Cat pictures. Eventually this led to IG mini quilt swaps, and I fell immediately in love. It's a great way to stretch myself creatively, but in a small way.

My first one, a general swap, I was paired with a photographer who listed mustard yellow as her favorite color. Uhhhhh, speaking of things I don't have in my stash... I had 1.5" strips of the grey camera fabric. She had a lot of hexagons on her Pinterest boards. An idea was born, some new fabrics were added to the stash, and voila! The back is Polaroid cameras by Riley Blake.

It measures about 24" from the widest points.

Next up, Doctor Who. No doubt whatsoever I was doing this one. I was experimenting with various layouts for Debbie from A Quilter's Table Spiraled, and decided this was a good mini to go for it. So much fun, though it's hard to know when to stop rearranging and just...make it.

My sister picked out the blue fabric - I knew I'd have leftovers, so I offered them to her. I wanted the HSTs big enough to showcase the characters, so this ended up being a big 'mini' at 30" square. Backing is a fat quarter of Doctor Who phrases, and blue border fabric leftover from Catching Fire{flies}.

And lastly, Disney mini swap. My partner likes stars, red and purple, and Cinderella's mice. The mice are leftover from my sister's Cinderella fabric - easy to fussy cut. I struggled with bringing more color into this - auditioning greens and teals and pinks and yellows. Finally I Lori decided to just embrace the red/purple.

Measures approx. 20" square. Backing is 101 Dalmatians print. It's my first international package, and last I checked, it was in Kuala Lumpur. Which is not actually close to England, its destination. So it's been a little nerve wracking!

This year, I decided to mostly stick with swaps of a specific genre - I'm doing Nerds Craft It Better {duh}, a cat mini swap, and I'm eagerly awaiting signups for a Broadway themed one. And coming up, I'll post about the stuff I've received! Which is way more fun than the stuff I made!

Workout Wednesday - Star Wars Half Marathon

In an effort to get onto a schedule with the blog posting, I've decided to add a feature. I won't guarantee a workout every Wednesday, but I've come up with a serious plan to a sub-two hour half marathon this year, and I figured going public about it would make me stick with it. Plus, I want to start recording some of my races, because they're fun and I want to remember them as individuals. I was going to say I'm doing less this year, but I seem to find myself committed to six already...

So, for starters... STAR WARS.

I mean, was there any doubt I was going to do this race?

And make skirts for it? {That's not sweat. It's the shirt. I swear!}

Yeah, no. So Lori and I registered for it {and registered the boys for the kids race and 10k, respectively, which will be featured on the Running at Disney blog}, crossing our fingers with each click that we got in before time ran out. I'm not kidding - the Rebel Challenge {10k+half} sold out in 26 minutes.

And it was so, so worth it.

After Rock'n'Roll Vegas, I swore off the big races for a while - I just don't enjoy racing with 20k of my new bestest friends. But I forgot how positive the Disney crowd is...even at 4 in the morning. And for the most part, they know race etiquette. I was impressed by the people holding up their hand to indicate they were going to stop and walk. Believe me, that is NOT happening at RNR races. Lots of Disney runners are Jeff Galloway devotees, and they are well trained.

Some Half Fanatics pre-race.

Lori just did the WDW Full Marathon the week before, so the plan was always to keep it nice and slow and not kill her. In the beginning, it's always easy to go slow, since there's such a mass of people. The crowds started thinning out around mile two and we worked into our nice easy pace.

We didn't stop for a lot of character photos, which is good - who wants to wait twenty minutes for a photo they look stupid in? {Please let the official ones come out better...!}

I wanted to use the bathroom in the parks, because, um, real bathroom, but we managed to run out of California Adventure without seeing one. Then, backstage just before mile four, we saw a cast member bathroom - and it was unlocked! So I got to sing "I'm peeing in a real bathroom, not a port-a-potty!" And the poor cast member fled as a couple runners followed our example.

We rounded the corner into Radiator Springs, and there was a mass of people taking pictures of the sunrise. Because, I swear, it looked like Disney had painted the clouds up behind the buttes. That's what happens between miles 4-5 in a Disney race, people. You start wondering what's real.

Then we were out of the parks and onto the roads. I've done the Disneyland Half before, but this was a different route. We ran down Harbor Blvd foreeeeeeever....pointing out every donut and liquor shop. {Some of us have different priorities midrace.} Tons of spectators and random characters. I love DL races way better than WDW - there, you're on a highway with no one cheering you for miles.

I wish I had taken some pictures, because one stretch of road had the Southern CA Garrison of the 501st, a serious Star Wars fan club. And you thought I was a nerd. Someone has a car painted like Slave 1! They really made me nerdtastically happy at a point where I normally hate running.

So then I sang Bohemian Rhapsody at the top of my lungs. Lori tried singing Shake It Out, but people didn't join in with her like they did with me. {Okay, one guy sang with me. And then he ran away. But hey, my singing inspired him to run faster...away from me...!} Queen > Taylor

My mom and the kids were at mile thirteen to cheer us on. You can tell who ran a full the week before, and who is still feeling great. I kept trying to sprint it to the finish, and Lori kept trying to trip me.

The ending is the only complaint I have on this race - we turned into the hotel/Downtown Disney area, and then...ran a little loop around the parking lot. Really? They couldn't have put that quarter mile or so out on a road somewhere? It was annoying to think you had a straight shot to the finish line and then...you don't.

But we finished in just over three hours, which is a DISNEY PR for me. ;)

Was it worth it? Yes, yes, a million times yes. I'd legacy run it if I had an unlimited racing and vacation budget. It was a great kick-off to the year, and I feel really energized and ready to start training for the actual 'time matters' race.

And I got the 19.3 magnet for the back of my car! Just to confuse people.

WiP - Block Party

It feels like I'm just making block after block with no point, but most of them are coming closer to building a quilt. It's hard to remember that when you haven't had a good finish in a while, though.

Over the past week, I made three churn dashes, from my stripe scrap bin. There's more variety in there, but I wasn't feeling particularly inspired, so I'll pick through my dots bin for #4-8. And then they are done! Or at least, ready to assemble.

I also made three Disappearing Hourglasses for my local Quilts of Valor chapter. They are assembling quilts made from these at the annual Sew-In.

I have three more cut out, as I was also cutting pieces for a Trip Around the World - the traditional, but scrappy, way...which is a pain to keep straight!

I also cut/made several block units for Something New. Which, as a leader/ender, is very slow growing, but the final blocks are big, so I'm almost to...something!

And I made four nine-patches for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015. I'm making Jack's Chain, and I'm actually pretty excited about it. It's on my personal bucket list, and I found a pattern with no Y-seams. The confetti background fabric is new, but the white and the colors in the nine-patches are from stash and scraps. I'm trying to use different scraps than the churn dashes. It's slightly easier this time around, since the pieces are all the same size. Two are even old charms!

And of course, all this was done in between cutting/piecing together the rows of a t-shirt quilt.

See also:  BoMs Away at What a Hoot and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy