Saturday, June 13, 2009

This and that

Today I got back to quilting. It felt really good to be in the sewing room. After Jo's Little Women's Club I did some quilting on the customer quilt currently stretched onto Gandalf's table. Then I finished prepping April's and May's blocks for Jan Patek's 2009 mystery quilt. The flower arrangement is for April and the bee skep for May. I finished the appliqué on the February and March triangles, so they will be sewn to the center tomorrow.





My patio garden is growing very, very well. I've already used some of the herbs in cooking - Italian parsley and cilantro. What fun to step outside to pick them fresh for immediate use! We've had four ripe strawberries, with lots more to come. The birds got the first one, but Fred and I shared the other three. The tomato plant was blown over in the short, violent storm we had about 10 days ago, but it doesn't seem to have minded. I need to pick up some stakes so I can tie it upright again - in the meantime it's leaning against the support for the patio cover.

I've started walking to Starbucks again - this time going the longer way so it's close to a 4-mile round trip. Today our neighbor tuned up my bicycle, so tomorrow I'm meeting my friend Kim about three blocks away, and we'll ride to Starbucks together. I need to add the exercise to help me get into shape while I lose weight.

Speaking of losing weight - I'm now 3 pounds from my WW goal of 164 pounds. I've lost a total of 39.2 pounds - feels great! A couple weeks ago I spent the day shopping - buying new clothes for the summer and also for our August cruise to Alaska. I'm feeling so good about the way I look. I plan to attend the WW meetings indefinitely - this time I'm determined not to put the weight back on again!

So what have I been cooking? Well, today was tilapia fillets roasted on the grill in foil packets. In addition to the fish the packets contained orange segments and tomato wedges flavored with salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, and olive oil. Tilapia is pretty flavorless, so the sauce really helped. The cold salad was orzo, shrimp and broccoli florets tossed in a sauce made from pesto, mayonnaise, salt and pepper. A glass of white wine rounded out a dinner that totalled 10 points - not bad at all! And very filling. The recipes are from two different WW cookbooks and are copyrighted, so I can't pass them along.

14 comments:

antique quilter said...

glad to see you posting again.
So funny that you started with the mystery quilt to get sewing again
I decided this week I will start this!
Contgrats on the weight loss, oh yes reaching goal will be one of the best accomplishments good for you!
Love your little garden!
kathie

Crispy said...

Hooray for getting back into the sewing room and for the weight loss!! Are you able to get fresh Tilapia? We only get frozen in ND and it's so mushy :0(

Crispy

Carol said...

Congrats on the weight loss...dinner sounds yummy...love your blocks and OMG you're going on an Alaskan cruise in August...we went last August and it was the most wonderful thing we've done in our entire 35 years...it was just awesome. You're going to LOVE it!

Darlene said...

Nice to see you!

WTG on the weight loss.

(HUGS)

sewprimitive karen said...

Lovely plants, so lush.

Quiltycat said...

Your blocks are lovely! And my congrats on the weight loss...
nichi

Karen said...

Love those Jan Patek mystery quilt blocks!

Gari in AL said...

I love your quilt blocks and congrats on your WW progress. I made lifetime at WW in March and also plan to continue attending meetings. Isn't it fun to clothes shop? I am going swim suit shopping tomorrow. lol

Lily Mulholland said...

Patti enjoy your shopping trip - you definitely deserve it!

Carrie P. said...

Congrats on almost reaching your goal. That is fantastic. You are making me hungary with what's cooking. Sound yummy. Love those blocks and your mini garden is doing pretty good.

Teresa said...

You are doing great on your WW, gardening and quilting. I just love reading an upbeat blog!

julieQ said...

Congratulations on stickin' to your diet/WW! I love to see your patio garden, my little garden is just about melting in the heat. Loving all your quiting progress!

Quilts And Pieces said...

Hope things are going well. I"ve been so busy! Love your flower pot block for the girl gang quilt. Now if I could just get going on Holly's Wedding quilt!

Unknown said...

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It always getting nice information...

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Michell
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