My First Mini Triathlon Completed!

It was a cold day in Buckner, Kentucky and even colder in the water when I swam the required 400 yard serpentine laps, but I was smiling all the way.  Then jump out of the pool and be sure to drag your foot across the blue mat so your time is recorded.

On to the transition area where I put shirt and jacket on over my bike shorts and swim suit I wore in the pool.  No time to change clothes, just layer, bike shoes and go.  Then walk your bike out of the area and cross another blue mat to begin the bike ride, 10.5 miles around the morning mist covered hills of Kentucky.  This race had 2 really large hills and a few progressive climbs.  Horses and cows and spectators were cheering us on.   Bringing up the rear an ambulance screamed past me.  There was actually someone BEHIND me, that needed some help.  Coming back into the transition area, a careful dismount and drag your foot across another blue mat.

Remove jacket, put running shoes on and take off across another blue mat and begin the 2 mile cross country run.  I'm smiling and tired.  I love the outdoors and Kentucky has some pretty beautiful parks, Wendell Moore being one of them.

Then across the finish line and into the building for pizza and socializing.

What fun!  I'm onto another new hobby.  I now have an outdoor hobby, triathlon training and an indoor hobby, quilting.  Life is pretty good.

Bike Riding Poem

The Gears

Damp swirly roads make my bed
Patty Griffin in my head
Low gears are friendly and happy

Arcade Fire lifts it up
climb those m'r f'n hills
Pushing and pulling
the high gears command

the dimension is near...smile.

Well, it's coming down to the wire.  My first triathlon is going to be next Saturday, September 10.  I received my letter from the organizing committee addressed to Dear Triathlete!  I'm number 224 out of somewhere around 300 entries, I guess.  Maybe there are only 224 entries!!?  It's all gaged on my swimming time.  All those years at the Collinsville pool, growing up I guess created a love for swimming.  It's so sad they had to fill the pool in in my hometown.  The costs are heavy on small towns where the jobs are drying up.  Running a pool proved too burdensome.  I have so many fond memories spent there. We would find empty pop bottles and sell them at the grocery store for a nickel and walk to the pool and spend all day there.  I used to be able to dive off the high dive.  I'd probably break my back now.  If I had an extra million dollars, I'd go to Collinsville and open that pool up again.

I digress, I might do okay in the swimming portion and possibly the biking portion of the triathlon.  Everyone will pass me on the running trail.  I am a participant/finisher for my first race, so it's okay.  This is a goal I have set, and I hope I can make it and compete and finish.  Everyone needs some goals in their life.  It's an important part of our lives.  Setting goals and accomplish them gives me something to look forward to.  Reading over what I've written, I  need to set a goal and make myself not end so many sentences in prepositions!!

If you want to come and cheer me on, I'm in the water at 8:11am.  Then out and on a bike, for about an hour and then I run for around an hour.  I doubt I'll be going too fast after getting off my bike, when I've rode for 10.5 miles up 2 pretty challenging hills.  You can enjoy one of the many beautiful parks we have here in Kentucky.  This is the Wendall Moore Park, with the John Black Aquatic Center and then on the bike along the beautiful hills of Kentucky, highway 393.

I will collapse at the finish line and say Go Cards!!  That's really for Collinsville Cardinals, but, everyone here will think it is for the Louisville Cardinals.

Triathlete! That

I've been

Label Making Tutorial

The saddest thing to me is going to a flea market or some sort of sale and finding a love worn quilt that no one knows it's story.  It may be a quilt from China, but, I imagine even Calvin Kline puts a label in his product.  



If you are going through the process of making a quilt, please put a label on it.  You know it could give it more value.  Take for example, the Baltimore Album Quilts.  Those quilts from that area have a pretty pricey value.  Kentucky has a strong heritage of quilting, so maybe in the future quilts from Kentucky may also have a little more value because they are made in Kentucky.  Also, quilts are most times made for someone, daughter, niece etc., so there is an inherent value in leaving your legacy with a written history of sorts for the family to share.  So, that being said, here is how I like to make a label:


What you need to make a hand made label:
1.  Finished Quilt
2.  Freezer Paper, you can find this at the grocery store
3.  Archival quality, acid free pens
4.  100% cotton fabric

How you make the label:
1.  Iron your 100% cotton material.
2.  Write out your label information on a separate piece of paper.  Once you begin writing the message on the fabric using the fabric pens, you cannot erase it.  So, no in advance what you would like to say. 
3.  Cut the freezer paper the size of the finished label. 
4.  Using the PLASTIC COATED side of the freezer paper, on the wrong side of the fabric, iron it on, using the cotton setting.  If you make a mistake, and iron it to the right side, simply peal it off and iron it to the correct wrong side. 
5.  The fabric should be one half inch larger than the freezer paper for turning under and pressing to clean finish your label.  

After you have thought out what you would like to write, use the acid free pens to write on the right side of fabric with the freezer paper plastic coated side ironed on the wrong side of the label and the edges are clean finished (1/2 inch of fabric turned under and pressed).  

Turn under and press again, the 1/2 inch of fabric to clean finish the edges of the label. 


Peal off the freezer paper. 


I like to put my labels on the lower right hand corners of the quilts I make.  Using a needle and thread, you next whip stitch the label in place, going over it twice for added security.  


There you have, one of my preferred methods of label making. 

2 Quilts Almost Complete

The heart shaped log cabin quilt above is finished except for the label on the back.  This one will say:  Made by Julie Brunner from 100 % cotton fabric and thread.  The quilt is for Chelsea Brunner who made the first request for it when I posted the picture on Facebook.

The friendship braid quilt is made for Tea Begley, my niece.  It is approximately 3 feet by 4 feet.  All it needs is binding and a label.

Turtles, a favorite family recipe for the Pot Luck party for our Quilt Guild

Turtles are a favorite family recipe here.  They have similar ingredients to the candy, chocolate, caramel and nuts.  This is how I make them:

First you gather all the ingredients.  Then you mix the German chocolate cake mix with 2/3 cup EVAPORATED milk-not condensed milk. 

Spread it in a 9 X 13 inch cake pan with STRAIGHT SIDES.  Some glass pans have sort of smooth, roundish sides, you don't want that.  I use this pan that my MIL got for my birthday one year.  You can get them personalized at the flea market.  Love that pan for a pot luck, you know people we be able to get it back to you.  Instead of the usual pot luck dish confusion.

Put 1/2 of the cake mix in the pan and cook for 6 minutes in a 300 degree oven.  Let is cool completely. 

Meanwhile, melt the caramels in a double broiler.  I tried a new caramel, Werther's I like it better than Kraft. 

Poor over the cooled cake.  Make sure you don't let it seep around the edges.  This is where the value of the straight edge pan comes in. 

Add 1 1/2 cup pecan pieces and 12 oz of semi sweet chocolate chips.  Then I tried this seasoning, lemon, lavender and pepper, which I sprinkled lightly over this layer.  I really like this addition of a little savory to the mix, especially with the hint of lavender....yum!!

Next add the second half of the cake mix on top and bake for 18 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees. 

I know it's the most difficult part of the process, but, DO NOT CUT UNTIL 24 HOURS LATER!!