Walking, Quilting, and Line Dancing

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It seems impossible, but Mike has been cheering for the rain to return.  And his wish has come true!  It's gray and drizzly this morning.  My question is this:  How come it never works when he's cheering for the sun to return?  

It's his worst season of the year for allergies:  blooming trees.  I imagine some of you can relate.  (My apologies to those of you still dealing with snow.)  Things are beautiful right now, but poor Mike can't see any of it from behind his watery eyes and kleenex.  He came home early from work yesterday, so miserable was he.  Mine doesn't start until the grasses and weeds start in June...and by then you can bet I'll be cheering the sun, itchy eyes and runny nose be damned.

So I have several things to tell you about this morning.  Since losing my pedometer, I've been feeling downright naked without it.  And not knowing my steps?  Good grief.  You'd think I'd lost my iPhone or something.  Actually, I'd be destitute without my iPhone.  The pedometer is a mere bump in the road in comparison.  Nevertheless, I was happy to receive the new one I ordered from Walgreen's in yesterday's mail.  Just look at how shiny and spiffy it is!

The battery comes already installed.  It takes a Phillips-head screwdriver to change it.

Thank goodness, they provided one for . . . oh.  ~~~FAIL~~~

Oh well.  I ordered this one for its particular group of features; but mainly, I wanted one I could attach a lanyard to.  Hopefully that will keep me from losing it again.

Also, it fits much more tightly into the belt clip they gave me, so it shouldn't slip out as easily as the last one did.  So this morning I've been strutting my stuff with my new pedometer!  Actually, not.  I've been sitting on my backside, drinking coffee, and reading email.

Yesterday I finished the embellishing for the Line Dancing quilt.  There is actually still some more to do, but I won't do the rest until it is completely quilted and bound.  I want to add some hot fix items, and then I'll also need to glue the little clothespins in place.  

But now I've added the lacy bits to the brassieres and the thongs.  In the absence of actual lace (which I doubt comes tiny enough for this purpose), I figured out that metallic threads work the best for this. 

Even though they lie flat against the fabric, they have a more three dimensional appearance than cotton thread.  What do you think?

The one above was a sort of pinky color, while the one below was more copper colored.

I even had a black metallic thread to use on this red brassiere.

Saucy, eh?  With a little naughty mixed in.  

Moving on from the sexy lingerie, I top-stitched some seams, pockets, and a fly onto the overalls.  I'm going to add some hot fix nailheads for buttons on this.

Also I added a button placket to the colorful shirt on the top line, but forgot to photograph it.  It doesn't show up well now, but my plan is to add some hot fix nailhead buttons to that and to the top of the dress.

So, with that, I was finished with the embellishing for now, and I could move onto quilting it.

I made the quilt sandwich, but honestly, I was pretty tired of working on it by that time.  It was tempting to set it aside, and I did momentarily.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and trying to memorize popular songs to play on the piano.  I can recall playing Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Classical Gas, Cast Your Fate to the Wind, and The Entertainer, literally hundreds of times until I had them memorized.  By the time I had committed them to memory, I was so sick of playing them that I don't think I ever performed them for anyone.  And by the time I could stand to play them again, I no longer had them memorized.

It is sort of like that when I get to the quilting part of a quilt.  I am tired of looking at it.  The other projects I want to start sound like a lot more fun.  Still, I walked away for a while, then came back and selected fabrics for the doll quilt I'm planning to swap.  Then, I was ready to quilt it.  My momentary boredom with it had passed, and it started looking interesting again.

It was hard to know what to do with the lower part of the sky.  The clothes hanging on the line made it hard to decide to do anything other than stippling, and so that's what I did.

I already knew how I wanted to quilt the sun because I've done this before on another quilt.  I wasn't happy with how well this was showing up, but I needed to stop for the day.

This morning, I decided to give it a little more color with this variegated thread.

Now I'm liking it better.

With that, I'm ready to move onto the grass.  I'm just going to echo the lines in the hills using this variegated green.  Or maybe not.  I might stick with a solid color.  As I look at this image, I'm thinking the variegated thread might be too busy.  In any case, that's the next step.

And I want to say that I am loving the extra room Big Bertha, my new sewing machine, is giving me for quilting.  It's three inches of additional space, but man, it feels like acres.  And my new stitch regulator is working great too.  It's identical to the one that came with my old machine, but something about it just seems better.  It could be the extra space.  It could be the machine.  I'm not asking questions.  I'm just enjoying the process.

I'm supposed to go to Curves today, but I really just want to stay home and finish this up.  We'll see how energetic I am.