8/8/15

White on White

Yesterday the white thread quilting was finished. The appliques have been outlined.


The larger appliques were outlined, and then their backgrounds were stippled.


The stars were given some extra glimmer in the form of points between their points, and then I did a little swirly-gig stipple in their backgrounds. "Swirly-gig stipple" is serious quilting terminology, so try to keep up.



The ladder is pieced, and so I stitched in the ditch both outside and inside its borders to give it a little texture.


The hoses are outlined, and then their spray was "amplified" a little bit. 


It takes a lot of water to put out a fire.


It occurs to me that this design is a little like feathers, but if I'd tried to quilt feathers, it wouldn't have worked out at all.


These narrow borders are always hardest when it comes to design decision-making. In the end, I decided to do a "string of pearls" row of circles. When I made the first circle, I realized that filling the full border width with a circle wasn't a comfortable motion, and so I made mine about the size of quarters. Then, I added a scalloped line on the side. Today, I'll start with blue thread and do a mirror image of that design in the blue border beside it.


Of course, tension is going to be a bug-a-boo here since I'll still have white thread in my bobbin and blue thread on top. Think I can get that tension perfect enough to avoid white dots on top and blue dots on the bottom? We shall see. If not, I can always switch off to a monofilament thread in the bobbin and call it good. The back is a busy print, and so I don't think the switch will matter. 

That's the only section where blue thread will be used. After that I'll switch off to a variegated red to finish off the diagonal grid in the patchwork blocks. Then I'll stitch some flames into the outer border, and it'll be finished and ready for binding. It's moving along.

This morning I'm heading off to the farmer's market with Erik and Mae. I'm on the hunt for tomatillos. Salsa verde is on my mind, and I'll pick up some extras to try out a chicken verde recipe my good friend Felicia suggested. Time to get a move on.

7 comments:

Vroomans' Quilts said...

It's looking good! Love the water splashes. They do look like the basic of feathers - I am feather challenged too.

Dana Gaffney said...

That is so cute, I like the water too. Next time you try feathers, don't call them feathers call them drops of water.

quiltzyx said...

I agree, the water drops are great. Very splashy!

Hope you had a successful time at the farmer's market too.

Kate said...

Your quilting motifs always enhance the blocks, I really like the "extra" water in the hose blocks.

gayle said...

I like your not-a-feather water, too. You may be on to something...
Mmm - salsa verde! If the chicken verde is good, will you please share the recipe?

Spicecat said...

The whole thing is awesome!!!

Brown Family said...

THe quilting came out great!