10/15/16

Safe Saturday

Mike and I were geared up to head down to a Salem winery today (about one hour south). We've been hearing about a big storm headed our way...a new one from the one that knocked out our power on Thursday. It looks to be quite a big blow. It was hard to be impressed when the wind was barely above a breeze this morning, but I've noticed it's picking up as the day progresses. The full force of the storm is supposed to hit around 2:00 p.m. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that our power stays on. And all of that to say that we're staying safe by staying home.

While we were without power, I spent my time stitching on the Mumm's the Word quilt. I'm doing big stitch hand-quilting for this, which is a new technique for me.


When I got to the lower left corner, I started stitching in the two inner borders there, and then realized I needed to be able to stitch all the way around all at once. I can't start stitching here and there because there's no way to be sure the spacing will be right when lines of stitching come together. (Does that make sense?)


Now my plan is to finish stitching the entire center of the quilt and then work my way around the three borders at the same time.

It's certainly not the best hand-quilting that's ever been done, but I love the way it's looking on this quilt. I committed to working on this for another two weeks, which came to an end yesterday. Here's how it's looking:


It's hard to see the stitching, but this is what I have finished so far.


When I pick this up again, I'll work my way across the top and then down. It's slow-going, but I'm not in a hurry.

Next up is Block 19 of 20 blocks for the Bee-utiful quilt. I'm calling my quilt "Bee Loving". This is the "Bee Adventurous" block.


Mine is traced out now and ready to stitch. Her truck is mint green, but my grandfather had a truck like this that was Marine Corps green. I'm going to use that color for my truck. 


Also, I have some metallic floss left over from the Gingerbread Square quilt. I'm considering using that for the bumper and grill...and maybe the hubcaps. I haven't decided yet, and really, I never know until I start stitching. What do you think?

When the power came back on yesterday, I quilted the 5th of 12 blocks for the Cats of a Different Color. I'm trying to make my paw prints lead from one block to the next, although I started my first block in the wrong place to make it work for the whole quilt. That's okay. At some point, the cat will walk off the quilt and start someplace else. No harm done.


Today really is going to be a NBS day. There's nothing on the agenda, and so it's going to be a stay-at-home-in-my-sweats-and-be-warm-dry-and-safe day. Can't beat that.

10 comments:

Pam said...

This is a perfect quilt to do the large stitch quilting. It is a happy and unpretentious quilt.

Quilting Babcia said...

You're achieving some great texture with the quilting on Cats of a Different Color. The big stitch quilting sounds perfect for a stormy weekend. That plus some stew or chili simmering away all day long.

Kate said...

The quilting looks great. Hopefully you'll have power all day so you can get lots of stitching done. We have wind gusts up to 40 mph today. Nothing like they are saying you are going to get, but it's quite winderful here.

Janarama said...

I vote yes to using the metallic thread on the grill and bumpers. Your hand quilting looks pretty darn good to me.

Brown Family said...

I heard on the news tonight (really last night since it is past midnight here) about the big blow you are suppose to be getting. It is a left over from a Typhoon! I hope it does not get too bad there. I have seen the big stitch quilting at the Dallas quilt show. Is there a history to this? I have noticed that it is always done in red thread.

Gretchen Weaver said...

I learned to quilt by starting with large stitching 50 years ago! We called it long stitching, some people call it utility stitching. Whatever you call it, it goes faster than short stitch. Have a great day!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Your Mumm quilt is coming right along. Yes, you want to work your borders in a continuous line. Someone asked about the history of the stitch - it really evolved from an embroidery stitch (running stitch) and some call it the utility stitch in quilting. Sashiko is another art form embroidery that has been incorporated into the quilting world. And it is not always done in red.

Denise :) said...

NBS sounds good to me...seriously! Stay safe and enjoy your stitching time. The Bee Adventurous block is darling! :)

Robin said...

I'm working on a big stitch quilt too. I like the way your stitches stand out. I'm quilting in the ditch so the stitches just make things puff up but don't show off the quilting. I'll have to remember to make more of a statement next time because I like how it looks. Nice job!

Quilter Kathy said...

I love the big stitch you are doing... it's perfect for that project.
The plans for stitching the truck sound wonderful... that's one of my favourite blocks from that project.