Aside from running around, I spent all of my sewing time yesterday finishing up the thorns for the Saguaro Cactus quilt. This is my project for the third challenge in Season 8 of Project Quilting. The theme was "Tune in to Texture." The first thing I thought of was this macro image I took of a Saguaro cactus on a visit to Saguaro National Park some years back. My quilt was designed to recreate the texture in the cactus.
Here's what I came up with. It finished up at 9 x 12 inches. I used a Shiva Paintstik to deepen the green for the recessed areas of the cactus skin and then stitched over those several times with green variegated thread. Then I used a Shiva Paintstik to create a dot for each cluster of thorns. Those ridges were also stitched with one line of brown thread. After that, I used two strands of different colors of metallic threads to straight stitch hand embroider the thorns.
It's a small quilt, but the thorns still represent many hours of stitching. Here's how it looks from the back. I picked up that backing fabric at a quilt shop in Tucson, Arizona, many years ago.
This morning I had breakfast with Erik and then made one more quick stop at the grocery store. They had some nice baby bok choy when I was in yesterday, and I decided to go back for a few. Now that the quilt binding is finished, I can get back to doing my most important job, which is
providing aid and comfort to my cat.
Also, I've started another batch of bagels. This time I'll give them more rise time up front, and I'll remember to use baking soda when I boil them tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll get a better result than last time...although last time they were plenty good enough to eat. Which we did. With great gusto. Also...a little housework.
Finally, it's time to make the next block for the Solstice Challenge, and so I'm hoping there will be some time left over to get into the sewing room before day's end. We're supposed to see a combination of snow and freezing rain beginning this afternoon and into tomorrow morning. Right now, it's blustery and miserable outside. It's a good day to stay inside and stay warm.
