Quilting Commences

Good morning, my friends. Once again, I'm so happy not to be going anywhere this morning. There are a couple of little things on my to-do list, but otherwise, it's going to be a mostly quilting day (MQD). I can't spend too much time at my quilting because I don't want to give myself tendonitis in my wrist. And even as I write those words, I know my resistance is weak once I get started on something. When I'm in a rhythm, it's hard to stop.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Sue and I had breakfast together. The oatmeal and the conversation were good. After that, I needed to get some gas. Sometimes I'm in a position of being afraid to drive home without filling up. If I do that, will I have enough to get me to the gas station next time? Well. It seemed as good a reason as any to pick up the items that accumulated on my grocery list too. And so I was home around noon for the remainder of the day. Of course, napping was involved as well.

Before I left in the morning, I had some time to work on my slow-stitching. I'm making good progress on this densely-stitched piece.

It seemed like a good time to move my hoop to the left a little. I wanted to be able to fit the straight lines of the roof and what remained of the clouds within my stitching boundary. I'm going to estimate I have this about one-third finished.

When I arrived home around lunch time, I checked on our overdue dahlia blossom. This is the Fuzzy Wuzzy dahlia. It's open, but I think it will put on more of a show in a day or two (if the rain doesn't ruin it). It's about the size of a golf ball here.

Here's how it looked when it bloomed last year...in August.

When they're fully opened, they're nearly the size of softballs. So, hopefully, it will do a little more, but the flower hour is late. We're already moving into our rainy season. Getting the pots out so late in the spring may have stunted its growth. This is only my second year with the dahlias, and so I can't say I have much experience with their growth habits.

Okay, so I was dragging my feet a little getting to the quilting. (I always drag my feet at first when I'm starting a new quilting project.) I've had some time to think about thread color. I decided I'd go with a gray thread both top and bottom. Already I had a bobbin wound from this one. I like Bottom Line in my bobbin.

For the top thread, I chose this one. These are both gifts from my quilting fairy godmother, Ila. Thank you, Ila.

There is just a partial spool of this one, and so I decided to order another. I don't want to run out halfway through my project, and this is a good neutral color I'll use again.

So I cleaned, oiled, and threaded the machine, and I gave myself a new needle for good measure. And then I stitched a short line of stitching to check the tension. That line in the middle of the image below is my test line. That looks pretty good. And yes, as a matter of fact, those are kitty paws at the bottom.

 

Checking the back, that looks good too.

When I moved to the actual quilt, I ended up loosening the top tension a little. And then I went to work with the dot-to-dot design I decided on. It's a little like a friendship star if it were pieced together with fabric. And this will be another project where I can practice hitting my marks at each corner. You can see I missed a little in the lower left. I might go back and fix that, but only if I can improve as I go.

Here's how it looks from the back.

Then, I moved to another block and stitched the same design. I'll do all the block centers the same way. It's a little harder to see on this fabric, but there you go. I did better hitting my marks on this one.

As a reminder, this is how the whole quilt looks. The block centers with the regional fabrics are 7-1/2 inches square. I'll stitch all the block centers the same way. Then, I have in mind to do some straight-line quilting, outlining each "photograph" and then one more outline about an inch from the outer edge. (It's hard to envision until I've actually stitched it.)

The question in my mind is how to quilt this center camera block. 

The idea I have is to stitch a 7-1/2 inch square around the middle, and then stitch that portion with the same dot-to-dot motif I've used in the other blocks. And then finish it off with two more straight line squares around it. So...not so different from the other blocks except to give it a 7-1/2 inch boundary like the other squares. (Clear as much, right?)

Okay, and that was all I did yesterday. I have a goal to finish one row of blocks per day. For today's stitching, I'll shoot for finishing the three remaining blocks in this first row. I'll evaluate how my wrist is feeling then, and decide whether I can do more.

There was some happy mail yesterday. My quilting fairy godmother, Ila, sent me some more thread. I love all these threads. I never have to wonder if I have the color I want when I set out to quilt something. These are mostly variegated with a few solid colors thrown in.

Also, she sent me a good supply of scrappy solids. My stash is light on solids, and so I appreciate these. I used to have more solids, but they've been mostly sewn into Amish quilts.

Thank you, Ila. I've already had an email conversation with Ila. I told her I'd been feeling a little down during the afternoon (no reason, really), and so the timing was good for this happy mail.

Before I came upstairs to write this post, I tucked Smitty in. Our mornings are growing colder, and our furnace is running most mornings now. Also, I've been turning on the space heater in my office to keep me warm while I chat with you guys. Everyone appreciates a little TLC on a chilly morning.

We've had our breakfast, and so it's time for me to settle in with my slow-stitching. We're getting a bit of a sun break right now, although it's been raining off and on for the past couple of days. I have one more gardening task before I can call it the end of the season. I still need to cut back the peonies and the dahlias, and we'll need to move the dahlias into the garage. I'm needing some dry weather for that, but I'm really hoping the Fuzzy Wuzzy dahlia will get with the program and produce some flowers. Probably I'll wait a little longer for the cutting-back session, although I could do the peonies first. We'll see how energetic I am between now and the end of the month.

For now...slow-stitching. That's all the energy I have at the moment.