Swirls and Curls

Good morning, my friends. Sheesh...what an exhausting day we had yesterday. We had a lot of errands to run in the morning in addition to doing our grocery shopping. We got our beloved Egg McMuffins first...mainly to take the sting out of the whole morning's mission. From there, we headed to the recycling depot, then the pharmacy, then the feed store, then the grocery store, then the gas station, then another grocery store (because, weirdly, our regular store doesn't sell canned crab), and finally...the liquor store. I swear the liquor store was always a part of the plan. 

Before we left, I had time to stitch up Tiny Treasure #52. This one has stem stitch, straight stitch, and French knots.

And then I went to work churning the strawberry ice cream. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Maybe I’ve mentioned this before, but I love my Cuisinart ice cream maker. The one pictured below is a newer model from mine. There’s no ice or salt involved. The tub has some kind of “coolant” inside. I keep mine stored in the freezer all the time when I’m not using it, so it’s always ready to go. I would never have the motivation to make ice cream the old-fashioned way. With this machine, its easy.

We enjoyed that for dessert last night. So, so creamy, and the bits of frozen strawberry give it the nicest little crunchy texture. You can find the recipe right here. 

Okay, so we ran our errands, and we were home just about lunch time. We put the groceries away, had some lunch, and then took naps. And then we both just chilled the rest of the afternoon. 

Late in the day, I decided I wanted to at least get the machine set up for quilting “The Story of My Day.” As a reminder, this is what the whole quilt looks like. I love those little pops of color.

My first task was to decide on a thread for the top. I already had a design in mind. Digging through my box of variegated threads, I came up with these three:

I really loved the one on the top left, but I worried it was too dark. The quilting might have been too forward, distracting from the embroidery and the “story” told by the quilt. So, I settled on the one at the bottom. It’s light in color, and the hues are right for the colors in the quilt. It’s a Valdani 50-weight thread. And look at that: “Made in Romania.” Who knew? These threads are kind of interesting. They come packaged in a little spool-sized zip-lock bag.

For the bobbin, I chose this neutral.

It’s a So Fine thread from Superior Threads. Also a 50-weight thread. I find I have fewer tension problems if I use the same weight top and bottom.

As always, my Quilting Fairy Godmother, Ila, has generously provided me with exactly what I need for this quilt. Thank you, Ila.

Having selected my threads, I used this orphan block to do a little practice of the design in my head. It looked simple enough, but sometimes these designs end up harder than they look. Right away, I felt pretty comfortable with this one. 

So, I committed myself to the actual quilt and went to work. I probably covered about 10% of the quilt in about 40 minutes. When I paused at one point, I decided I’d had enough. The motion in this design is actually a little tiring for my arms and shoulders.

I first saw this design on Pinterest. I’m sorry I don’t have any information about its origin. It was just a picture with no other information. In any case, I liked the looks of this, and seeing it immediately had me thinking of using it for this quilt. I’m trying to stay in the off-white background, and swirling around the colored and embroidered sections. In at least one spot, I cut a corner a little bit, but I’m going to leave it. 

Sometimes I’ll print the design and then hang it in my view to remind me what it looks like.

After I’d gone some distance on the quilt, I glanced up to see how closely I was following it. I noticed one little design element I was missing, and started adding it in here and there. You can see it bracketed in green below.

Later, I noticed this little “curl” I could add inside some of those loops. When I sit down to work on it today, I’ll find a way to add those in too.

So, with my quilting paused, I could not think of a good reason to do another thing the whole live-long day. Smitty was channeling the energy in the household.

That picture makes him look like a tub of lard, but he’s actually a pretty good weight for himself. He’s a big boy. 

So, having given myself some time to chill yesterday, I feel re-energized for today. It’s one of those days when I’ll make dinner in the morning. We’re going to have a seafood pasta salad for dinner, and it’s good paired up with a fruit salad. I’ll say more in tomorrow’s post. I want to get back to my quilting. I’m thinking I’ll commit to 30 minutes, and then decide whether to stop or continue. And I really want to get a start on the quilt block for “Across the Wide Missouri” today. Hoping I’ll have time for all of that.

Our weather was rainy yesterday, and it’s still a little chilly today. We’re expecting much warmer weather in the coming week. I’m hoping it will get things going in the garden. Hoeing is expected to commence soon.