Evolution

Mom's quilt is on the frame.  The design evolved as I quilted it.

First, I marked off this white border in 8 inch blocks.  Then I quilted one line along the marks to divide the border into sections intending to quilt feathers in each one.

I pondered that for a long time after I made those lines.

I decided, instead, to center a feather in the middle, separated by several straight lines (4 inches worth, 1/4 inch apart) and attempt an elongated spiral from Angela Walter's Craftsy class.  I am not displeased with the results.

This corner I ripped out and re-did.  I am seriously considering ripping out part of the middle feather, too.  The echoing looks bad, to me.

But overall, for a novice, I think I did pretty well.  Incidentally, I did not use a ruler for the vertical lines.  I just set the channel lock but didn't lock it totally down.  Worked pretty well.

It started snowing

so I had to stop biking.  Who knows if I have had my last ride of the season?  S. and I went out on Friday after the roads dried from the overnight showers. Three miles from home (which means 18 minutes for us) it started to rain; a cold, sleety rain.  Thank goodness we were close to home. The forecast looks good for my next day off.  Who knows?

I put together a strip quilt last weekend.  I had some 2.5 inch batik precut strips.  I had sewn all the dark ones together on the serger, no less, for another project.  I changed my mind and took the strips apart.  Linda over at Art in Search blogged about this method for creating a quilt.  I decided to try it out.

This morning I started quilting it.  I decided that any quilting at all would detract from the beauty of the fabric so I went into the ditch.  I am lousy at that.  Even after 42 lines, I was still missing the ditch much of the time.

It passes the distance test.  Don't get too close.  I like the back, too.  I had no tension issues.  I had expected some, considering I was quilting batiks.

AND SO IT BEGINS....

No killing frost yet, but today it was raw and cold.  I doubt that it reached 50 F.  I sewed.  It was too cold to bike.  Yesterday, though it wasn't much warmer, S. and I practiced using the Granny gear.  We went up a steep hill as far as we could get.  We were warm by the time we were at the top.  Because we didn't want to have to climb back up the other side of this hill, we turned around and rode back down from whence we had climbed.  Warm going up, chilly going down, though the wind was behind us. Tomorrow promises mid 50s but not until noon.  Good.  Time for me to sew in the morning.

Mom wants a quilt for her twin bed.  I pondered patterns this morning.  I considered a disappearing nine patch, an arrowhead patch, a double Irish Chain, a log cabin.  None of them particularly appealed to me. 

I looked through some books.  I found a lovely quilt.(The watermark is mine)

 in this book.

I considered piecing a medallion for the center square but found an orphan square from a celtic block quilt I made almost fifteen years ago.

I plan to follow the design but might not do the ribbon border.  It looks a bit tedious, though I like the look.  There is no pattern in the book.  I am sorting it out as I go along.