My new book arrived yesterday- and what a treasure! Quilting by Improvisation: Exploring Curves, Openwork and Dimension by Vikki Pignatelli. In addition to instruction on curved piecing, there are lessons about color, use of sheer overlays, fabric manipulation, making lace and latticework, border options, and lots of finishing options for irregular-shape quilts. Oh, boy, can't wait to get started! Vikki autographed my book with the comment, "May these pages feed the fire of your creativity and stretch your imagination to the limit."
Yesterday I decided to do a little maintenance on my Gammill. I got a whole bird's nest of threads that were stuck between my front wheels and the track. The last issue of Unlimited Possibilities had a very helpful article about maintenance on the rotary tensioner. Using the instructions in UP, I changed the felt pads in my tension, which had not been changed in four years. Guess what- they looked just like the ones in the photo captioned "Need to be changed." Black gunk all around the edges of the white felt pads. I hope they will do more articles like this one with step-by-step photos and instructions.
I started working on a customer quilt that is done in the Harvest Spice fabrics. She wanted Pine green thread, which contrasts greatly with the tan and beige backing fabric. She picked out a Line Dancing pattern that I had not used before. I love all these Diana Phillips designs, but this one did not look pretty on the back. Instead of curving around the seams, you had to backtrack along the seam lines. I ripped out the ones I did, and will use a more forgiving design since it shows so much on the back. The customer is traveling in India or somewhere, so I hope this is the right decision.
I hope everyone had a pleasant mother's day. I spent most of the day painting in the mountain cabin, but we got home in time for a LOVELY dinner out at Carabba's with son Dave and DIL Emily. They got me a sun hat that reminds me of one that I wore when Charlie and I were dating- big floppy brim. I am looking forward to wearing that at Sunset Beach next month! My other son sent the perfect card. They will be joining us at the beach in June with the grandchildren- can't wait!
Let me tell you about the wonderful ride through the mountain trails on our Gator Saturday night. We are so fortunate that my sister Katy and her husband have about sixty acres of mountain land, and have permission from neighboring land owners to ride on the roads through their Christmas tree farms. A trip "to the top" is always the highlight of our mountain weekends. This time we got to the top and a big deer was right in the road. We sat there and watched a spectacular sunset, then rode to the next scenic spot which we call "Katy's favorite place." From there we can see a beautiful vista. To our surprise, someone was putting on a fireworks display! So we enjoyed that as the darkness fell, then drove down along the creek. Katy and I both were looking at the brilliant planet shining above us, when to our surprise, it looked like a piece of the planet broke off and flew across the sky! What in the world??? Then the light appeared to be a weird triangular-shaped plane. It had appeared out of darkness like it came from nowhere. We both thought the same thing...Stealth bomber! But why would a Stealth be doing its thing over the northwestern mountains of North Carolina? It did not occur to me until the next morning...there was a race in Darlington, SC this weekend. They usually have a Stealth do a flyover at the opening ceremonies. It would be a hop, skip, and a jump for a Stealth! Very cool! We hear the race was delayed Saturday due to rain, but we had a beautiful clear night for the pilot to soar through.
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