I have spent the last two days quilting on the queen bed quilt for Lily's room. I am doing freehand vines, leaves, flowers, and feathers over most of the quilt. I spent a whole day trying to figure out how to mark the border for scallops. Duh- how did I ever make it through graduate school? I finally marked them with chalk, and am having a feather go around the outer curve.
We had three great days in the mountains last weekend, and even got a nice thundershower every day to help water the baby Christmas trees, grass, and flowers we have planted. It is dry in that part of the state as well. When we got home, a nice thunderstorm followed us and brought some welcome rain.
I am so excited---Found out yesterday that my husband has been invited to New York for a business trip in October. We have had some lovely trips across the country over the years, but not many lately. This one should be excellent- it is being held in the Waldorf Astoria, of all places! Not too shabby. I am saving my $$$ for some shopping and fun. We have had two other trips to New York, during which we visited the MOMA, toured Radio City Music Hall, went to Broadway shows, and did lots of walking. Last time we also paid homage to Ground Zero, a very sobering visit. The only plan I know of on the agenda is dinner at the University Club, which should be a treat. Actually, it is a little-known fact that NYC is my hometown! I was born in Manhattan, and my dad worked there for twenty-two years before relocating to Raleigh. We lived in the suburbs of New York and New Jersey until I was fifteen. So I have been there many times, but only twice since becoming an adult. Charlie actually knows the city much better than I do, because he had to stay there for about a month when he was training to be a stockbroker.
Actually, the MOMA visit was one of the highlights of my first trip back, but last time it was temporarily housed in Queens due to building renovations. I had been dying to see the Monet triptych of water lilies that takes up a wall the size of a ballroom. I surprised myself by preferring some of the other works I saw, such as colorful works by Matisse and Gauguin. But the piece de resistance for me was The Starry Night by Van Gogh. It had its own bench in front of the painting, where I sat and contemplated this gorgeous work with tears in my eyes at its perfection.
Thought you might enjoy seeing the progress on another of Karen's Civil War quilts, the Underground Railroad. She chose a ferny meander from Suzanne Earley's first Meandering Magic book. It is going very well so far, and the quilting gives a lovely sculptured texture to the quilt. She chose Mother Goose thread for this one, too.
When you use Suzanne's method, you first create a very large meander across the quilt to form the stem for an overall feather design. Then you go back down the vine and add feathers, leaves, hearts, or whatever to fill in an overall design. Suzanne writes that she meanders the whole quilt first, then stitches the feathers on each side of the vine as she progresses down the stem. I prefer to do just two passes of meander across each row, then add the feathers before rolling. Sometimes I just have room to do the "upper feathers" on the second spine before rolling. It is nice to have the next meander spine in place so you can judge how far down to extend your feathers. I really recommend this book and have used several of her designs on quilts, including Forest Floor and one with hearts.
