Taking the Plunge

Today I decided it was time...to quit staring at my Round Robin top, and start quilting! It is a little intimidating when a project has taken over a year, and seven other people's work is represented. But, it is so pretty, and will never get to be displayed if it does not become a quilt! I am thinking that this will be a wall-hanging, since it has silk ribbon embroidery, some beads and crystals. Here is a reminder of what the quilt looks like:

Beautiful jewel colors, lots of flowers, some great quilting areas!

Yesterday, my box of pretty threads from Superior arrived. Don't they look gorgeous! I already had the Glitter, but everything else is new. Some SuperBobs of Bottom Line thread, some variegated, some metallic! The purple batik at the top of the photo is the backing I got last week.

In case I get timid, I have A-Muse-ing Violette on the wall behind the Gammill. I made her for a challenge in Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. She is supposed to remind me to try new challenges and be adventurous.

And, while I was digging around my quilting room, I found this little project left over from the spring, and decided to stitch the trapunto designs with wash-away thread. The stitched outlines will be cut away from the white poly batting behind the top. Those areas will look white under the sheer batiste top. The rest of the white areas will appear green when I add a layer of green felt. I have used this technique five times now. The green squares contain silk, hand-painted fabric, ferny looking prints and others in all shades of green. This one is supposed to evoke springtime in the southern woodlands. The trapunto designs are from dogwood blossoms and leaves that I scanned last spring. I also added some trillium blooms and a small white wildflower. I have a feeling that this little guy is not going to remain square when I am finished with him!

Quick Update

Today I am back from spending three days in our mountain cabin- a wonderful weekend in which we were joined by our son and six of his college friends. It was a bachelor party weekend for one of them, full of fun and friendship. We enjoy being around the young people. Some of them stayed in our camper, and others pitched tents down by the creek. I tried cooking on my new stove, and found out that the smoke detector works! Two pans of sausage cooking set it off.

I am home for one day before heading to South Carolina to get my "fix," meaning I haven't seen my grandkids lately. Well, Avery was in the mountains a few weeks ago, but I haven't seen Lily since the beach trip. Now she is walking and almost running, so I have to get down there!

I purchased some fabric for the backing of my Round Robin quilt on Thursday. A local quilt shop that is also an Internet shop was having a sale on batiks and Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and I had a fifty dollar gift certificate from them for my first place in our guild's quilt show. Thank you so much to Wish Upon a Quilt! Their prices are always low anyway, but with the sale and my gift certificate, I got yards of a beautiful purple batik and still have a twelve dollar credit! I was thinking that I would get a gorgeous KF floral to go with this log cabin garden quilt top, but I just did not see one that I loved as much as the batik. I don't even like to use batiks as backings because sometimes it is difficult to get good tension. But I am going to try!

I also am anxious to get a sample cone of the new LAVA thread from Superior threads. It's supposed to be like Rainbows for Longarm machines. Rainbows is a shiny poly thread that often is difficult to use on a longarm because it breaks frequently. LAVA means Long Arm Variegated Art. That sounds perfect for me!