The Quilt Won the Argument

A quilt and I had an argument Friday.

I lost.

That’s okay, though. The quilt was right.

I started quilting the jelly roll race quilt top I made when I was in Alaska last spring. The fabric is “Cultivate Kindness” by Deb Strain. The center of the quilt is a riot of bright colors and the backing is a red tone-on-tone print. I’m not confident enough about my machine quilting to have it be front and center, so I usually choose a thread color that blends in. I had thought to use a pale gray Signature 40wt on top and Aurifil 50wt in the bobbin. That’s a thread combination I use a lot in the Q20. For some reason, however, it wasn’t working. (I also used that Fairfield Toasty Cotton batting again, and I just need to stop buying it because I don’t like it.) I could not get the tension sorted properly. It took me three hours with a seam ripper to take out 10 minutes of quilting.

[Even when using the same brand and combination of thread weights, the tension still has to be adjusted on the Q20 every single time. The manual even says that the bobbin tension should be checked and adjusted every single time a new bobbin is inserted into the machine. Different colors of thread take up dye differently and that absolutely affects the tension. Black is notoriously difficult.]

After ripping out the botched quilting, I had a glass of wine and put the quilt in time out until yesterday morning. I ditched the gray thread in favor of a bright multi-colored Signature 40wt variegated on top, even though I knew it would show more. I kept the red bobbin thread.

The quilt was much happier with that combination. I am quilting loopy flowers all over to echo the flowers in the fabrics.

I have about half of the center done. I am not sure what I will do in the border, although it would be a good opportunity to try some of my new Amanda Murphy rulers from Ruler Club.

This is not an heirloom quilt. This is one of half a dozen tops in the “need to get it quilted and bound” stack.

I also made a tree yesterday:

This is a pattern from the Amanda Murphy Modern Holiday book. (I am turning into an Amanda Murphy fangirl.) I made it because it looked like fun, and it was. I might make a few more. It consists of six tree pieces sewn together into three pairs, turned inside out, stacked and sewn down the center, and stuffed. I need to get more stuffing, though, as this one tree used almost an entire bag.

[Yes, my office is a mess at the moment.]

DD#2 and I had dinner at a sushi restaurant near the movie theatre last weekend. I do not eat raw fish, and if you want to know why, I’ll pull out my clinical parasitology textbook and show you. I do, however, like cooked fish, and this particular restaurant has a nice selection of cooked rolls for us uncouth Americans. I had one with scallops, DD#2 had one with spicy crab, and we split one with avocado, cucumber, and cream cheese. Spokane also has a sushi restaurant that is a favorite of ours, and it was there that I learned to eat using chopsticks. (The restaurant will provide forks, but you have to ask.) The sushi restaurant in Seattle had stainless steel chopsticks, which I had not seen before because I live in Montana and don’t get out much.

Chopsticks are very useful for poking out corners of sewn pieces and for stuffing Christmas trees. I did an Amazon order last week and added a package of stainless steel chopsticks to the cart. There are five pairs in a pack, so I put two of them with my sewing supplies. We’ll use the other ones if I ever get around to learning how to make my own sushi rolls.