Thus Far, a Nothingburger

Six inches of snow does not a “storm” make, in my book. Maybe I’ve lived here too long. The storm warning is in place until 11:00 am, but looking at the radar, the blob of precipitation seems to have stalled over Spokane. Missoula is getting freezing rain. We’ll have to see what happens when it’s time for us to go pick up the pork.

Snoqualmie Pass is closed until Sunday. I cannot remember that happening in recent years. Some of that is a shortage of plow drivers, to be sure, but the pass also has gotten an insane amount of snow and wind which is causing avalanches over the roadway.

The husband spent most of yesterday plowing, some with the plow truck and some with the track loader. He plows out the nearby neighbors’ driveways and they bring him beer in return. It’s a good system. He also makes sure the fire hall is plowed so he and the other firefighters can get the engines out for calls.

Despite the fact that I wasn’t truly snowed in, I stayed home from sewing. I was out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and needed to stay here and get some work done. I finished quilting the Kindness quilt and trimmed it for binding. I am a bit stuck. I auditioned about 15 different colors of Kona for binding and wasn’t happy with any of them. The quilt wants an aqua binding and I don’t have the right color Kona. (Shocking, but true.) I will dive into my stash of turquoise prints today and see if I have enough of something suitable. A black stripe cut on the bias might also work.

I then chose one of the remaining four tops that are basted and ready to quilt. This is a top that I worked on two years ago when my MIL was diagnosed with gallbladder cancer. It’s a very simple quilt made up of squares in squares; I made this one mostly to mess around with some color and fabric combinations. And now it’s a good one to practice rulerwork on.

[Most of my “practice” quilts probably will go to Ritzville next fall. At Ruler Club last month, we had a short discussion about what to do with our practice quilts. Finished is better than perfect, yes, but we don’t want to donate things that are obviously flawed. I think I take good care even when I am “practicing” a new skill, but that is something to keep in mind.]

In any case, I looked at the top and considered how to quilt it. There is no one right answer to this question except that it needs enough quilting not to fall apart. An allover design would work. So would quilting with rulers. I wanted to practice my rulerwork, so rulers it was. Which one(s)? I got out my box of rulers and looked through them.

Squares often look good with arc quilting—think orange peels—so I found a curved ruler of the correct size and arc shape. That would do for the larger squares. The other two will work for the smaller, inner squares, but I haven’t decided on which one yet. Or I could use both and alternate them.

Once I settled on thread—a pearl gray 40wt cotton thread for the top and a pearl gray 40wt Aurifil for the bobbin—work went quickly. I got all the curved quilting done on the large squares yesterday:

Is that enough quilting in those areas? I think so—keep in mind that I still have to quilt inside the smaller squares—but I’m not sure. I could quilt those orange peel areas with a small filler. Right now, I am leaning toward the on-point template for the insides of the smaller squares. I’ll do those and reassess.

[Looking at this photo now, as I write this bog post, I see that I also could carry through on the arc theme and echo the same kinds of arcs inside the smaller squares. So many decisions.]

This quilt also has borders, and I am thinking ribbon candy again. That’s fun to do with the ruler and gives a lot of bang for the buck.

I know that the batting is part of where I’m getting hung up. Most of the quilting instructors use either a polyester batting or a layer of cotton batting and a layer of polyester batting. Using polyester gives a much different appearance to the stitching, and I think it’s why so many of those instructors also quilt their tops so densely. Angela Walters noted that using polyester batting makes her quilts less wrinkly and allows them to hang better for display. If you’re a quilting instructor who doesn’t want to arrive at an event with a suitcase full of wrinkled quilts, you use polyester batting.

I love the old-fashioned look of crinkly cotton quilts, and as mine are going to be used and not hung up for display, I prefer cotton batting. At most, I might use 80/20 cotton/polyester, although one of the tops still-to-be-quilted has a 50/50 batting as an experiment because it’s the wallhanging for the upstairs hallway. I’ll let you know what I think.