Happy Little Clouds

Quilting has begun. After pondering several designs that I could possibly accomplish without a stencil, I finally decided to just do wavy lines back and forth.

To keep my brain from fussing about how my current line is 'reacting with' the previous line, I'm playing a little mind game with myself. First I draw a line from corner to corner of each block section using that old-fashioned tool: a thin piece of soap.

After the first couple of passes (in which a simple back&forth fills the area nicely), every time I go over that middle line I tell myself I'm now creating the tops of some happy little clouds. When I reach the end of that section I double back and create the bottom of those clouds, until I get to the middle line. From there, I'm creating the tops of a new bank of clouds which have nothing to do with those finished clouds above! Just ignore them! As  you can imagine, Bob Ross's voice has been keeping me company throughout.

There's also that pragmatic voice in my head reminding me that I'm just making random wavy lines to fill the space between my splayed hands which are holding the current area taut. There's a third one that teases me: "Alert the media! Two lines touched: THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO END!!!"

So--how great is light gray thread for quilting a range of neutral and neutral-ish fabrics? Pretty darn great, that's how!

The thread (AURifil) unwinds better, without twisting up on itself, when the cone is upside down. It's a shame the manufacturers don't understand this.

I finished the light blocks earlier this afternoon, then pulled out my drawer of quilting threads to see what I might have on hand for the dark blocks.

How's this for a high-tech, uber-organized system of thread control and storage?

Narrowed down to four options . . .

. . . and I believe the red will do well (I have a second, full spool of that thread). Although there's a common strip of blue through every block, there seems to be a lot of reds in those dark blocks too.

I finally treated myself to a decent trash bag for tossing in the clipped threads from quilting and embroidery. This was made from a panel of bird fabric I bought during one of the Magpie Texas fests, but could never seem to actually find a use for.

It replaces an ugly, droopy, and too-small plastic bag that had been sitting there for years. It makes me smile not only because it's so much prettier, but is filled with memories as well (as are the other three Magpie items surrounding it).