The end of a busy weekend
What an amazing weekend it's been in DC. The weather's been unseasonably pleasant: comfortably warm, dry, and low humidity. Yes, the lawns are all brown from so little rain, but the pleasure of being outside in mid-July without feeling like the shower you took this morning was a waste of time, ah such a treat. It's about 9:45 on Sunday night. I'm sitting at the dining room table near the open window and there's a slight cool breeze that carries with it the promise of great sleeping.
And speaking of great sleep. I finally finished the quilt that I started last September to use up some nervous energy while Dan and I were preparing for our commitment ceremony. It doesn't normally take me a year to complete a quilt, but this one got a little out of hand and there were a few distractions--like a wedding.
I designed it thinking about the traditional wedding ring design. The central motif is the closest thing to that basic concept. The things around it are rings that don't conform to the traditional pattern. The other "rings" in the quilt all vary in size and have offset centers. They were assembled as raw-edge applique on white squares, which were then overdyed brown and lightly discharged to given them some age, some weather. The other squares are an assortment of shibori patterns, dyed and overdyed. Some of these blocks were quartered, mixed up with each other, then reassembled and overdyed. All of this was intended to create a sense of the offbeat, the free spirit, and the willingness to embrace what is different, vibrant, and colorful.
It's pretty densely quilted. The blocks with the circles are stippled and the other blocks are filled with a meandering sort of spiral. I did all of the free-motion quilting on a Bernina Aurora 440 with a stitch regulator. I still find it challenging the quilt large pieces like this, but I have to say that once I got used to the regulator it really did make a difference. Now if I could just manage to relax a little more when I quilt. I swear I tense up so much it feels like I've just about raised my shoulders over my head.
Well, that's enough for now. It's Dan's turn with the new Harry Potter. We're taking turns reading chapters. It's pretty good so far. Since I can't read it's probably a good time to go to bed.