Summer Serenade

That's the name of this quilt, what do you reckon? It says summer to me, and some of the fabrics have a musical theme. A few years ago Donna Ward from New Zealand taught classes for members of the NSW Quilters Guild, and one of them was this foundation pieced New York Beauty. Donna's method was quilt-as-you-go, and after making one block I decided that wasn't for me. (different strokes for different folks, right?) I had the idea to use black and white fabrics with lime green, the idea for which came from - believe it or not - the ladies' toilets at the club where the Guild has its meetings, the internal walls are some sort of reconstituted stuff made of black and white marble chips with tiny pieces of bright green glass. The sashing has weeny yellow stars on the orange background, the backing will be a glorious orange tone-on-tone which wasn't q-u-i-t-e wide enough for this quilt so a pieced strip of the border leftovers is set in, and the binding will be the same black and white print as the centre of the pieced fans. And the blocks are tilted on purpose.

Now the big question is, how to quilt it? I will be doing it myself on My Lovely New Bernina, and sitting in the thread box is a black and white variegated 40wt cotton thread from Aurifil as well as orange and lime green threads. One thing I most definitely do not want at all in any circumstances whatsoever is just all-over stippling. All suggestions that do not involve stippling will be considered. It has been a top for a while and I would like to have it finished. I'm good at making tops.......not so good at finishing the quilt, because of my lack of confidence in my ability to quilt by machine.

Out there in Blogland I see there are many ideas for helping folks with their UFOs - pledges to finish one project per month, or so many projects this year - after pondering deeply on this for about a second and a half I have decided not to join in any of them. Last year's broken arm taught me the futility of making plans too far in advance! So rather than join up and then beat myself about the head if I failed, I have decided not to join. Simple. Like not making any resolutions at New Year, for the same reason. We are planning to move house six hours away sometime this year, and as anyone who has ever moved can tell you - don't make plans for anything else.

The current project is coming along nicely, that's the skirt I cut out last week. All that remains is to measure and pin the hem, then stitch it by machine. It's quite a bright skirt but that is all to the good, life is too short to live it in beige.

Report on the arm: I can play guitar again! yay! After getting encouragement to try from both the orthopedic specialist and the nice young physio bloke (we are now at the stage of having deep and meaningful discussions about life and classical music while he pummels the bejaysus out of my arm) yesterday I took my beloved Rokomann out of its coffin - sorry, case - and tried some chords. G, D, and C weren't too difficult but F isn't quite there yet as it's a barre chord. That's when you have to hold down more than one string with your finger, and it needs a bit more strength than the finger currently has. But that will come. I have another guitar which might be better to use while I ease back into playing. Still to be tried: cutting with ruler and rotary cutter, and driving the car.

"Harmony of Colors in Dress.
One color should predominate in the dress; and if another is adopted, it should be in a limited quantity and only be way of contrast or harmony. Some colours may never, under any circumstances, be worn together, because they produce positive discord to the eye. If the dress be blue, red should never be introduced by way of trimming, or vice versa. Red and blue, red and yellow, blue and yellow, and scarlet and crimson may never be united in the same costume. If the dress be red, green may be introduced in a minute quantity; if blue, orange; if green, crimson. Scarlet and solferino are deadly enemies, each killing the other when they meet".

There's your homework - find out what colour "solferino" is. It's not a colour I have ever worn....or ever plan to, now I know what it is. One clue, it's nothing to do with sulphur yellow.

Have a good weekend.

Jennifer