Butterfly Trails Quilted!

Today was a good quilting day. I just finished up quilting Butterfly Trails. Now it only needs squaring up and binding. I am not sure what to do about binding. I was assuming I would use my leftover Kona Snow, but now that I actually think about it, the outside of the quilt is in blue scraps, and a white binding will not work. I am going to have to go through all my blues to see what blue I am willing to use up in binding.

I thought I was going to be in trouble finishing the quilting because I ran out of the finer light grey thread I bought on a trip a few months ago. I had another grey thread, but it was thicker and a bit too dark, and after quilting a section with it, I wan't too happy (but not unhappy enough to tear it all out either).

Then I remembered I had white silk thread on hand from a dismal silk quilt made a few years ago. I think that Diane Gaudinsky recommends silk thread, and maybe Karen McTavish, too. It was wonderful to quilt with. It is very fine and backtracking doesn't show at all. I only had 2 partial spools that started with 200 meters, so I was afraid it wouldn't be enough. I ran out of the thinner bobbin thread but found an old light grey polyester that was pretty fine, so I continued with that in the bobbin. Actually, I could have used it on the top as well because the color was okay, but luckily the silk thread worked out.

This was my first time using fine threads. The only threads available local are quite thick and linty. I am going to have to buy a major supply of some thinner threads because I loved how the quilting turned out. I don't have a picture of the quilt today, but I will try to get one tomorrow.

Olympics 2008

Before I went on my last trip, I was downtown and found an exhibit of sculptures with the theme of the Beijing Olympics. China will host the Olympics in 2008, and it is a major source of pride and excitement. The sculptures were from a variety of artists from many different countries, but many were Chinese and had themes integrating traditional Chinese arts and images with the modern theme of the Olympics. I only have a few photos -- sorry for the quality, but I only had my phone camera and the time of day was not great. Still I hope it is interesting!

Christmas in February!

My family got me a gift certificate for quilting things for Christmas, and my gifts arrived today! Hurray! There were all kinds of sales at the end of December, so I ordered from a bunch of different online stores and had everything shipped to my mom, who shipped them on to me. In addition to fabric, I got the Ricky Tims video Grande Finale, as well as a bunch of quilting notions. I love the fabrics, and I am excited to give all the notions a try.

I was away for the last 5 days, so I haven't been able to do any quilting. The trip was for work and was very productive, but I am exhausted! I have today off, so I had hoped to finish up the quilting on the Butterflies in Flight/Butterfly Trails quilt (opinions on the name welcome!), but it is not to be. I am so tired that my quilting is just not going well. I keep missing intersections and making wobbly lines. Time for some blogging instead. Hopefully by later in the afternoon I will be able to do some decent quilting.