Thoughts While Quilting and the Things They Lead To
I really love this wave design. I’m so glad the Snarky Quilter used it. I really need to take that Craftsy class she mentioned.
I wonder what this would look like with different sizes of thread, both thicker and thinner.
I may use this on every quilt from now on. I may never free motion quilt again. Since the quilting lines don’t cross each other, there’s no place for the cloth to pucker, and all the thread ends are on the edges so I won’t have to work them in, they will all be hidden by the binding.
I wonder what I will use for binding.
I wonder if I have enough thread on this bobbin to sew another row.
I wonder if it would look good with lime green thread instead of pale blue.
The quilt stays supple too. I think it’s a very soothing design to look at. I wonder what quilters of the past would think of these modern quilts – big pieces and machine quilting. Would they raise an eyebrow and sniff to themselves that it is not “real” quilting? Or would they exclaim over the ease of quilting nowadays and jump on board?
I wonder what my great-grandmother would think. She made this quilt out of polyester knit scraps back about 1980, and even then, she was still hand-quilting.
I wonder if my great-grandmother would think I am crazy to buy brand new fabric for quilting, instead of using scraps like she did.
I wonder if she would have liked lime green thread.
I wonder what people a hundred years from now will think of our quilts. I wonder what they will be using to quilt! I bet plastics, with fiber-optic thread. They’ll probably just aim a dilithium crystal ray at the quilt and the layers will fuse together!
I wonder if I have enough thread on this bobbin to sew another row.
I wonder if I should be trying to make the wave lines real consistent, or should I have more variation? I like variation when I’m close to it, working on it, but when I get it done and look at the whole piece, I always think I should have gone for a simpler effect.
Shoot! I forgot to check the bobbin at the end of the last row and now it ran out in the middle. At least I have another bobbin wound already.
I wonder how much variation waves have in real life. Does each wave follow the other precisely? No, I think there’s more of an interference effect – some really short wavelets that run into the longer waves. I wonder if I have a photo I can look at.
Why yes! I do! It’s not a very good photo though – I wonder if I should head down to Galveston and go take some pictures of waves.
If I had paid attention in science class, maybe I would know more about all this.
If they had tied science into art better, maybe I would have paid more attention!
I wonder if rock layers and fungus patterns look a lot like waves if you compare them.
I wonder if I can find the photos I’m thinking of. Maybe I should set this quilting aside for just a minute.
rock layers
turkey tail fungus
I wonder if I can Photoshop everything to make the wave lines in those pictures show up a little better.
I wonder if I can quilt those lines….
I am taking part in WordPress’s Writing 101, and the prompt for today was to just follow your stream of consciousness.
I have visions of you quilting with one hand and blogging with the other. I see the yen to play with photoshop overrode the need to replace your bobbin. And I like lime green thread on black or navy fabric. Just be sure your thread tension is good.
From now on, any time my quilting is less than stellar, I’m going to claim that’s what I did, blogged and quilted at the same time! 🙂
As I began to read your comments, I began to wonder if perhaps you had taken a bite of some new plant in your garden that made your mind wander. Then, I began to wonder if I should call your husband to tell him he should have a conversation with you, to see if you’re O.K. Then I read the line at the end that said you were doing this mind association thing for a project! Whew! Of course, I wonder about a lot of things every day and each thing is not necessarily connected to another, but I’m old and it’s normal for me! 🙂 P.S. Truly funny article. I loved it.
Umm, almost all of my conversations with my husband are just like that, so he would not think anything was out of the ordinary! His half of the conversation would consist of puns and references to 1970s rock music, so it all would seem even more disjointed. 🙂
This is what the inside of my head looks like all the time….
Yes, it reminded me of you! 🙂 I think a lot of people’s thinking is like that, but you are brave enough to write out what you really think. Also, you don’t just think things – in spite of what you say, you really accomplish so much, and in so many areas. So many of your projects really stick with me and inspire me – I’m thinking of your small sky paintings in particular. Each one by itself seemed simple, but each one had that touch that made it so natural and attractive – and then, altogether, they really had an impact.
Wow, what an amazing compliment, thank you! It really warms me, I don’t hear such things a lot. 🙂 Incidentally I’ve finally managed to have a go at those skies again, I hope to finish the last ones this week (last as in I’ll paint other things).
More healing things to look at and thoughts to think. Thanks. P.S. I worry about me sometimes, too–tend to take the world way too seriously. Ah well.
This was so much fun to read! It’s just exactly the way my mind wanders when I’m stitching along, and don’t have to pay too much attention. And you came up with some creative ideas and insights along the way so, obviously, letting ones mind wander is highly productive! I especially like the idea of trying to mimic the lines of nature in quilting stitches.
Yes, since I knew that it was the prompt of the day and I was going to post it, I paid more attention to those random thoughts than usual. It made me wonder how often actual project ideas just appear and then disappear with all the usual ramblings. I will have to pay better attention from now on.