Back to the New Quilt

Back to Work on the Flame Trees Quilt

Today there was time to get back to work on the new quilt. My plan is to "float" the little quilt on top of a dark purple batik background quilt. At Marion's suggestion, I tried finding the best way to add a dark outline to the flame trees so that they'd have more definition and also correspond with the purple in the background quilt. I tried outlining the trees with a maroon pen but, of course, the line wasn't heavy enough and was hard to draw going over all of that paint and various layers of fabric as well as stitching. So I decided couching was the answer. When I opened the drawer where all my interesting "couchables" live, I immediately spied the spools of variegated heavy thread Floris and I bought and divided between us from a weavers' guild sale back in Bethesda years ago. It goes from a deep violet blue to a deep purplish orange (never quite goes entirely to orange but is deeper and has more blue than red-orange). This worked a treat!

I had originally thought I'd put a strip of orange batik running vertically on the background quilt so that when Flame Trees was added on top, the orange batik would match the orange zigzag stitches on the quiltlet. Likewise, I wanted a strip of yellow-green fabric running horizontally to match the yellow-green zigzag stitches. Marion thought this was too heavy and she didn't like the yellow-green (well, to be honest she said she hated it). But she understood the effect I was trying to achieve and suggested thin strips of these two accent fabrics instead of the 3" ones I had mocked up on my design wall. So that is what I have done and--voila!--it works. (This is why having another set of eyes is so important, for me especially.)

I love the way the orange batik fabric's pattern looks as though it's an organic part of the purple background fabric. Unfortunately, there was no batik fabric in the yellow-green that was just the right shade and so I used one of my hand-dyes. After WonderUndering the strips of both fabrics to the background, I took a purple Pigma pen and brought the pattern from the background fabric onto the top of the yellow-green strips. You can't actually see this very well in the photo above but you get the idea. I haven't decided how I'll quilt the background quilt. I might use grey filament so that the piece truly stays in the background. What do you think?

The Renovation Project: Nomenclature

Two of the workmen, Scott and Crawford, came back today. I've been referring to them as builders but, in fact, the brickies are the builders because they build foundations, walls, chimneys, and so forth. So does this make Scott and Crawford joiners? Well, technically, no because most joiners specialize in making cabinetry. So I suppose they are simply construction workers. I must ask tomorrow.

At any rate, it was another gorgeous day today. The skip was delivered today. Unfortunately, the lorry that delivered it was too wide to fit down the drive, so they ended up leaving the skip at the beginning of our drive, which still allows us to put the car up by the garage each night rather than leaving it out on the street where it stays during the day (when it's not at some golf course). Oh yes, a skip is what we'd call a dumpster. This allows the crew to clean up after themselves which certainly needs doing, as without a skip, the garden (that what they call yards over here) has gotten extremely untidy.

Scott and Crawford finished work on the flat-roof extension which comprises our entryway and covered front stoop. This afternoon they started to put up the roof trusses on the sitting room extension, but discovered that the trusses were enough too large that they couldn't just be shaved down. So they've spent hours this afternoon knocking off the metal brads that hold the trusses together so they can trim them and put them back together again. Now why should this be so? Their boss felt we could save time if we ordered ready-made trusses, so they ordered them just a tad larger than needed because, according to the theory, there would be nothing they could do if the trusses were too small, but it would be easy to cut them down to size. That appears not to be the case in this instance.

Today's Golf Report

Friday morning is the time Don plays with the senior men's league at St Fillans Golf Course. (I believe it's good for him to get out to play with boys his own age.) This morning he came in third with a 30 and even though he was playing with men who were the top winners just a few days ago, they did not do so well today. And even though Don didn't do so well last week, he's had some great games this week. See golf? See a humbling game.

Friends of Cognac

We're thinking about becoming Friends of Cognac. No, this doesn't mean we've decided to switch from Scotch to brandy. The Scottish region of Perthshire is twinned with the region of Cognac, France. This association, Friends of Cognac, is designed to promote good relations between the two regions. Tonight will be our first meeting during which we'll taste some treats from Cognac and decide whether we want to join some other friends of ours who have been members for years and have raved about the benefits, including exchange visits to Cognac. More tomorrow.

Adieu!