A Little Mending A Little Painting

Look for the orange and blue yarn ties

Not quite a year ago, I was showing you what I called a quilting fail, where the invisible thread had worn through the cotton bobbin in numerous places on my couch quilt. This left me with loops big and small on the right side, loops that my fingers easily caught on when I pulled the quilt over me. In the ensuing year, more of these fails have shown up, and for reasons justified and not, I put off doing anything about it, save to tie a piece of yarn through the loops as I found them so they'd be easier to find once I did mend those places. Well, the loops never stopped showing up and that couch quilt is covered in yarn knots as you can see in the above photo. But honestly, it's difficult to convince myself to spend time mending when I could be working on something new. However, I had a surprise visit from some high school friends on Saturday, and since I didn't know exactly when to expect them, starting the mending on this quilt was a perfect project. And because there are so many breaks in the bobbin thread with the expectation of even more fails, I decided to just requilt along all the stitch in the ditch lines. And even as I rearranged the quilt as I stitched, my little finger found more loops. And there are also some spots where I did a clam shell design in the borders and setting triangles that will have to be resewn, but that will not be over all of them. 

I'm using a sturdy Superior The Bottom Line polyester thread in the bobbin that I think must have come in a grab bag sort of offer from Superior. Surely, I would not have picked this pink thread on my own, but fortunately it blends pretty well with the backing and should be impervious to the invisible thread. There's a part of me that can't believe I'm actually wearing out a quilt, but it really has had almost constant use since it was made over 20 years ago and it has been washed more than the quilts I have used on my bed or the guest bed. I can't imagine what I would replace it with. I think I care too much about the other quilts this size I have made whereas with this one, I knew I was using lesser quality fabric that was some of my first purchases and didn't cost nearly as much per yard as fabric I got in the habit of buying as I got more knowledgeable about those things. After all, I was using a mystery quilt pattern so if I ended up not liking it, I wasn't out much. But I did like it - a lot!

I did do a tiny bit of painting last week. I've had this pussy willow branch waiting for me for well over a month, thinking it would be an easy subject to practice on. I thought I could sketch it with a variety of mediums: pen, pencil, colored pencil, watercolor, brush pens. It would provide a quick study for trying out these different tools. But I also thought about that botanical drawing with India ink class and the sketchbook I used for that. Plenty of pages left so I got a brush and a few drops of ink and drew the above. I was astounded by how easy it was to get this good result.

And because I am a waste not want not kinda gal, I painted a second page with what ink was left in the tiny container. Tulips are not blooming yet but since I'd just sketched those tulip leaves, I thought I'd do a quick leaves and blooms with the India ink. NOT as successful - my up stroke was pretty steady while my downward stroke was not. Oh well, this is supposed to be a practice book, with some sketches a learning tool leading to more success. Thinking of adding some color . . . could be with ink or could be with the Posca Pens I picked up yesterday when I was in the somewhat big city for a doctor's appointment. Yeah, I had a coupon and I keep seeing people using them. We'll see if they are really better than the Painters ones from Walmart.