I finished the hydrangeas at last this morning. I had problems with the border
quilting - ripped the whole lot out, which was a radiowave kind of design.
Instead did twin needled straight sections with a free motioned petal in the
centre of the boxes. That is invisible from the proverbial galloping horse
anyway, but at least it is flat!
I did 3 wonky lines of silver grey round the tops of the petals that had a sunnyglow in the photo and used blue round the lower shaded ones.


Things I learnt:

Even using SAS lite, some areas are very stiff and the needle picked up gunk.
Will try misty fuse more another time, or just tack.

I used monofilament on the back, which was simple - no changing bobbins, and no
thread dots on the top. However, it feels very prickly on the back, and I don't
think I will do that again. I want to see the stitching on the back!

If I am going to do the 3 wonky lines to define the petal edges I don't need to
zigzag them first. I had done that with a selection of expensive variegated
threads, which you can't see at all now! Probably 2 days work completely
unnecessary.

I really like the bolder vein lines in the petals, which is all that secures the
fabric changes within petals (apart from the SAS of course). It looked really
garish close up but looks fine from 2 metres.

The problem with taking a photo of a flower is that you concentrate on
interpreting the flower, instead of thinking about composition. There is a bit
of movement in a V shape with the three boldest flowers in the mid and mid-lower
section, but there's nothing to bring your eye round again.

I am happy that I agonised over the background quilting and the border, and
found a solution that is aesthetically pleasing and at the same time functional
in flattening the areas without flowers. I tried out on paper several options for the background quilting, involving echo, meander, spirals etc. When I decided on the free form grid, it really helped not trying anything that would compete with the flowers. Ditto the border. I had measured sections and put in a dot so I could do the sine waves I originally envisaged. It looked really good on paper too. But looked a mess when I was almost at the end of three complete rounds of waves. So ripped it and started again. Basically the fabric is busy enough that it just needs to be flat, and have something that looks good from 6 inches away. Otherwise you can't see it. I tried about 6 thread options, but you couldn't tell them apart from 3 metres.

I'd like to try another more abstract version later, but this week I will play with FFFC. I need playtime.

what summer?

Although we can't complain compared with northern hemisphere people who have had the worst snow falls in decades, with all the resultant disruption, here in the South Island we have had a cool and damp summer. Many grey days, that reminded me of English summers, and so untypical of NZ. Since school went back last week, the weather was a bit hotter and sunnier, but still not the days of over 30 degrees that we often get now. I have had poor use of my pool, as even when the days were warm the nights were cold. It did reach 28 degrees last week, but back to about 23 now.

I have started training for my 4 day bike trail ride in April. I have a nice comfy bike with suspension, but I remember from my last attempt to ride bikes about 12 years ago that I have arthritis damage in my thumbs. Normally I never notice, because I don't do anything to upset them, apart from the occasional knitting. I need to get the handlebar grips rotated to a more comfortable position. My local half hour trip is all on sealed roads and I don't need to change gear, so that is a doddle. My years of biking as a kid and at Cambridge were on a bike with no gears, so it is not instinctive for me.

Creativity is taking a back seat at the moment, with work so full on. I am hoping to finish the hydrangeas in the next two weeks. I like it, but I'm getting to the end of the interest phase.

I've been re-reading Melanie Testa's Inspired to Quilt, and would like a couple of shots at doing something with organza overlays. I decided against the FFFC this month, as fractures don't do a lot for me, and I was so short of time.

No photos - should be getting my camera out and taking the garden in progress. One new bed is planted, and I sprayed the next one with roundup this morning, having refined the shape by mowing round it. I am excited, since very little in my garden is my original design. I have modified the planting in some parts, and redesigned a couple of places. Where I have done the new beds, I am very much happier than with what I inherited. The flowering cherry trees are becoming a severe pain with their roots breaking the surface, and suckers reaching 6 or 7 metres from the trees. I have about 14 trees that must be 10 years old now. No one needs that many!