My QC inspector is hard at work...

I always wonder if the recipients of my quilts will find them as snuggly and user-friendly as I intended. Good thing I have someone on staff to pre-test them for me. Although he doesn't come cheap, his work ethic is unparalleled and his assessments accurate, so he's worth every penny.

Looks like this one is good to go!

WIP Wednesday, a day late...

I'm still here, trying to crank through all my projects, waylaid by travel, pet sitting, and gardening in oppressive heat. So here are a couple sneak peeks as evidence that I'm not totally unproductive:

LOVE these tiny stars!

New week, new project...sort of...

I was working on something with a softer feel...but it just wasn't doing anything for me.

Enter these beauties from my stash:

Just what I needed to brighten things up a bit!

Time flies...

...when you're not sewing!

May was a blur. After that last post, all hell broke loose and now that the dust has settled somewhat, I'm back.

It began with a trip to Reno for a memorial service. Sadly, my friend Rick passed away after a seven-month fight with an extremely aggressive form of melanoma. He left behind two heartbroken little girls and a wife, one of my dearest friends, reeling in her new reality as a single mother. From the day he received it until the day he died, he slept with the quilt I made him, hoping the good vibes and love put into its creation would give him strength. In the end, it was just what he needed to keep him warm.

In the aftermath of a great service, we all took a trip up to Lake Tahoe, his favorite spot, for a beach picnic. It doesn't get much prettier than Tahoe in early spring.

I got stuck in a snowbank, but that's a story for another day.

When I came back home, I didn't feel like doing much of anything, let alone sew. But the cottage needed to be opened up for the season, so I headed to Michigan. South Haven didn't get very much snow this year, so there wasn't anything to hold the sand down -- as a result, I spent a couple days shoveling. Nothing like hard labor to get back in shape!

The first third of sand from the driveway. I couldn't lift my arms to take a picture when I was done.

I took a guided boat tour on the Lindy Lou down the Black River to learn about the town's development and see what was really upstream. Turns out none of the industry that created the town along the river (lumber and fruit, primarily) remains -- it's been replaced by vacation cottages and marinas, and reclaimed by Mother Nature.

 Cap'n Jim

Like salmon? Come catch your own!

Houseboats!

Covered bridge on the Kal-Haven Bike Trail. Used to be a railroad, now a 33-mile bike path to Kalamazoo.

I always love walking around before the tourist season starts and seeing the town wake up again.

The long-closed bakery, reincarnated as a hot dog stand

 

  Full slips means Memorial Day is near!

I also hitched a ride on a friend's boat to get out on Lake Michigan for a change of perspective.

And finally, there were sunsets...lots of incredible, glorious sunsets to put the finishing touch on each day. I never get tired of them, or taking pictures of them. It's never the same show two nights in a row.

Sunset behind the storm

Archie, Prisoner of the Beach

Back home, it's time to get sewing again! All those babies have arrived, and was I prepared?  Heck no!

Epic fail...

OK, maybe it's not epic, but it felt like it at the time, and kind of still does.

My go-to thread for piecing has always been Coats & Clark All-Purpose, bought by the fistful at Joann's and anywhere else I could find it. It's corespun, which means it has a polyester core covered in another material -- which I always assumed was cotton (or used to be when I first started buying it...anyone remember this? Or am I imagining things?). When I'm in The Zone, I can go through a spool in just a few days.

It's held up well to washing and ironing, and has never let me down...until this week.

I was about 80% finished with the quilting on one of my baby quilts this weekend, the quilt bunched on the table next to me, when I noticed one of the seams in the middle of the quilt looked a little funny. It was raised a little, like I hadn't ironed it all the way. And when I grabbed between my thumb and forefinger to take a closer look, this happened:

The seam gave way under my thumbnail like I was perforating it, the thread brittle, crackling as it broke. You can see the spiky little thread ends on the top part of the seams in the picture (which showed up best in black and white) -- they were like little staples when I pulled them out with tweezers.

Panicked, I started looking at more of the seams and found another (where the pin is, which is strange because these pieces were constructed separately and ended up next to each other pretty much randomly). Sick to my stomach and afraid to go any further, I secured the spots with pins and set it aside until I could look at it without crying. It's still sitting on my cutting table.

Near as I can figure, I melted the thread -- which, as it turns out, is polyester covered in polyester, not cotton, and therefore might not stand up to the cotton setting as well as it should. But I'm using the same iron I've used for months with this same brand of thread, and didn't do anything different in constructing this quilt than any other. Maybe I hit a bad couple stretches of thread that weren't completely covered? All I know is I have a quilt that I've put a lot of time into that now has the potential to fall apart at first washing unless I can think of a way to fix it without totally messing up the existing quilting.

I love a challenge, but now? Not good timing.

Has this happened to anyone else? Or am I a cautionary tale?

Another Paintstiks rescue...

Thanks for the many sympathy wishes for my aunt. Her funeral was small, mostly family -- just like she would have wanted. I gave the quilt to my cousin's wife, who will give it a good home in Aunt Ann's honor and cherish it in her memory.

In my rush to finish her quilt, I didn't take my usual week or so (or, in some cases, months) to play with the block arrangement. As a result, it had several value issues that I didn't really discover until the top was completely finished.

I got most of my lights and darks sorted just fine, but there were two in particular that read completely opposite once I got them in the mix, resulting in some muddy, confusing spots.

The original top, too muddy in places.

Rather than remove the offenders, though, I got out my Paintstiks.Where the navy floral was too dark, I stenciled over it in white...

...and where the dark was reading too light, I used blue to darken them up. But forgot to take pictures.

The results weren't perfect, but definitely improved some of the contrast.

Paintstiks to the rescue again!

The best laid plans...

I was cutting the binding on Sunday night when I got the call that my aunt had passed, much more quickly than expected. I'm sorry I didn't get the quilt to her in time, but that's OK -- it was a great therapeutic exercise for me, and I'll present it to my cousin's wife, who nursed her through her extended illness.

It really is a pretty quilt. But I didn't even notice it was asymmetrical until I hung it up to take this picture. Too close to it the whole time, I guess.