We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires,
but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health,
the efficiency of the public schools, and
the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books.
~W.E.B. Dubois
Quilting
Two years ago I sent this top to a longarm quilter. It's too large for me to handle anymore. She is a talented quilting designer but her machine had tension issues halfway through. Lots of tangled threads on the back, arcs of skipped stitches, etc. It seemed a mess. I cried and put it away.
This year again sees me on a move to sort, repair, organize, and donate extraneous stuff. A kindness to myself, my children, and others. Someone can get some use from most items. So I've spent a few months unstitching, restitching, topstitching, anything I can do to get it in better shape. It will never be perfect.
Finally it seemed safe to wash and dry. I soaked it for a couple of hours then spun water out on the gentlest cycle. It's been laying on sheets to dry.
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| Ocean Waves 5 |
By some miracle many of the tension issues are hidden. They aren't gone, but the batting expanded while the large stitching holes in the back shrank. Hopefully it will last longer.
The background is Kona Snow while the back is a wide white cotton. The winking colors make me smile. The same pale blue stripe is the inner border and binding. Batting and thread are unknown because they were chosen by the longarmer.
Quilt Specifics
Size: 102" x 102"
Quilt Design: Ocean Waves
Quilting: Free motion with wreaths, orange peel, and parallel lines
Approximate yardage: 15 yds(?)
Someone loves it and has asked for it. I feel better.
Reading
The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi by Boyce Upholt is a comprehensive overview of the Mississippi River basin from its geologic beginnings through native settlement and especially the changes wrought by European settlers in the past 200 years.
As a geologist I appreciated the explanations of the wide bends through the basin from Illinois south. Industrialization brought enormous inventions to remove snags, straighten those bends, and deepen the channels. Those events caused loss of fish, soil, and water quality.
Now there are attempts to restore some lost ecosystems.
