Un-quilting

You all know me and my tendency to un-quilt, especially at the start of a quilt.  Frequently, I will have an idea of what I want to do and I'll get started on it.  Then, I realize it was the wrong thing and I'm picking it out to do something else.  This time, it was prompted by Rob.  

I'd put in some really cute quilting.  It would have made a delightful show quilt.  And, I brought Rob in to see it and he complimented it.  He didn't provide any feedback, just asked one simple question.  "Is that going to be soft?"  And, of course, it was not.  It was already stiffening up.  And, I know that my usual 3/8"  between lines of quilting was going to make a stiff baby quilt.  So, I picked half of it out.  Now, I'm going to pick out the rest.   3/8" is great for show quilting.  It makes for a beauty of a quilt.  But, it doesn't make a very cuddly, soft quilt to wrap a baby in.  For that I need 3/4 to 1".  

I'm a believer that if the quilting looks bad, it's because there's not enough of it.  So, if I'm having trouble with the way a section of a quilt looks, I put enough quilting into it that you don't see the mistakes (unless you look closer than it's polite to look.)  The less quilting there is, the better it has to be.  And, when I picked out half the echo quilting I'd put into the large flower petals, I realized what was left wasn't very good.  In fact, those petals are so large that they might not lend themselves to echo work at all...long lines and large curves are hard to do on a domestic machine.  I have to change hand placement multiple times in a space that large, and every time, I run the risk of slightly changing the direction of the line.  We'll have to see what I end up doing there.  I might be able to do it if I draw it in.  For now, I'm just doing outlining around all the flowers and leaves.  I can come back to those large petals later, after I've gotten a feel for how this quilt wants to be quilted.  

We took it out into the sunshine after I'd pin basted it the other day, to see it in natural light.  It's lovely.  I hope my niece thinks so, too.

Last week, my boss had me do a research project.  Technically, there's a group that should be doing this work, but they're not, so he asked me to.  It was a fun project, looking deep into a competitor's practices.  They keep what he's looking for under very tight wraps and I only found a little bit about it, but I found a wealth of other info that we didn't know.  We had a meeting on Friday for me to present findings.  He had no interest in what I found.  It wasn't what he was looking for and that's all he cared about.  Now, I know that what I found could help break into the competitor's advantage in the market, and there was a time I would have pushed back and made that research known.  But, that time is passed.  I got nothin' to prove anymore.   His loss.  Getting old and being disregarded sucks.  

Anyway, I went through my current spending last week to check how close we are to retirement.  And, it's looking good.  We don't spend a lot, and the rest goes into savings so there will be cash during that year I'm not planning to work, but before I want to start collecting social security.  Then, there will be a year when Rob doesn't work and doesn't collect retirement, but by then, I should be, so we're planning to dive in and hope for the best.  That's faith!

Today, I'm taking the Prius to the shop to have a repair done.  We've been waiting on the part for a few weeks.  Cars are getting more complicated and people don't seem to realize that makes them harder and more expensive to repair (which is partially driving the cost of insurance).  Cars were simpler when they only needed to get us where we were going and didn't need to be home entertainment centers capable of making decisions for us.  

Okay, that's all that's going on around here.  The weather seems to have broken and yesterday, a lot of us were wearing a long sleeve shirt early in the morning.  I sure hope the 100*F days are done.  I need to get this baby quilt finished because it's about to be gardening season again.  

Everybody have a great week!  Find things you enjoy doing and get them done!  

Lane