Today...Back to Quilting Again!

After a 3-4 week hiatus from sewing in the hopes my impinged rotator cuff would have a chance to heal, I finally chose to sew anyway. I was undergoing withdrawal symptoms from not using my creativity anywhere but inside my head! Meanwhile, the "Ribbon" quilt has been literally "in" the sewing machine where I left it last...creating constant temptation. Yet I was too afraid of increasing the pain to even give sewing a try. But yesterday, I'd had enough of this self-imposed dry spell. It was wonderful to begin drawing once again with my Bernina. The quilt is mainly red on black, so the quilting has been lots of fun just allowing it to evolve whatever way the curves seemed to indicate. I had completed quilting most of the red image, using varying shades of red through orange. And I chose some blue to quilt behind the red image...and was planning on using black thread for the outside of the entire design to the edge so it fade into the background and not compete with the focal point for attention. Then I decided to highlight the foreground by using a blue thread to quilt between the ribbons as they sway gently on the surface of the quilt. Below you can see some of the colors of thread that I was contemplating today using in place of black.

And here is some of the background quilted:

I decided to opt for varying shades of blue to create a different kind of contrast between the background and the foreground and I'm pleased with the results. Lighter blue threads are at the top, gradually getting darker towards the bottom. About half of the quilt is now quilted - and so far today, I'm not experiencing any pain. I did last night, however...so today I spent more time maintaining awareness of my shoulder position as I sewed and lowering my shoulders every time I noticed they'd crept up yet again.

Today started out quite frosty and cold, yet above you can see my winter pansy is still in her glory. Below are some of the other things I saw or did throughout the day into the evening.





The Full Cold Moon Monday evening, December 4, 2006.