Threads

It's finally summer weather with temperatures in the upper 80'sF. Our daughter and son-in-law were staying at a cottage on Lake Michigan (water temp was in the 70sF!) and we went to see them earlier this week. This is what was happening:

And this:

New game--she throws, and Grampa pulls her over to fetch the ball. (That boat is probably about 25 years old. Her mommy and uncle used to play in it.)

And this: 

Elsa Blue and pink. (My manicurist is 3 1/2 years old). Aw, it's starting to chip off now, but I hate to change it.

Not much work done on the quilt, but there was a lot going on in my head, and by that, I mean indecision. I did finish my practice piece for quilting the Big Quilt.

Here's part of it:

And another view:

I decided that I like the wavy lines and the meanders the best. But now that I've quilted the flowers in a darker gray, I'm liking them better, too, although I need to make them a little simpler than I did on the coral fabric. I also like the straight lines when they are closer together. 

I used leftover all-purpose thread for my practice, and decided that I liked light and dark grays. But deciding which grays was daunting. I finally ordered variegated threads from Superior. They came today.(Love their fast service!)

Here's what I got:

I settled on King Tut Canaan (middle) and Pumice (right). The one on the left is Masterpiece in Granite for the bobbin. I haven't used a lighter weight thread in the bobbin before, but thought it might work well for this quilt. I like the colors quite well, although there is a tiny bit of gray in the Pumice that's lighter than I expected, so I might order a solid (Pewter) for the darkest fabrics. We'll see how it goes. I also bought a thread card so that (hopefully) I won't spend so much time trying to figure out colors for my next quilt. Picking colors on a computer screen is just no fun at all. 

Now I really need to get that backing pieced so I can baste the quilt.

I'm linking up with My Quilt Infatuation and with Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing (Free Motion Mavericks) this week. (Lizzie: my straight and wavy lines are walking foot, but my meanders and flowers are FMQ!).

Have a great weekend everyone!