The Space Between

Judging by the thermometer, we had a nice day outside (+10 Celsius) but the wind told a different chilly story. Despite that, the bees were very active.
Near the hives are alder buds which are an early source of pollen - and thus protein - for their spring feeding.

I was glad to have wool socks inside my boots on a day like this. The plum wool socks are progressing tediously. The yarn is much thicker than I am used to and is slowing me down. I suspect a change to larger needles would have been prudent but already these socks look huge with the number of stitches I am knitting. The shrinkage factor is the unknown and I am aiming large because of that. I've already asked hubby if he can wear this colour in case they turn out too large. The colour of the yarn is really appealing to me so I hope they end up as mine :)

The quilting has begun on the latest New York Beauty project and I am enjoying it a great deal. First the straight line, stitch-in-the-ditch work with the walking foot secures the piece so the safety pins may be removed for the free motion work...the part I love.I am not a big fan of marking quilting designs. Some might call that lazy, but I'd prefer to think of it as an efficient use of quilting time because when you don't mark you don't have marks to remove afterwards. I use the guides which fit through the back of the feet whenever possible. All the marking that's been done on this top is a small circle in the centre - everything else echoes from that.

The spikes of the NYB purposely only receive a lick-and-a-promise when it comes to quilting as I like them to stand out a bit. Too much quilting will flatten them down and that's not the effect I am aiming for. I had a spool of Sulky Blendables I picked up at Timeless Stitches awhile back which was a perfect choice to accent the Fossil Fern fabric. The colours of the thread echoed the subtle colour change in the fabric very nicely.

My preference is to quilt the background - the space between the spikes -fairy heavily, sometimes in stippling and sometimes in a motif which adds movement to the block. I have been sketching out different shapes on paper for this quilt, but nothing is really jumping out at me yet so this will sit and perk for a bit. In the meantime, I will work some more on those plum socks...