Finish Marking Tomorrow

Pennsylvania has some hot, humid days in the summer. Today it is about 90F and tomorrow it's supposed to be 97F, but whatever it is, I will finish marking the quilt top tomorrow. I marked all the center blocks today with a fan blowing at my back and it will be the same tomorrow. The new/old house does have central air conditioning but because the old house has two foot thick stone walls, putting in the duct work meant that some of the ducts are in spaces where they are less effective.

Monday is always my biggest cleaning day as well, changing the sheets on the beds, dusting and vacuuming everywhere so I will do some marking before I begin the cleaning and finish after the cleaning. I always baste my layers on my living room rug so I want to make sure the floor and carpet are clean before I move all the furniture out of the way. Suzanne Marshall, a Paducah grand prize winner, had a book that showed her sitting cross legged on the floor basting, but she and her husband had planned her quilt room down to what kind of carpet and underlayment she had and I have never had that luxury. So I move the living room furniture off the antique Chinese dragon and phoenix rug and work on that. The rug is smooth, short, dense pile and the underlayment is a horsehair pad. For some reason it holds push pins better than my Indian rug in the dining room so that is why I work there. Yes, it is an antique and yes, I am sure it has value, but it was in my husband's parents' house and his grandparents' house before that so it has some moth damage and simple wear from being under one or another piece of furniture for too long without rotation. It's a family heirloom not a priceless antique.

The basting is my absolute least favorite part of quilting and having just recovered from a bout of sciatic nerve problems I am not looking forward to it. But it is at the heart of a good, hand-quiltingd job, making the difference between easy quilting and straight hanging and something resembling poorly made clothing. I may or may not finish tomorrow since the quilt is quite big but no matter what I will be quilting by Wednesday anyway.

Luckily we finished what we could of our wood refinishing yesterday in the main room. We cannot go further until we have some space to put the rest of the art. What we have done looks splendid after looking very tired, worn, and dry. I hung curtains in all those windows, and made some for an odd ship's prow shaped window that faces west. Anyone with quilts knows how harsh sunlight is on the fabric and compound that with  wool rugs and art work consisting of primarily works on paper and the necessity of having curtains no matter how crepuscular that makes the area is obvious.