Last of the thread

I was quilting with a particularly luscious verigated Madera thread when I ran out. I wonder what other quilters do - do they start quilting with a fresh spool of thread for each quilt and calculate whether it will be enough? How would you do that? I can't picture myself keeping an inventory of how much thread I've used each time I picked up a spool. Lots of my projects are pretty small, often postcard sized, and I use just a little of any one spool.
Luckily for me, Hancock's is so close. They don't carry Madera but I found a Sulky that was no where near as luscious but was close enough. If anyone noticed the thread change, which isn't likely, it would look intentional.

I wish the Hancock's here had more quilting fabric and less fleece, but I'm so happy to be able to put my fingers on a spool of good quilting thread in about five minutes that I'm not complaining. I don't buy much fabric anyway, although it's always nice to buy a little of something wonderful.



I started quilting on the orange, then moved on to the pink. It was while I was quilting on the red that I had that moment when I realized that I really like this quilt. I've found that this is usually what happens - I'll start out thinking a design looks pretty good but as I work on it I start to dispair of its ever looking really good. I've learned that usually I should just keep going and there will come a point - that hooray! moment - when I'm excited.

The good news is that now the quilting is done and the binding is on. Binding is never my favorite part. Now I can start on the embellishments - silver cords for the balloons, running stitches, beads. At that point, every new addition helps the quilt look quickly better, and I love that.

Nora came this afternoon while her dad worked on my kitchen countertop. There will be kitchen pictures here soon. Sarah found some old dolls and Barbies when she was here, and Nora is such a doll girl, at least for awhile. Then she wanted to go to the nearby park and be mighty as she played on the climbing equipment.