Taking the Step

It's true, it's true. I'm on my way to completing my first step for January! hip, hip, hooray! I did not think this day would actually come, but it has, my dear friends, indeed it has!

I wasn't feeling it this morning, but the machine was calling. No sense in wasting that call. Forty five minutes later, this baby quilt was assembled. (These are the blocks I made on January 1.)

I celebrated this second finished quilt top (in two days, no less!!) by adding up my sales tax owed for 2008, writing the check, and putting it in the mail. woohoo. Then I paid the rest of the bills. And went to the post office. And the dry cleaner. With that, I was ready for some serious quilting. I can't even remember the last time I quilted. Do I still remember how to do it? Indeed I do. January's goal is the fill the green triangles on this quilt. The first thing I did was fill the corner triangles.


After a dinner break, I quilted two of the larger, setting triangles.


I started getting sloppy, so I will save the last six for tomorrow. But folks, I'm at Step point5, and it's all good.

...until I get to the next step on this quilt. Actually, there may only be one step left on this quilt, unless I need to remove the binding and redo it. (The binding issue may or may not be resolved with the green quilting.) The last step is the trapunto, and I'm up against the wall on this one.

I'm doing trapunto the old-fashioned way, I'm stuffing the quilting with yarn, after it's quilted. Therein lies the problem. I have to stuff my way around the border (and maybe stuff the green, but I'm going to try to avoid that).

I have to stuff my way around the border, and I'm running out of yarn. This is all I have left, and it's not much.


I don't remember where I bought this acrylic 3-ply yarn. It was specifically marketed as "trapunto yarn." The first time I bought it, I bought 100 yards and it came unwound, in a plastic bag. The second time, it came on this cone. Perhaps holding it will give you an idea of its size?


It reminds me of school yarn (remember that stuff from when we were kids?) but it's much softer. Again, here's a picture to give you an idea of how fluffy it is, and show that it's 3 ply.


Here's a close-up, so you can see exactly what it looks like.

If anyone out there knows a source for this yarn, PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU! tell me where to get it!! I've looked and looked, but am having no success whatsoever. Or, if you have some in your possession, that you're looking to be rid of, Please! Pick me! Let me know how much you want for it, and I'll take it off your hands!

In the meantime, I hope to finish my official January step before the end of January. Stay tuned, there WILL be celebratory pictures!