Torrent of Fear – Part 3

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared an update about this quilt. I know full well that I’m falling a bit behind on my goal to create 12 goddess quilts this year. Maybe I should change the goal to 12 goddess quilts PIECED, not actually finished!

But then I’d have 12 new UFOs and if my sewing room is any guide, I really don’t need any more UFOs.

So what has been the hold up with Torrent of Fear? The biggest reason is I’ve added a new element to the quilt which makes me scratch my head and wonder how the heck I’m going to quilt it now.

You see, after putting this quilt together, I kept feeling like it was lacking something…some crucial element that needed to go over the goddess’s hair and in the clouds.

Finally I realized I wanted more texture and…well…FIBER. I wanted some YARN in these areas.

But not just any yarn. I wanted yard that was bobbly and chaotic and weird. I also wanted it to be black and gray and as thick as my thumb.

To say it simply: this yarn must not exist.

I looked, I searched, but I didn’t find it.

It doesn’t help that I was being super picky and cheap because I only needed 300 feet of the stuff. Why pay $35 for a giant skein of yarn when you only need a little bit?

So what’s a girl to do? Take up Spinning!

Yes, since the middle of January I’ve been learning how to spin art yarn on a wooden spindle. I’ve been helped along greatly by two books: Respect the Spindle by Abby Franquemont and Get Spun! by Symeon North.

Note: Get Spun! is actually written for use with spinning wheels, not spindles, so it wasn’t as helpful as it could have been, but it was wonderful liberating to find that you can make yarn out of just about anything so long you can twist it, and it will stand still long enough to be twisted!

So far I’ve spun several types of merino wool, regular wool, and some very soft bamboo. It’s so interesting how the different fibers feel and react to being pulled apart and twisted.

After a bit of experimenting and playing, I managed to make this yarn for Torrent of Fear.

This is a 2 ply yarn twisted with a hand painted merino wool and black bamboo. It’s luscious! It’s absolutely everything I wanted it to be so I promptly hand couched it to the surface of the quilt.

Of course it wasn’t long after basting this little beauty up before I realized that really thick yarn is a real pain in the &$$ to free motion quilt around. My foot kept getting hooked to the fiber, and when it’s not getting hung up, the thickness is so great it’s impossible to move the quilt smoothly.

This is probably the only time I’ll ever admit this: I have to quilt this with my walking foot.

Lol! I need the stability of a walking foot to go over the yarn without either shifting it or the layers of the quilt. Once the quilt is secure, then I can go back in and fill each section in free motion without getting so close to the yarn that it catches my darning foot.

And of course, I don’t have a walking foot for any machine except the Janome Horizon which is still broken!

So all and all, I’m not beating myself up for this UFO since I really can’t do anything about it at the moment. This weekend I’ll be taking the Horizon to Greensboro with me to get fully repaired and serviced while I’m teaching class at Ye Olde Forest Quilt Shoppe.

In the meantime, I guess I should start working on getting another goddess together for February.

Time to shut up and go make it!

Leah