Musings

Started stitching the Milky Way in. Slowly making progress on it as I am hiding the travelling thread so the back will look nice.

Progress on the constellation quilt has come along quite a lot now. Finished the binding on the quilt over the weekend. I prefer to machine stitch the binding to the front then hand stitch the back side. It gives such a nice finish to the quilt. Took the time to measure it also and it ended up being 72" by 72" (183cm by 183cm).

Behold the stars of the constellations of the northern sky! I love how this quilt has turned out. It was a lot of fun to work on and the effect is so cool in person. Overall I would estimate it took about 90-100 hours to complete. Give or take 10 hours if you want to count the time I spent custom dying the fabric.

I made sure to get a nice photo of it in daylight. For once I also remembered to get a quilt label on it. The back really shows the difference in readability of the quilting on the ice dyed fabric compared to the solid front. Thank you everyone that has followed this. I am glad you all found joy in it.

The ice dying is go, lot of waiting for this as you have to wait for the ice to melt. Takes forever to rinse out the dye afterwards too. So worth it though.

The last of the preparations before I can start the quilting stage are done. Since this is such a large quilt that I am going to be hand quilting and embroidering I really want it baste it in place. What works for me is thread basting the backing to the batting, then the front to the backing and batting to get it extra securing in place. Than I used a close to 600 curved safety pins to pin the quilt pattern onto it. It took me several hours spread out over a few weekends to get this all done.

It has started! Been working on it for a bit now. Really interesting to work on it compared to the first. Having made the Northern Sky already makes it feel like it is stitching up faster. Probably because all those hours mean I am in practice and more fluid at it. Another interesting thing to note is how much it feels like exploring something new but achingly familiar. I know the constellations of the northern sky fairly well, the southern sky not so much. Some are shared but most are new to me.

Sure buddy, but even with everything humans know we sometimes don’t live as long as we wish.

Grace thinking boy it would be great if I make it past 60 considering all that has happened and the stress of another planet.

So picture some years in the future when the xenonite suits are so safe that Grace's class can now take field trips into his biodome. Rocky's there because this is a big moment for everyone involved and also he just loves listening to Grace in his element. One of the more mischievous kids tries to sneak off from the group and there are plenty of chaperones but Grace is the first to notice.

His posture changes, goes focused but loose in a way Rocky's never seen before as he peels of from the crowd. Rocky just stands there, stunned, as he watches his sweet, gangly, goofy, clumsy blob of a friend turn into a hunter. Grace circles around the pebble, slightly crouched, head turned and honed in, arms loose to the sides, and maybe the little one notices and does that nervously excited giggle-squeal thing kids do when they're being chased and tries to get away, but Grace expertly corrals them. He doesn't even have to run for it, he just pens the kid in, lunges-

The thing is, for now, they’ve always mentioned that Ryland is seen as soft and "leaky/wet" by Rocky whenever other Eridians ask about him.

Plus, Ryland is openly clumsy, emotional, and seems to adore teaching and being gentle with children. Sure, they know he’s brave and terrifyingly intelligent—he didn’t achieve what he achieved for nothing.

But it’s when other Eridians ask about human evolution that they start to get a bit scared.

The fact that the human species developed ocular vision just to be able to navigate is quite something. Because, even if it's deficient by Eridian standards, apparently the environment and the human race needed something more than just sound and touch stimuli.

Whenever small rocks or pebbles found their way into the human habitat, Ryland seemed capable of "herding" them so they wouldn't wander too far. Also, on the rare occasions Ryland left his habitat in his suit to walk around Erid (a custom suit with special light generators so he could move and withstand the pressure), he seemed to move with a caution similar to that of a predator.

And another thing? His voice. Ugh.

His vocal cords were mediocre at best. But they could easily recognise the inflections of his emotions.

Ryland was incapable of speaking Eridian properly. He was highly limited. He always used his translator to avoid misunderstandings.

But bloody hell, they once saw him arguing with Rocky.

Rocky was practically cornered by the soft human. Ryland’s shouting and his sharp, biting tone only became more terrifying when they noticed how he was leaning over the other Eridian. And it was only because he’d been interrupted by the scientist that he noticed Ryland was practically in attack-and-hunt mode.

As if his body was instinctively ready to strike at the slightest right stimulus.

Only for him to completely relax and snap right back into that friendly tone the moment he noticed someone else’s presence.

And his reflexes? Terrifying. If his cup was about to fall? Or if one of his children had rushed too quickly up a mound?