Monthly Archives: January 2011

Rainbow Flower & January Clamshell Report

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The Cranes Circling Flowers at Dusk, aka rainbow flower, is something I can’t resist stitching!  So much so that, when I couldn’t sleep because of a migraine, I was fussy cutting six more flowers and cranes from another fabric at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday.  I have everything cut and printed now for the rest of this piece and hope to have the main piecing finished by mid-week.  When it’s finished, we’re going to have to find a way to photograph it.  The light at this time of year makes for not great photographs.  I can’t wait until spring comes and the roof garden reopens!

When I pulled out the storage container with the Oriental prints and batiks to choose the fabrics in this, I also hauled out the container with striped and directional fabrics. I have a feeling fussy cutting some stripes for this block will be the next thing I play with, although I’m also very tempted to do something with shabby chic fabrics.

I don’t have much to show for the January clamshell report.  While I’ve made lots of the black and white arcs for the Pickled Ladies, I only put together two of the pickled clamshells.  To see the list of and links to participants in the Clamshell Club, go to Cybele’s Patch.

On the weekend, I got a lot of the cream hexagons for the POTC blocks stitched.  At this point, I only need to stitch together the ones needed for two more blocks and that part will be done.  So I feel like progress is being made.  We were taking trying to take a picture of a finished POTC block when Smudge decided he needed to help. You can just see a bit of the block that he’s lying on.

Lester was having a snooze.

Rainbow Flower

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(Click on photo to enlarge)

In the February/March 2011 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine, there’s an article on Mosaic Patchwork blocks and Rainbow Flower is one of the blocks featured.  With all the fabulous curves in this block, I think it’s irresistible — particularly as a new Inklingo collection for the Rainbow Flower was released on Thursday.

I’m calling this “Cranes Circling Flower at Dusk”.  It’s not quite finished as one more round will be added to it, if not more.  This one won’t be a large piece, but rather a smaller one with a pretty border which I’m already planning.

Within minutes of downloading the collection, I had prepared my window templates so I could fussy cut the two larger shapes.  Within a few minutes after that, I had the fabric cut and ready to print.  A few hours later, my block was done.

I was tempted to start another shabby chic quilt with this collection, and may well do that yet but the Oriental prints were what first grabbed my imagination.  Imagine this with novelty prints fussy cut for a child’s quilt!  Maybe some stripes for the connecting shapes.   Or a wonderful polka dot print or — the ideas just are flying through my mind!

The back:

When we take photos of quilt-related things, we generally put a board on the pink chair with a piece of grey fabric over it.  As I was getting things ready to take the photo of the Rainbow Flower, Smudge decided he wanted to lay down and have a snooze.  I literally turned my back for a second to get the block, turned around and there he was, already asleep.  We gently moved him and carried on.

Lester found himself a comfortable spot on the loveseat.

Pretty Fabrics

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While I know I’ll probably add to and subtract from this group of fabrics, I like the look of these for something.  What exactly, I’m not sure, but they’re staying together when they’re put away.  There’s a wonderful paisley fabric in that group that I know will be great for some fussy cutting.

What have I been doing?  Not much to show at the moment as I’ve been making more of the cream hexagon frames for the POTC blocks, spent a bit of time sorting out just how large I’ll make the Summer Picnic Dish and then figured out what I still need to print in order to make it the size I’ve decided upon, decided on two borders for a quilt top that I haven’t shown yet, and spent a bit of time working through another EQ lesson — on Tuesday, that is.  Wednesday was a bit of a write-off.

While I’m going to print all the pieces I need for the Summer Picnic Dish, I’m going to concentrate on making the arc/melon combinations and then, once those are done, start putting the top together.  I”m going to have to use a few different white on white fabrics as I don’t have anywhere near enough of the one I started with but I’m not stressed about that.

While we aren’t getting the snow that New York got, I had a migraine that just wouldn’t quit on Wednesday from that storm.  Didn’t stop me from stitching, but sure stopped me from dealing with anything on the computer.

I’m not sure what Lester was looking at when this picture was taken.  Probably a kitty toy on the floor.

Smudge has been playing more with toys over the past couple of days and his appetite is definitely on the increase.  We’re still syringe feeding, and likely will be for at least another month, but I think there’s progress.

Arcs for Pickle Dish Block

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Seeing Karen Dianne’s beautiful Pickle Dish block done in Kaffe Fassett fabrics inspired me to get back to work on my Summer Picnic Dish.  Another dish actually got added to those already joined but we didn’t get a photo of that yet.

Putting together the arc/melon combination is something I really enjoy so I think I’ll concentrate on making the arcs for a bit and hopefully get the quilt top finished fairly quickly.  I’m not planning to make the Summer Picnic Dish larger than a lap quilt, so it shouldn’t take too long.

The back of an arc/melon combo.  I prefer to press the arc towards the melon as it ensures that the points of the triangles in the arcs stay as sharp as possible.

Over the past few days I’ve been trying to decide exactly what my goals for this year are as far as quilting goes.  While I have a number of projects on the go that I want to finish, I also want to start concentrating more on designing.  Sometimes I feel like I want to do it all, and I know that’s rather unrealistic.  I’ve flirted with these ideas:

  • make a series of two-colour quilts
  • make a series of heirloom baby quilts
  • concentrate on designing and learning EQ or some other drawing program
  • make a series of shabby chic quilts
  • make a series of batik quilts

It seems like a daunting list, and I’m sure I’ve left off some items.

The baby quilt was basted on Monday and the quilting of it will begin today.  It won’t take long as it’s not a big quilt, but I’d like to have it done and bound by the weekend.  Then I’ll just be waiting to hear what the baby’s name is to finish the label.  Other than the baby quilt and some hand piecing in the evenings, the balance of my quilting time this week is going to be spent on learning EQ.

It was incredibly cold again on Monday and the cats found cozy spots to curl up. Lester on the couch.

And Smudge was in a kitty bed.

Lost and Then Found

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The POTC blocks, that is.  I was looking for a particular fabric and, along with finding it, found these blocks.  I knew they weren’t lost, just incredibly well tucked away.  It was a good thing I found them so easily as this is one of the projects that I’m determined to finish in 2011.

There aren’t many blocks that still need their cream hexagon frame, so I decided to add the framing hexagons to one block on Sunday.  It still needs the purple connecting squares, but those don’t take long to add.

The back:

The weekend was bitterly, bitterly cold.  We’re supposed to get somewhat warmer temperatures on Tuesday, so just have to get through today when they say we may have wind chills of -30 yet again.   I’ll be spending time this afternoon crawling around on our neighbour’s floor as I baste a couple of quilts, including the baby quilt.

On Saturday, we noticed Lester on the loveseat and had to take this picture.  Made us laugh to see his tail hanging straight down to the floor.

Smudge couldn’t resist an empty bag.   He was in it before we could turn around and we got this shot just shortly after he came back out.

More Stormy Seas

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A bit more contrast than the last one.   Putting these blocks together gets easier with each one.  Hopefully that means I’ll be able to keep to my goal of 2 blocks a week.  No guarantees on that as I found myself looking at the autumn colours fabrics I had pulled out for a Winding Ways idea.

There’s another design floating in my mind that’s made with Drunkard’s Path blocks.  That one is as irresistible as the Winding Ways.  So far I haven’t pulled any fabrics for it, but it’s getting awfully close. As soon as the baby quilt is quilted and bound, I have a feeling I’ll be starting one of those two.

My Patchwork of the Crosses blocks seem to have been put away a bit too well.  This may finally teach me to label the boxes in which I put blocks so that I don’t need to go through every one in order to find whatever it is I’m looking for.

Smudge was eating a bit more on his own on Thursday.  Still nowhere near the 250 calories he needs, so the syringe feeding continues.

Earlier in the day, Lester had been grooming Smudge.  Normally, Smudge would never let him do that but these days he seems to be quite enjoying the attention.

A Few Little Blocks

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The final few klosjes are done.  I think my total is somewhere around 120 of them finished.  Once I get a chance to lay them out and figure out the arrangement, it won’t take long to get the little teddy bear quilt put together.

Wednesday night I really couldn’t seem to focus on just one thing so, along with making the final few klosjes, I put together these LeMoyne Stars.  I have a total of 11 of them done, with the pieces for 19 more printed and ready to stitch.  Another baby quilt in the making — this one clearly for a girl as all the stars will be a pink of some sort or another.

The political ads are beginning — although no election has been called yet, it seems it may not be that far off.  I have a feeling we’ll be renting a lot of videos or watching things we’ve recorded so we can fast forward through the ads.   My tolerance for the self-serving or attack ads is zero.  I don’t usually say anything about politics on my blog, but the ad I saw Wednesday night made my skin crawl.  If this is what we have to look forward to, I’d rather ignore the whole thing altogether.

It was very cold on Wednesday and promises to be even colder today.  We are definitely back in the deep freeze for a few days.  Great timing to spend lots of time stitching.  Smudge found a spot to curl up.

While Lester decided to guard the toy basket.

Two Pickled Ladies

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While I’ve made quite a few of the arcs for them, I haven’t put together many of the Pickled Lady blocks this month.  So I thought I’d best get a start on making some for January with these two.

Our weather has been incredibly topsy-turvy the past few days.  We’ve gone from relatively mild for mid-January to bitter cold  to rain and mild and now we’re heading back into the deep freeze for a few days.  At least the rain that fell got rid of most of the snow that lingered.

Smudge decided to sprawl out on the loveseat.  This winter weather definitely means sleepy kitties.

Lester was curled up in a kitty bed.

Low Contrast Stormy Seas

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A low-contrast Stormy Seas block.  I’d like to get this top completed relatively quickly, so am going to try to complete two of the blocks each week.

I’m still trying to resist starting something with the Winding Ways shapes.  There’s something so magical about putting that block together that I find it almost impossible to resist.  I’m trying to bribe myself with the promise I can start a Winding Ways project when I get something finished — the baby quilt, the pink and cream or another toddler quilt that has been waiting to be quilted for ages.

My wrists were hurting Monday, so I decided to stay away from doing anything that would aggravate them and it worked.  By late Monday evening, the pain had pretty well gone completely.   So today I will catch up with responding to comments.

It was a cold day on Monday and both cats found places to snooze.  Lester sprawled out on the loveseat.

Smudge in one of those poses that always makes me laugh.