We’re back!! My good friend Barb, at Just Sayin’ Sew, and I are once again simul-blogging (that’s what we’ve decided to call setting our blog posts to publish at the same time) with our Inklingo Star/Morse Star projects.

I finished my Morse Star project! I’m calling this top Flowers for Morse. Mr. Q.O. and I loved the Inspector Morse series so much that we’ve been known to watch an episode again and again. As soon as I saw the Morse Star in the Inklingo Star collection, I was well and truly sunk and had to make it. I didn’t even think about making some Inklingo Stars at that point – I just had to make Morse Stars.

Flowers for Morse finished at 54″ made up of four of the 18″ Morse Star blocks, four alternate 9″ star blocks as cornerstones and 9″ border strips of the fabric I used to fussy cut/print the kites in the Morse Stars and alternate stars. While it is mostly pieced by hand, I did machine piece some of the block corners and the borders were added by machine. I think this is the fastest I’ve ever put a top together and I enjoyed every single stitch. I actually felt a little lost when I finished it and had a couple of evenings when I didn’t stitch at all – totally unheard of for me.

Now? Now I’m planning an Inklingo Star top with — well, I’m not 100% sure yet but I will be using Inklingo Stars with an alternate block and there will be loads and loads and loads of fussy cutting/printing involved. It may be a while before it gets going as I have some other projects that have to come first. But oh, how those Inklingo Stars call to me. And when you go see Barb’s you’ll see why! Fussy cutting/printing makes them impossible to resist.

Today is a double ‘toon day. The finish of Flowers for Morse calls for a repeat of the first ‘toon Mr. Q.O. did when I started on the Morse Stars. Why? Because I think this ‘toon is extra special and wanted it to be in this blog post as my blog is also my quilt diary of sorts. To me, the ‘toon and the finished top belong together.

And “Flowers for Morse” also belongs with the finished top.

Sheesh – I don’t think I’ve ever felt quite so emotional about a top. I think it has something to do with the brilliant portrayal of Inspector Morse by John Thaw – at the end of every episode, we always felt sad for him as he seemed like such a lonely man. Invariably one of us would say, “Poor Morse!” And then we’d wait, impatiently at times, for the next episode as we couldn’t wait to see more. So a huge thank you goes to Linda Franz, the inventor of Inklingo, for the Inklingo Star collection that gave me the shapes I needed to make this quilt top which clearly has huge meaning to me.

One chair, two cats. First Jake was having a nap.

Another day Baxter was draped rather elegantly over the arm of the same chair.

Now head over to Barb’s blog post today to see her incredible Inklingo Stars. You really do not want to miss them – the effects she has been getting with fussy cutting/printing are absolutely fantastic!