I didn’t mean to disappear for a week, but the latest ribbon flower became a real challenge when it came to finding just the right fabrics for it. I thought I had the perfect pinks chosen for it as they looked just fine when I pulled them and put them to the daylight test. But when the same fabrics were printed, cut and sewn together, they just did not cooperate and give me the effect I was after. Everything was fine until I got to the last shape on the outer edge of the flower. I ended up printing more than a couple of fabrics with that shape before I finally got to the right one.
Finally, after numerous attempts, the pink carnation is done!
The back, after pressing but before any grading of the seams.
And the spare parts department? It grew. By a fair bit. Although, in fairness, a couple of those stacks of shapes were added after I picked apart two other blocks that were partially pieced. Clearly I have more pink flowers to make with all these spare pink parts!
I’ve also printed the shapes for three more flowers for the Garden Gone Wild quilt.
Want a little tour of the entrance to the building? Let’s start here. The gardeners planted these mums along the walkway up to the building this week.
At either side of the entrance to the building are these floral displays.
And this week we’ve had this display in the elevator lobby.
“Prom Night”
I thought I was just getting a photo of Jake when I took this but realized after that Baxter was there as well. Shortly after this picture was taken, they were both very intently looking out at something on the roof garden.
Quilt Obsession 
That flower is just absolutely marvelous!!! You are surely coming up with a great variety for your garden!
Baxter was just photo bombing the Jake picture!
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Thank you!! Of course – you’re right, Baxter was photo bombing Jake’s picture!
Cathi
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Beautiful!
Can you tell me what “grading the seams” means?
I’m a new quilter.
Thanks,
Kath
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I’m sorry it took so long to reply! Grading the seams is a technique used in garment construction frequently but I learned about it in quilting from Linda Franz, the inventor of Inklingo and author of the Quilted Diamonds books.
If you take a look at this picture on my blog which shows the back of a Winding Ways block after I trimmed/graded the seams, I think it’s really easy to see what I do. Basically I just cut off a sliver of the top fabric in each seam. It helps cut down on bulk and, in a block with many pieces or where there are many points right at the centre of a block like the Ribbon Flower block, it can really make a big difference. It also helps a quilt drape really nicely and, for a hand quilter, makes quilting a bit easier.
For a new quilter, I think the best lessons to be had anywhere about hand piecing are those found in Linda Franz’ Quilted Diamonds 2 book. Not only do the pictures and lessons in the book give you a fabulous foundation for hand piecing, there is a two-hour lesson on DVD with Linda that comes with the book. It is like having a one-on-one lesson with Linda any time you want and the production values of it are fantastic. Even if making the diamonds in the Quilted Diamonds books is not something you’re interested in, the lessons in that book and on the DVD are absolutely worth their price in gold! I know that the foundation I got from those lessons has made a huge difference in how I approach hand piecing and makes it so easy to successfully make even the complicated blocks.
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Ah, Mr. O. A white sport coat and a pink carnation…………
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Mr. Q.O. immediately came up with that when I told him what the flower was!
Cathi
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Ditto to Whiskers’ comment, they were the first words to come to my mind. Shows what generation we belong to!!! Cathi, do you have a huge stash of fabrics, order them online, or go to a fabric shop and chose some of all shades? Love the cats together.
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I’m lucky that I had collected a decent stash of FQs over the years. So far I’ve not had to buy anything for this quilt top but have shopped my stash. That said, it’s getting a bit more challenging now to find just the right fabrics for certain flowers or for the background print to use with a flower. I don’t like shopping online if I’m trying to find a specific colour as images can be so different than what you see in person.
Cathi
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Your carnation is beautiful. As are the gardener’s and florist’s displays. How lucky you are to live in such a place. White jackets and carnations takes us back to a new and exciting time in our lives!
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Thank you! We are extremely fortunate living here – the corporate entity that owns the complex really does keep it up beautifully.
Cathi
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