Odd title, isn’t it? Once I had this much of the top together, I knew I was committed to making it. So it really did end up feeling rather like an assembly line for a while over the Christmas break as I printed everything I need to make my version of Willyne Hammerstein’s Can Can  quilt from Millefiori Quilts 3 and then got everything sorted into boxes. I’m thinking I may call my version of it Poinsettia as the red, pink and green with white make me think of poinsettias, although that could well be because Christmas is just over and there were poinsettias everywhere. But I think poinsettia or poinsettia something has a chance of ending up as the name of the quilt.

The result of all that printing is contained in three boxes. This is the largest box of the three and has all the large white diamonds as well as some of the other skinny diamonds I’ll need.

This box has all the pieces for the remaining stars and partial stars I need to make for the top.

The final box has more of the skinny red, white, pink and green diamonds that are needed.

I’m going to hybrid piece this one. There’s loads and loads of wonderful continuous hand piecing in this design. Some of the elements involve sewing two large or skinny diamonds together. In cases where I’m going to run into that, I’m going to start chain piecing the sets of two together by machine. Then all that will be left will be lots and lots of lovely continuous hand piecing. That way, I get to see the quilt top finished sooner than I might otherwise and I won’t get bored at all with all that fun continuous hand piecing in front of me!

So far I have all 10 stars ready for the next round – that’s how I’m thinking of this as I put it together. I love the 10-point stars but I would not want to be making them any way but with Inklingo – it’s so much easier to sew these together with the perfect stitching lines and matching points printed on my fabric. It helps as well that the red fabric does not fray and isn’t as thick as some quilting cottons can be, but rather somewhat more like a batik as far as thickness goes.

These are being graded as I go so the back of each one looks like this. The next step is to start adding them to the centre, which will be yet more lovely continuous hand piecing. I can’t imagine how much bulk there would be in the centre of the stars if the seams weren’t graded. As it is, after a good pressing, they lie perfectly flat.

“Can Can Production Line”

I couldn’t resist this photo of Baxter with his outstretched paws.