46 of the Pickled Ladies, that is, joined together. Now that I’ve started grading the seams, the difference in the weight of the top is very obvious. It will also make the quilting of this easier, as I am definitely planning on hand quilting it.
There aren’t too many more rows to go. Then it will be time to start adding the partial pickled ladies around the edges and then find the perfect border fabric.
Baxter patrols the windowsill even at night, particularly on windy and rainy nights.
Trimming of seams, that is. Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time grading the seams on the Pickled Ladies. It makes an enormous difference in the weight of the top as well as how it drapes. I’m cutting less than an eighth of an inch off the black triangles in all the arcs. I put one trimming on a ruler to show how little I’m actually cutting off the seam allowance.
This little vase is now almost full of the trimmings.
In this close-up of the back of one of the blocks, you can see how it looks after trimming. While I don’t always grade the seams on quilts, for the Pickled Ladies quilt it makes a big difference and is worth the time and effort.
Baxter was lounging on top of a couch.
The fourth row is now added. They’re easy to put together, thanks to the stitching liens and matching points.
It’s a little difficult to tell from this photo, but the intersection where they meet is easy to press by pressing one of the arcs over the other beside it and then pressing the one below it over both of those. It may look a bit bulky, but it actually isn’t.
Quilting on the Ferris Wheel quilt is going rather slowly but I am getting it done. Baxter is insistent on helping whenever there’s a quilt on my lap, whether I’m quilting or tacking down binding. At one point last night, he was right under the hoop. He seems to think it’s play time as he attacks my hand that’s underneath the quilt.
Among the stars I have ready to stitch are a number of LeMoyne Stars in different fabric combinations. They’re from a swap of Inklingo pieces that was done a couple of years ago. While I’m not sure just how many stars I’ll end up with, I don’t plan to add to them unless it’s necessary to get an appropriate number for a small quilt setting.
They take only a second to press.
Another one of the 6-point stars made with 1.5″ diamonds. When they’re all made, I’ll decide how I want to set them.
It rained all day Tuesday and, by the sounds of our forecast, is going to rain all day today. At one point Tuesday it looked like perhaps there was some freezing rain mixed in, but thankfully no snow.
Another photo of Baxter helping as I was putting the binding on the flannel quilt.
For the past few years, I’ve had these set aside – two charm packs and a yard of one of the fabrics – waiting for an idea. Every few months, I’d get them out and look at them hoping for inspiration.
On the weekend, thanks to a new Inklingo collection of squares that are designed to go with this collection of HSTs, inspiration finally struck. I’m going to make a quilt composed of a couple of different sizes of square in a square blocks.
These blocks finish at 5″ and are made using the 3.53″ square with the 2.5″ HST. I’ll also make some 2.5″ blocks using the 1.77″ square with the 1.25″ HST and perhaps two more sizes, just for the sheer fun of making them.
They go together very quickly and press like a dream.
Baxter is definitely becoming a real quilter’s cat. Here is he lounging beneath the quilt rack and draped over the base of the floor hoop. His favourite toy, Cappy, is also close by.
This seems to be my week of working on stars and more stars. The larger purple star is made with 1.5″ diamonds and seems enormous in comparison to the little pink star made with 1″ diamonds.
Finger-pressing as they’re stitched means it only takes one quick press with the iron and they’re done.
There’s a box full of the larger diamonds in varying shades. While I’m not 100 per cent sure yet, I’m pretty sure I’m going to set these with large hexagons.
Baxter spent a lot of time on the windowsill on Wednesday. There were a lot of grackles on the roof garden lawn keeping him entertained.
The scrappy star is still growing. With this latest round of diamonds it’s now almost 32″. Each round is taking longer to add, but I’m determined to get it to around 45″. Then I’ll add some elements to turn it into a rectangular quilt that can be used as a lap quilt. At least that’s the current plan.
It’s also taking longer to press after each round.
Baxter was determined to get in the picture.
Earlier in the day he was watching squirrels playing in the trees out on the roof garden. I think he looks like he’s smiling.
Along with the 8-point pink stars, a bevy of colourful 6-point stars are being made. I have some ideas for setting these, but will wait to decide until I have all of them made. Perhaps a multi-colour Seven Sisters quilt? Or perhaps hexagons and stars? Or perhaps something altogether different. In the meantime, I’m having fun putting these together. They’re very quick to stitch and it’s really satisfying to see the stack of stars grow.
These are all 1″ diamonds ready to be stitched into stars. I have no idea how many stars I’ll end up with or how many quilts might be made using them. While some are ones I printed, the vast majority came from various swaps of fabrics printed with the 1″ diamonds using Inklingo.
Baxter was very interested in the diamonds. Shortly after this picture was taken, a few of the bags containing the diamonds were on the floor.
He’s looking less and less like a little kitten now, although he’s definitely still acting like one.
Pink stars, that is. Not sure what these are going to turn into, but making these stars just seemed to have to happen. So far there are 16 of them. They will be 6″ if finished as LeMoyne Star blocks but that’s completely undecided at this point.
They may end up as the centres of a different block altogether. Or perhaps they’re going to be a border on something else. I’m really just having fun making stars.
Baxter has been very busy the past week, chasing leaves as they fly by the window and watching as the gardeners prepared the flowerbeds on the roof garden for the winter. Here he was relaxing on the couch.
Last week I was dealing with fatigue from a treatment. I can feel my energy level increasing and am looking forward to getting back to blogging this week.
Not a lot of stitching has been done this week, although I now have enough diamonds joined into pairs to start the next round on the scrappy star top. As the scrappy star has grown, I’ve found it easier to put them together into pairs and then, once the placement is figured out, join the pairs into sets for each of the 8 segments.
It’s definitely looking like fall now.
This birch tree has now lost almost all its leaves.
This is a shot of Queen’s Park, a park near our building. Some of the trees still have their gorgeous fall colours.
Baxter was watching me stitch. We think this is his Morris look.
Quilt Obsession 