Category Archives: hand piecing

Curved Piecing and a Bit of a Curveball

Posted on by

26

As those who have read my blog for a while probably know, I love curved piecing more than just about anything (although hand quilting is quickly climbing back up the favourites list). There is something about it that I find absolutely irresistible. So once the flannel top was finished, I was thinking about my Summer Picnic Dish a.k.a. pickle dish quilt top and, as I had done a lot of printing of the various pieces for it a few weeks back, I started making the melon/arc combos so I can get this one to the lap quilt size sometime within the next few months. I’ve also been adding a bit to the Joseph’s Coat top.  A couple more of the Pickled Ladies have joined the others as well.

Even pressing the melon/arc combos is fun.

I couldn’t resist taking this picture. It’s not the best, but it made me laugh. It was raining here last night and a leaf blew up against our window and stuck there for the longest time. Baxter was on the windowsill countless times while it was there and completely ignored it. I was convinced he’d be trying to paw at it, but obviously it just wasn’t interesting as it wasn’t moving.

Almost all the leaves are off the trees on the roof garden now and Baxter is spending an enormous amount of time on the windowsill watching them. I love this photo of him as it shows off his white eyeliner so well!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve had a bit of a curveball thrown my way. Over the past few months, I’ve been dealing with a health condition and the resultant tests, specialist appointments, et cetera. I’ve now been given the diagnosis of remitting-relapsing MS. There are more tests to come, treatments to begin and more specialist’s visits, so there will undoubtedly be days when I may not have a new post on the blog and/or be visiting and commenting on other’s blogs.

It appears I have had this for at least 20 years and have clearly done quite well, up until this summer. According to my neurologist, there are many, many people who walk around with MS and don’t know it. I am in very good hands. I have had invaluable support from friends who have MS and have given me lots of good information as I’ve travelled down this path and, of course, have had enormous support from Mr. Q.O.

Baxter is providing his very own type of kitty support – laughter is the best thing and watching kitten antics like this, when he was trying to “help” Mr. Q.O. with his cryptic crossword, are guaranteed to bring about laughter and smiles.

Going forward, my intention is not to turn this into a blog about MS, although it may periodically be mentioned as it is part of my life and my blog is about things in my life as well as quilting.

Scrappy Star Again

Posted on by

14

After finishing the flannel top, I needed to do some hand piecing.  Another round is added to scrappy star and it’s now 29 inches.  I think it’s going to end up about twice the size it is now.

I’m glad I decided to press after each round as it only takes a few minutes.  I can’t imagine leaving this whole thing to press until the end.

I’ve started hand quilting Ferris Wheel and am much happier with the look. It was worth the time it took to take out the machine quilting I had done.

Baxter has been very busy watching leaves flying by the window.

Something to Stitch, Something to Unstitch

Posted on by

11

Remember this, the Ferris Wheel quilt? That’s the project that involved unstitching. I had quilted about a third of it by machine and then decided I wanted to quilt this one by hand. So I’ve spent a number of hours over the past couple of weeks taking out the machine quilting. Now I’m trying to decide how I want to quilt it.

For a change of pace, I’ve started stitching a cross-stitch project. It’s almost a quarter done already. This one is going to be a small Christmas biscornu.

Baxter did very well and we picked him up at 3:30 yesterday afternoon. I had to laugh at the post-surgery instructions. They stated we should keep him as quiet as possible. A rambunctious kitten who’s only 6 months old and showed absolutely no signs of being groggy from the anaesthetic we’re supposed to keep quiet? Within minutes of getting home, after sniffing around to make sure things were where he thought they should be, he was bounding around, getting toys out of the toy basket, jumping up on the windowsill to watch the leaves and that went on all afternoon and evening. We’re thrilled he came through the surgery so well and showed no after-effects. Here you can almost see the spot that was shaved for the IV on one front leg.

Drunkard’s Path Variation in Rouenneries

Posted on by

10

Finishing this top was an almost bittersweet moment, as I have loved every second of working with the gorgeous Rouenneries fabrics. It was hand pieced, other than adding the two borders. While I generally don’t make square quilts, this one finishes at 54″ square. It’s large enough to use as a throw. I can also imagine it as a large wall hanging.

I made it from 5 charm packs of Rouenneries plus two larger pieces of fabrics from that line for the borders and used the 3″ Inklingo Drunkard’s Path collection. I know Rouenneries Deux is coming out sometime in the future, and can’t wait. Working with these colours/designs was an absolute joy. I’m thinking that a star quilt in Rouenneries Deux may just be in my future.

This quilt was being worked on when I finished Chintz Circles.  I knew I wanted to use the same binding fabric, so made enough binding then and it’s ready. The backing fabric I used for Chintz Circles will be used for this one too. All that’s left to get is the batting and then this one will be hand quilted. And I need to find a name for it.

The past few nights I’ve been working on hand quilting the whole cloth quilt, but everything is going to come to a standstill for a few days while I make a quilt from the flannel fabrics I showed last week. I’ve decided on a double 4-patch. It needs to be made quickly as it’s for a friend’s brother-in-law who has just been given a rather grim diagnosis/prognosis.

Baxter showing that he’s a real quilter’s cat – posing under the quilt on the temporary design wall, by the floor hoop.

The Pickled Ladies are Getting Together

Posted on by

7

Three rows of the Pickled Ladies are now together. After the first two rows were joined I thought perhaps this needed to be a larger quilt than originally planned. After the third row was added, I completely changed my mind. Because of the number of triangles in each arc and the fact I used some metallic Oriental prints to fussy cut, this is a heavy piece already. In fact, as it is now it’s heavier than the X’s and O’s quilt. Decision made. It’s going to be a large wall hanging.

Initially I was thinking about a rich blue floral print for the border, but now I’m wondering if I should try to find a real Art Deco type print in keeping with my initial idea about these ladies. I’m calling this the Pickled Ladies quilt as I have visions of some very elegant, almost Audrey Hepburn-like, ladies in an upscale Art Deco bar.

I have been fascinated by the Breakfast at Tiffany’s piece being put together at Plays with Needles. Seeing a favourite movie being depicted with such amazing detail in an embroidery piece is a pure delight, as is her entire blog and well worth a visit.

Baxter was looking somewhat startled, perched on the loveseat.

X’s and O’s

Posted on by

11

While we were out taking pictures of Twinkling Stars on the roof garden, we also took a few of the top I’ve named X’s and O’s. The name has everything to do with how I plan to quilt this one, with circles and X’s.

It was made using shapes from the Inklingo Orange Peel Deluxe collection and was pieced by hand with the exception of the black inner border. The centre of the top took just over 3 weeks to put together from the time I got the idea through to its completion. Adding the borders took a while as I ended up auditioning a couple of different versions before settling on the final.

When it’s time to quilt this, I’m going to get a silk batt. The binding will be the same black ’30s print as the inner border.

Baxter getting his nightly yogourt treat.

Pickled Ladies Joining Up

Posted on by

12

Out came the box in which the clamshell pickles, aka Pickled Ladies, were stored and I began putting the top together.

The first two rows are almost all joined together now. They’re going together quickly and oh, so easily. I’m hoping to get the centre done within a couple of weeks. That, of course, remains to be seen as I’m so easily distracted by other projects!

The piecing of the Twinkling Stars top is complete. The two borders were added yesterday and it was finished even before the second game of the World Series began. We couldn’t figure out where to photograph it last night, but will be getting a good photo of it today.

Baxter had another very busy day on the windowsill, as we had a fairly windy day again and there were leaves flying by the window. Last evening he was posing in my computer chair – or was he perhaps plotting and waiting for his chance to get on the keyboard?

Colourful Little 9-Patches

Posted on by

5

The last pieced border for Twinkling Stars was finished last night, but the baseball game was on and I didn’t want to be at the sewing machine attaching it to the quilt, so out came the 9-patch blocks to set on point. They’re now going to become a little quilt on their own rather than be incorporated into the Twinkling Stars quilt.

As the blocks are finished, they’ll be stored in a very special box from a friend. So far 13 of them are done. Once they’re all done, the quilt will be quick to stitch together. They finish at 4.24″. I think I’ll have about 100 of them by the time they’re all stitched.

There was some great feedback yesterday on working with flannels. I think I’m going to make a double 4-patch with the flannels. Once they’re washed and ironed I’ll get started. But today my plan is to attach the two borders to Twinkling Stars and hopefully get a good picture of it.

Baxter was posing in the pink chair after another busy day on the windowsill.

Twinkling Stars Progress

Posted on by

19

The main part of the top is together. Now to make and add the borders and this year’s baseball playoffs quilt will be done. With any luck, it will be finished before the World Series is over.

This is a big milestone for me. While I hybrid pieced some of the blocks and totally hand pieced some others, the majority of the quilt was put together by machine. it’s given me a lot more confidence about machine piecing, which will come in handy for some quilts I want to make.

On Friday evening I got a call from the LQS and, after close to 6 months, the white on white fabric has finally come in. I’m thrilled as it means I can definitely finish off the Feathered Star/Sunflower quilt exactly as I wanted with the pieced border I had envisioned for it.

Baxter is still teething and, on the weekend, he lost (and we found) a baby tooth. Rather than put it in a little pillow for the kitty tooth fairy, Mr. Q.O. tossed it. I think Baxter deserves a new toy and plan to get him one from the kitty tooth fairy.

Little 9-Patch Blocks on Point

Posted on by

9

The 9-patch blocks are just so much more fun set on point that I couldn’t resist. They’re very quick to stitch, and give me the look I wanted for these little blocks.

Earlier this week, two new Inklingo collections were released with the triangles needed to set 4.5 inch blocks and 6 inch blocks on point, and that helped give me the idea for the 9-patch blocks. I have a little stack of 4.5-inch blocks that were made years ago but which have sat all this time. Now that the math has been taken out of figuring out what size QSTs and HSTs I needed to set them on point, I’ll get them out once the Twinkling Stars top is finished.

I’m still on schedule with this year’s baseball playoffs quilt. Although I’ve had a couple of evenings when I really wanted to work on something else, I have managed to resist and now am really glad I did.  There’s not too much hand piecing left to be done, maybe another 25 or so of the 9-patch blocks and then their setting triangles.  The rest will be done by machine.

Baxter seems to have decided my computer chair is a favourite spot — after walking over the keyboard on his way to the chair, that is. A couple of times he has almost managed to send an e-mail while marching over the various keys and the trackpad, but none have been sent … yet.