Category Archives: hand piecing

Another Pair of Cake Stand Blocks

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These blocks have turned out to be the perfect stitching for evenings when I’m tired. They’re quick and easy to stitch.  Thanks to Wanda‘s comment yesterday, I now have an idea for setting them using the little blocks as cornerstones with sashing around the larger blocks.

They press beautifully.

The neutral I’m using is one of the nicest creams or whites I’ve worked with.  While it has a design to it, it’s not heavily painted on and is easy as can be to needle.  It’s a fabric by Avlyn called “Essential White”.

Tuesday was a long day.  In typical office building fashion, it’s either too warm or too cold.  Tuesday it was too cold.  It was pouring rain when I left Tuesday morning and chilly, so I was chilled before the hearing began.  By the time the hearing adjourned, I thought I’d never feel warm again.  I’m hoping that today we’ll adjourn early.  I’m definitely wearing something warmer today.

Smudge was relaxing with his favourite toy Tuesday evening.

TIny Cake Stand Block

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Looks like I may not get much stitching done this week.  Monday night I was absolutely exhausted, partially because I had barely slept Sunday night for some reason, and got very little done.  This little cake stand block was all I managed to stitch Monday night.  It seems I’m determined to make a small quilt with the 2.5″ blocks.  I decided to use a QST for the triangle at the bottom of the block and am going to use the same cream for all blocks as the neutral.  I’m not sure how many blocks I’ll make, but it’s definitely going to be a tiny teddy bear quilt.

The back:

I’m going to continue making some of the 5″ blocks as well, with a view to making a small baby quilt.   I have an idea for the borders of both the tiny and slightly larger quilt and am planning to piece the borders as I stitch the blocks.  That way when I finish stitching the blocks I should have most of the pieced borders completed.

Monday wasn’t a long day at the hearing, but it appears that today will be as will Wednesday.  So blog posts for the next couple of days are probably going to be rather short.

Smudge was looking at a toy I was holding above his head while Mr. Q.O. got this shot.

Cake Stand Block and Hugo Goes to the Castle

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What possessed me, I have no idea but on the weekend I decided it would be fun to make a 2.5″ cake stand block.  It was actually a lot of fun to stitch.  I printed .50″ and 1.5″ HSTs, a couple of .5 x 1.5″ rectangles and two .50″ squares and the little block practically put itself together.  I used two different Inklingo collections to do so, the HST collection and the .50″ Log Cabin collection.  That’s a penny in the photo, to give an idea of scale.

Then for fun I decided to make a 5″ block using the same fabrics.  Again, it practically put itself together.  The only difference in this one was that I used shapes from the 1″ Log Cabin collection with the larger HSTs.

The two blocks, side by side.

The back of the larger of the two blocks.

After watching so much coverage of the Royal Wedding on Friday, Hugo needed to see a castle so off we went to take him to see Casa Loma.

First he saw part of the stone wall.

Then the castle started to appear.

We rounded the corner and Hugo got his first good glimpse of the castle.

We saw the castle stables.

And then we were right across the street from the castle.  Hugo jumped up on the dashboard and had a good long look!

This is going to be a busy week as I’m acting as registrar at a tribunal hearing all week.  Oh, how I wish I had a smart phone or iPad!  With one, the inevitable long drawn-out recesses would be much more bearable.   I think the next technology buy for me will be one of those two things.

We seem to have found food that Smudge definitely likes and is eating.   That is a huge relief for us and he seems much happier.  Here he was relaxing.  I love the crossed paws pose.

Pickled Ladies Update

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It’s time for the monthly Clamshell Club report.  To see what other members of the Clamshell Club have posted, the links can be found here.

While the projects I’ve been working on lately have, for the most part, taken over, I have been making a few of the Pickled Ladies blocks bit by bit.  Friday I put them all up on the temporary design wall to get a sense of how many more I need to make. With 69 of the blocks done, I’m looking at something that will be approximately 46 x 34.  I want to make this a larger quilt than that, so I’m contemplating doing another 45 or 50 of the blocks and then will start working on the layout as well as making the half pickled clams for the edges and then will think about a border or borders.

When talking to a friend about the Pickled Ladies and why I had not done more, I realized that I had got out of the rhythm of stitching these.  While there is another large project that’s seemingly taken over my stitching time, I’m going to try to get at least half of what I need to finish the main part of the top done by the end of May.  I have a number of the clamshells fussy cut already, so need to make more of the arcs and then put them together.

We found two foods that Smudge seemingly loves.  Friday he ate more on his own than he has in weeks.   Here he was resting after eating.

Storm at Sea & Harpsichord

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One more Storm at Sea block has been completed.  For fun, I put the completed ones up on my temporary design wall.  Obviously I’m going to have to do a lot of arranging of the blocks, when they’re all completed, to get the effect I’m after.  So far, though, I love the look of all those lovely luscious batiks!

Along with completing that one more Storm at Sea block, I made a few more of the Harpsichord blocks.  The row on the far left has been joined, but the other blocks are not.  There are still many blocks to be made for this top, but it feels good to be adding a few more to it weekly again.

One thing I’ve realized about the temporary design wall is that the spot it is in is probably an area of the apartment that has the worst possible lighting.  Some rearranging may have to be done so that the design wall is in an area where there is better lighting available.  Perhaps by a window?

Smudge was playing more with his favourite toy on Thursday, although in this picture he was reclining on the couch.

Fans and Smarties

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The brown for the quarter circle on the fan blocks I showed yesterday wasn’t dark enough.  Wednesday I replaced it with a black fabric on the two I had already done and then went on and stitched two more blocks.  These are addictive to stitch, very quick to stitch and just plain fun.  I think it will be a small quilt and set with plain alternate squares.  I’ll probably make another dozen or so of the blocks and then start playing with the layout.

Karen at Journey of a Quilter has, over the past while, showed a little quilt she made which she calls Confetti.  I was so taken with it that I couldn’t resist making one, which I’m calling Smarties.  I’m using 1″ squares and 1″ 60-degree diamonds.  I only needed to print the 1″ diamonds as there’s a little box full of 1″ squares.  Sometimes when I’m printing fabric for some project or another, I will cut a small piece of that fabric on which to print a few 1″ squares.  Those squares then go into the little box and are there, ready to use, when I get an idea that incorporates 1″ squares.  Up until starting Smarties, I was slowly making 9-patch squares when the mood struck. Eventually I do hope to have a good-sized 9-patch quilt, but it’s my easy stitching project that I turn to when I want to stitch something super simple and so there’s no deadline.

The plan is to make Smarties large enough for a teddy bear quilt, although it’s such fun to stitch that I can imagine making a lap quilt for us.  Smarties presses like a dream.  The back:

It seems that Comcast is blocking e-mails I send.  I’ve contacted our ISP to try to resolve this and a friend who has Comcast as her ISP has contacted Comcast.  Both our ISP and Comcast are saying it’s the other’s problem.  How and when this will get resolved is anyone’s guess.  But in the meantime, replies to comments I’ve sent to those who are on Comcast are probably floating around somewhere never to be seen again.   I’ve figured out a work-around and, as the bounced replies come back, am using it to send out replies.  It’s frustrating trying to deal with something like this, particularly when the providers are doing nothing other than pointing fingers at one another.

Smudge has been playing with his favourite kitty toy, Cappy, a fair bit the past few days.  Wednesday night he was holding on to it while he had a snooze.

Fan Blocks and Here’s Hugo

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Years ago I had cut 3 x 5 inch rectangles of all sorts of Asian prints.  Looking at them now I have no idea what I had in mind when I cut them and, up until a few days ago, really didn’t know quite what to do with them.  Over the past few days an idea kept coming to mind and I finally gave in Tuesday  night.  The rectangles were large enough to get 3 Dresden Plate blades printed on each.  Once that was done, it was no contest — I had to make a couple of test blocks.

I used one of the many blades in the Inklingo Dresden Plate Fancy Pieced collection, the same collection I used to make the Ferris Wheel top.  The blocks went together in next to no time, pressed like a dream and were fun to make.  They finish at 4.5″.  I have no idea how many of these I’ll make but I do know that it will be at least enough for a large wall hanging.

I might change out the quarter circle as I’m thinking that it may need to be a darker fabric, perhaps a black, rather than the brown I’ve used.  I’ll decide that today when I can see the blocks in natural light.

The back of a block:

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We’ve known for a while that Hugo was on his way here.  Tuesday afternoon Harry, our house hippo, was looking out the window wondering, “Where, oh where is Hugo? Will he ever get here?”

And finally, after a long trek from Florida and crossing the border, Hugo arrived late Tuesday afternoon. Harry was thrilled to see another hippo!

We have some fun plans for Hugo’s stay with us and are hoping the rain will stop so that he can have an adventure out on the roof garden.

Hugo was last at Life at LeeHaven, where he was seen in the scrap bin and wearing a fabric hat and had fun.  You can read more about Hugo at House of Cats as well.

Smudge was very, very interested in Hugo.  We were trying hard not to laugh out loud at him sniffing and sniffing Hugo.  Then they settled and Smudge looked like he was ready to have a nap with our little visitor.

A Red and White Beginning

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The beginning, that is, of the largest of the red and white quilts I’m planning.  At least, so far it’s the largest of the ones I’m planning.  I couldn’t resist adding a sunflower to a feathered star and have the entire quilt planned out, including sashing and borders.  Curved piecing and continuous piecing — what more could I want?  It’s completely hand pieced and took about 3 evenings of stitching, on and off, while working on a few other things as well.

It presses like a dream and lays flat as can be.

Would I have attempted this block without Inklingo?  Not a chance!  With Inklingo, it’s not daunting at all as perfect stitching lines and matching points make a block like this easily achievable.

This quilt is demanding to be made quickly, I think, so there may be a lot of red and white seen on my blog over the next few weeks.  I can’t wait to get the blocks done so I can start with the pieced sashing and border.

I had a migraine on Tuesday that pretty much kept me off the computer as I was finding it difficult to focus on anything.  Hopefully I’ll get caught up on comments and replies to comments over the next couple of days.  I’m working as a registrar today and tomorrow so my computer time will be limited.

It was a grey overcast day on Tuesday.  Smudge found a cozy spot to have a cat nap.

Shabby Chic Log Cabin

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The first of my little shabby chic log cabin blocks, which I made with the .50″ Inklingo log cabin collection.  The block finishes at 5″.  This one I stitched by hand.  The next one I will definitely stitch by machine.  While it didn’t take long to stitch by hand, I imagine I could get a lot of them done in the same amount of time if I machine stitched them.

The back, which pressed quite nicely.

One of the things I was looking for at the Creativ Festival on Saturday was Superior Threads’ MasterPiece thread.  I had read so many good things about it that I was dying to try it and had been hoping to find it at the festival.  I found one vendor who had it and bought 4 spools — red, black, white and cream.

It is every bit as great as I had read — and then some!  It’s lovely and silky 100% cotton that is wonderfully fine and just melts into seams.  I’ve been stitching with it since I got home Saturday and  am thrilled with it.  It’s easy to thread a #12 sharp with it, doesn’t knot or tangle, and just glides through fabric when stitching with it.

Smudge decided to show that he truly is a quilter’s cat — posing amongst fabric and quilts.  He has been eating lots and lots for the past 4 days, as we found a food he seems to really love.  We are so grateful to see him eating this well!

Red and White Again

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One more of the red and white blocks was finished late last week for a grand total of four so far.  I was going to set them with plain white 6″ squares in between, but now that I see them side by side I rather like the effect.  A lot more blocks need to be made before I make that decision.

I couldn’t resist making a red and white 6″ sunflower block.  This is definitely a favourite block to make for me.  Putting the ring of diamonds and triangles together takes no time thanks to continuous stitching.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll end up with sunflowers as the alternate block for the other blocks.

The back of the little sunflower.

A close-up of Smudge relaxing on the couch Wednesday evening.

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