Category Archives: hand piecing

Ferris Wheel Quilt

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Thanks to Elly, I have a name for the Farmer’s Delight quilt. Ferris Wheel seems to me to be the perfect name for this quilt. It makes me think of summer and movement and that’s definitely what a ferris wheel means to me.  It reminds me of when the Canadian National Exhibition is open in August and all the rides on the midway, not that I go anywhere near them. The ferris wheel is probably as adventurous as I would ever get when it comes to rides.

It was amazingly quick work to put the blocks together into rows and then stitch the rows together. I started stitching them together on Friday evening and finished Saturday evening. All by hand.  Although I had thought I’d join them by machine, I think it probably didn’t take me much longer to stitch by hand than it would have by machine.

I thought I had the perfect fabric for the backing, but it’s just a bit too short.  All that’s left now is to do the final pressing, get the backing prepared, baste and start quilting it.  I have the quilting planned and think it will go fairly quickly.

Over the weekend, I decided to give my blog a facelift.  It’s a bit of a work in progress, but then I suppose a blog always is a work in progress.  For now, I’ve started listing favourite quilt blogs on a separate page rather than in the sidebar.

This is possibly one of the most quirky pictures we have of Lester.  I don’t know if it was the angle at which it was taken on Sunday or what, but there’s something about this one that I love.  He looks like a much smaller cat than he is.

Smudge had just been sticking his head in the water bowl, which is how he seems to prefer to drink, and Mr. Q.O. got this shot.  If you click on it to see the large picture, you can tell the fur on one side of his face is still wet.

Farmer’s Delight

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All 12 of the blocks on my makeshift design wall.  I’m pretty sure that this is the layout of the blocks I’m going to go with.  I suppose it’s no surprise that I have more pink blocks than any other colour.  There are  4 pink, 3 blue, 3 green and 2 gold.  As it stands now, the top would finish at 45 x 60 which is, I think, a good size for a lap quilt.  Now I’ve got to start thinking of a name for this one.  Usually names for quilts come to me easily, but this one?  Not so easily.  The blocks remind me of something but I can’t quite put my finger on just what that something is.

It won’t take long to join the blocks into rows and then into the top, and then I suppose I’ll make a final decision as to whether I add any border.  My initial thought is no border as I really don’t want to take away from the blocks.  That may change. How to quilt it is another question altogether.

This is the fabric I plan to use for the binding.  It has all the colours that are in the blocks and will frame the quilt.

I’ve finally figured out how I can put up a design wall that’s easily removed and hope to get that organized in the next week or so.  But in the meantime, masking tape and a partial batt work.  It’s far, far better than trying to lay blocks out on the floor with four-footed helpers!

Smudge was back on his pillow, but this time wasn’t looking at the camera.

Lester wasn’t trying to convince me to look up at the ceiling this time.

More from the Pastry Shop

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This is such a cheerful piece on which to work at this time of year that I couldn’t resist adding to it.  It’s fast to stitch and makes me smile.  And, as I’m using green as the background, it’s rather fitting to post on St. Patrick’s Day.

The box is full of pieces cut and ready to stitch.  When the contents of the box are all stitched and added to what I’ve already done, the top will be done.  I love having the pieces for blocks all ready as it makes it so easy to choose on which project I want to work.  A little prep work really pays off when I can open a box like this and have lots ready and waiting to be stitched.

The Farmer’s Delight blocks are finished.  I took the last stitch late last night.  Today I’ll press them and start playing with block arrangements and will take a photo of all of them together for tomorrow’s blog post.  I’m already playing with ideas for a border.

Smudge likes having cushions on which to recline.

Lester has a tendency to stare up at the ceiling and seems to wait until I look up to see what he’s looking at — which is always nothing.  I try to not fall for it, but rarely succeed.

Stormy Seas

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Finally, another Stormy Seas block.  Tuesday night the box containing the pieces for these blocks came out and one more block has now been added to the group.  That said, there’s a very long way to go until I have them all done.

Hopefully by the time this week ends I’ll have the Farmer’s Delight blocks finished. That’s my goal as I’d like to start playing with a setting idea.  Whether that plan is going to work depends on how much of the background fabric I have left.  I don’t think there’s much, so I’m going to have to get creative.

For some inexplicable reason, the program in which Mr. Q.O. keeps kitty photos crashed Tuesday night.  So I’ve gone back in the archives to find some good pictures of the boys.  This one of Smudge was taken back in September.

Lester , also back in September.

A Stack of Stitching

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This may not look like a lot, but there are quite a few blocks there to be stitched.  At least 100, I believe.  I love having a stack all ready to stitch like this.  I even went ahead and clipped into all the concave seam allowances so that I can just stitch and stitch and not have to stop and clip any of the seam allowances.

One more little Harpsichord Quilt block is made.  This is not a UFO that I want to leave languishing for too long as I think it will be a very striking quilt.  So once I get 2 more finished, it’s moving to the top of the list and, in the meantime, I will try to make a couple of blocks a week.

I realized yesterday that a larger stitching book would be even more useful so finally have a use for my orphan applique blocks.  There are a number of them that have been sitting now for years.  They can be quickly joined, quilted and turned into stitching books and that makes me happy.

There were a number of helpful responses yesterday.  I’m going to e-mail the blogger in question, as Wendy suggested, and then see what happens.

The cats had very lazy days on Monday.  Lester was lounging at one end of the couch.   He did spend some time on the windowsill Monday, though.  I think he’s getting impatient for some activity out on the roof garden.

While Smudge was at the other end of the couch and barely awake when this shot was taken.

A Stitching Book

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As soon as I saw the Inklingo Log Cabin collection I knew I wanted to make some blocks for use as covers of a stitching book.  When I was making my Quilted Diamonds blocks, I always used a stitching book.  Now I don’t use one as often, but I love having one for portions of  blocks like the Feathered Star and Pickle Dish.  This book is going to a friend, but I know I’ll make more of the stitching books with different blocks made using the log cabin squares and rectangles.  There are so many different blocks one can make and they’re just about the perfect size for a stitching book.  They are also very quick to make.

The back cover of the stitching book is the same block, but the fabrics are reversed.

The inside front of the book.  The fabric I used for the inside covers is an odd one.  I remember picking it up, thinking it was a lot of fun.  It’s difficult to needle, so using it for a stitching book was the perfect solution.

When I’m stitching a block or section of a block that has the potential to get confusing, I will often lay out the pieces and then stitch.  I pick up 2 pieces, stitch them together, lay them back down where they belong in the order and then pick up the third piece — knowing exactly where it goes in the sequence.

I laid out 2 Drunkard’s Path units on a page of the book, to show how handy it is.  I was going to lay out a pickle dish melon/arc combo, but as I’m using white in that block it wouldn’t show up well in photos.  It’s also handy for stitching outdoors as the pieces will stick to the pages of the book.  And for those of us with four-footed helpers, some of whom like little pieces of fabric, it’s nice to be able to shut the book and get those bits of fabric out of harm’s way.

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What follows is a bit of a rant.  Feel free to skip down to see today’s kitty pictures.

Over the weekend, a friend alerted me to the fact that someone had grabbed a picture from my blog and used it on their blog without a link.  I wasn’t contacted by the person to ask permission to do so.  Generally speaking, I don’t mind sharing at all.  That said, I do think it’s imperative that we all respect one another’s copyright and ask for permission before grabbing text or photos from another’s blog.

I wasn’t going to say anything but I had a long look at the person’s blog.  The blogger is clearly not new to blogging and knows how to put links in her posts.  I really am not sure what, if anything, to do about it.  What would you have done? Have you run into this, finding out in a roundabout way that someone has grabbed something from your blog without asking first?  If so, how did you handle it?

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The cats had a relaxing weekend.  Smudge was stretched out having a snooze.

Lester was alert and looking around.

Piecing a Drunkard’s Path Unit – Lots of Photos

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There were a couple of inquiries about how I piece the little 2-piece units that are used in Drunkard’s Path blocks, so I thought I’d put together a short tutorial on my method.  Smudge is wide awake and watching.

I’ve always loved making Drunkard’s Path blocks and before Inklingo would trace them and then add the quarter-inch seam allowance.  Since the Inklingo Drunkard’s Path collection came out, it’s so much more enjoyable.  No tracing, no adding the quarter-inch seam allowance.  Just print, cut and stitch.  Now I never want to stop making these.  They’re quick and, thanks to the perfect matching points and stitching lines, very simple to stitch.

The first thing step is clipping slightly into the seam allowance of the piece with the concave curve.  You can see one clip in this picture.  I clip between every matching point that’s printed on my fabric.  In the above picture you can see the stitching line and the matching points that have printed on to the back of my fabric.

Then I line up the pieces and, using #12 sharps as pins, pin the first and second matching points.  I pin the first to hold it in place when I insert the threaded needle a bit over from the beginning of the seam.

Then I bring the threaded needle back up through the matching point at the beginning of the seam, effectively taking a back stitch.

Then, taking the smallest stitches I can, I load the needle with stitches up to the next matching point.

Before I pull the needle through, I move the sharp from that first matching point along the seam to the next.

Pull the needle through, make a small back stitch and proceed by loading the needle with more stitches up to the next matching point.  Then it’s simply a matter of repeating the last 2 steps until the end of the seam.

I’ve reached the end of the seam. At that point I make a back stitch, turn the piece over and make a small knot, once again away from the end of the seam so that the knot won’t interfere when adding other pieces.

The little Drunkard’s Path unit is finished.

The back:

They really only take a few minutes to stitch.  For fun, I decided to see just how long it takes me to stitch one.  It’s just over 5 minutes from start to finish.

Lester hopes you found this relaxing.

Stitching Progress

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32 blocks were finished yesterday.  I probably could have stitched more but the lighting was less than wonderful and my eyes were getting a bit tired.  There’s something about stitching these little Drunkard’s Path units that is absolutely irresistible to me.

The back of one of the blocks:

When we got home, I pressed the ones I had stitched and started cutting out more of them.  If I keep stitching at this rate, I’ll have all the little blocks made in no time at all and then can start putting the groupings of 4 blocks together.

Then I was thrilled to find out that there’s now an Inklingo Log Cabin collection. I’ve never wanted to make a log cabin quilt but I think that may have been partially because of the amount of precision rotary cutting that would be involved.  So now I’m contemplating a few ideas for little quilts.  But more than that, I’m thrilled to have the variety of lengths of 1″ rectangles to play with from 1″ x 2″ all the way up to 1″ x 10″.  There are a lot of design possibilities involved with those!  I’ve already got an idea for a stitching book which I hope to get done this weekend.

Thank you for all the well wishes yesterday.  Mr. Q.O. came through with flying colours.  Everything about the day was amazing (well, okay — except for the getting up at 5:00 a.m. part).  He was taken into the pre-op area almost the minute we arrived, a few minutes later I was sitting with him and met the surgeon, the anaesthesiologist, one of the surgical nurses and then the porter came to take him into the O.R. at which point I was sent up to the waiting lounge.  Great volunteers there who kept tabs on who everyone was and for which patient they were waiting and who would, the minute they got calls from the O.R., immediately come over to tell those waiting how their relative was.  By 9:30 I was on my way up to the short stay floor as he was already there and eating breakfast.  His nurse on the short stay floor was an absolute gem.  By shortly after 4:00 we were home.  I’m glad we got home when we did as it was getting rather nasty outside and the roads were icy from the snow/rain combination that had begun to fall earlier in the afternoon.  I may do moan about our climate, but I wouldn’t trade it for a second if it meant giving up our marvelous health care system.

For the record, getting up at 5:00 is not something I want to repeat very often. Drinking coffee at 5:30 a.m. is a rather futile endeavour for me – I don’t even remember the taste of it, as I think I was a walking zombie at that hour!  While there were some people out and about at 6:30, there were nowhere near as many as I had been led to believe.  Perhaps in the summer, when the weather is nicer, people are out and about earlier but on a rather windy, chilly day in early March? Not so many!

When we got home, Smudge practically broke all speed records getting to the door to greet us and demand some fresh food.  Lester, on the other hand, was lounging on the couch and gave us one of those, “Well, where the heck have you been for all these hours?” looks and that was the extent of his reaction.

Smudge later in the evening after having an after-dinner snack.

And Lester having a snooze while holding on to a monster-size kitty paw.

Charms

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When Rouenneries by French General first came out, I fell in love with it.  Got a couple of charm packs and started making Drunkard’s Path units.

Then I decided I wanted to make a slightly larger quilt and got a couple more charm packs and a bit of yardage.  The charms are all washed and ready to print.  The yardage will be used for the borders and binding.  I’m going to spend some time today printing the shapes on the remaining charms and get them ready to stitch on Wednesday.

Mr. Q.O. is having a minor surgical procedure on Wednesday, so it will be a long day at the hospital.  We were there on Monday for all the pre-op stuff and I was amazed at just how cold it was.  One would think a hospital would be warmer, considering there are patients there.  However, I’m warned now and will be wearing lots of layers on Wednesday.  I took my e-reader with me yesterday and was glad I had, but on Wednesday I plan to stitch and the Drunkard’s Path units are the perfect stitching project.

Lester  was showing us his lion look on Monday.

The light was perfect for this shot of Smudge — all natural light.  I love the fact that each day we have light for a slightly longer time and the light is getting so much better for photographs.

Farmer’s Delight Block 11

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Getting these blocks done has moved to the top of the list and, as I’m very close to being finished, they are all I plan to work on until they’re done.  One more block to go, then add the surrounding pieces to turn the last 4 blocks into squares and the piecing is done.  The final step will be figuring out how I want to set them.

Block 12 has been started.  The two triangle strips won’t take long to make and add to it and then it will be finished.

A few days ago I wrote about testing different markers for marking the quilting I want to do on the pink and cream quilt.  I made some marks on a scrap piece of the cream fabric with various markers and then let it sit for over a week.  Wednesday I decided to see if the marks would come out.  I was amazed at how easily they all rinsed right out of the fabric with just water.  No soap was necessary at all.  The pink and yellow Fineliner marks rinsed out without an issue.  The most surprising to me was that the General’s graphite pencil marks practically flew out of the fabric as soon as it got close to water.  After drying and ironing the scrap piece there isn’t a hint of any of the marks.  As I always wash my quilts as soon as they’re bound, I feel quite safe about using any of the markers I tested.

Now to find my quilt stencils.  Some of them are rather large so there aren’t too many spots I could have put them where they could lie flat.  It seems I found a really good spot for them — and one that I can’t remember.  I’d like to get that top ready to quilt this weekend, so hopefully they turn up today or tomorrow.

I spoke too soon about the weather.  Wednesday was quite cool again and extremely windy.  Our high was only -4.  Today’s high is supposed to be -3.  However, the difference in the light is becoming more obvious each day.  We got pictures of both the cats without having to turn on lights or use the flash.

Lester was lounging.

Smudge was posing.