Category Archives: hand piecing

Summer Picnic Dish Progress & Summer Goals

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Summer Picnic Dish is one of the quilts, along with Farmer’s Delight, that I want to finish the piecing of this summer.  Hmm, am I setting my sights too high with all these things I want to finish?  Probably, but this one does grow quickly — the blocks are 12″ which is, for me, huge.  I love putting this together as it’s so easy to get perfect arcs and points with the Inklingo Pickle Dish collection.  At the moment, I’m debating whether to make it a lap quilt or a bed-sized quilt.

On Barbara Brackman’s blog yesterday I saw an absolutely fabulous pattern — a marriage of clamshells and pickle dish!  If you go here, scroll down a bit in the post and see the design in different fabrics.  What a great design that would be to put together.  Wonderful curved piecing and triangles.  What more could one want?

Another quilt I definitely want to finish this summer is the Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses.  I’m going to try stitching the cream hexagons that surround each block by machine as that might make the goal a bit more attainable.  I’ll still be joining them to each block by hand, but that goes quite quickly.  Then all I’ve got to do is figure out what I want to use for the centre squares in between the blocks and add the outer edging pieces.  This picture only shows a few of the blocks — there are quite a few more.

The Drunkard’s Path baskets are something else I want to finish fairly quickly.  It will be a large wallhanging.  I just need to sort out the centre block for it, which is different from the one in the picture.  It won’t take long to do the printing and piecing.

Also on the list to, at the very least, spend some time stitching:  blue and white Seven Sisters blocks, pink and white Pink Ice snow crystal blocks, the Harpsichord Quilt, more klosjes, the hexagon stripe quilt — oh, the list is endless!!  I wonder which will be finished first!

Thursday was another lovely warm day.  We wandered up to a fruit and vegetable store and picked up some fabulous Ontario wild blueberries and Ontario raspberries.  The flavour of both is just incredible — nothing comes close.  I’m going to try freezing some of our raspberries to use in smoothies in the winter.

Lester had windowsill time on Thursday.

As did Smudge.

Little Pink Clamshells

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Stitching clamshells together is something I find irresistible.  They are so easy to stitch using Inklingo to print the templates right on to the fabric — just lots of lovely continuous stitching.  I have a funny little story running through my mind about some pink clams making their way to the surface of the water and then on to the beach and this little quilt will go along with the story.

Wednesday was rather exciting.  We had an earthquake.  Very very unusual around here.  Mr. Q.O. really felt it and said it almost gave him a feeling of motion sickness.  I sort of felt something, but really didn’t give it a second thought.  We had one about 20 years ago and that one I felt much more than this.  The cat I had then, Max, basically slunk out of the room on his tummy and hid under the bed about 2 minutes before that one hit.  But Smudge and Lester this time?

Lester slept through it completely.  Didn’t twitch a whisker.

Smudge also missed the whole thing.

Little Blossoms

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No flowers for a couple of weeks, but Tuesday night I decided to make the remaining blossoms for the Little Blossoms Top.  I’m going to use some of the hexagon flowers I’ve made using .50″ hexagons around the outer perimeter of this top and some small stars made with .50″ diamonds.

Right now the little top measures approximately 11″ x 6″.  Once the other blossoms are added with the green hexagons, and then the flowers and stars, I think it will probably finish at about 20″.  I have no real plan but am just playing with placement of the blossoms as I go.

We had a lot of rain on Tuesday.  The heat and humidity are building and it really feels like summer.  This is such a nice change from last year — the year of the summer that wasn’t.  It sounds like the weekend will be quite hot and humid and sunny — perfect for spending time on the roof garden.  My hands feel a lot better so I’m hoping to get Chintz Circles basted on Thursday and start the quilting.  With any luck, I’ll finish the quilting by Sunday and can spend time out on the roof garden tacking down the binding Sunday afternoon.

Smudge was lounging in the pink chair, looking like he was deep in thought — probably about when the yogourt was going to appear.

Lester took advantage of a rainy day and snoozed on the couch.

Farmer’s Delight Block 7

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As I had printed all the pieces for the remaining Farmer’s Delight blocks and as I have an idea for setting these together, I decided to work on them while I wait to do the final pressing of Chintz Circles and then baste it.  There will be 12 of these blocks in total.  The first six can be seen here.  I had forgotten how much fun these blocks are to put together.  The centre goes together in no time.  Stitching the bands of triangles that surround it is fast as can be, lots of continuous stitching makes it fly by!

The back of the centre part:

Lester was resting on the windowsill for a while after watching what was going on out there.  The teddy bear in this photo with Lester is a special token of appreciation from the kitties to Mr. Q.O.

Smudge, resting after his yogourt treat Monday night.

Chintz Circles Top Finished

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Saturday night I took the last stitch and the piecing of the Chintz Circles top was complete.   The backing is washed, the batting ready.  Issues with my hands started again on Saturday, so pressing of the backing and the final pressing of the top before basting will have to wait a few days.  I’m hoping to get it basted at some point this week and then do the quilting on the weekend.  It will have to be machine quilting as I absolutely need to finish it on time which won’t allow any wiggle room for hand quilting and hand problems.   As soon as the quilting is done and the binding is on, the quilt will be going for a photo shoot.  One of our friends is a professional photographer who has generously agreed to take a couple of shots of Chintz Circles.

Oddly, I felt almost lost for a few minutes when that last stitch was taken and the top was done.  It didn’t last long because I have more than enough projects on the go.  Now it’s a matter of choosing on which one on I want to focus next.   Will it be Summer Picnic Dish, POTC, the Harpsichord Quilt, the Drunkard’s Path baskets, Storm at Sea, the Drunkard’s Path in Rouenneries, one of the clamshell projects?  Who knows!!  I’m still deciding.  Sunday night I spent some time sorting through the pieces I have left from Chintz Circles.  Choosing fabrics for our Spring Circles quilt will be something I will work on slowly throughout the summer.

We had a glorious weekend with lots of lovely warmth and brilliant sun.  The flowers on the roof garden are thriving.

Very early Sunday morning, before the sun even had come up, I could hear a bird singing away.  I think perhaps a mockingbird has taken up residence on the roof garden again this summer.  The morning doves are back.  They haven’t been here for a few years.  I love hearing them.  Still no squirrels, though.

Lester spent a fair bit of time on the windowsill over the weekend.  There’s a lot for him to watch right now, although in this picture he’s looking into the living room.

Smudge, on the other hand, was having a lazy Sunday afternoon nap.

Pink Clamshells

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There was a bit of a distraction from Chintz Circles Thursday night.  A new Inklingo collection of larger, 3.5″ clamshells was released and I couldn’t resist.  I had my fabrics picked out and printed in a matter of minutes.

The first few pieces practically stitched themselves together in a matter of minutes.  I’m finding clamshells absolutely irresistible now that they’re so simple to print and stitch.  I can imagine making a whole series of little clamshell quilts as there are so many options — some fussy cutting/printing to get some special effects, some really planned colour placement clamshells, a charm clamshell quilt.  The ideas are just flying around in my head right now.  This one?  In this little quilt, a pink clamshell is going to appear rather randomly throughout.  And it will only be little.

The distraction has to be over now though.  Tonight I will finish piecing the blocks for my aunt’s quilt and probably get them joined into the final row.  I’m still on track to get the top finished this weekend.  I’d really like to be in a position to start quilting it by Sunday.

Lester was busy Thursday afternoon watching the birds on the roof garden.  Thursday we saw a glorious yellow butterfly, but couldn’t get a picture of it, and a couple of dragonflies.  He just didn’t know where to look next, so decided to have a snooze.

Smudge was lounging as he waited for his nightly treat of yogourt.

Hopefully the weather cooperates and I can get a picture of the completed Chintz Circles top on the weekend to show Monday.  Have a great weekend!

9-Patch Blocks

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During the weekend reorganization, I came across these little 9-patch blocks that I had made quite a while ago.  I think I’ll keep making them, bit by bit, and eventually put them into a small lap quilt for us.  They’re made with 1″ squares, so each 9-patch block finishes at 3″.  They were all printed with Inklingo as I hand piece them.  Picking up 9 little squares to turn into a 9-patch block is sort of like quilter’s popcorn, a quick stitch and fun to do.  I have two boxes full of the squares to make these, although I think some of them are destined for a postage stamp quilt.

It seems there’s no real solution to the magazine dilemma.  While I have no problem tearing patterns out of some magazines, the Australian magazines are so full of great articles and pictures that I cannot bring myself to do that.  I’m glad I haven’t, as I’ve often found when going through the magazines again that I find a picture or pattern I didn’t give a second glance is now something I really like.  While I rarely ever follow a pattern, preferring to add my own touches, I do get a lot of inspiration from looking through the magazines.  So I’m still floundering about just what to do with the magazines.  The quilting books are a whole other issue!  I know I have quite a few that I’ll likely never use, so am going to cull those over the next while.  There are some that, just like the quilting magazines, I know I’ll keep because they are beautiful books to look through.

Both kitties had windowsill time Monday afternoon.  Lester was playing.

While Smudge was posing.

Chintz Circles

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It rained, on and off, all weekend so getting a shot of the top outside was impossible.  This is the best we could do inside.  If it’s dry enough later today, we’ll try for a better shot outdoors.  One more row to finish, which will add to the width of it, and it’s done!

We went to  Sew Sisters on Friday to pick up the silk batt.  I was hoping to find a wide backing that would be appropriate — thinking my best bet might be a mottled pink or green.  I was thrilled to find a Robyn Pandolph print in a wide backing.  I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

During the weekend, I also reorganized partially done projects.  I’m glad I did that as it reminded me of a few things that  need very little to complete them.  Once my aunt’s quilt is done, I now have a better idea of what I want to work on next.  One project in particular will jump to the head of the queue and be ready to quilt in very little time.

I have quite a collection of Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazines, which is my favourite of the quilt magazines.  Storage of them is something I struggle with.  If I put them in a bookcase, they are going to take up at least 2 shelves, probably more like 3.  I love having them available to leaf through so having them handy is rather nice, but I’m trying to come up with a different idea.  Do you keep all of your favourite magazines and, if so, how do you store them?

Smudge was helping me piece one of the Alabama Beauty blocks Sunday night. He’s often on my lap when I’m stitching.

Lester was watching out the window during the weekend.

Final Row Started

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Row 6 is attached, the first block of the final row is done and the pieces are ready to stitch for the remaining 6 blocks.   The block hasn’t been pressed yet as I wait until all the blocks for a row are completed before pressing.   It was quite windy on Thursday so there was no chance of getting a photo of the top as it now is on the roof garden.  Hopefully that will be accomplished this weekend. I’m thinking of renaming the quilt Chintz Beauties.

The weekend is going to be busy with errands and doing some rearranging.  Bookshelves need straightening up and some furniture rearrangement may be in the plans.

Lester doesn’t much care as long as he has a soft spot to curl up.

While Smudge is only interested in whether it’s treat time.

Spring Circles – Row 6 Blocks

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The five blocks for row 6 are done.

The pictures were taken before I joined them into a row but they are now ready to join to the rest of the top.

The pieces for the blocks of row 7 are selected and ready to stitch.

With any luck the piecing of those blocks for row 7 will be done by Wednesday of next week and I’ll have the top completed before next Friday.

Wednesday I had one of the worst migraines I’ve had in years — visual disturbances, nausea and, of course, the throbbing headache.  Work was put on hold and very little got done.  It finally started to lift around 11:00 p.m.  What a waste of a day!  I’m sure it’s weather related as our weather has been cool and wet.  We have even had the heat on a bit first thing in the mornings to take the chill out.

The last time we were out on the roof garden, we got this shot of the plants that line the pathway from the doors down to the garden.  Once the flowers start to really bloom, the display of colour is fabulous.

Wednesday night Smudge was patiently waiting for his yogourt treat in my desk chair.  If I’m sitting there when it’s yogourt time, he can be very vocal about wanting me to move.

Lester in an upside-down pose.