Category Archives: hand piecing

First Alabama Beauty Circle

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Watching the circle appear as I joined the fourth block to the first three made me smile.  Now there’s no stopping me on this.  I love the look I’m getting with all these shabby chic fabrics.  Sort of like an old chintz print in an English cottage somewhere, I think.  Mr. Q.O. keeps looking at it and saying it looks old.  Just the look I’m after!

Putting this together is actually less of  a planning nightmare than I had anticipated.  The bonus of it is that, as I’m joining the blocks as I go, when I’m finished making the blocks the quilt top itself will be finished.  As I want a fair number of circles to appear, I think this will end up as a bed-sized quilt.  Maybe even king size.  That I’m not sure about yet.  But it will be large.

We had the most glorious weather on the weekend with highs in the mid to high 20s Friday and Saturday.  Sunday was mild as well.  Although we had fairly strong winds for a while on Saturday night, it wasn’t the heavy wind storm they initially predicted.  And no rain.  An absolutely perfect first long weekend of the spring/summer season.  The leaves on the crab apple trees on the roof garden are starting to make an appearance.

Smudge has been busy watching out the window with Lester.  We didn’t get a shot of him but Sunday he was very intent watching something.  Here he’s in an almost headless cat pose.

Lester relaxing Saturday night after a lot of watching out the window during the day.


Storm at Sea Block 1

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… is finished.  Finished size is 6.75″.  The back:

What I learned stitching this block?  That I really do need to get my machine piecing skills up to doing blocks like this.  Much as I love hand piecing, and it is my preferred way of stitching, this block would be super fast by machine and, with the stitching lines to guide me, I may actually be able to do it.  Maybe.  I think on the weekend I may print the shapes for one block on some other fabrics and see how I do on the machine.  Perhaps I’ll do it as a hybrid block — machine piece all the units and then put the rows and blocks together by hand.  Or perhaps, knowing me, I’ll break out in a cold sweat as soon as I sit down at the machine.

No gardeners on the roof garden on Tuesday.  And no activity for Lester to watch, so he decided to relax on the couch with a teddy bear for company.

Smudge posing, as usual, for the camera.

Stormy Sea

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Doesn’t this look like a churned-up, stormy sea? I am so impressed with how easy it is to put this block together.  I wish I’d had the time to finish it last night, but there’s only one long seam left to do and then I’ll press it.  Even though the bottom piece has yet to be added, the effect is already visible.  I can’t wait to stitch that last seam tonight and then press it.

We had a real surprise on Monday — the gardeners were out on the roof garden preparing the flowerbeds.  They have never worked on the roof garden this early in the year.  Makes me wonder if they have some long-range forecast from Environment Canada that says the threat of frost is gone.  The rule of thumb here is not to plant before May 24 and I cannot remember them ever working out on the roof garden much before then and definitely never this early.  I don’t know, but imagine we’ve broken all sorts of records this month.  I’m not complaining, as I love the warmer weather but I do wonder if we’re in for a really hot humid summer — oh, how I hope so!

Lester, of course, was sitting on the windowsill watching rather intently.

Mr. Q.O. brought home a new brush for the kitties on Monday.  Smudge was purring so loudly while he was being brushed that I could hear him on the other side of the room.  Afterwards, he was looking up at Mr. Q.O. as though he was made out of catnip or something!

Harpsichord Quilt Blocks

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Two more of the Harpsichord Quilt blocks done.  It has been quite a while since I worked on these little beauties.  On the weekend I got out my Patchworks of Lucy Boston book and was again so inspired by all the beautiful patchworks she made.  The original patchwork made by Lucy Boston using this design is called the Keyboard Patchwork but because of the gorgeous harpsichords we saw two summers ago I decided my version of that patchwork would be called the Harpsichord Quilt.

The back of the blocks:

Yesterday, Karen Dianne asked about supplies for and where people hand piece.  I have no particular set-up.  I piece wherever I have good light.  That’s the most important ingredient for me.  I piece on the couch when watching television, outside on the roof garden, anywhere there is good light.  All I need are needles, thread,  thread snips and my finger pincushion.  The finger pincushion was a gift from a friend and is worth its weight in gold.  I am so used to using it now that I feel lost without it.   I usually wear it on the index finger of my left hand when hand piecing, although I know a lot use it on their thumbs, and that’s where I park the needles that I use as pins.

#12 sharps are both needles and pins when I hand piece.  They are much finer than any pin I’ve ever tried and don’t throw a seam off when pinning.  I pin one step ahead of myself rather than pinning a whole seam.  When I reach the pin/needle, I move it to the next spot of the seam where I want a pin and so on to the end of the seam.  As I use Inklingo to print my templates on to the back of the fabric and as the templates all have matching points, all I need to do is line up the matching points, pin through them and then stitch.

Thread is a whole other matter.  I love using YLI Heirloom, YLI Select, DMC and Mettler 60/2 threads.  I’m one of those who likes to match thread to the fabric I’m stitching.  In the picture above, there are spools of black, grey, cream and blue thread.  For the Harpsichord block that has the blue squares I used three different threads — the black, the blue and the cream.  The black thread was used for all seams that involved the black fabric.  The cream thread was used when I was joining the outer beige octagons.  When I added the cream octaagons around the block, I used both black and blue thread.  I think I have as much fun picking out the right threads as I do hand piecing the blocks.

The grey YLI thread in the photo is one of my favourites when piecing something that is completely scrappy and has many, many colours in it.  I used it to piece my shabby chic king-sized quilt and am using it to put together the other hexagon top on which I’m currently working.  It seems to melt into the seam and match just about every colour. Except for black fabric, that is.  Whenever I work with black fabric, I use black thread.

The cats aren’t the least bit interested in any of it except for the finger pincushion.  That appears to have magic kitty attraction powers.  Lester, in particular, likes to spear it with a claw.

He was sprawled right out of his kitty bed Monday.

Smudge was, I think, contemplating what mischief he could get into.

Spring Hexagons

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I haven’t worked with hexagons for quite a while.  Yesterday, I saw this post on Barbara Brackman’s blog and it reminded me of this grouping of hexagons from an Inklingo swap that I had set aside as I love the fresh, spring colours.    I think the windy conditions and snow that has been falling for the past 18 hours or so may have something to do with the appeal these have right now.

Because the hexagons templates were all printed on the backs of the fabric using one of the Inklingo hexagon collections, as you can see in the picture below, there’s no basting over paper or whip stitching involved at all.  Just a lovely running stitch and the flowers can be put together in no time.  I think this weekend, as well as trying out a few other ideas that I’m anxious to try, I’ll spend some time making a few of the flowers and pick out a background fabric.

We’ve been glued to the Olympics now for two weeks and have seen some marvelous competitions, but I don’t think anything can come close to watching Joannie Rochette’s skate last night.  I’m so glad she won a medal.

One of the things I plan on doing this weekend is to move my blog posts from the previous blog over.  Hopefully by Monday most, if not all, of them will have found their way here.

The cats know how to  deal with snowy, windy days.  Lester curled up in a kitty bed.

While Smudge found a comfortable spot on the couch.


A Basket

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Drunkard's Path Basket

In my continued fascination with the Drunkard’s Path block, I made these blocks.  I’ve been taking stock of unfinished objects over the past few days, and these have been among the projects that have come up closer in the queue to be finished.  The idea for the blocks is from an older issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting and the setting I’ll use to put them together is also a variation on the setting in that pattern.

I printed all my shapes on the back of my fabrics for these blocks using Inklingo.  It’s hard to believe that it has been almost four years since Inklingo first came out.  I’ve been using it since the beginning.  It makes stitching blocks like Double Wedding Ring, Farmer’s Delight, Alabama Beauty, Winding Ways all very simple. While I hand piece 99.9% of everything I do, many Inklingo’ers very successfully machine piece all these blocks.

This is my first post on my WordPress blog.  I am slowly going to make the changes necessary and then migrate over my previous blog.   I definitely plan to continue the kitty pictures with each blog post.  To start with, here’s one of Smudge:

Smudge

And this of Lester.  He’s really not asleep, but has his eyes shut as he dislikes the flash — a lot!

Lester


Favourite Stitching Tools

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When I’m getting ready for some hand stitching, there’s not much I need handy. First of all, needles. I prefer #12 sharps but also use #11 sharps. I’ve learned to change my needle usually after about 4 or 5 hours of stitching, more frequently if I’m working with a batik. It’s amazing what a difference a fresh needle makes.

When it comes to thread, DMC and YLI Heirloom are my absolute favourites, although I also use Mettler 60/2 and YLI Select. It mostly depends on what matches best.

The grey blob thimble is my favourite for piecing. It’s comfortable on my finger. The thread snips I bought at a craft store a few years ago for 99 cents. I wish now I had bought at least 2 or 3 more of these! I’ve not seen anything better anywhere — certainly not for the price.

And then there’s this — the one thing that I’m lost without now. My finger pincushion. I have it on my index finger. It felt funny at first when I started using it but now I just cannot do without it.


It was Smudge’s turn to hide his head in the kitty bed this time.


Lester, on the other hand, was awake and watching over everything.


Octagon Star Block Finished

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I love how this block finished! The colours are exactly what I need at this time of year, and the block itself was an absolute joy to put together. I’m not sure how many blocks I’ll make but there will be at least a dozen of the fabrics like the ones in this block. It pressed like a dream too and sits as flat as can be.

These are the blues and purples I want to use for the second set. I’m thinking I may add a red as the neutral for this grouping, rather than a green. Not sure yet. I have lots of time to think about this as these blocks have to wait till I get the butterfly stars baby quilt done.


It really was fun to work on that block. On a day when we had yet another extreme cold alert, it was nice to be looking at fabrics that made me feel like there was some tropical warmth — somewhere!

Smudge looking — well, I’m not sure what he saw but he was incredibly alert!!

Lester, stretched out for a nap on the windowsill?? How can he possibly be comfortable lying on hard, cold marble? At least he has warm air blowing up on him but …


Octagon Star

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From very tiny blossoms to a huge (for me, that is) octagon star — all in one weekend! This octagon star will measure 12″ when finished, which is much larger than my norm. The shapes are from yet another new Inklingo collection called the 6″ LeMoyne Star collection. The block isn’t quite finished as I have 8 triangles left to add.

My plan is to make about 7 or 8 blocks with the orange/hot pink and purple fabrics and then another set with blue/purple and green fabrics. With the orange/hot pink, my “neutral” is the purple. With the blue/purple set, the neutral will be the green — I think. The neutral in that second set may change when I start on those blocks. This will be a long-term project as I’ve got to get the baby quilt finished and the FSQS5 quilt finished and on its way too. But I could not resist playing with this design this weekend.

Smudge, half awake.

And Lester, almost sound asleep.


Tiny Blossom

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I couldn’t resist making this little blossom with the new .25″ hexagon Inklingo collection. That is a dime in the picture to give you an idea of the size. The little seams are stitched together in no time.

I’m now thinking that these tiny little blossoms will be perfect to scatter about on the apple core quilt I have planned to make with florals and greens. They go together very quickly and surprisingly easily and they’re just plain fun.

I won some batiks from Wanda at Exuberant Color last year. I have plans for those batiks but couldn’t resist cutting off a small piece of a few of them for these tiny blossoms.

Lester looking very peaceful.