Category Archives: hand quilting

Bloggers’ Quilt Festival, Spring 2011

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Amy's Creative Side
It’s that time of year again, when Amy at Amy’s Creative Side is hosting the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival.   There are all sorts of beautiful quilts entered — lots of eye candy and tons of inspiration.

I decided to show the first applique quilt I made.  It was all done by  hand — the piecing, applique and quilting.  Each plate has 20 blades, and looking at it now I realize that it has to be the scrappiest of the quilts I’ve made.  In it are some novelty prints, batiks, ’30s repros, checks, stripes and florals.

That was the first time I used a fusible batting and I remember the day I basted it — we vacuumed and vacuumed the living room carpet, laid out the backing, batting and the top and then out came the iron.  It seemed like it took next to no time and the quilt was ready to quilt.

There’s something about Dresden Plate variations that I always seem to have been drawn to.  Not only have I made this one, but also Ferris Wheel (which is about to be quilted), the new one I’ve started and showed yesterday and yet another which is in the planning stages.

Now I think I’ll spend a lot of time over the next few days looking at all the gorgeous quilts being shown.  This has to be the best way to go to a great quilt show — no travelling, no line ups, no trying to get a good view.  Just click on the links and you’re there.

Smudge continues to improve.  Here he was reaching for the toy basket in typical Smudge fashion.  He’s a very laid-back cat!

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How to Mark a Quilt Top?

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Along with planning how I’ll quilt the pink and cream top, I’m pondering how to mark the quilting lines.  There will be cables and probably some feathers, the stencils are handy.  But, as the background is a solid cream, the Pounce white powder obviously won’t show up and I’ve read that the blue powder sometimes doesn’t come out.

Pencils are out — too many times I’ve read about pencil marks not coming out without practically rubbing a hole in the fabric.  The vanishing pens or wash-out pens?  Again, I’ve read some not-great reviews about those.

I’ve used the chalk pencils in the past and will probably use these again but, as it has been a while since I’ve thought about this,  I’m wondering what do you use?  Is there some new tool for marking that absolutely comes out easily without affecting the fabric?  What do you use?

Rainbow Flower & January Clamshell Report

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The Cranes Circling Flowers at Dusk, aka rainbow flower, is something I can’t resist stitching!  So much so that, when I couldn’t sleep because of a migraine, I was fussy cutting six more flowers and cranes from another fabric at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday.  I have everything cut and printed now for the rest of this piece and hope to have the main piecing finished by mid-week.  When it’s finished, we’re going to have to find a way to photograph it.  The light at this time of year makes for not great photographs.  I can’t wait until spring comes and the roof garden reopens!

When I pulled out the storage container with the Oriental prints and batiks to choose the fabrics in this, I also hauled out the container with striped and directional fabrics. I have a feeling fussy cutting some stripes for this block will be the next thing I play with, although I’m also very tempted to do something with shabby chic fabrics.

I don’t have much to show for the January clamshell report.  While I’ve made lots of the black and white arcs for the Pickled Ladies, I only put together two of the pickled clamshells.  To see the list of and links to participants in the Clamshell Club, go to Cybele’s Patch.

On the weekend, I got a lot of the cream hexagons for the POTC blocks stitched.  At this point, I only need to stitch together the ones needed for two more blocks and that part will be done.  So I feel like progress is being made.  We were taking trying to take a picture of a finished POTC block when Smudge decided he needed to help. You can just see a bit of the block that he’s lying on.

Lester was having a snooze.

A Last Few of the Pink Ice Blocks

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Following up on Wednesday’s post, a few more of the Pink Ice Blocks.  Whether I’ll get the setting pieces cut and at least a start on putting the top together this weekend is still up in the air.  My wrists/hands feel somewhat better as I have been careful this week (and, as a result, owe a lot of responses to comments) but I don’t want to push it.  Maybe by Monday, which is a holiday here in Ontario.

Another five of the blocks:

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Both cats had lazy days on Thursday, and both of them curled up with a soft toy. First Smudge with a lion:

And Lester with a teddy bear:

A Few More Klosjes

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It seems like ages since I’ve stitched any of these little blocks, but on the weekend I got out the box that contains the pieces for them and made 10 more.  Now I’m up to 103 of these little blocks.  As they finish at 2 3/8″ and, if my calculations are correct, I’ll need about 570 of them to make even a lap quilt.  That seems rather daunting.  Perhaps these really are meant for a small teddy bear/doll’s quilt.

We’ve been out taking pictures of flowers in the neighbourhood.  This is one of the planters that’s at the entrance to our building.

This one is on the other side of the entrance and you can see one of the buildings across the street reflected in the black marble.

There are tons of these little roses at the front of the building.  They bloom endlessly throughout the summer and well into the fall.

It sounds like we’re going into an extremely hot week with temperatures in the 90s and humidex readings that will reach upwards of 110.  I like hot weather, but the humidity can be a bit hard to take — I think we’ll need gills to breathe by the time we reach mid-week. I wonder how long it will take before they’re asking people to limit their use of electricity during peak hours.  While we hardly ever have to put the air conditioning on in the living room, I have a feeling that this week we’ll probably be turning it on rather frequently.

It was hot during the weekend, but nowhere near as hot as it’s going to be.  Where was Smudge hanging out?  In his kitty bed!  I mistakenly assumed that those kitty beds would be too warm during the hot weather, but it seems I was wrong.

Lester, showing his version of a lounge lizard look.

Summer Picnic Dish

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The Pickle Dish collections were released on the weekend and I couldn’t resist making this instead of the classic red and white pickle dish I had planned to do.  Something about a summer picnic dish wall hanging just seemed like the right idea for now.  I had cut and pressed fabric to freezer paper, printed my shapes and cut them out and was stitching within a few minutes of downloading the collection.  While I’m hand-piecing, I’m sure this could be easily machine pieced as the curves are very gentle.  To that end, Linda even included a template for paper piecers to print out and use for that method.  It is an amazingly simple block to stitch with the matching points and stitching lines that Inklingo prints.  I really can’t imagine making this block with any other method!

There’s an absolutely fabulous Design Book as well, which is free to download.  There are lots of great tips in it for stitching both Pickle Dish and Double Wedding Ring quilts.

More greenery from the roof garden.  After the weekend,  during which we did have some rain, I think it’s probably even greener out there now.  Maybe some flowers will start to show up soon too.

It was a rather hectic weekend and I haven’t really looked at blogs or even replied to some comments yet.  I hope to get back on track after Tuesday.  In the meantime, if I haven’t responded to a comment,  please know that I really do appreciate getting comments and always do respond — eventually.  This is one of those “eventually” times, it seems.

Lester loves to sleep in the pink chair.

While Smudge finds the couch more to his liking most of the time.

Klosjes — It Must be Saturday

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Not much to show this week in the way of Klosjes, but I did get this one little block done.  It seems the quilt is going to be larger than the 81 blocks previously made.  Mr. Q.O. loves these little blocks so I’ll keep going, I suppose, until I have enough to make at least a lap quilt.

The back:

While I may have only stitched one, I did take a few minutes this morning to print the templates on some more charms and muslin:

We picked up the floor frame from Sew Sisters this afternoon.  Oh, my — it is fantastic!  Wonderfully made and has velcro strips and ribbon to hold up the sides so they’re not draped all over the floor.  Easy as can be to use — no knobs to tighten or loosen.  Perfect for someone with limited hand strength like me.  And it actually looks nice!

We’re taking care of Winnie, our neighbours’ cat, this weekend.  Winnie who makes all those funny sounds when she eats.  She did it again tonight.

Our boys have been resting up, hoping we get warmer weather again soon and that there are lots of things to watch out the window.  Lester was guarding the toy basket.

While Smudge was doing one of his impossibly cute poses.

I Got Framed!!

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See this picture?  This wonderful quilt frame?  It’s a fabulous solid oak quilt frame that does away with the necessity of basting, folds up easily for storage and is a great asset for any hand quilter!

On Easter weekend, my favourite quilt shop, Sew Sisters, had a contest.  Every purchaser of fabric got an entry.  Sew Sisters had a very similar contest last year at Easter.  That was the first time I saw one of these frames and I’ve been wanting one ever since as basting is a nightmare and holding a hoop is completely beyond my hands’ capabilities.  When Judy announced the contest on the Sew Sisters blog last week, I knew I had to buy something and get an entry in the contest.  A few half metres of red batiks were purchased and a lot of finger crossing began.

I don’t usually have good luck in contests like this but this time —  I won!  When I got the e-mail from Judy Tuesday afternoon, I was thrilled — once I got over the surprise I had actually won it, that is.  I think the cats jumped at the noise I made when I read that e-mail!!  There are 3 big quilts waiting for quilting, a number of smaller ones and now — well, now I can’t wait!  I’ve done so little hand quilting in the past couple of years that the first thing I’m going to do is make up a sandwich of muslin and batting and get back into the rhythm of hand quilting before I start on any of the quilts.

The frame is made by Heartland Quiltworks, a Canadian company.  We’re picking it up from the shop on the weekend.  I can’t wait to get it home and try out quilting with a frame.  I have visions of the cats curled up under the frame and probably being little mischief makers trying to catch  the needle and thread.

There’s a table runner pattern I’m working on that will feature, among other things, this star.  I made it with the 6″ Storm at Sea collection.  The background fabric I used is one that I’ve had for ages and absolutely love working with.  It’s almost of the same thread count as a good batik but needles so easily.  I’ve been looking for the right pattern in which to use it for years.

The back:

It was a rainy, drizzly, somewhat cooler day on Tuesday and the cats didn’t spend any time on the windowsill.  Smudge did spend a lot of time in my desk chair, though.  It seems to be one of his favourite spots.  I’m not too sure what that look is all about — perhaps a bit of a Morris look.

Lester also has a funny look on his face.  He was actually awake but closed his eyes as he really dislikes the flash of the camera.