Category Archives: Feathered Star

Two More Red & White Blocks

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I love stitching these blocks. Eight of them are now done so only four left to stitch and then the first pieced border. I’m contemplating another pieced border, but will make that decision when the top is together.

All the pieces for the remaining four blocks and the first pieced border are ready to stitch and in this shoebox. I know, I know — a shoebox is hardly elegant enough for this, but it’s the best size and it works. The pieces won’t be in there long at all as this is one quilt top that I definitely want to finish sooner rather than later. The sheet I printed out from the Feathered Star Design Book, which is the perfect reference tool for stitching the blocks, is tucked in at the side of the box along with the spool of red thread I’m using for this project.

Each block takes about 3 evenings to stitch but, as there are lots of opportunities for continuous stitching in both the Sunflower and Feathered Star portions of the blocks, it seems to fly by.

One of the by-products of making these blocks are all these wonderful little pieces from cutting out the HSTs. I know most people would throw them out, but I’m saving them and have a plan for making Christmas cards with them as to me they look like little snowflakes. They’re just too cute to toss.

This is a sheet that I’ve printed, on which you can see, if you click on the photo to enlarge it, the HSTs and where the little snowflakes appear.

And what did the shoebox used to contain? These fun runners. I couldn’t resist them when I saw them in the store. Who says comfortable footwear can’t be fun? And they’re nice and bright which helps cheer up the grey days of winter.

Baxter is definitely looking like a grown-up cat now, particularly in this photo. He may look that way, but he’s still definitely acting like a kitten.

One More Star Done

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This star almost put itself together. It has been months since I made one of these, but this seemed to stitch up much faster than I remember. I started it Friday evening and finished it last night.

Since there are 201 pieces in each block, I decided to grade the seams as I go this time. I will have to go back and grade the seams on the blocks that are already done but at least I’ll have the new ones done, rather than having to do all of them at once.

The pieces for the next block are cut and ready to stitch.

Mr. Q.O. has captioned this one, “Studying Art Can Be Tiring.” It doesn’t look very comfortable for Baxter with his head on a hard book, but it must have been all right as he slept like that for quite a while.

The Red & White Quilt is Back!

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Remember these blocks? They’ve been sitting for a long time.

Why? Because earlier this year I decided I wanted to make the quilt I had started with these blocks bigger. Of course, I was out of both the white and the red fabrics. I was able to get more of the red, which is from an old Laurel Burch line, fairly quickly. But the white? That proved to be harder to find. Thanks to Judy at Sew Sisters, who scoured the distributors for it, more of the white was finally found and we picked it up at the end of last week.

So over the past couple of days, between doctors’ appointments and tests, I figured out what I needed to print and got my fabrics ready and ironed to freezer paper.

Last night, in under 2 hours, I had the fabrics all printed and now have everything I need to finish my red and white Sunflower/Feathered Star quilt, including the pieced border treatment I’ve got planned for it.

In this close-up, if you click on it to enlarge it, you can see the lines on a couple of the pieces I printed. Because I’m hand piecing the blocks, I’ve printed all the HSTs. If I were going to machine piece, I’d have only printed on the white fabric. I wouldn’t even think of making this quilt without Inklingo. With Inklingo’s precision cutting and stitching lines and matching points, a quilt like the one I have planned is easy as can be.

Baxter has had lots of squirrel activity to watch out on the roof garden over the past few days. Mr. Q.O. calls this photo “Sheer Kitty”.  I call it “Kitty Under Lace”.

Help Needed Finding Fabric

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When I started the red and white feathered star/sunflower blocks, I thought I probably had enough of the white on white but wasn’t really worried about it as it seemed to be a staple WOW fabric at the LQS. That was, as it turns out, a silly assumption on my part and I had totally under-estimated just how much I’d need.

Over the past few months, the owner of the LQS has been trying her best to find me more of this particular white on white but hasn’t been having any success. Now I’m thinking that perhaps it’s out of print and my only hope is going to be that someone has it in their stash and is willing to part with it or knows of a store that has it in stock. I’ve put some of the other white on whites that I have next to it and they are just not going to work — the difference is quite obvious.

This picture is really only for scale with the penny on it as the colour isn’t quite right, although white on white is next to impossible to properly photograph anyway. It’s a very small-scale all-over print.

This picture is a bit closer as far as the tone of the white on white goes. It’s made by Santee Print Works and is what I think of as a very icy white on white. There’s almost a bit of a shimmer to it, although it’s not a metallic.

Six of the blocks are made but I need at least 6 more yards of it to make the remaining 7 blocks and pieced border to finish the quilt. I can use anything from FQ size on up, so if you can help and/or know where I can find this fabric please let me know!

Baxter was resting after another busy day on the windowsill, watching the squirrels and birds and falling leaves. We’re not sure what he was calculating, but his paw was firmly planted on the calculator.

Three Red and White Blocks

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Three red and white Feathered Star/Sunflower blocks, that is.  The more I stitch these, the more I’m enjoying them.  I’ve established a stitching sequence that is making them relatively quick to stitch by hand.  First I put together the “snake” of HSTs, squares and diamonds that form the feathers surrounding the kites.  That’s just lots and lots of continuous stitching, which makes the process a very quick one. Then I add the kites to the feathers, add the large QSTs to the sunflower centre and then stitch the kite/feathers around the sunflower block and all that’s then left is to add the outer squares and triangles and the block is done.

Three more blocks to go and I’ll have the six needed for the quilt top I’m making. I’ve started the next one and hope to finish it, except for the outer setting pieces, either tonight or Thursday night.

Don’t these shapes look intriguing?  They’re left over from cutting out Yin Yang shapes and the blades for the Dresden Plate I’m working on.  I can’t bring myself to throw them out as I keep thinking there has to be some use for them, particularly the sort of teardrop shape.  The smaller ones may just end up being glued to a blank greeting card to make some very original cards.

Tuesday night we think we discovered why Smudge pulled the toy basket over close to his kitty bed.  It was so he could use it as a pillow of sorts.

Red and White Feathered Stars

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Two of the Feathered Star/Sunflower blocks are complete and a third is almost finished.  After the third one is done, I’ll be only able to complete the stars without the setting squares and triangles as I’m waiting for more of the white fabric.  I’ll get the remaining stars ready so that when the fabric arrives I can quickly add the setting pieces and then start working on the border.

Along with working on a Feathered Star block Wednesday night, I got some more of the blades for the Dresden Plates cut as well as a couple of the arcs for the Pickled Ladies.

Wednesday it rained — again.  We seem to have had nothing but rain since Saturday and they say we’ll  have rain until this Saturday.  That will be almost a full week of rainy, rather cool weather.  I can’t wait for a couple of sunny warm days.  Wednesday night the fog was really pretty — the lights remain on all night in the offices in the tower across the roof garden, which seems incredibly wasteful, but they looked rather intriguing when seen through the fog.

Smudge was posing for the camera.

Getting Ready to Stitch and Hugo’s Roof Garden Adventure

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Thursday I spent some time prepping all the pieces I need for the remaining Feathered Star blocks for my red and white Sunflower/Feathered Star quilt.   This photo shows the pieces I need for one block.  By the time I finished stitching Thursday night, I had half of the HSTs, diamonds and squares put together that border the kites in the block.  That takes the longest stitching time of any of the elements of the block.  Once that is put together, adding it to the kites and then surrounding the centre Sunflower goes very quickly and then all that’s left is to add the outer setting squares and triangles.  By the time the weekend is over, I hope to have at least one more block completed and a third one started.

Finally, after days of rainy and/or windy and chilly days, Thursday was sunny and Hugo had an adventure on the roof garden.  Here he is walking down the pathway to the garden.

Then he thought the shrubs surrounding the walkway needed investigating.

Inspecting the few lonely flowers that are blooming seemed like a good idea.

The daffodils looked rather interesting, so Hugo decided to get a bit closer.

The tour of the roof garden continued, but suddenly we couldn’t see Hugo.  We looked up to see he had decided to climb a tree.

Why on earth would a hippopotamus climb a tree?  To see the CN Tower, it seems.  It’s hard to see in this photo, but Hugo could see it.

We have a couple of other little adventures planned for Hugo and then it will be time for him to travel on to his next destination.

I pretty much avoided the computer Thursday as my back was still a bit sore.  It’s better as I write this late Thursday night so hopefully I can finally get caught up on replies to comments and blog visiting today.

A close-up of Smudge, which Mr. Q.O. took Thursday  night.

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.

Feathered Star

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The block was finished Tuesday evening and I’m thrilled with it.  Now to decide if I try to rush and make it into a table topper for this year or make this the first of 9 blocks and a start on a Christmas quilt for us.  I’m leaning towards taking my time, making the remaining blocks and having a Christmas quilt.

Heirloom cotton thread is one of my favourites for hand piecing.  When putting the arcs together for the Pickled Ladies, I use black thread.  The black heirloom thread seems to break much more easily than any other colour, which leads me to wonder if the black dye somehow weakens the thread.  Have you ever run into a particular thread colour that tends to break more easily than others?

I’ve done no baking yet for Christmas.  Usually I make butter tarts and a lot of different cookies as they’re great gifts to give to neighbours and friends.  I don’t think anything will get made this year but the butter tarts.  They’re fast and easy and everyone loves them so a few dozen of those will be made over the next day or two.

We got an early Christmas present on Tuesday when we took Smudge to the vet.  The jaundice is barely evident now and he has put on more weight.  He’s now up to 16.8 pounds, so only a few more to go until he’s back at his normal weight.  They gave him another antibiotic shot and he’s still on the syringe feeding, but he’s definitely on the mend.  He was relaxing Tuesday night.

Lester was napping.

Feathered Star for Christmas

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This is what I worked on over the weekend.  For me it’s an enormous block as it will finish at 20″.  Feathered Star is a pattern I’ve been fascinated by and, over the years, I’ve thought about making one but the idea of the acrylic or mylar templates, specialty rulers, tracing and on and on made it less appealing.

On Friday night, three Inklingo collections for a 15″, 20″ and 30″ Feathered Star were released along with an absolutely fantastic Design Book.  Because the centres of these feathered stars are 4.5″, 6″ and 9″ respectively, one could use any number of blocks in the centre rather than the octagon.  Saturday morning, I had this stack of shapes printed and cut out, ready to make my first block.

The instructions in the Design Book are for both hand and machine piecing.  I read through the machine piecing section and felt like I could make one of these by machine.  That said, all the continuous stitching that putting the feathers together offers was irresistible to me and hand piecing was my choice.  Putting the HSTs together by machine would be so easy the Inklingo way; just stitch on the line and cut.  No paper to remove, no bias to handle.   The Design Book is free to download for a limited time.  If you’ve ever thought about making a Feathered Star, this is definitely a book you want to add to your library.

This could be the beginning of a Christmas quilt for next year or perhaps I’ll finish off this one block, add a border, quilt it and use it as a table topper this Christmas.  That may be a bit too optimistic to think I’ll finish it by Saturday, but I’m tempted to try.   I’m amazed at just how quickly it goes together.  It won’t take long now to finish the star and then add the setting squares and triangles.

Smudge is on a tablet that helps the liver.  He has a habit of spitting the pill out when I turn my back.  Saturday morning, he did that very thing and I didn’t notice it until we took this picture.  If you look closely, you can see the little pink pill on the towel.  He seems to be doing better.  Tomorrow we take him in for another antibiotic shot and his weigh-in and colour check.

Lester has been enjoying the variety of foods that have been showing up as we try to get Smudge to eat more on his own.