Years ago (and I’m not sure quite how many years that may have been, but I think it’s at least eight), I bought a half yard of this fabric. I fell in love with it at the store the second … Continue reading
A Very Favourite Fabric
Category Archives: Joseph’s Coat
Shabby Chic Joseph’s Coat
Yesterday was a lovely hint of the summer weather ahead. It was wonderful and warm and a bit humid and just felt fabulous to be outdoors. Absolutely no jackets or sweaters were required yesterday! And because it was so nice and dry and not windy, we were able to get some things photographed out on the roof garden.
One of those things was my Joseph’s Coat top. I’ve been dying to to get a half-decent photograph of this to show as I just love it. The grass out on the roof garden hasn’t been cut yet and was really holding the quilt top up off the ground quite well. It’s a big quilt by my standards – it’s approximately 70 x 74 (which is making me think I have to add some more to it as I really don’t like square quilts). It has a great mix of lots of my favourite shabby chic prints with some batiks and a variety of white on white background fabrics. When I picked it back up and realized I’d used the background fabric I had started it with in other projects, I decided that a variety of different white on white fabrics would not matter. Looking at it now, I’m glad I didn’t stress over that.
I started it way, way back in June 2011 (as can be seen on this post), when the Inklingo Joseph’s Coat collection was released. I’d work on it a bit here and there but, for the most part, it was on the back burner until this past winter when I got on a tear and kept going and going and going and printing more and more melons and background pieces. I just did not want to stop! Once I got into the rhythm of sewing it, it really became rather quick to stitch. So much so that now I’m contemplating a second one. The idea for that second one is really taking root in my imagination, so I would almost bet it’s a done deal that I’ll be doing just that relatively soon. For me, sewing Joseph’s Coat has it all – curved piecing and continuous sewing.
The daffodils are up in the roof garden flowerbeds and the hostas are just starting to send up their shoots. A few more lovely warm days and I bet things really take off.
“Technicolour Clams & Friends”
Jake was watching us out on the roof garden from his perch on the top of the kitty tree. Mr. Q.O. captioned this one, “Come home to devil cat.” The sky had become rather overcast and he had to use the flash to get this shot and – well, cats’ eyes and the flash don’t quite mix. I can’t wait until the window washers get to our windows and then we’ll have lovely clean windows again.
I took this photo of Baxter the other day – love that huge outstretched paw!
Circles & Curves
What else have I been working on? Well, things that involve curved piecing, of course, because I can’t resist it. I made the label for the Joseph’s Coat top. I’ve basted the seam allowances under so that they don’t fray … Continue reading
A Few More UFOs/PIBs
While cleaning up the sewing area and while the design wall was empty before I started working on the Memories of Smudge layout, I decided it was time to document some of the other UFOs that are lurking in the … Continue reading
Some Shabby Piecing
… is definitely in my future. Remember the Joseph’s Coat shabby chic project? It feels like forever since I’ve worked with my favourite shabby chic fabrics, so once the red and white top is done it will be the shabby … Continue reading
Curved Piecing and a Bit of a Curveball
As those who have read my blog for a while probably know, I love curved piecing more than just about anything (although hand quilting is quickly climbing back up the favourites list). There is something about it that I find absolutely irresistible. So once the flannel top was finished, I was thinking about my Summer Picnic Dish a.k.a. pickle dish quilt top and, as I had done a lot of printing of the various pieces for it a few weeks back, I started making the melon/arc combos so I can get this one to the lap quilt size sometime within the next few months. I’ve also been adding a bit to the Joseph’s Coat top. A couple more of the Pickled Ladies have joined the others as well.
Even pressing the melon/arc combos is fun.
I couldn’t resist taking this picture. It’s not the best, but it made me laugh. It was raining here last night and a leaf blew up against our window and stuck there for the longest time. Baxter was on the windowsill countless times while it was there and completely ignored it. I was convinced he’d be trying to paw at it, but obviously it just wasn’t interesting as it wasn’t moving.
Almost all the leaves are off the trees on the roof garden now and Baxter is spending an enormous amount of time on the windowsill watching them. I love this photo of him as it shows off his white eyeliner so well!
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I’ve had a bit of a curveball thrown my way. Over the past few months, I’ve been dealing with a health condition and the resultant tests, specialist appointments, et cetera. I’ve now been given the diagnosis of remitting-relapsing MS. There are more tests to come, treatments to begin and more specialist’s visits, so there will undoubtedly be days when I may not have a new post on the blog and/or be visiting and commenting on other’s blogs.
It appears I have had this for at least 20 years and have clearly done quite well, up until this summer. According to my neurologist, there are many, many people who walk around with MS and don’t know it. I am in very good hands. I have had invaluable support from friends who have MS and have given me lots of good information as I’ve travelled down this path and, of course, have had enormous support from Mr. Q.O.
Baxter is providing his very own type of kitty support – laughter is the best thing and watching kitten antics like this, when he was trying to “help” Mr. Q.O. with his cryptic crossword, are guaranteed to bring about laughter and smiles.
Going forward, my intention is not to turn this into a blog about MS, although it may periodically be mentioned as it is part of my life and my blog is about things in my life as well as quilting.
Printing and More Printing for Quilts
What’s that? It’s the stack of fabrics I printed over the weekend for the Scrappy Star, Twinkling Stars, Summer Picnic Dish, Harpsichord and Joseph’s Coat quilts. The last couple of weeks I’ve been identifying the size I want certain projects to finish at. WIth the size of each determined, it took only a few minutes to figure out what I needed to print to reach that goal. Sometimes I print only a few of each shape for a couple of blocks until I’m sure I want to make it into a quilt. Once that decision is made, I prefer to get everything printed at once and get the shapes cut and into a box ready to stitch such as I’ve done for the Stormy Seas quilt.
This gives you a glimpse of the some of the shapes I printed for the Harpsichord, Joseph’s Coat and Summer Picnic Dish quilts. Using the various Inklingo collections to prepare my templates makes it so easy to print on any number of fabrics, even black fabrics as most are markedly lighter on the back than the front and the templates will show up perfectly with one of the many choices of ink colours.
Almost all the shapes are now cut and ready to be put in a box, along with the matching threads, for the Twinkling Stars quilt, which I plan on trying to finish between now and the end of the World Series.
Because it was such a beautiful day on Monday, we took Scrappy Star out to the roof garden to photograph. It’s growing and is now 24″ across. It will be at least twice that width before I’ll stop adding rounds. I needed more of the squares, which was another reason for all the printing that was done on the weekend.
The back after pressing.
Baxter is starting to look like a grown-up kitty in some photos, although his antics are still pure kitten antics. I think he was trying out his hypnotic kitty look in this photo.
Lots of Shabby
Joseph’s coat is growing. It’s amazing just how quickly it’s growing. I can imagine having a lap quilt done within a few weeks — if I devoted all my stitching time to it, that is.
That said, I don’t want to leave out the Yin Yang blocks. Monday night I got this one put together, another one half done and the partial ring that can be seen in the top picture of the shabby coat.
Every time I make one of these Yin Yang blocks and press it, I’m thrilled with how easily it presses flat.
Smudge was posing on the top of the loveseat. Mr. Q.O. calls this photo “Quilter’s Cat” because of the quilting paraphernalia visible in the background.
Melons and Yin Yang — Oh, My!
Lots and lots of melons printed and ready to stitch to the connecting cream bits. Lots and lots of yin yang pieces printed and ready to stitch. This is definitely going to be a very shabby chic summer.
Two more of the Dresden Plates are now done and ready. Before I get too much further with these, I’m going to play with some layout ideas. Hopefully I’ll get that done this weekend.
We had some computer glitches, so I’m recycling this photo of Smudge on the windowsill from last summer.
A Little More Shabby Coat
I know, I know. I said I was going to stick with the little Dresden Plates but I couldn’t resist adding a bit more to the shabby Joseph’s Coat. I’m so thrilled with this new Inklingo collection that I really can’t leave it alone! It’s really quick to stitch and presses oh, so easily. Even with all those seams intersecting in the centres, it lies flat as can be. This could grow into a lap quilt rather quickly.
Quilts that go together as you stitch them, rather than having blocks to join at the end, always attract me. When I finish stitching the blocks, it’s done.
The back:
We had crazy weather Wednesday night. First fog, then rain, then thunder and lightning and heavy rain. Sounds like there’s more of the same in store for us today.
Smudge was enjoying himself, stretched out on the windowsill. That’s a definite sign that summer is here.
Quilt Obsession 