Category Archives: Inklingo

Bright Yin Yang Blocks

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I just couldn’t resist and had to see how the Yin Yang block would look in brights as well as the spice fabrics. These blocks may be the beginning ones for a stitching book cover or, who knows, maybe I’ll make a small Yin Yang quilt of primary colours.

I still can’t get over how wonderfully the blocks press, so have to show the backs:

Yesterday I had a link to the collection in my post, but it didn’t work.  Here’s the correct link for the Yin Yang collection.

Sleepy Cat Hollow left a comment on yesterday’s post with a suggestion for another name for the Spice or Chocolates and Caramel quilt that I loved — Contented Kitty, saying that it looked like Smudge curled up in his kitty bed.  So now I think that quilt will end up being called Contented Kitty.

Smudge likes to lounge by the water bowls before he sticks his head right in the water.  Mr. Q.O. got this shot of him just before he moved over and put his head in one of the bowls and was dripping wet.

Spice or Chocolate and Caramels Quilt Beginnings

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Ever since I saw the Yin Yang block on Barbara Brackman’s blog months and months ago, I’ve wanted to stitch it.  On Sunday, a new Inklingo Yin Yang collection was released and I had to dive right in!  The fabrics I had set aside for the Spice quilt were back out, I had the shapes printed and cut out in a matter of minutes and a few hours later, four blocks were done.

About a month ago, I tried to prep pieces to stitch this block with freezer paper templates.  In the past I’ve used freezer paper templates without problems, but for this shape?  It just wasn’t working at all.  When stitched together, the block had a rather tent-like look that was impossible to get rid of no matter how much I pressed it.  My stitching lines and matching points just weren’t anywhere near perfect or fine enough.  But with Inklingo printing the stitching lines and matching points, it was easy as could be.  So I was absolutely overjoyed when the collection was released.

They press like a dream and, once pressed, are perfectly flat.

I’m torn now between thinking of this as the Spice Quilt or Chocolate and Caramels. There are tons of fabric choices one could play with working with this shape — batiks and hand-dyed fabrics, ’30s repros, shabby chic, black and white, primary colours. The list just goes on and on.  I have an idea for a baby quilt made with this shape which will be very fast to stitch as the blocks almost put themselves together.

Smudge was nowhere near as excited as I was about these new shapes.  He’s happy as long as he’s curled up in his kitty bed with the toy basket nearby.  Sunday night I was watching him as he ever so slowly put both front paws in the toy basket and dragged it over closer to the kitty bed.

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.

Little Blocks and Big

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Well, little blocks and big ones is all relative, I suppose.  The big blocks are 5″, the small ones 2.5″.  I think I’ve got the beginnings of a setting idea for these that may look something like this.  The quilt may end up a bit larger than I originally anticipated as each time I start to stitch one block, I can’t stop until I’ve stitched at least 2 or 3.

Then we get to the biggest blocks of the post.  These will finish at 9″, which seems enormous in comparison to the little cake stand blocks.  Another amazingly quick block to stitch.  I’ve had some ideas regarding a setting for these blocks and, as soon as I get another 3 of them done, I will start playing with layouts.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about why I quilt.  For me, it’s not about making bed coverings although if there’s a new baby or a friend in need of comfort I’ll definitely make a quilt for them.  Generally speaking though, for me making blocks and tops is all about playing with fabric and ideas and just the sheer joy of stitching and watching fabric that I’ve cut into small pieces and sewn back together again start to form patterns that I find endlessly fascinating.

It makes me think of the quilters of the past and wonder what motivated them to create their quilts.  Was it mostly for practical purposes so that their families would have warm quilts under which to sleep?  Was it because they too were fascinated by the patterns?  Or was it a combination of both?  It’s impossible to think that they were motivated solely by practical considerations when one sees the beautiful quilts they created.

Smudge was lounging in his kitty bed.  The paw draped over the edge makes me smile.

New Summer Quilt Project

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Ever since I finished the Ferris Wheel top, I’ve been playing with the idea of another Dresden Plate quilt.  I finally succumbed on the weekend and started to print the shapes for the pointed blade on a layer cake of Fig Tree’s Buttercup collection.

Years and years ago, I started a pointed blade Dresden Plate but the dozen or so blocks that I did finish ended up in the orphan block box.  They were small 6″ blocks and it was going to take dozens upon dozens of them to make a quilt.  Since then, I’ve repeatedly thought about making one with the pointed blades, but didn’t want to go through that whole process of folding the blades to get the pointed tip. Using one of the blades in the Dresden Plate Fancy Pieced collection was the solution.

I haven’t attached the background to the plate yet.  It’s going to be a wonderfully feminine summer quilt, one that I can almost see draped over a white wicker chaise. Not that we have a white wicker chaise, but that’s the sort of setting I can imagine for this quilt.  It will be very soft, very feminine and a perfect summer project.  When it’s ready to quilt, this one absolutely has to have a silk batt.

Smudge seems to be improving.  We have found foods that he’s happy to eat.  Last week there was a lot of syringe feeding done until Friday, when he finally started to eat sufficient amounts on his own.  Obviously we’ll have to watch his food intake carefully and be ready to jump in with syringe feeding, but I’m feeling optimistic that maybe we’ve turned a corner.  He’s curling up in his kitty bed, and is acting more like himself.

Here he was taking a break after some play time with his favourite toy, Cappy.

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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.

Cake Stand and Ovals in Batiks

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It seems I can’t resist these little cake stand blocks. It’s rather fun making a large and smaller one at the same time.  I’ve decided to make however many blocks I can using 4 or 5 different batiks for each size and then play with the settings.  So I have no set size in mind or layout.  This is just play time for me and I’m loving every second of making these.  I was reminded to change out my needle last night when I realized the needle wasn’t gliding through the fabrics quite as easily and that I had been using the same needle for at least 3 evenings of stitching.  With batiks, that’s just too long.  As soon as I started using a fresh needle, the difference was stunningly evident.

As I had stated I was going to try to do, I managed to get a couple of the batik ovals appliqued as well.  If I can keep adding a few each week eventually I’ll get all the blocks done.

The hearing on Wednesday was nowhere near as long as the day before but it was the third day in a row of uncomfortable chairs at the wrong height and last night my back was aching beyond belief.  I’ve now dubbed them the torture chairs as they’re little better than card table chairs.  I think everyone was relieved yesterday when the hearing was adjourned and they could get up and stretch and get out of there.  The hearing itself is quite interesting, but the chairs make it close to unbearable.

I couldn’t even contemplate sitting at the computer last night or this morning which is why this blog post is so late today.  I usually do my blog post the night before and set it to publish the next morning.  Last night there was no chance of that happening.

Smudge was apparently posing for Mr. Q.O. before I got home yesterday.  I love this profile shot.

Another Pair of Cake Stand Blocks

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These blocks have turned out to be the perfect stitching for evenings when I’m tired. They’re quick and easy to stitch.  Thanks to Wanda‘s comment yesterday, I now have an idea for setting them using the little blocks as cornerstones with sashing around the larger blocks.

They press beautifully.

The neutral I’m using is one of the nicest creams or whites I’ve worked with.  While it has a design to it, it’s not heavily painted on and is easy as can be to needle.  It’s a fabric by Avlyn called “Essential White”.

Tuesday was a long day.  In typical office building fashion, it’s either too warm or too cold.  Tuesday it was too cold.  It was pouring rain when I left Tuesday morning and chilly, so I was chilled before the hearing began.  By the time the hearing adjourned, I thought I’d never feel warm again.  I’m hoping that today we’ll adjourn early.  I’m definitely wearing something warmer today.

Smudge was relaxing with his favourite toy Tuesday evening.

TIny Cake Stand Block

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Looks like I may not get much stitching done this week.  Monday night I was absolutely exhausted, partially because I had barely slept Sunday night for some reason, and got very little done.  This little cake stand block was all I managed to stitch Monday night.  It seems I’m determined to make a small quilt with the 2.5″ blocks.  I decided to use a QST for the triangle at the bottom of the block and am going to use the same cream for all blocks as the neutral.  I’m not sure how many blocks I’ll make, but it’s definitely going to be a tiny teddy bear quilt.

The back:

I’m going to continue making some of the 5″ blocks as well, with a view to making a small baby quilt.   I have an idea for the borders of both the tiny and slightly larger quilt and am planning to piece the borders as I stitch the blocks.  That way when I finish stitching the blocks I should have most of the pieced borders completed.

Monday wasn’t a long day at the hearing, but it appears that today will be as will Wednesday.  So blog posts for the next couple of days are probably going to be rather short.

Smudge was looking at a toy I was holding above his head while Mr. Q.O. got this shot.

Cake Stand Block and Hugo Goes to the Castle

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What possessed me, I have no idea but on the weekend I decided it would be fun to make a 2.5″ cake stand block.  It was actually a lot of fun to stitch.  I printed .50″ and 1.5″ HSTs, a couple of .5 x 1.5″ rectangles and two .50″ squares and the little block practically put itself together.  I used two different Inklingo collections to do so, the HST collection and the .50″ Log Cabin collection.  That’s a penny in the photo, to give an idea of scale.

Then for fun I decided to make a 5″ block using the same fabrics.  Again, it practically put itself together.  The only difference in this one was that I used shapes from the 1″ Log Cabin collection with the larger HSTs.

The two blocks, side by side.

The back of the larger of the two blocks.

After watching so much coverage of the Royal Wedding on Friday, Hugo needed to see a castle so off we went to take him to see Casa Loma.

First he saw part of the stone wall.

Then the castle started to appear.

We rounded the corner and Hugo got his first good glimpse of the castle.

We saw the castle stables.

And then we were right across the street from the castle.  Hugo jumped up on the dashboard and had a good long look!

This is going to be a busy week as I’m acting as registrar at a tribunal hearing all week.  Oh, how I wish I had a smart phone or iPad!  With one, the inevitable long drawn-out recesses would be much more bearable.   I think the next technology buy for me will be one of those two things.

We seem to have found food that Smudge definitely likes and is eating.   That is a huge relief for us and he seems much happier.  Here he was relaxing.  I love the crossed paws pose.