Category Archives: Inklingo

Clamshells

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For a very long time I have been fascinated by clamshell quilts.  Then I got a copy of Kaffe Fassett’s Museum Quilts book and was sure a clamshell quilt was in my future — somehow.  There is no way my hands will stand up to tracing templates, but I could dream about it.  Then I learned about the Clamshell Club and wanted to join in but knew I wouldn’t be able to do it, so decided I’d just enjoy watching others, like Karen,  make them.

Then, last night, a fabulous Inklingo clamshell collection was released.  Problem solved!!  I’ve joined the Clamshell Club and will be working on a quilt of clamshells now.  Perfect shapes every time and wonderful matching points which make stitching these little gems a delight!  Just a plain running stitch, no basting or stitching over papers for me!  Although there is a page of the shape without seam allowances in the collection that one could print out and use for English Paper Piecing, if wanted.  I had printed out about 400 clamshells on a variety of fabrics within minutes of downloading the collection.

A close-up of one of the printed sheets of fabric which shows, if you click on it to enlarge the photo, the stitching lines and matching points.

They are incredibly quick and easy to stitch thanks to the matching points.  If I had picked out the fabrics for this diamond of clamshells ahead of time, I think I could have finished that first diamond easily.  But I was auditioning fabrics as I went, which slowed me down a bit.  So much for completely devoting my stitching time to the Spring Circles.  As the Clamshell Club officially starts on June 1,  I just couldn’t resist getting a start on the clamshells but they are going to be in the wings waiting until I finish the quilt for my aunt.  I may work on them one evening a week until then, but no more than that.

The back of the clamshells I’ve put together so far.  Not the best pressing job I’ve ever done, but I was being extra careful not to distort the shapes as they’re nothing but bias.

Monday was quite hot and humid and I had a migraine that just would not quit.  It finally started to rain late in the evening and the headache started to lift so I was left with just the bruised head feeling that one gets from those.

Lester was enjoying the windowsill and watching the robins and grackles.

And this is what I wake up to almost every day.  Smudge loves to curl up on my pillow and often will rest either his head or a paw on my head.  Mr. Q.O. got this shot before I even woke up.

Spring Circles Again

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One more row has now been added.  Right now it’s 45 x 54.  I was thinking of leaving it this size as my aunt is a very small lady, but looking at it I have decided to add two more rows so that it will end up as 54 x 63.  I think that will make it a good size for her.  I’ve already got the first block of the next row finished and plan to do nothing but these blocks this week and next until it is finished.  By then, the batting I’ve ordered should be in and then I’ll be ready to quilt it.

I was actually starting to print the fabrics to make blocks for the Spring Circles quilt for us, thinking this was large enough.  So now I have one block of our quilt done as well.

The gardeners descended on Saturday morning and by noon all the flowers were planted.  Now it’s wonderful to look out and see the colour.  As soon as it’s a bit less windy, we’ll get some photographs of the flowers.  We have had some absolutely fabulously hot and humid days over the past week.  A real lovely taste of summer weather.  It’s supposed to be quite hot today and Tuesday and then nothing but rain for a few days, which I know we need.

Taking the week off was a smart thing for me to do.  The difference it made as far as my hands go is quite evident.  So I think I learned a lesson — to back away from things that aggravate my hands when they flare up rather than try to tough it out, which is my first inclination.  I hate giving in to the stupid flare-ups, but …

Lester was wanting to see the keyboard at my desk, I think.  He was absolutely determined to find a way over.  He was sitting on the windowsill with his two front paws on my desk.

Smudge, on the other hand, was cuddled up with his favourite teddy bear.  We’re pretty convinced he has a favourite.

Bloggers’ Spring 2010 Quilt Festival

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Nothing like waiting till the very last minute but I finally chose a quilt to show in Amy’s fabulous online Quilt Festival.  I’ve shown this baby quilt on my blog before, but decided to show it again for the Festival.  It was hand pieced and machine quilted and is made of stars along with embroidered hexagons for a baby who was born in April 2009.   I used 1″ diamonds and 2″ hexagons from the Inklingo #1 collection.

I learned that quilting right over embroidered blocks does not distort or take away from the embroidery at all.  Quilting over the blocks with embroidery helps the quilt hold up to repeated washings, I think.  We saw the baby quilt after it had been in use for 8 months and it looked just as good as new.

The above picture isn’t great, but is the only one I have of it quilted.  This picture was taken before it was quilted.


Make yourself a coffee or a cup of tea and go over to the list of Festival participants here and enjoy!  There are some lovely quilts to be seen.

Pincushion Fun

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Among other things, I made this little pincushion on the weekend.  I used some of the 1″ hexagons from the Inklingo POTC collection and 1″ squares to make it.  Stitching the two little blocks took no time but stuffing it and then stitching the last seam closed took a while.  It’s a great size for a portable stitching kit.

The opposite side:

Do you have a favourite fabric you try to include in many of your quilts?  I have these two.  These fabrics have both have been in many quilts I’ve made.   I bought 3 or 4 FQs of the little squares one, and am getting close to the end of it.  I think some of it will show up in the Spring Circles quilt I make for us while the almost solid pink may be my second option for the outer edge pieces of that quilt.

We had fabulous weather on the weekend.  A bit drizzly on Saturday but after that it was just gorgeous.  Monday was nice and hot with a humidex reading of about 32C or 90F and it’s supposed to be even hotter today.  The first heat alert of the season was issued on Monday.  Our long-range forecast looks like it’s going to be warm for the whole week.

I’m going to extend my break from blogging through until next Monday.   My hands have been bothering me and I’m trying to limit the time on the computer as much as possible for a few days.  Mr. Q.O. may pop in with a post or two, though.

My sewing machine went in for service on Friday and I got it back on Saturday.  One of my goals for the next few weeks is to try to spend at least half an hour every day using the sewing machine and getting used to piecing on it.  All because of the  hand issues — so I’d like to feel more comfortable about using the machine if I need to.

This is a rather rare shot of both kitties curled up together.  They get along and have, at most, mock battles, but they do not generally curl up together.

Planning Our Spring Circles Quilt

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While I work on the Alabama Beauty quilt for my aunt seen here, I am daydreaming about the one I will start for us.  I love making that block.  The two containers I have filled with shabby chic and other fabrics that work with them are out where I can see them and think about which shapes I’ll print on which fabrics.  There is one very special fabric that I’m hoping I have enough of to use for all the outer pieces around the entire king-sized quilt.  When I get to the point of starting to print for our quilt, I’ll measure to ensure there is enough.

After all the fabric reorganization is done, I think I’ll probably have one more container full of fabrics that will also work for Spring Circles.  As I want each circle in the quilt to be made with a different fabric, the more the merrier!  It will be marvelously scrappy and have a wonderful cottage shabby chic look to it, which is exactly the look I want.

I did not get around to any blogs yesterday as our connection was impossibly slow — so-called high-speed cable was anything but!  Hopefully it’s better today.

Has anyone else noticed that on One Flower Wednesdays they get more spam comments than on other days?  I’ve noticed it now every week.  It’s not an issue as Word Press has a great system for detecting those comments and stopping them from appearing, but I find it curious that posts about hexagon flowers seem to attract more spam.

Lester was, once again, on the windowsill Wednesday.

Smudge was doing his best lounge lizard imitation on the chair.

We’re supposed to have absolutely amazing weather the next couple of days, although rain is forecast for the weekend, and I’m planning to take Friday through Tuesday off.  I’m not sure if I’ll be blogging until Tuesday, but one never knows.

Wednesday Flowers

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Two flowers were made this week — one with 1″ hexagons and one with .50″ hexagons.  To see more flowers made this week, go to the page at Karen’s blog  here where there’s a list of all those making the flowers.

In my ongoing organization, I found these little stars — some of them made by me, some by a friend — made with .50″ diamonds.  That’s a penny on one of the little stars to give an idea of their size.  I have enough of the tiny diamonds printed and cut out to make about another 15 or 20 stars and am playing with the idea of a setting for them that will use 1″ hexagons.  That’s yet another idea that’s going in the ideas book as I’m trying to stay completely focused on the quilt for my aunt.

The back of the little stars.

At the moment, these are the only flowers to be seen on the roof garden.  Tuesday the gardener was busy out there adding soil to the flowerbeds, so I’m wondering if he’ll be doing some planting before the weekend.

There has been a lot of grackle and robin activity on the roof garden for Lester to keep his eye on.

Smudge seems to be not as interested but I have a feeling that if and when the woodpecker shows up, he’ll be on that windowsill in no time.

Spring Circles Update

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We got this shot of Spring Circles out on the roof garden on Monday.  Right now it’s 45″  square.  I’ve decided to finish it at 54 x 63, which means 3 more rows after the one on which I’m working.  Part of what I’ll do this weekend is print whatever I need in way of shapes for the remaining 3 rows.

Monday morning we woke up to a nice day but, shortly after awakening, I developed a horrible headache, sore throat and kept smelling something awful but couldn’t quite figure out what it was.  Lester also reacted rather dramatically to it.  His eyes were running, he was sneezing and seemed quite uncomfortable.  I finally heard noise at our door — turns out that they were touching up the exteriors of the suite doors on our floor with what has to be the most foul-smelling paint in the world.  The smell lingered all day.  We burned candles for a while, turned on the stove hood fan and then set out a big bowl of vinegar, all in an effort to combat the odour. What we learned?  Candles don’t do anywhere near as much good as a bowl of vinegar in helping to combat the odour.   What I can’t begin to understand is how the painters can work with that stuff day in and day out.

Before the painters started on our floor, Lester was on windowsill duty.  There were a lot of birds on the lawn and, at one point, his tail was swishing like mad.  For a minute, I thought he was going to start chattering at them.

Smudge wasn’t affected by the smell.  He was happily getting ready to snooze with a stuffed toy or two.  He will often move them around to just the right positions so that he can curl up with his head on a bear and/or a paw on another little soft toy.

Teddy Bear Quilts

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This is one of my favourite little quilts — a simple 9-patch quilt that I hand pieced and machine quilted a while ago.  Looking at it now makes me think that perhaps a simple 9-patch quilt is something to work on, bit by bit.  Putting together one of those blocks is perhaps something I’ll endeavour to do once a week until I have enough for a lap quilt for us.

That one was, however, made for a teddy bear.

As was this small LeMoyne Star quilt.  That was made using the 4.5″ LeMoyne Star collection from Inklingo, the first downloadable collection that was released a couple of years ago.

I got a start on the blocks for the next row of Spring Circles on Thursday night.  Hopefully it’s nice enough this weekend to get a photo of it outside to show next week.

Lester spent some time on the windowsill Thursday.

While Smudge was — well, being Smudge and relaxing on the couch.

Seven Sisters

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While I’m working on the quilt for my aunt, I thought I’d show a few pictures now and then of blocks and/or projects I’ve worked on.  I think I will eventually make a blue and white Seven Sisters quilt but initially I made two blocks — one in blue and white using 1″ diamonds and one in the orange and blue using .75″ diamonds. Sometimes I just make blocks with no real plan for a quilt, but rather to see, as in this case, differences in size or just to play with colour combinations.

Another row was added to the Spring Circles top last night and as soon as weather permits, we’ll get a shot of it out on the roof garden.  All the shapes for the next row have been selected and I’ll start on those blocks tonight.

Wednesday was another rather chilly day although the sun did finally make an appearance.  One way I know it’s chilly is that no one is out on the roof garden.  Not even the gardeners have made an appearance yet this week!

Smudge took advantage of another cool day to stretch out and relax, as there’s not much to see out on the roof garden these days.

Lester was doing his house lion imitation again.

Wednesday’s Flower

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While I’m working on my aunt’s quilt, I am going to try to restrict the amount I get distracted from it by other projects.   So One Flower Wednesdays will be, for me, truly One Flower Wednesdays!  This week I decided to make another of the large ones with the 1″ hexagons.  The back:

To see more flowers done by gardeners on One Flower Wednesday, go to Karen‘s post here where there’s a list of all the gardeners with links to their blogs.

This was taken a few days ago out on the roof garden:

Something must have told me I would end up making more than one of the Spring Circles quilts.  I have kept the fabrics I’ve used for it in a separate container, which I would not normally do.  It’s going to be quite simple to go through and cut the pieces for the beginning of the new Spring Circles quilt for us when I get the one for my aunt finished.

Tuesday was a very grey cool day here.  It was dark enough that we had to turn the lamps on almost as soon as we got up in the morning.  The cats found places to curl up and sleep.  Smudge with a teddy:

And Lester in the chair: