Yes, it has been a very long time since I’ve worked on these. But two more were finished on the weekend. They are made with the 6.75″ Inklingo Storm at Sea collection. Because I’m doing the double diamond block, the … Continue reading
Seems I got a bit more distracted last night. I wanted to make another of the 6.75″ batik stars with the extra Storm at Sea pieces I had printed. It was sort of bargaining that went on internally, “Hmm. You have two of the four cornerstones for the pieced border done, so you can play again. But only tonight. Tomorrow you have to make another one of the cornerstones.”
Because it’s a batik, it presses like a charm. I really have no idea how many of these stars I’ll make and what else I’ll do with the extra pieces, but it’s fun to have the option to just pick up and stitch a block like this every once in a while. I think I’ve finally learned my lesson and am grading the seams as I go.
The Drunkard’s Trail/Snail’s Trail has me absolutely captivated. I have many ideas flying around in my mind now and know I’ll end up making at least two and probably more quilts using those shapes. There’s one idea that’s begging to be made soon. Of course, the fact that there’s all that delicious curved piecing has something to do with my fascination with that pattern. Whether these ideas will wait until the red and white top is finished remains to be seen.
It was another remarkably warm day here yesterday and today sounds like it’s going to be even warmer yet. Then it looks like we crash back to the reality of March but what a nice treat this taste of summer has been.
This may be one of my favourite pictures of Baxter yet. I love how well his lynx tips show up.
After yesterday’s post, I got out my stitching book. Then out came some of the extra pieces for a Storm at Sea block and I began arranging them to see if I liked the look of them all mixed up. I think doing the remaining blocks like this is going to give a lot of motion to the quilt. The ones that are 2-fabric blocks will remain as the centre or perhaps the outer edges of the quilt. That’s still to be decided.
Having a stitching book like this is fabulous. I can lay out my block and then just close the book and, as I used batting for the pages of the book, the pieces will remain there until I open the book up again and begin to stitch. I took two appliqué blocks that I wasn’t going to use in a quilt, layered them with batting and backing, quilted it in a 1″ cross-hatch and then bound it. Then I added pages made from batting.
This bow-tie quilt hasn’t been seen for ages. It’s a queen-sized quilt made up of 3″ blocks. I had started to quilt it quite a while ago but ended up putting it away once I realized there was a problem with the basting and that I was going to have to take both my quilting and the basting out, press it as pleats had been basted in and then start over. It has been on my mind the last little while and I finally dragged it out yesterday. While I’m not planning to work on it this weekend, it will be done over the next couple of weeks.
I mixed up everything in this quilt – batiks, checks, plaids, ’30s fabrics, florals, you name it. The only constant was the muslin. Looking back, I can’t believe I traced all those pieces from templates.
When we have cereal in the morning, Baxter loves to have a bit of the milk. He’s not shy about asking for his share, either. If we’re not quick enough, a paw is quite likely to reach up and try to snag our spoons just to remind us that he’s waiting.
Another Stormy Seas block did get done last night. This one makes me think of big frothy waves. When I started working with the extra pieces, I said I’d get at least two blocks of the Stormy Seas top done this week so I’m at least halfway there. I had forgotten just how much fun these blocks are to put together.
That one will join these 17 blocks as last seen on my makeshift design wall. I’m starting to have some different ideas about setting these blocks and may stop making blocks that use only 2 fabrics after the next two are completed and instead start using 3 or 4 batiks in each block. Once I have 20 of them done, I’ll make that decision.
Yesterday was yet another incredibly mild day for January. No matter what winter may throw at us now, it can’t possibly last long.
While Baxter doesn’t seem to mind having his photo taken, he doesn’t pose. Mr. Q.O. grabs a shot quickly, what he calls “shots from the hip”.
When I printed all the shapes for the Storm at Sea blocks, I purposely printed many extra shapes. They’ve sat for ages while I thought about what I wanted to do with them. For starters, I’m going to make a few of these stars. They finish at 6.75″. Then I’ll start working with the extra diamond shapes. There’s a quilt design slowly taking shape in my mind for these extra blocks.
I love working with batiks. They press so beautifully. I’m grading the seams as I go so that I won’t be faced with having to do it all at the end.
When I said I printed a lot of extra shapes, I wasn’t kidding. This box is absolutely full of the various extra shapes.
This is the box that contains all the pieces for the Storm at Sea blocks along with the threads that match the various batiks. The Storm at Sea blocks have been neglected for too long. I plan on making at least one or two of them this week.
Baxter loves playing with his feather toy. On the weekend, he gave it the seemingly obligatory dunk in his water bowl. He does that with his favourite toys. I started to laugh when I found it in his water bowl, as he was lying beside the bowl just happily watching it float. Thankfully it dried quickly.
While the temporary design wall was up, I put up the 17 Storm at Sea blocks that are done so far. When I put them up, I was trying to put blocks that used the same 2 fabrics beside one another to see if I liked the effect. This has given me a slightly different idea about block placement in the top when all the blocks are done.
When will that be? After Twinkling Stars is finished (hopefully that will be when the baseball season is finished), the Pickled Ladies top is together and I hopefully find enough of the white on white I’m using for the Feathered Star/Sunflower to complete it. Then Stormy Seas moves to the top of the list.
There were some fabulous tips on removing quilting in the comments to yesterday’s post. After reading them and thinking about it some more, I’m now not sure if I will take out the machine quilting. I’ll spread the quilt out over the weekend and have a good look again.
Baxter in Pink Chair. That’s what we’ve titled this photo after Mr. Q.O. played with some photo effects.
This one we’re calling “Kitty in the Hall”.
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.
Two more of the Stormy Seas blocks are done and added to the group. Only 26 more blocks to go. That in itself is enough to encourage me to stitch at least parts of the blocks by machine.
This second block is one of my favourites.
Over the past week I have been doing a lot of hand quilting on the whole cloth quilt. So much so that the finger on the hand beneath the quilt is getting really sore. I’m going to try wearing a very thin, flexible leather thimble on my finger underneath the quilt to see if that helps when quilting. Now that I’m back in the habit of hand quilting, I don’t want to stop because of a sore finger.
Baxter hanging out on the quilt on the couch with some teddy bear friends.
This is my current favourite of the Stormy Seas blocks that I’m making using one of the Inklingo Storm at Sea collections. It has been months since I’ve worked on these, but now that I’ve started again I don’t want to stop as I’ve found a stitching sequence that is relatively quick for me.
They are hand pieced, so far, but I’m contemplating trying a block by machine or at least parts of a block. I think I might be tempted to put the units together by machine and then stitch them into the block by hand. I printed a few more a lot more shapes than I need for the quilt so I think I’ll give at least one block a try by machine and see how well I do with that. An idea for a second quilt using the extra shapes is already forming in my mind. I’m rather excited about this idea, so am hoping to get started on it as soon as I get the Stormy Seas blocks finished.
This block has one of my favourite fabrics in it, the green/blue batik.
One of the big benefits of using batiks is that they press so easily.
And yes, Stormy Seas is another quilt in a box. Every block is kitted in its own separate glassine envelope, ready to stitch. Even the various threads for piecing are in this box.
It’s either ragweed starting or I’m fighting a summer cold. Tuesday was one of the most unproductive days I’ve had in ages as doing much of anything seemed like a monumental task.
Baxter seems to think the camera is only for taking photos of him. The minute we’re setting up to take photos of anything, he is right there posing.
One more Storm at Sea block has been completed. For fun, I put the completed ones up on my temporary design wall. Obviously I’m going to have to do a lot of arranging of the blocks, when they’re all completed, to get the effect I’m after. So far, though, I love the look of all those lovely luscious batiks!
Along with completing that one more Storm at Sea block, I made a few more of the Harpsichord blocks. The row on the far left has been joined, but the other blocks are not. There are still many blocks to be made for this top, but it feels good to be adding a few more to it weekly again.
One thing I’ve realized about the temporary design wall is that the spot it is in is probably an area of the apartment that has the worst possible lighting. Some rearranging may have to be done so that the design wall is in an area where there is better lighting available. Perhaps by a window?
Smudge was playing more with his favourite toy on Thursday, although in this picture he was reclining on the couch.
Quilt Obsession 