Category Archives: Sunflower

Red and White Quilt

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The main body of the Feathered Star/Sunflower quilt top is finished, all stitched by hand. The last stitch joining the blocks was taken Friday evening. Two of the pieced blocks for one of the borders are done, but there are still many to go. Right now it measures 60 x 80. It doesn’t look its best draped over the sofa, but I was so excited it was done that I had to share!

I had hoped we could get out on the roof garden to take photos but they haven’t opened it yet. Maybe Wednesday, when our forecast high is an unbelievably warm 25C, they’ll open access to the roof garden and we can get a good photo of the top.

I feel almost compelled to finish this quilt before I work on anything else, which is so unusual for me. My vision of how this top will look when complete is driving me to keep working on it so I can see the actual finished top. If I stick with it, I think I can have the top finished within 2 weeks.

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This is a slight rant, so if you want to see Baxter’s daily picture just scroll down. I won’t be insulted.

Can anyone tell me why on earth Canada Post is now slower than a carrier pigeon would be? I don’t mean with packages which always take a long time. I’m talking about plain ordinary everyday business mail. An envelope that was mailed to me from about half a mile away took 18 days to arrive. Another business envelope was mailed last Monday, from about the same distance, and still has yet to arrive. And for this we pay a high price for postage? No wonder Canada Post is sometimes called Canada Storage!

I’ve thought for a long time that we live in an area that’s a black hole when it comes to mail. I dread mailing things as I never feel the least bit secure that they’ll arrive in a timely manner, if at all. But this has been the final straw for me. I think from now on I’ll forego using the post office altogether and depend on UPS or some other courier service.

Okay. Rant over. Back to our normal programming.

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I heard a robin out on the roof garden on the weekend. Practically fell over myself racing to the window to see it and there it was, on the lawn. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a robin this early. We are having temperatures that feel more like early summer than the end of winter and are breaking records. This has been the winter that wasn’t for us and it has been wonderful. But it does make me wonder what our summer will be like and what it may mean for the farmers as there was so little precipitation during the winter.

Baxter has had a lot to keep him occupied on the windowsill. Grackles, robins, squirrels and something that he seems to see out on the roof garden at night, although we can’t see what it is that has him so fascinated.

Red and White Feathered Stars

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Preparation of the centre blocks is almost complete. All that’s really left is to do is the grading of seams on the first 6 blocks.

It presses beautifully. The final six blocks have had all the seams graded. Why I left it with the first six I have no idea, but it won’t take long and is definitely worth the effort. It will make the quilt drape better, there will be no chance of the red shadowing through to the front and it will make the quilting easier.

I stacked them together for fun. It will be fabulous to see this quilt centre put together, but taking a picture of it will definitely have to wait until we can get out on the roof garden. Which, by the looks of our weather forecast, may not be too far off at all.

Making these blocks has been so much easier than they look, thanks to the perfect stitching lines and matching points of Inklingo, that I’ve got an idea for a completely different feathered star quilt that I’d like to make.

Baxter had to get in on the act of photographing the blocks. Mr. Q.O. labelled this one, “The Critic.”

Although it was Mr. Q.O.’s birthday yesterday, Baxter got a present. One of our neighbours gave this to him. He absolutely loves it and played with it for hours.

Little Bits

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The centre of the last of the red and white Feathered Star/Sunflower blocks is ready. I’m getting very close to having the main body of the quilt done. The pieced border is going to take a bit of time, but I think once the centre is done and together it’s going to put this quilt right up at the top of the list to be worked on until it’s completed.

The seams are graded and it’s pressed, ready to be put in the centre of that last block.

Two sides of the Scrappy Star now have the pieced border attached. I think I want to try to add those final two sides before I get started on the pieced border for the Feathered Star quilt, as I’d love to see the Scrappy Star top done and ready to baste. It’s getting a bit large to get a decent photo of inside but the weather is getting better every day, so a roof garden photo may not be that far off.

A few more sets for the Kaleidoscope Stars are ready to stitch. They’re a fun, quick stitch. I think I’ll end up with 20 of them and will then put them into a small top.

Thanks for all the great comments on the orchids. I’m really hoping I can keep this plant alive and see it flower again.

Baxter appears to love draping himself over the arm of the chair. Makes me laugh every time as he seems to be almost having a conversation with us.

Sunflower Centres

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The last two centres for the red and white Feathered Star/Sunflower blocks are done. Now it’s a matter of finishing the Feathered Star blocks themselves, adding them to those already done and starting on the borders.

I’m grading the seams as I go and have learned it’s a lot easier to grade the centre sunflower before it’s in the centre of a 20″ block. I wait until after pressing before grading the seams. Then it’s a quick press again and they’re done.

It snowed a fair bit last night but today it’s supposed to be quite mild again, so I suppose it will all be melted by noon. Last night was the first time this winter I would have possibly gone looking for boots had I been going out.

Baxter in what seems to be a chair meant for kitties. The cat I had as a little girl loved this chair, and so has every cat I’ve had since then. It seems to be just the right shape for them. It’s actually a very comfortable chair in which to sit but, as it’s usually occupied by a cat, we don’t seem to get the chance!

One Centre Done, Another Begun

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I didn’t quite make my goal of having two of the sunflower centres for the Feathered Stars done, but at least one is complete and the second is mostly done. Part of the reason I didn’t get the second one completed is that a fair amount of time was spent cutting the shapes for the spring Winding Ways. There’s still a lot of cutting left to do, but I hope to have that finished by the time the weekend is over. I think I may have to get a larger box for that project.

A couple of times I’ve left the grading of seams until the entire Feathered Star block was done. It is so much easier to do it in increments, so now I grade the seams of the centre sunflower right away.

The ring of diamonds and triangles that go around the centre of the second sunflower are done. Once that ring is made, the rest of the piecing of a sunflower block takes no time. I may get the second one finished tonight and the third started.

One of Baxter’s Christmas presents was this feather toy. I think it’s a toss-up between this and Cappy as to which toy he prefers sometimes. Last night he was playing with it, managed to get it under the couch too far for him to reach, then meowed pathetically for help retrieving it.

Feathered Star Again

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Another one done and three more to go. If I can buckle down and concentrate on stitching the three remaining blocks, I think I could have the centre of the quilt done within 9 to 10 days. Whether I can do that remains to be seen, but I’m going to try. Once the centre sunflower is done, it seems like the block is almost halfway done so today I shall try to get at least two of those centres done.

I love how easy it is to press this block. I graded the seams for two reasons. There are a lot of pieces in each block, so it really helps cut down on the weight and will make the quilt drape nicely. Secondly, I definitely don’t want the red shadowing through.

Yesterday afternoon the fog rolled in and the view out our window was quite eerie. I love how quiet it seems when there’s a thick fog.

Mr. Q.O. captioned this one “That’s the biggest bag of catnip I has ever seen!” Made me laugh the second I saw the picture.

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.