Category Archives: machine piecing

Stars, Stars and More Stars

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All 80 of the Twinkling Stars are made and ready to be stitched into the larger 15″ 9-patch blocks. My goal was to finish them before our long Thanksgiving weekend was over and I got it done!

Hybrid piecing worked out really well for me once I worked out this method of pinning the skinny triangles to the half tumblers. My previous attempts at machine stitching have usually resulted in seams that seem slightly distorted by the pinning.  So rather than pinning through matching points or crosshairs, I used a fine pin as though I was using a needle and thread. Checked the front and back of the seam and as long as my pin was right on the stitching line, I was off to the races. That’s how I reached my goal of finishing the stars. I don’t know how well that pinning idea would work on long seams, but for these skinny tris it worked like a charm for me.

Our Thanksgiving weekend was perfect – warm and sunny. The weather felt more like Labour Day weekend than Thanksgiving. So much so that people were out on the roof garden sunbathing. I’m hoping this is a sign that we’ll have a mild winter.

A few leaves have been dancing by the window and Baxter has been busy watching. Here he was resting up after a long afternoon of leaf chasing and bird and squirrel watching.

More and More Twinkling Stars

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Much as I’ve wanted to steal time away from making the Twinkling Stars and work on something else, I’ve managed to stay on course and now have slightly under half the stars done. I’m hoping to finish them off by the end of this long weekend and then will only have the little 9-patches left to make before I can start putting the top together.

They’re hybrid pieced. I’m joining parts of the blocks by machine and then finishing it by hand piecing. I know the blocks can be totally made by machine, but I enjoy putting them together by hand and they’re relatively quick to stitch. For those who have asked, I’m using shapes from the Inklingo Tumbler Collection. It’s easy to get the long skinny tris perfect when one has the stitching lines and matching points.

This is our Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and our weather sounds like it’s going to be much more like summer than fall, with humidex readings in the 30C range on Saturday and Sunday. Makes me wonder how many people will have barbecues for Thanksgiving rather than heat up their homes cooking turkeys.

Over the last few days, Baxter has spent more time on the windowsill than anywhere else. He has a tendency to wave one paw in the air, which we’ve dubbed his royal wave. Here I’m not sure what he waving at — perhaps a squirrel or bird.

Colourful 9-Patches

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These 3-inch blocks will be incorporated in the design of the Twinkling Stars quilt as well. There are still quite a few of the stars to be made, but I couldn’t resist making a couple of the little 9-patches just because they’re so much fun to put together and they’re easy to stitch by hand when one is watching an exciting baseball game!

On Monday, after successfully adding the star points by machine to some of the half tumbler/square combination, I decided to try making one of the star blocks entirely by machine. Can you tell which block is machine-made and which by hand?

What has inspired me to try stitching more by machine? It’s the fact that I really want to get started on putting the Pickled Ladies quilt together.

Baxter spent a lot of time on the windowsill on Monday, watching the birds and squirrels. His tail was swishing and he was extremely intent on watching the activity. It’s going to be interesting when the leaves start to fall and are flying by the window.

Twinkling Stars Update

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The first weekend of the baseball playoffs meant a lot of stitching got done. This is the stack of blocks now ready to incorporate into large 9-patch blocks. I’m close to a third finished when it comes to making these.

I decided to try speeding it up a bit by partially stitching the blocks by machine. I put the half tumbler and 2″ squares together by machine.

Can you tell the difference? One of these blocks is partially done by machine while the other is totally hand pieced. I can’t tell the difference except, of course, by looking at the back of the blocks and am quite pleased with the result.

I realized on the weekend that my design idea was going to result in a square quilt of about 66″. For some reason, I always prefer my quilts to be rectangular rather than square so I’ve changed the design a wee bit to make it longer than it will be wide. I’m intrigued by the fact I’m so determined to not make it a square quilt. I can’t quite sort out why I have such a strong preference for the rectangular sizes. Do you have a preference when it comes to a lap quilt being a rectangular or square quilt?

Baxter has been very busy now that he has discovered the living room windowsill. On the weekend he started clambering up there with Cappy in his mouth. We’re convinced Cappy is his blankie and he doesn’t want to go anywhere without it. I’m hoping we can get a video of him getting up there with Cappy once it stops raining, which they say should be today.

Fruit Salad Quilt

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Once the lime was added to the blocks and the centre LeMoyne Star made, the name had to be Fruit Salad. It measures 32 inches square. The blocks were hand pieced, but the sashing was added and the top was put together using the machine. I think I’m going to use the same purple batik that’s in the blocks for the binding. I used the Inklingo 6 inch LeMoyne Star collection for this quilt. The blocks went together in no time but, for some reason, had to sit for months on end before I finally put the little top together.

We took photos out on the roof garden yesterday and got this shot of the Dresden Plate quilt top. It looks better in natural light than it did with the flash from the camera.

A quick inventory of the quilt tops I have ready to quilt was done last night. There are 14 tops now in line waiting to be quilted. Think I’ve got to make up a muslin/batting sandwich and get some practice in on my hand quilting as it has been ages since I’ve done any and I want to hand quilt at least half of those tops. The first thing I’m going to do is measure them all and then figure out what battings I need. Then I’ve got to get some backings ready.

Baxter posing for the camera. It’s hard to believe he’s not even 5 months old. We think he’s going to be a big kitty when he’s through growing … in about three and a half years.

Jagged Edges

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Something completely unusual for me — a completely machine-pieced block. Last week I was leafing through Jinny Beyer’s The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns and this block, called Jagged Edges, caught my eye. I decided to make it using 2″ HSTs and squares. The block finishes at 16″. I got out a handful of batiks and hand-dyed fabrics and think I’ll make enough of these blocks for a lap quilt.

It took me only a minute or two to print the HSTs and I was off to the races. Sew on the stitching lines, cut the HSTs apart, stitch the units together into rows and rows together and it was done. I’m already playing with design ideas for a border.

The plans I had for stitching on the weekend weren’t met, thanks to some rather nasty hand pain and then a migraine, but I’m pleased I got the first of the Jagged Edges blocks done as well as finishing the fifth of the Feathered Star/Sunflower blocks and a couple of the shabby chic Yin Yang blocks.

For the first time we’ve got a bird’s nest in the tree outside the living room window, a robin’s nest to be precise. I wondered why the robins were hanging out in that tree so much, and now I know. It has been rather wonderful to be able to watch the adult robins feeding the babies.

While we’re not sure if Baxter has spotted the activity in the tree, he has been spending a fair bit of time on the windowsill watching something out on the roof garden.

Shabby Chic Cabin

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On the weekend I not only did some machine piecing, I was actually doing chain piecing by machine.  That was a big step for me.  I was amazed that, in the space of a few hours, I had 10 log cabin blocks done.   There are 12 blocks finished so far and another 20 or so to make.  So two more afternoons at the sewing machine and I’ll have the blocks finished.  The little blocks finish at 5″ so it won’t be a large quilt but rather a fun small one with a couple of borders.

I’m not sure if this is how I’ll set the blocks or what I’ll do for the borders yet, but this will be a fun little quilt top to finish.  It  has become my learning path on machine piecing.  Not that I think I’ll be doing a ton of machine piecing, but for something like these blocks it’s perfect.  That said, hand piecing is still what I prefer.

Spring is definitely here.  We saw our first robin on the weekend and the temperatures were wonderful.  Saturday and Sunday were both mild and sunny days.

Smudge was relaxing Sunday evening after being syringe fed.  I think we’ve tried pretty well every food on the market and he just doesn’t seem to like any of them, yet  is quite content to be syringe fed.

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Shabby Chic Cabin and HSTs

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Wednesday I decided to try machine stitching one of the little 5″ shabby chic log cabin blocks and was pleasantly surprised at just how well it turned out.  In fact, I think it looks better than the one I had previously hand-pieced.

The back looks wonderful too.  The one thing that I can’t get used to is the amount of pressing that machine piecing entails.  When I hand piece, I usually leave the pressing until the end but with this I found I was jumping up to press after each little log was added.

When I was cleaning up my stitching area I found these 2.5″ half-square triangles I had made quite a while ago using Inklingo.  For these, I had printed the triangles on the back of the cream fabric and then stitched on the lines.  When cut apart, I had perfect HSTs but that was as far as I went.  I decided to try joining them into a couple of rows using the machine and was again pleasantly surprised.  This time I decided to try stitching without all the pinning and, while a few of my joins aren’t perfect, it’s good enough for a small doll’s quilt — and a great learning tool for me.  I’ll keep making the rows and joining them until I’ve used up all the HSTs and then will decide what, if any, border to add.

One of the things I found at the Creativ Festival was the Grace Company TrueCut My Comfort Cutter.  I’m really impressed with this cutter — it’s very comfortable to hold and use and doesn’t set up any pain in my wrist or hand.  The ruler is interesting as it has a slight lip on which part of the cutter rests and rides along as you cut and makes it easy to get perfect cuts.  The best part to me is that the rotary cutter takes any blades on the market.  I hadn’t even heard of this cutter before seeing it at the Festival.

Smudge loves to lie at Mr. Q.O.’s feet.  Wednesday night he was having quite a dream and was growling in his sleep.  That’s the first time we’ve ever heard him growl while dreaming.  Normally he only growls if he sees a dog at the vet’s office.

Snuggly Stars

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The baby quilt which I named Snuggly Stars, thanks to a suggestion from Karen Dianne, was finished Friday night.  After cross-hatch quilting the two stitching books, I decided I’d cross-hatch quilt the baby quilt as well.   I started quilting it around noon on Friday and by the time the evening was over, I had finished the quilting, put the binding on and tacked it down. All that was left was to add the label, which I did Saturday morning before I left to go to the Creativ Festival.  The little quilt finished at 24 x 36 and was totally machine pieced and quilted.

Sunday morning we threw it in the wash, which was a bit of an adventure.  Mr. Q.O. took it up to the laundry room to put it in to wash and, when I went up to transfer it to the dryer, the machine had seemingly malfunctioned.  Rather than draining the soap suds, it seemed to be making more and more.  We think someone had put detergent in the machine previously and then not used it so that, when we used it, it had much more than recommended amount of detergent.  When it finished the final spin, I couldn’t even see the little quilt for all the soap suds.  I was holding my breath when I opened the door.  As soon as I did, there was an avalanche of suds on the floor.  I finally fished out the little quilt and put it in another washing machine with no soap to let it run through an entire cycle with just water as I figured that was the only way to get all the soap out of it.

We made a decision on Friday that, as we don’t want to leave Smudge alone for too long,  Mr. Q.O. would stay home on Saturday while I went to the Creativ Festival on Saturday and I’d stay home while he went to the baby shower on Sunday.  By the time it finished its second run through a wash and then dried, there was just enough time to put it in the gift bag before Mr. Q.O. had to leave.

Saturday the rain poured down for most of the day.  Sunday we had snow.  It didn’t stay on the ground, but there were a few times I looked out the window and couldn’t believe how heavily the snow was coming down.  Smudge decided the best thing to do was have a snooze.

Baby Quilt

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Late last week, Mr. Q.O. informed me that we had been invited to a baby shower this coming Sunday.  Of course, I immediately thought about making a quilt but in such a short time span?  It obviously wasn’t going to be hand pieced or involve small blocks. Only 4 of the blocks are visible as Smudge clearly is insistent on participating in showing quilt blocks if they’re on the floor.

Out came the books as I searched for an idea.  I finally settled on the 12″ star blocks shown. They’re even entirely machine pieced!   I used the 4″ HSTs and squares found in the 12″ Storm at Sea Inklingo collection collection as that way I knew I’d have no issues at all making the HSTs.  Just print, stitch on the stitching lines, cut apart and they’re done.  No cutting down to size, no dog ears, no paper to tear away.  Just perfect HSTs each time.  And, thanks to the stitching lines, I was able to consistently get a scant quarter-inch seam so that my blocks finish at 12″.

The little quilt will finish at 24 x 36 and will be machine quilted with 1″ cross-hatching.  I’ll have it sewn together and basted  and the binding made by tonight, will start the cross-hatching Wednesday and finish it Thursday, get the binding done on Friday, wash it on Saturday and it will be done in time for the baby shower on Sunday.

Making this baby quilt has been a learning experience of me on a couple of fronts. One, that I can manage to machine piece accurate blocks.  Second, and more importantly, that there really is nothing wrong with simple blocks for some quilts.  I had to battle with myself about making the blocks because, as they are so large and involve so few pieces, somehow it felt like I wasn’t making something appropriate to give.  Then I thought about it, talked to a friend about it and realized that it was just fine for a baby quilt.

Once this is done, however, I’m going right back to a Feathered Star or Sunflower block.  I need some hand piecing with small pieces to keep me happy.

Smudge is clearly missing his brother, as are we.  He has never been an only kitty, so I suppose this is a huge adjustment for him.  For now, we’re trying to make sure one of us is home with him most of the time.  Hopefully, he will adjust but, in the meantime, he’s making sure he can keep us within his sight.