Category Archives: quilts

Golden Fabric

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There are two fabrics that have been in my stash for ages.  The first one I have an idea for that will work with 2 or 3 red/coral tone fabrics to match those colours in the flowers.  

This second one I bring out and look at periodically and try to decide what pattern and what other fabrics will showcase it.

Row one of the baby quilt is stitched together.  There are 11 rows in total.  My guesstimate is that it will take 3 evenings to add each set of two rows.  So if the estimate is right and I really dedicate my stitching time to just the baby quilt, I should have the top finished within two and a half or three weeks.  It took ages on Wednesday to lay the blocks and the sashing elements out and move them around a bit to get a nice balance.  No design wall meant using the mattress cover, which actually works rather well and there’s an added benefit — I can shut the door and work on the layout without four-footed helpers.

On Monday when we were right downtown, Mr. Q.O. took a photo of the skyline.  And this one of the CN Tower.

And while we were at it, this shot of the gargoyles on the Rogers Centre, also known as the Dome, where the Toronto Jays play baseball.

And the Air Canada Centre where both hockey and basketball are played.  The orange cones in the photo?  In Toronto, we have two seasons — winter and road construction season.  As it’s not winter, there’s all sorts of construction and road repairs going on and wherever that’s happening the cones appear.

This is the first time we’ve been able to get a photo of the two kitties sitting together like this. I love the look on their faces.

Another One-Flower Wednesday

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The missing container of hexagons was finally found.   The photo only shows about half the hexagons that are actually contained in there, all .50″ hexagons.  So after what seems like weeks, I was able to make one little flower to add to my garden for One Flower Wednesday.

The back:

This time I tried a different stitching sequence than my normal and found that it’s much faster.  Linda Franz posted this video on stitching hexagons on her blog last week and after watching it, I figured I’d try that stitching sequence.  It definitely makes a difference.

The pieced blocks for the baby quilt are finished.  As soon as I finish some work today, I’m going to lay them all out with the sashing elements and get started putting the top together.  It’s pretty clear now I won’t finish it by the end of August, but I’m still going to try for by the middle of September.

Was something going on with Blogger blogs on Tuesday?  I was able to leave comments on a few blogs early in the day but then had difficulties later in the day leaving comments.

The following two photos are of Queen’s Park — a park near our provincial legislature which is also called Queen’s Park.  It’s a beautiful park with lots and lots of lovely trees and just a short walk from here.

A view north towards Queen’s Park, the legislature building, from University Avenue:

Another view, as one goes further north on University Avenue:

I noticed that some of the leaves on the trees on the roof garden are turning yellow and falling already.  It’s still quite warm, but the light is definitely changing.

Smudge is getting into cooler weather mode, I think, wanting lots of lap time.

A rather soft focus shot of Lester:

Blues on Monday

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I exchange fabric gifts with a friend whose husband makes regular trips to Toronto on business.  This time when we went to his hotel to drop off the bag to be taken back home to my friend, this is the bag the concierge gave me.  With the pink bow, we had to take the picture of the bag with the tiny white bear who also has a pink/red bow!

Look at these gorgeous blue fabrics that were in that bag!!  Something tells me there’s another blue and white or blue and cream quilt in my future — and not too far off!  I have a lot of ideas that are swirling around in my mind already!

The red and white, blue and white, green and white, pink and white, yellow and white, purple and white blocks for the baby quilt are done and there are only a few of the peach and white blocks left.  I didn’t get as much stitching done Monday night as I had anticipated, but will definitely finish them off tonight.  Then the fun will begin — laying them out and figuring out which colours/fabrics of the other element surrounds each block.  That’s the part of making this baby quilt that I’m most looking forward to.  Once I get the placement all figured out, then it will be lots and lots of lovely continuous stitching that should go quite quickly.

On the way to the hotel Monday afternoon, more photos were taken.  We travelled down University Avenue, a wide street in the downtown core that has beautiful tress and flowers in the boulevard separating the northbound and southbound lanes.

Back at home later Monday, Smudge was busy with the Cappy toy again.

While Lester was on the windowsill.

Friday Fabric Picks

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For some reason, this group of fabrics is really calling to me.  Somehow a small square or round table mat that could be under a centrepiece keeps coming to mind along with a set of placemats.

This second group is one that I think I’d like to use for a small quilt, possibly of hexagons and stars.  I was actually hunting for my container full of hexagons, with no success, when I started looking at fabrics on Thursday evening.  I got an idea when I started playing with some of the layout pages in the new free Inklingo Hexagon Quilt Design Book which was released on Thursday.  Guess this means the coloured pencils will be in use again unless I become proficient in EQ overnight.  This weekend I am going to spend some time trying to get to the point I can do some things in EQ.  It sounds like it’s going to be an incredibly hot and humid weekend, so perhaps it’s a good time to attempt to learn it.

Thursday night, we were invited to go see Winnie.  She refuses to allow anyone to groom her and her fur mats terribly, so periodically the lion cut is the only solution.

Mr. Q.O. found this video of the lyre bird on YouTube.  It is really quite amazing to hear how well the bird imitates so many sounds — definitely worth a watch!

Along with trying to learn EQ this weekend, I plan to get the pieced blocks for the baby quilt finished so that it will be just a matter of stitching them together with the joining shapes.

On Thursday, Lester had some windowsill time.

A Smudge profile.

Fabric Plans

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This group of fabrics could, I think, make a really pretty table topper.  I keep looking at them and daydreaming about some patterns I think would show them off.  But until the baby quilt is done, daydreaming is all that will happen about that design idea.  The reason I want to finish the baby quilt so fast?  Because I’d like to have it finished while we can still take photos out on the roof garden.  It is going together quite quickly, but it will take me at least another 3 weeks to finish it.

All of the above is a way of letting you know that quilt content here may be in rather short supply as I’m keeping this one under wraps until it’s done.  I may miss a day or two here and there while I complete this little quilt.  Or I may just keep showing groups of fabrics I’m daydreaming about turning into projects.

By Tuesday afternoon, the after-effects of the migraine were gone and I felt back to normal.  However, I am once again behind in replying to comments and visiting blogs but will remedy that over the next few days.

Today we get to see what the new grocery store in the retail part of our complex is like.  We are so spoiled with a full grocery store in the building but while it has been closed for renovations for the past few months we’ve had to find other grocery stores in the area at which to shop.  I will be so glad to have the convenience back of having that store downstairs.  Because we were so used to the store always being there and open 7 days a week, we never really planned and did a big shop at any one time but would just pop downstairs and pick up whatever was needed on a daily basis.  It was a real eye-opener having to think ahead when going out to shop once or twice a week.

Lester spent some time on the windowsill Tuesday.  Smudge was there earlier in the day as a few pigeons decided to come investigate the roof garden, but no photo as he was moving the whole time he was on the windowsill.

However, we did get this shot of him later in the day.

Baby Quilt Block 1

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So far 20 of the 49 of these blocks I need for the baby quilt are done.  All the pieces for these blocks are cut out and the others printed, so now it’s solely a matter of stitching them.

Monday was a monster migraine day.  I basically got nothing done and didn’t even look at EQ.  I did start to leaf through the manual but quickly put it down.  I am determined to learn it, although I have a feeling it may be the weekend before I look at it again.  This week is going to be a bit busier than I had anticipated and I know that when I do sit down to start learning the program, I want to be able to dedicate blocks of time to it rather than a hit-and-miss half hour here or there.

Smudge was curled up most of Monday.

As was Lester, but we had this photo from the weekend of him in his usual spot on the windowsill.

Fabrics for Baby Quilt

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All the pieces for the baby quilt are printed.  About a third are cut out and ready to stitch.  While I’m making this scrappy, it’s going to be controlled scrappy with shades of 7 colours — red, blue, pink, green, yellow, purple and peach with a white as the background fabric.  Printing all the shapes needed for the quilt took less than an hour.  What took time this weekend was planning it.  I spent hours on Saturday with coloured markers and a printed-out layout, colouring in where each piece will go to meet my goal of ensuring no two pieces of the same colour are beside each other.

That convinced me — I have to make the effort to learn EQ.  I’ve tried before with limited success mostly because sitting in front of the computer trying to learn it feels like work.  But after spending hours and hours on Saturday and countless printed-out layouts later, I realize how much quicker and easier it would have been had I been able to do that part of the planning in EQ.

So my goal for this week?  As it looks like work has hit the August slow-down, I’m going to spend at least an hour or two each day learning EQ.  Between Inklingo and EQ, I would have the best possible combination for planning quilts.  Along with that, I’m going to try to work solely on the baby quilt for the next week or so and see if I can get the top put together quickly.

It was a rather overcast weekend with light rain on and off so it worked out perfectly for planning the quilt and getting the shapes printed.

Sunday afternoon the cats were curled up.  Smudge with a teddy bear.

Lester on the pink chair.

Summer Picnic Dish

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A bit more has been done on the Summer Picnic Dish.  While I’m working on the baby quilt, I’m going to try to set aside a few evenings per week when I work on some of my other projects.  The Summer Picnic Dish is one of those projects.  How large I’ll make this is still up in the air.  I think it will be a good-sized lap quilt.

While out on the roof garden taking the above picture, we got some of the various flowers.  The hosta are now all blooming.

We noticed a bee fly into one of the hosta flowers and got this close-up.  I think if you click on the photo to enlarge it, you’ll see the bee.

I love the splash of red on this flower.

Once again, they forecast the possibility of thunderstorms on Thursday and once again there wasn’t even a drop of rain.  It was breezy but quite sunny and there were only a few clouds to be seen.

Smudge curled up for a while Thursday afternoon to catch up on some sleep.

Lester was on duty on the windowsill.

Designing a Quilt

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What does a shampoo bottle have to do with designing a quilt?  I don’t know, but shampoo seems to be a definite aid.  Whenever I’m playing with ideas for a quilt and then wash my  hair, the idea for the quilt comes to me almost immediately.  In the case of the baby quilt, the entire quilt was planned before I even rinsed the shampoo out including how it will be quilted and what I’ll name it.

This happens over and over.  Whenever I’m working on a plan for something to do with a quilt and have hit a snag, it almost invariably sorts itself out while I wash my hair.   I wonder what it is about shampooing that makes creativity flow.

I then stash shopped and gathered a grouping of fabrics to audition for the quilt.  Not all of these will make their way into the quilt.

Finalizing just which fabrics I’ll use is still going on, but a few of the choices are definite so I was able to cut and print enough fabric for the first 7 blocks last night.

While sitting out on the roof garden, I got this shot of the sky.  The forecast had said we might have thunderstorms and periodically a big dark cloud would appear only to float away and be replaced by these wispy ones.  The heat and humidity are ongoing, but I am not complaining.  The cold winter weather will be here all too soon, so I want to soak up as much of this warmth as I can.

For a while Wednesday afternoon, I was looking at websites for expats living in places like Ecuador and Costa Rica.  The thought of winter coming usually drives me to think about things like moving to a milder climate.  Although I doubt we’d ever do it, it’s fun to look and daydream.

Smudge wasn’t daydreaming in this shot.

Lester in his usual summer spot on the windowsill.

Harpsichord Blocks

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The Harpsichord Quilt blocks have been neglected for months, it seems.  They were last seen here.  The story behind why I’m calling this the Harpsichord Quilt can be seen here.  Tuesday night I decided to remedy that neglect by making two of them, one with partial sashing and one without.  The backs:

I was going to make a flower or two for One Flower Wednesday, but in my organizing I have managed to put the box containing all the hexagons I have cut out and ready to stitch in a very safe spot.  So safe, in fact, that I can’t find it.  I’m sure it will eventually turn up.

While we were at the birthday celebration for my aunt on Sunday, Mr. Q.O. got this shot of the view from the dining room.

It was very hot and humid here on Tuesday but we spent an hour or two out on the roof garden where it was wonderful.  It’s always somewhat cooler and there was a wonderful breeze.  While out there, I got all the planning for the baby quilt done.  A little stash shopping is the next step.

Tuesday afternoon, Smudge was quite content to curl up on the sofa.

While Lester was curled up on the floor.