Category Archives: quilts

Tuesday Tidbits

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What have I been working on lately? A small quilt made with these fabrics — but I can’t show it yet. I think I’ve been inspired by Wanda at Exuberant Color to work with brighter colours than is my norm and have really enjoyed it! The little top is basted and the quilting of it is about to begin.


On Friday, I had to go in to one of the court reporters’ offices with which I work. They were touching up some of the boardroom tables with some stain or something and the smell was awful. I was only in there for about 5 minutes, if that, to pick up proofreading and that was it for me — a headache that just wouldn’t quit and a sore throat. I know I’m sensitive to paint and things like that but that reaction was incredible after only a few minutes. How the people who work there all day stood it is beyond me!

I just realized, when I looked at these pictures, that there is a resemblance between the two boys — they are half brothers, after all.

Lester:

Smudge:


A Tale of Nine Ducklings

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Nothing quilt-related today as I’ve been busy working on the Four Seasons quilt and have no new pictures — yet.

But this is the tale of nine ducklings — and it’s a true story!

Twelve years ago, a mallard duck nested on the roof garden here and had 7 ducklings. At that time, we had a fountain on the roof garden so the ducklings had a place to swim. Over the next couple of years, some major changes were made and the fountain was unfortunately one of the things that was removed.  A theatre complex was built which resulted in a second-level roof garden on to which no one could go.  It was planted with all sorts of ornamental grasses and bushes which made it very attractive to look at and clearly became very attractive to a mallard, even though there was no water in sight.  About halfway down between the two roof garden levels, there was a small ledge.

A year or two after the renovations were complete, so about 8 years ago, a mallard duck again made her nest on the upper roof garden. That year she had 9 ducklings. Our apartment faces out on to the roof garden. One afternoon in late June we heard an incredible amount of quacking. “Quacking??” we wondered. Sure enough — there was the mother duck on the little ledge with her 9 ducklings. How she had got the ducklings there no one knows (or really wants to think about!) but there they all were. We got building maintenance and security personnel to assist in getting the ducklings down on to the main roof garden. Mama Duck wasn’t thrilled with these people handling her babies, but once they were all down on the grass, she was fine.

Over the first few days we all watched as the duck and her ducklings investigated their territory. We made calls and found a place about 90 minutes north of here that carried duckling food so off we went to get bags of that. We contacted a vet at a duck farm north of here who gave us advice about feeding and when and how to start tapering off the feeding. The amount of help we got from people like that vet was wonderful.


It quickly became apparent that they had to have a water source. When the ducklings were still tiny, we had this wading pool out for them. The little white boxes are just plastic storage boxes that we made steps out of so they could get in and out of the wading pool relatively easily.

They grew very very quickly and we soon had to get a much larger pool for them. We drained and re-filled that thing every day for about 2 months. They still liked to play around in the little wading pool, so it was left out as well. We watched as they started testing their wings — and sometimes were holding our breath! We watched as the mother duck would fly off for an hour or two some mornings and then come swooping back to make sure her ducklings were okay.

Shortly before Labour Day weekend the ducks started to leave. Late at night we would hear a few very loud quacks and the next morning there would be one less duck still here. It seemed like I was doing a head count almost every morning. The last duckling to leave appeared to have some difficulty so the Humane Society was called — they came, took the duckling to be checked out and then called us saying it was fine and we were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to take it down to Lake Ontario and release it.

This is a huge building, with an enormous amount of people in it who have access to the roof garden, but that summer was almost magical in that people who did go out on to the roof garden were very careful not to startle or try to get too close to the ducks.

When I look back on that summer, I am absolutely thrilled we had that experience. How many people who live in the middle of the concrete jungle of the downtown area of a major metropolitan area get the opportunity to watch ducklings grow up and learn to fly? We were very very lucky, I think.

I Got Mail!

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… from Stina in Sweden! The gift bag is so pretty and was just full of wonderful surprises.

For the past couple of weeks, there has been a lot of talk in blogland about pincushions. I haven’t said a word about mine as it’s just a plain old tomato pincushion. I was thrilled to receive this pincushion made by Stina — it’s absolutely wonderful! So now I can display a pretty pincushion too. 😉


Do you see the feathers in the package in the top photo? Well, the package contains feathers and these little wooden figures — bunnies and chicks. They’re absolutely adorable and are now decorating our wall unit. These will be brought out every year for Easter!


And this egg — which is, so far, chock full of candies and chocolate. We’re being very good and saving it for Easter, but I’m not sure how much we’ll be able to resist as the week goes on! LOL

And just because it’s such a good photo, here’s another shot of Lester.

Yesterday we made a trip to the LQS where they had bundles of the most glorious Japanese taupes. I was oh, so tempted but resisted. Instead, I picked up some more of the black and white prints and a pattern for my Four Seasons Quilt Swap. I’m going to amend the pattern a bit to incorporate an element that really means spring to me — flying geese. When I see a V of Canada Geese flying north it’s a sure sign that spring is here. Haven’t seen that yet!

If the forecast is accurate, we’re in for a snowy Easter. Thankfully it was mild yesterday and a lot of the snow is starting to melt but we still have enormous snowbanks!

Second Finish for 2008

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Finally got a partial shot of the shabby chic quilt on the bed. It has been super to have it on the bed the last few nights. Last night the wind chill value was -22 Celsius. That’s way too cold for me!

Yesterday I got the black print fabrics I’ve found so far for the black and white star quilt printed. This is definitely going to be a long-term project! The little stars in rectangles are so fast to put together that I can see having lots of the tiny ones made relatively quickly. Then it will be a matter of finding more black fabrics that are appropriate in scale and have light enough “wrong” sides on which to print.

A bright quilt of stars is also in the making — well, in the making at least in my mind so far. I’m going to slowly get together some real brights and start making stars — I have a great idea for a setting, I think. What is it with me and these stars? Just can’t stop! LOL

A Finish and the search for a new quilt project

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The shabby chic strippy quilt is now complete — all the binding is on, as is the label. Before I wrote on and appliqued it, I took a picture of the label:


I feel almost lost without that huge quilt to work on! Does anyone else get that feeling when they’ve finished off a large project? I love the quilt, it’s absolutely beautiful (and pictures soon when we can get some good ones) but … well, I miss working on it!


Guess it’s time to come up with a new large hand piecing project. I have many small projects on the go, but none of them seem to be grabbing my attention for more than a few days at a time. Perhaps it’s time to go through quilt books and magazines and search for some new ideas.


The swap packages are starting to arrive in earnest. Next week should see a deluge of packages as the arrival date is supposed to be February 25. These Inklingo swaps are such fun — and I’m always amazed at the variety of fabrics. One of the swappers packaged her little groups of triangles in the most marvelous way:

Snow and more snow

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It snowed a lot — as this evergreen clearly shows. This was taken around noon today — so a good 24/36 hours after the snow had stopped. I suppose it is pretty — but I’m just not a winter person by any stretch! Can’t wait for spring!

A few years ago, for whatever reason, we had moose statues all over the place in Toronto. There is one moose statue we still see outside a business that dresses it up for holidays, seasons, you name it. It’s rather hard to see what the moose has on as the snow is covering most of it, but here’s a picture of the moose. 🙂



And here’s yet another picture of the snow — it seems like there’s mountains of it, yet I think a great deal of it will be gone by Wednesday as we’re forecast to have a rather mild couple of days at the beginning of this week.


Last night I worked for a while with the setting for the 2″ Drunkard’s Path blocks I made a while ago in ’30s prints. I think I like the effect of this setting and am going to keep adding to it till I’ve used up the hundred or so blocks that I made. Then I think I may do a border with ’30s stars in it.

Why did I start quilting?

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Over on Krisp-Quilt , the question is being asked. It really made me think.

From childhood, I was a knitter. I loved to knit and rarely was without a project on the go. I made lace tablecloths, lace scarves, big fishermen’s knit sweaters and everything in between. Then about 12 years ago, aggressive arthritis struck and I had to give it up. I was lost without a craft.

My cousin is a quilter and I had always been intrigued but figured there wasn’t a chance I could do that. After all, when I needed to sew on a button it became a very big deal! I had never used a sewing machine. It all seemed too foreign. The funny thing is I remember being in a big bookstore here, looking at one of the Elly Sienkiewicz Baltimore Album applique books and being absolutely enthralled. That was years before I even began to contemplate quilting. Little did I know!

However, desperation took hold and I took the plunge. One rainy Saturday afternoon DH and I were out doing errands on the same street as the LQS and we stopped there. I bought some supplies; a book, a rotary cutter, a mat, needles and thread and, of course, fabric. That evening I went through the exercise of washing and ironing my fabric, making templates, tracing them on to my fabric, cutting it out and started to stitch. My first block? Oh, it was dreadful. But I was hooked.

The following week saw me haunting bookstores and another LQS. I read and read and read some more. Then I started on a star quilt. It is truly dreadful — but I still love the fabrics I used in it. It never got quilted. Even as a total novice I could see it was dreadfully constructed! If nothing else, I’m sure the kitties will love it. LOL

I can’t even imagine what I was thinking now. When I look at this and see the great gaping holes in the middle of those stars, I shudder. I actually tried to fix a couple of them last night — unsuccessfully.

Since then? Well, since then I’ve learned tons and tons. I tend to learn best from books and at my own pace. I have some wonderful books in my quilt library but must say that my most treasured book and the one from which I think I learned the most is Linda Franz’ Quilted Diamonds 2. The DVD lesson that comes with that book is worth its weight in gold, in my opinion.

I have never been comfortable with machine piecing although I am fortunate enough to have two great sewing machines; my mother’s Featherweight and an older Pfaff Creative that is wonderful. Perhaps because I sit at a computer all day for work I find sitting at any type of machine for anything else seems altogether too much like work. But I found my niche! Hand piecing and, when I can, hand applique and hand quilting. And this past year I even started to do some hybrid blocks — utilizing both machine and hand piecing. I don’t know if I’ll ever be completely comfortable with machine stitching, but this is a step I never thought I’d take.

While my wrists are certainly not better, I count my blessings — I can hand piece even at the worst of times. During good times, I can applique and hand quilt (using the Thimblelady technique and thimble). I am very fortunate and know it. Tracing templates and rotary cutting were both things that I knew were going to be problems for me a few years ago. So when Inklingo came on the market, I was thrilled. Thanks to it, I can keep on quilting and have been able to make a wonderful king-sized quilt for us — I had seen the pattern for the quilt in an older issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting and had always wanted to do it but knew there was no way I could trace the templates on to fabric or paper for English paper piecing. The day I got my copy of Inklingo Collection 1 I started printing the hexagons and elongated hexagons for that quilt. And that is the reason I talk about Inklingo so much — it has meant I didn’t have to give up quilting as it was becoming apparent, the summer before it came out, that my quilting days were numbered.

I am amazed at and thrilled by the creativity of quilters and their beautiful creations. Wandering about quilting blogs is almost sensory overload some days. There are so many gorgeous quilts being made with so many techniques and so many wonderful fabrics that I’m constantly wanting to try something else.

Shabby Chic Circles and Yogurt Kitties

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What else did I find this weekend? More circles. Lots and lots more shabby chic circles appliqued on to shabby chic backgrounds. You know those wonderful 5″ charm square packs? Well, this is what I did with quite a few of them. I have a bunch of them left so I’m going to make a quilt of the blocks with the appliqued circles and alternate them with the plain shabby chic squares. These are definitely my colours!

I have six of them still left to applique that are already backbasted and waiting. Tried to do one last night, but right now my hands and wrists just do not want anything to do with applique. So those 6 blocks will just have to wait till the warmer weather.

Both our boys are mad about yogurt. Whenever either of us has yogurt, we have an incredibly attentive audience of two. We call it show time. 😉 Here’s a picture of the two of them sharing some of DH’s yogurt.

A Star of Stars

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These stars are all from one of the Inklingo swaps last year. I got this far but now I’m stuck. Do I just finish it off with large pieces to square it up and then add borders or … It has been done for a while and I seem to be totally uninspired as to how to finish it. Any thoughts?

It has been a really busy week with work and I’m hostessing another Inklingo swap, this time of equilateral triangles, so have been fielding e-mails with questions. This weekend I will get my triangles printed and ready.

I’d really like to figure out how to finish off this star. I have one idea, but am not sure how it will work. May try my idea on the weekend and, if it works, will post a photo.

First Finish for 2008

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The signature quilt is done.


I really like this pattern. It’s a quick and easy to do pattern but next time? Next time I make this I hand quilt it! No more fabric wrestling for me.

Now I’m playing with ideas for my next project. Not sure quite what it will be, but I have a feeling it’s going to involve a lot of 1″ squares — other than those 1″ squares in the striped star series. 😉