Category Archives: quilts

Stars of Two Sizes

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This seems to be my week of working on stars and more stars. The larger purple star is made with 1.5″ diamonds and seems enormous in comparison to the little pink star made with 1″ diamonds.

Finger-pressing as they’re stitched means it only takes one quick press with the iron and they’re done.

There’s a box full of the larger diamonds in varying shades. While I’m not 100 per cent sure yet, I’m pretty sure I’m going to set these with large hexagons.

Baxter spent a lot of time on the windowsill on Wednesday. There were a lot of grackles on the roof garden lawn keeping him entertained.

One Big Star

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The scrappy star is still growing. With this latest round of diamonds it’s now almost 32″. Each round is taking longer to add, but I’m determined to get it to around 45″. Then I’ll add some elements to turn it into a rectangular quilt that can be used as a lap quilt. At least that’s the current plan.

It’s also taking longer to press after each round.

Baxter was determined to get in the picture.

Earlier in the day he was watching squirrels playing in the trees out on the roof garden. I think he looks like he’s smiling.

Still Seeing Stars

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Along with the 8-point pink stars, a bevy of colourful 6-point stars are being made. I have some ideas for setting these, but will wait to decide until I have all of them made. Perhaps a multi-colour Seven Sisters quilt?  Or perhaps hexagons and stars? Or perhaps something altogether different. In the meantime, I’m having fun putting these together. They’re very quick to stitch and it’s really satisfying to see the stack of stars grow.

These are all 1″ diamonds ready to be stitched into stars. I have no idea how many stars I’ll end up with or how many quilts might be made using them. While some are ones I printed, the vast majority came from various swaps of fabrics printed with the 1″ diamonds using Inklingo.

Baxter was very interested in the diamonds. Shortly after this picture was taken, a few of the bags containing the diamonds were on the floor.

He’s looking less and less like a little kitten now, although he’s definitely still acting like one.

I’m Seeing Stars

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Pink stars, that is. Not sure what these are going to turn into, but making these stars just seemed to have to happen. So far there are 16 of them. They will be 6″ if finished as LeMoyne Star blocks but that’s completely undecided at this point.

They may end up as the centres of a different block altogether.  Or perhaps they’re going to be a border on something else. I’m really just having fun making stars.

Baxter has been very busy the past week, chasing leaves as they fly by the window and watching as the gardeners prepared the flowerbeds on the roof garden for the winter. Here he was relaxing on the couch.

Last week I was dealing with fatigue from a treatment. I can feel my energy level increasing and am looking forward to getting back to blogging this week.

Diamonds, Diamonds and More Diamonds

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Not a lot of stitching has been done this week, although I now have enough diamonds joined into pairs to start the next round on the scrappy star top. As the scrappy star has grown, I’ve found it easier to put them together into pairs and then, once the placement is figured out, join the pairs into sets for each of the 8 segments.

It’s definitely looking like fall now.

This birch tree has now lost almost all its leaves.

This is a shot of Queen’s Park, a park near our building. Some of the trees still have their gorgeous fall colours.

Baxter was watching me stitch. We think this is his Morris look.

Curved Piecing and a Bit of a Curveball

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As those who have read my blog for a while probably know, I love curved piecing more than just about anything (although hand quilting is quickly climbing back up the favourites list). There is something about it that I find absolutely irresistible. So once the flannel top was finished, I was thinking about my Summer Picnic Dish a.k.a. pickle dish quilt top and, as I had done a lot of printing of the various pieces for it a few weeks back, I started making the melon/arc combos so I can get this one to the lap quilt size sometime within the next few months. I’ve also been adding a bit to the Joseph’s Coat top.  A couple more of the Pickled Ladies have joined the others as well.

Even pressing the melon/arc combos is fun.

I couldn’t resist taking this picture. It’s not the best, but it made me laugh. It was raining here last night and a leaf blew up against our window and stuck there for the longest time. Baxter was on the windowsill countless times while it was there and completely ignored it. I was convinced he’d be trying to paw at it, but obviously it just wasn’t interesting as it wasn’t moving.

Almost all the leaves are off the trees on the roof garden now and Baxter is spending an enormous amount of time on the windowsill watching them. I love this photo of him as it shows off his white eyeliner so well!

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I’ve had a bit of a curveball thrown my way. Over the past few months, I’ve been dealing with a health condition and the resultant tests, specialist appointments, et cetera. I’ve now been given the diagnosis of remitting-relapsing MS. There are more tests to come, treatments to begin and more specialist’s visits, so there will undoubtedly be days when I may not have a new post on the blog and/or be visiting and commenting on other’s blogs.

It appears I have had this for at least 20 years and have clearly done quite well, up until this summer. According to my neurologist, there are many, many people who walk around with MS and don’t know it. I am in very good hands. I have had invaluable support from friends who have MS and have given me lots of good information as I’ve travelled down this path and, of course, have had enormous support from Mr. Q.O.

Baxter is providing his very own type of kitty support – laughter is the best thing and watching kitten antics like this, when he was trying to “help” Mr. Q.O. with his cryptic crossword, are guaranteed to bring about laughter and smiles.

Going forward, my intention is not to turn this into a blog about MS, although it may periodically be mentioned as it is part of my life and my blog is about things in my life as well as quilting.

Scrappy Star Again

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After finishing the flannel top, I needed to do some hand piecing.  Another round is added to scrappy star and it’s now 29 inches.  I think it’s going to end up about twice the size it is now.

I’m glad I decided to press after each round as it only takes a few minutes.  I can’t imagine leaving this whole thing to press until the end.

I’ve started hand quilting Ferris Wheel and am much happier with the look. It was worth the time it took to take out the machine quilting I had done.

Baxter has been very busy watching leaves flying by the window.

Flannel Top Finished

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This top practically put itself together. I can’t get over how fast it was to stitch. It finishes at 56 x 64. I’ll get the backing and binding ready this weekend. The batting should be here next week.

After seeing the quilt being put together over at Exuberant Color, I’m tempted to haul out my Kaffe fabrics and maybe make another double 4-patch quilt. And I’ll definitely make another flannel quilt, but perhaps a different pattern.

Baxter had a relaxing day. First we caught him in mid-yawn.

Then he had a snooze. He always has Cappy close by.

56 Blocks Done

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They’re all done. I am absolutely amazed at how quickly they’ve gone together. I hope putting the rows together and then putting the top together goes as fast. It would be fabulous to have this top done by the time the weekend is over.

Today, as Baxter will be enjoying enduring a day at the vet as it’s time for him to be fixed, I’ll take advantage of being able to lay the blocks out on the floor to figure out the placement and then start putting the rows together.

Over the next couple of weeks, my blogging schedule is going to be a bit sporadic as there are a number of things going on and my computer time is going to be limited.

Baxter was determined to get in on the act when we were getting ready to take the photo of the 56 blocks.

Lots of Cutting and A Little Stitching

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All the flannels were washed and ironed over the weekend and then the cutting began. Lots and lots of 2.5″ and 4.5″ strips for the double 4-patch block. I found a trick that makes rotary cutting much easier for me. I put a pine board beneath my cutting mat and it has made an enormous difference. I usually rotary cut on my ironing board as it is almost the right height for me. With the pine board underneath the cutting mat, it’s exactly the right height.

Once the strips were cut, I stitched a couple of the 2.5″ strips together and made two blocks just to see how they looked. They went together quicker than I had anticipated and press beautifully.

Working with flannel is fun! I didn’t need to pin at all as the flannel really does stick to itself quite nicely. I’ve started sewing the 2.5″ strips together and expect to get at least half the blocks I need for the quilts done today, if not more.

This is, I think, my favourite picture of Baxter so far. It’s a 3-for-1 shot. Baxter’s reflection can be seen in the window as well as on the marble windowsill.