Festival Report

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Friday we went to the Creativ Festival. When we walked in, I was initially disappointed as it seemed much, much smaller. However, as we walked around I realized that the booths were all crafts related, rather than there being what I think of as the “sham wow” salespeople. The past few years there have been way too many of those vendors that really had no relation to crafts at all. This year? This year, it was all quilting, knitting, sewing, beading, embroidery and some scrapbooking. I think it’s a vast improvement.

The first order of business was getting the two things I was determined to bring home — a new Martelli rotary cutter and more of the Roxanne #12 sharps. I had a Martelli cutter but didn’t pay attention to the “use only Martelli blades” and, after using some other blades, it was ruined. The Martelli cutter is much easier on my hands. The needles are my absolute favourite to stitch with and use as pins when hand piecing.

Next on the list was a shorter ruler for cutting printed shapes. I saw some smaller ones than this, but I thought this might be a more useful size overall. The rulers I have are all longer than this and are just too large for some cutting.

Thread was next — more of the YLI Heirloom thread that I love to use and a spool of Aurifil for machine piecing. I had hoped to find a booth selling Superior Threads as I’d like to try their Masterpiece thread, but no luck. Maybe next year.

No fabric came home with me. I had hoped to find another black and white music print for the Harpsichord Quilt and was watching for an orange/yellow batik for the POTC quilt, but didn’t see either. There were some fabulous booths full of gorgeous fabric, but nothing that worked for the quilts I’m currently working on.

For the first time I noticed there were some booths with lovely embroidery items, including gorgeous hand-dyed threads. One booth was selling some historical British sampler patterns and I couldn’t resist this one.

Mr. Quilt Obsession bought this wonderful needle minder for me. It’s a little work of art on its own and is so handy! I have been working on a couple of biscornu for Christmas gifts and, if I put it down, I can just leave the needle on the needle minder and it won’t go anywhere!

The best part of Friday? We met some friends for dinner at a restaurant near the Convention Centre. It was a lovely way to end a great day.

Lester on the windowsill on the weekend.

And Smudge, as usual, showing just how relaxed he can be. If you look closely, you’ll see his eyes were open a bit. He was completely aware his photo was being taken.

Preparing Patchwork of the Crosses Cream Frames

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Seeing the POTC blocks laid out renewed my determination to get my Patchwork of the Crosses top together before the year’s over. So I have been taking little stacks of these and …

… stitching together sets of 3 and then …

… creating the cream hexagon frames for the remaining blocks. Once the frames are made, it’s just lots and lots of lovely continuous stitching to add them to each block. Adding the purple squares after that takes next to no time.

This weekend is our Creativ Festival. We’re going today — yes, Mr. Q.O. enjoys going as well. Then we’re meeting friends for dinner. It will be a very nice day, even though the weather leaves much to be desired. Snow, they say?? Snow in October? I’ve definitely got to get started on that beach ball quilt and pretend it just isn’t happening!

Smudge doesn’t care. He’s curled up, nice and cozy and warm.

Lester, on the other hand, was on the windowsill today. Look how green everything still is! How on earth can it snow when it still looks like this? There are still flowers!

I’m pretty sure he was watching the squirrels. You can see how green everything still is in this photo and some of the flowers.

Pink Ice

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The design floor was put to good use again Wednesday night as I laid out the pink and white snow crystal blocks. Pink Ice is the name that I’ve decided on for this quilt. The blocks finish at 9″ and I want to use some sort of sashing but now, seeing it laid out, I’m really wondering what will work. I want to keep this as a two-colour quilt so the sashing would have to be some sort of pink. I have a plan for a border now too which will include half stars.

The fabric the blocks are lying on is a pink and white tiny print. It clearly doesn’t work for the sashing. Maybe a pink stripe of some form or a pink batik that has a lot of different shades of pink in it?

Lester sometimes looks, to me, as though he’s a very wise kitty. Then, of course, he does something totally goofy like chewing on his ruff.

Smudge showing just how well he knows how to relax. He was asleep like this, with the hind leg stretched up on the cushion.

Patchwork of the Crosses – Partial Layout

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Quiltobsession

I tried to lay out more of the blocks but limited floor space and the threat of furry paws with claws helping made me leave it at this.

When all the blocks are framed and I’m ready to arrange them to stitch together, I think I’ll use the bed as a design wall — with the door shut so no kitties come to help. But I think this picture gives a pretty good idea how the top will look. It will be a set of 30 blocks, 5 by 6. There will be a 2″ square at the intersection of each set of 4 blocks. That is the one element I still haven’t decided on, although I’m leaning towards finding a really bright batik to put in there. Maybe an orange or a brilliant yellow.

This is, without doubt, one of my favourite shots of Smudge. I love the look on his face!

This one of Lester just melts my heart! He is such a big lovey of a cat.

Harpsichord Block(s)

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Block 14 for the Harpsichord quilt is now done.

The back:

And, for fun, I decided to lay them out. No kitty helpers came to investigate, which rather surprised me. I’m a long way from finished. There are 154 blocks in the quilt, so I still have 140 to go!

Smudge on the windowsill on Monday:

And Lester in much the same spot, taken a couple of days ago:

Patchwork of the Crosses – Wisteria Purples Framed

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The very first POTC block I made and what is probably my favourite block was up next for framing with the cream hexagons and squares. The camera had trouble with the one of the purples in the block. The long hexagons that appear to be a blue purple are much more purple than they appear.

The back:
Enough of the blocks are framed now that I think we can get a somewhat decent shot of all the blocks laid out and an idea of how the quilt will look. There’s still lots of work to be done, but I’d love to get an idea of placement now and maybe start putting the rows together as I frame them. I’m starting to think about how this will be quilted but haven’t come up with any good ideas yet.

Smudge completely relaxed. He makes me laugh out loud when his paws are like that.

Lester hanging out on the sofa as well.

Snow Crystal Block #14 and Inklingo Star

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Block 14 is done. The blocks finish at 9″. All the pink diamonds and the majority of the white squares and triangles are printed and cut for the remaining 16 blocks. The block really is fun to put together and, if I were to concentrate solely on these, I could have them done within a month. But we all know that won’t happen!!

The back:

Two of the star blocks made with shapes from the Inklingo tumbler collection. I have more done but they didn’t make it into this picture. Maybe after the weekend. This will be a teddy bear quilt. With any luck I’ll get the top together by weekend’s end. And a few more of the hexagon rosettes. Maybe a couple more of the Harpsichord Quilt blocks and at least one more POTC block. Hmm — sounds like a lot of stitching may be going on.

Why do I think I’ll get all this stitching done this weekend? It’s our Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend. Happy Thanksgiving! I’ll be posting a quilt for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, either later today or sometime on the weekend. It will be fun to see all the quilts that are entered this time. The spring quilt festival was wonderful.

Smudge getting in some practice on relaxing so he’s ready for a long weekend. Look at his front paws!!

And Lester looking rather pensive. Not much is happening out on the roof garden for him right now. But just wait till the leaves start falling and then flying in the air — then there will be great excitement!

World’s Biggest Hexagon Quilt

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Quiltobsession

When reading Linda’s blog on Wednesday, I found out about the Aussie Hexagon Challenge. Linda wrote: “I loved the idea but I wanted to make sure that the rosettes did not have to be whip-stitched (something I do NOT enjoy), so I wrote to Gail Chalker, the intrepid organizer of this ambitious challenge. Yes! They would welcome our Inklingo rosettes, sewn with a running stitch.” As soon as I read that, I knew I had to start making some. So while we watched some of the baseball playoffs Wednesday night, I stitched together these two rosettes. One thing I always seem to have printed and ready to stitch are hexagons!

They are hoping to make the World’s Biggest Hexagon Quilt with hexagon rosettes made using 1″ hexagons from all over the world. After the quilt is shown and, hopefully, gets into the Guinness Book of Records, it will be made into smaller quilts for nursing home residents.

I’m another one who just does not enjoy whip-stitching at all but knowing that they’ll welcome rosettes made with simple running stitches means I can make at least half a dozen and send them. Hopefully, I’ll make a dozen or more. I’ve picked out another 6 sets to stitch over the next couple of evenings.

The backs:

A close-up of Smudge sleeping.

And Lester in his normal spot on the windowsill. We still have mostly green leaves on the trees. For that I’m thankful. The longer they stay, the better.

Block for Terry

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Quiltobsession

My block for Terry is finished and will be on its way to Laurie today. I was working way outside my comfort zone with these fabric colours! Funny how different it felt to make this block with these fabrics.

The back:

I’m not sure what Lester was looking at when this was taken but he was definitely interested in something.

And Smudge in his kitty bed — I think this was taken when he was busy making sure the round bed was becoming an oval.

A 9-inch Star

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Carrying on with the big blocks, I made this 9-inch star using the new Inklingo 3″ diamond collection. Although I’m not quite sure how, somehow this star will be incorporated into the beach quilt. I used half diamonds — which made the star more fun to stitch. This is definitely the largest star I’ve ever made. It’s absolutely HUGE!

The back. I am so glad I learned this method of pressing as with all those seams meeting at the centre it could have been a nightmare. But it lies lovely and flat and not the least bit bumpy at the middle.