Patchwork of the Crosses Block 3

Posted on May 21, 2009 by Quiltobsession

These blocks are completely and totally addictive. As soon as I finish one, I want to start playing with fabric placement for the next one. This is my third block:

From the back:

We’re finally getting some real summer heat, they say, today. We may even have a humidex reading of 31C. I can’t wait!! I think the kitties are tired from the changes in temperature — a frost alert Sunday night and then 31C on Thursday is pretty drastic! Smudge definitely knows how to relax.

As does Lester — with a little teddy bear friend.

Choosing Fabrics

Posted on May 20, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Half the fun of making the Patchwork of the Crosses blocks is picking out the fabrics to use. These are the ones I’ve printed so far but there’s a stack of fabrics that I plan to cut today and get ready to print.

The third block is almost done. While I’m printing fabrics later today, I’ll stitch and hopefully get block 3 done and block 4 started. These are just a few of the fabrics I’ll cut and print today. Some will be fussy cut, some not. I find myself purposely looking or stripes and checks and other fabrics that lend themselves to fussy printing/cutting.

I’ve been asked to write up a pattern for the Butterfly Stars baby quilt. I’ve started to slowly work on that. I hope we got enough pictures of the quilt for the pattern.

Lester having a snooze. Monday seemed to be not very interesting for him as far as roof garden entertainment went.

Smudge, sound asleep beside Mr. Quilt Obsession.

Second POTC Block

Posted on May 19, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The second Patchwork of the Crosses block is finished and I’m thrilled with it. I love playing with the various layouts and fabrics for these blocks. I think I could be happy making these blocks and variations of them forever!

This is the back of the block — they press perfectly every time. The fabrics for the third block are cut out and all that’s left is to pick out the layout for that block. Laying the pieces out for each block is almost as much fun as stitching them — seeing how the effect changes totally depending on the placement of the different fabrics and the various layouts is like playing with a kaleidoscope.

Smudge in one of his usual positions when I’m stitching at night. He drapes himself over my legs and rests his head on the arm of the sofa.

Hexagon Stripe Progress

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The fourth row was added Friday evening. I’m going to try to keep adding a row a week but now that the Patchwork of the Crosses collection has arrived, I have a feeling everything is going to take a back seat to those wonderful blocks.

My second POTC block is halfway done. I’m having a lot of fun with this one — playing with fabric placement, fabric types and colours. It’s definitely a lot wilder than my first POTC block!

What an absolutely great long weekend this is turning out to be, albeit rather chilly. We even had a frost warning for Sunday night. But the best part of it, for me, is playing with the POTC blocks.

Lester, in his usual spot — on the windowsill.

And Smudge, in yet another upside-down pose.

Patchwork of the Crosses

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Quiltobsession

I’ve been waiting for the new Inklingo collection, Lucy Boston’s Patchwork of the Crosses, and had fabrics picked out and ready. It was released yesterday afternoon. I barely wanted to take time out to eat dinner — I am so fascinated by that quilt. The effects one can get with border stripes and other directional fabrics with this simple hexagon shape are amazing! This is the front of my first block. Each block will be surrounded by a creamy white plain hexagon as well as squares, just like the original.

And the back. Sometimes I find the backs of blocks as much fun to look at as the front.

Reading about Lucy Boston’s patchworks is fascinating. Two of my favourite sites to read about her online are here and here.

Lester in his favourite spot.

Hexagons, Shabby Chic FQ’s and Batiks — oh, my!

Posted on May 15, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The first 3 strips of hexagons are joined together. Once they’re all together I think I’ll print enough hexagons and half hexagons of one fabric to add 2 rows of hexagons and one row of half hexagons on all 4 sides. What that fabric will be I have no idea, but my idea is that that will frame the strips and then I’ll use the same fabric to bind it. I’m actually amazed at how quickly this is going together.

Wednesday’s mail brought another lovely treat. Tracy, a no-blog friend sent me these wonderful batik 5″ charms for my birthday. I had more fun looking through them at the various colours and thinking about my plan for some batik-only quilts.

Thursday’s mail brought these goodies from Karen! Gorgeous Robyn Pandolph FQ’s — I have always loved Robyn Pandolph fabrics and this collection is wonderful. Karen sure knows my taste! I know another shabby chic quilt is in my future and now I can dream about just what it may be. There are some fabulous prints in this collection — and some solids, too. I was thrilled to see these as I had only seem them online or in magazines. They’re going to be so much fun to work with!

I feel incredibly spoiled by all these wonderful fabrics and all the choices I have.

Smudge, guarding the toys — again. This time he has 4 within paw’s reach.

Lester, in his favourite spot, perhaps resting his eyes from all the bird watching.

Posted on May 12, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Here are all the strips of hexagons. Although they may look like they’re jumbled up, they’re actually basted together at the top in order so all I have to do is take the next strip off the bunch when I need it. The first 2 rows are actually joined now — but no picture yet.

And this is the rainbow with the first row of purples started.

Saturday we had thunderstorms. It started out as a wonderfully warm, mild day but, as the afternoon progressed, it got chilly. This was the late afternoon sky as another round of thunderstorms was headed our way. The sky was really interesting to watch.

Smudge doesn’t mind storms at all.

This was Lester watching out the window Monday afternoon. We have huge robins this year which are keeping him entertained.

Beginning of the Hexagon Lap Quilt

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Quiltobsession

This wasn’t the picture I planned on posting but, for some reason, I seem to be unable to upload photos. From the various hexagon swaps we’ve had on the Inklingo list of 1″ hexagons, I have made strips of hexagons. I knew that a traditional GFG was not what I wanted to make with that size of hexagons and have been stitching them into rows for ages. Over the weekend, I finished stitching the hexagons into rows and spent a few hours Sunday night arranging and rearranging the rows so that the same fabrics wouldn’t be immediately adjacent. Now I’ve begun stitching the rows together. This will take a while to complete but is the perfect mindless stitching I need some evenings.

There was progress on the rainbow too. The reds are finished and the first row of purple diamonds is halfway done.

There have been more fabulous giveaways added to the InklingoProjects blog Great Inklingo Giveaway. There’s one of hexagon butterflies that is amazing!

Because there’s almost always a kitty picture in every post, I copied this from an old post. Hopefully tomorrow I can post the pictures I was hoping to post today!

Mother’s Day

Posted on May 10, 2009 by Quiltobsession

My Mom was, aside from being my mother, a great friend. Even when I was a teenager I always wanted to spend time and talk with my Mom. This is one of the few pictures of us together.

Every time I think of a way to make something work in a quilt block, I think of Mom. She had a great knack for making things work — be it in baking or knitting or whatever. Every time I am reading a book late at night and just do not want to put it down, I think of her. She’d often tell me that she had stayed up very, very late because she just had to read one more chapter of whatever book she was reading. As we’re now coming into summer, I often think of how much she loved being up in cottage country and lazing on the beach reading yet another book or doing a crossword.

She has been gone for almost 13 years now and I still miss her every day.

Bits and Pieces

Posted on May 8, 2009 by Quiltobsession

There are nine little 9-patch blocks I have done for the one a day quilt along. The fabrics are actually a bit brighter than they appear in this shot.

A couple more little flowers added to whatever this is going to grow up to be. I’m still not sure where I’m headed with this but, when I need a hexagon fix, it’s the thing I pick up. I put a 1-cent coin on it so you could see the size of these hexagons — all with .50″ sides. I’ve always loved hexagon quilts and now, using Inklingo, they’re an absolute delight to stitch; a simple running stitch makes them so much fun. No basting, no whipstitching — just lots and lots of lovely quick running stitches. On these ones, as the seams are so tiny, it’s just one load of stitches on the needle and each little seam is done.

Thursday I had a cyst removed from my lower eyelid. The eye doctor froze the area well and the only thing I really felt was the pressure as he drained the cyst but by the time night came, it was hurting. The worst of this? Trying to get the antibiotic eye drops in my eye. I could put contact lenses in my eyes from now until forever without a problem but eye drops? More will run down my face than will ever get in my eye!