Two Pickled Ladies

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While I’ve made quite a few of the arcs for them, I haven’t put together many of the Pickled Lady blocks this month.  So I thought I’d best get a start on making some for January with these two.

Our weather has been incredibly topsy-turvy the past few days.  We’ve gone from relatively mild for mid-January to bitter cold  to rain and mild and now we’re heading back into the deep freeze for a few days.  At least the rain that fell got rid of most of the snow that lingered.

Smudge decided to sprawl out on the loveseat.  This winter weather definitely means sleepy kitties.

Lester was curled up in a kitty bed.

Low Contrast Stormy Seas

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A low-contrast Stormy Seas block.  I’d like to get this top completed relatively quickly, so am going to try to complete two of the blocks each week.

I’m still trying to resist starting something with the Winding Ways shapes.  There’s something so magical about putting that block together that I find it almost impossible to resist.  I’m trying to bribe myself with the promise I can start a Winding Ways project when I get something finished — the baby quilt, the pink and cream or another toddler quilt that has been waiting to be quilted for ages.

My wrists were hurting Monday, so I decided to stay away from doing anything that would aggravate them and it worked.  By late Monday evening, the pain had pretty well gone completely.   So today I will catch up with responding to comments.

It was a cold day on Monday and both cats found places to snooze.  Lester sprawled out on the loveseat.

Smudge in one of those poses that always makes me laugh.

Piecing a Seven Sisters block — lots of photos

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There were a couple of questions last week about how I pieced a Seven Sisters block so, rather than try to explain it in words, I thought I’d do this mini tutorial.  Lester is hoping this is relaxing and easy to follow.

The first step is to make the seven 6-pointed stars that will be in the block.  For each block, I need 18 white diamonds, 6 half elongated hexagons and 42 blue diamonds for the seven stars.

Once that’s done, the next most important step is to press them making sure that the seam allowances of each star are pressed the same way.  This photo is of a star in a different fabric, which shows the seam allowances a bit better.

My next step is to surround one star, which will be the centre star in the block, with white diamonds.

Because I hand piece, the inset seams are something I look for as it offers the opportunity to continuously stitch around the star.  To add the six white diamonds around the blue star, I used one length of thread.

In this photo you can see, on the white diamonds and half elongated hexagons, that each has the stitching line and crosshairs at the end of each seam.  The lines are printed on my blue fabrics as well, but they don’t photograph as well.  Because of the perfect  stitching lines and crosshairs one gets when printing templates on to the fabric using Inklingo, it makes stitching a block like this a breeze.  I simply match up my crosshairs, pin and stitch.

My next step is to join the six remaining stars with white diamonds so that they’re ready to stitch to the centre star.

Then I pin the first of the strip of six stars to one of the white diamonds surrounding the centre star and start to stitch.  Again, lots and lots of continuous stitching.

A couple of threads are all it takes and the centre star is completely surrounded.

All that’s left to do now is add the six remaining white diamonds and six half elongated hexagons around the outside edge and the block will be done.  Once again, lots and lots of continuous stitching.

The block is finished.  While I didn’t really keep track of the time it took to make the block, I think that it took somewhere around 3 hours in total from making the seven stars to adding the final white diamonds around the outside of the block.

A quick press and it’s ready to be added to the stack of the blue and white Seven Sisters blocks that I am making.

Smudge hopes you found this as relaxing as he did.  He had to go curl up with some softies and have a nap!   He had lost a pound again when we went to the vet.  So we’re continuing the syringe feeding for now and have gone back to the vet-suggested foods.  Sunday night he finally started to eat hard food again for the first time in two months.   We were really encouraged to see that.

Pink and Cream Stars

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All the hand piecing is done and everything is ready to put this top together.  As I’m planning on doing that by machine, I have some hope that it will be a finished top by the time the weekend is over.  As I so rarely use my sewing machine, the sewing table ends up as a collection spot for fabrics I’ve been auditioning for blocks, stacks of blocks for yet unfinished tops, notes that haven’t quite made it into my ideas book and who knows what else is lurking there.  It’s going to be a small treasure hunt organizing and putting everything away.

Every time I need to use the sewing machine I seem to go through this.  Maybe this time I’ll learn my lesson and keep the table clear so that it’s not such a production getting to the point of being able to sew by machine.

Thursday Smudge showed a little interest in food, but nowhere near what he was showing earlier in the week so the syringe feeding continued.  I’m starting to wonder if he has lost his sense of smell which would affect his appetite.  We’re off to the vet with him this afternoon.

Lester has definitely been enjoying all the various foods we’ve had on offer trying to get Smudge to eat.  I know he has put weight on, which isn’t necessarily a good thing for a kitty with a heart condition.  So that’s another thing we’ll be asking the vet about.  Somehow we’ve got to balance the two issues.

Works in Progress

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There’s still a little hand piecing to do on the pink and cream quilt, but I am thinking now about what projects jump to the head of the queue once it and the baby quilt are finished.  Along with the Stormy Seas and Pickled Ladies quilts, the Summer Picnic Dish is definitely moving up the list.  A little more has been done since this photo was taken, but not a lot.

The POTC blocks definitely have to move up the list to be finished and the top put together.

I want to get this piece, which I’ve dubbed star of stars,  basted and quilted.  I know why it has languished this long — because I kept thinking I need to add to it and make it square or rectangular.  But I’ve decided to leave it in a star shape.

I’m going to arrange these applique blocks and get the top put together.

Of the above projects, the one that will take the longest is likely the Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.  On top of this I’m still working on getting to the point I feel confident using EQ6.

My plan for the weekend is to get the fabrics ready and printed for the Summer Picnic Dish as well as finally select the fabric for the 2″ squares used when connecting the POTC blocks and get it printed.

Smudge has a new habit.  When we empty the dishwasher in the morning, he likes to sit on the door.  I may have been a bit premature in thinking we were over the worst of this eating thing with him.  Wednesday he wasn’t interested in food again at all so we immediately went back to the syringe feeding.  I am very grateful he’s so accommodating about that process as I can only imagine how difficult it would be with many kitties.

We caught Lester in the midst of a huge yawn.  This photo makes me laugh.

Seven Sisters

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The third of the blue and white Seven Sisters blocks is done.  This is a very long-term project, as I’ve only made 3 or 4 of them over the past year.  The little stars are amazingly quick to put together and I’ve finally found a stitching sequence when putting the blocks together that involves lots of continuous stitching and seems much faster.

The back:

The baby quilt didn’t get basted on Tuesday, but will this week.  I’m getting very close to putting the pink and cream star top together.  There are only two more blocks left to which I need to add the setting triangles and squares, which I can probably get finished today.  Then it will be time to add the sashing and borders which I plan to do by machine.  At this rate, I’ll be ready to baste it at the same time as the baby quilt — and a couple of other tops that will be wallhangings.

Our vet called on Tuesday and we’re taking Smudge in on Friday for a weigh-in and colour check.  He’s definitely eating more on his own, so it will be interesting to see what his weight is now.

A close-up of Lester.

Baby Quilt Top Finished

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It’s pressed and ready to baste.  Hopefully that will happen this afternoon.  It finished at 38 x 27.  Names for quilts usually don’t present a problem for me but not this time.  I cannot come up with a name I like at all.  Maybe once I start quilting it something will come to me that works for it.  Suggestions are more than welcome.

We’re in the midst of doing some reorganizing and, as part of that reorganization, I’m hoping to free up an area in the apartment where I can use a wall as a design wall.  That would be great for photographing something like this little quilt.  For today’s photo, we laid it out on the floor and Smudge had to immediately come to inspect.

Monday I spent a bit of time trying to get more comfortable with EQ.  Today I plan to spend more time.  I am not finding it a very intuitive program at all, but hopefully it will become easier the more time I spend using it.

We think that Smudge has turned a corner.  He started eating a lot on his own on the weekend.  And eating.  And eating some more.  That was a huge relief!  The next step will be getting him off the kitty junk food and back on to some of the better foods.  We also managed to find some foods that have no tuna in them that he likes.  Here he was relaxing after one of his meals.

This picture of Lester makes me laugh.  He looks like he’s sleeping sitting up.

Pink and Cream Stars

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The pink and cream quilt will be the next top finished this year.  All that’s left to do is the setting squares and triangles of the large blocks.  The cornerstone blocks and sashing are ready, so it should be relatively quick to put together.

The piecing of the baby quilt was completed last night and the final pressing will be done today.  I’m hoping to start quilting it this weekend.   That will depend on whether our neighbour whose floor I use to baste is around.  While I’m at it, I’m going to baste a couple of other small quilts that have been waiting too long to be finished.

I’ve decided to approach the work situation from the perspective that it’s giving me lots of time to play with quilt designs and finish up a couple of pieces.  I’m going to fall back on the therapeutic benefits of quilting to keep me centred through this.

We had a bit of snow on Thursday.  The cats decided it was a good time for a snooze.  Smudge found a soft toy to curl up with.

Lester headed for the kitty bed.

Getting Closer

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Another hour or two of stitching, and all the edge pieces will be attached and it will be time to press and baste the baby quilt.  I’m thinking that a scrappy binding made up of ’30s prints will be what I choose for this.

Because I normally match my thread colour to the pieces I’m stitching, to finish off a spool of thread isn’t something that happens frequently as a spool will last a very long time.  Because of the scrappy nature of the baby quilt, I’ve been using a peachy pink heirloom cotton thread which seems to melt into the seams of every colour for piecing and on Wednesday night actually used the very last bit on the spool.

I’ve not been doing well in responding to comments this week or in leaving comments.  There’s no real good excuse for this other than I’ve been dealing with some news about changes in one company with which I work which has left me rather drained.  I really do appreciate and read every comment and hope to get caught up on the replies and comments over the next day or two.

Smudge was posing for the camera Wednesday.  He has always been a camera ham but, for the past month or so, hasn’t been quite as interested.  However, on Wednesday when he heard the camera being turned on, he definitely started striking poses.  I think it’s another sign he’s feeling better.

Lester was caught in a funny pose in the kitty bed.

A Barely Begun Unfinished Object

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I’ve been going through partially complete projects and trying to decide what I want to do with them. This?  This was started around three years ago.  Obviously I didn’t get too far with it.  I printed many, many 2.25″ equilateral triangles for this project and had started putting together one row when it got put away. To be honest, I didn’t even remember I had it until I opened a drawer and saw the bag full of the triangles.

This is one of the projects for which I used the sewing machine to stitch the triangles together into pairs.  I only printed the templates on the cream neutral fabric and then stitched along the stitching lines before cutting the triangles apart into pairs.  It certainly made that part quick.  Then I decided I wanted to hand piece the pairs into rows, it seems, so a little hybrid piecing.  I think I know why this got put away.  The colours are totally outside my normal comfort zone.  How much more of this I will put together is anyone’s guess as, at this point, I’m not enthused about it although Mr. Q.O. definitely likes the colours.  This may be one of those projects on which I will work for an evening or so every few weeks and slowly put together a lap quilt for Mr. Q.O.  But for now, it’s being put away again until I get a few other projects finished.

Smudge was very alert Tuesday night.  He is eating more on his own each day and we think he has put on a bit more weight.  I talked to our vet on Tuesday and for now we’re watching to see if there’s any return of the jaundice and continuing with the syringe feeding.  I’m a little concerned about the amount of tuna in the cat foods that he is eating in light of the recent warnings by Health Canada about the levels of mercury in tuna.  I asked our vet about it and he said that, while he hasn’t read any studies about the effects of the mercury in tuna in cat foods, it may be an issue if that’s the only type of food Smudge will eat.  So we’ll slowly start trying some foods with no tuna and see what happens.

I often wonder why cats are so likely to love cat food with seafood of some sort or another in it, as that is not their ancestral diet.  Smudge is so finicky about food but always seems to love anything with tuna.  Lester?  Lester likes every kind of cat food.  Here he was having a snooze after dinner.