Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the U.S.
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A Few More Klosjes
When I started to write this blog post I was thinking, “Just a few more of these tiny blocks and I’ll have 125 or so of them and I’ll be done.” Then I had a good look at the picture and realized just how much I really do like these little blocks. So now I’m thinking that perhaps I should print some more shapes on another couple of charm packs. I hadn’t stitched any klosjes for a few months, but when I was sorting out projects I realized how few I had left ready to stitch and thought it was time to decide whether I’ll make more or make a small doll or teddy bear quilt.
I’ve been working on the cream and pink quilt but, as my hands have been acting up again, I may not get the top finished as quickly as I had hoped. Blog posts may be rather sparse with more pictures than words over the balance of the week as I want to try to limit the amount of time I spend using the keyboard.
Smudge was curled up on the couch Tuesday evening having a snooze.
Lester looking like he had just woken up.
Stormy Seas
Block 4 is done. I couldn’t resist. My goal right now is just to get all the shapes printed on the 11 fabrics I’ve chosen but, as I had printed out the shapes on the third fabric, I just had to make one block. If I keep doing this as I start printing the other fabrics, it’s going to take days to get al the shapes printed. I love the movement in these blocks and am flirting with the idea of making 3 or 4 Pickled Ladies and then doing one Stormy Seas block.
I’m so close to having the setting blocks and the elements for the pieced border of the big pink star quilt, also known as the pink and cream quilt, done that I really want to try to stay focused, which is why I think I shall not print any more of the Storm at Sea pieces until that is complete. If I stay focused, which is questionable — okay, doubtful — no, impossible, I may very well have everything done to put the top together before the end of the month.
Smudge was caught in one of his almost headless cat poses on the weekend.
I couldn’t resist this shot of Lester, even though it’s a tad blurry. It’s blurry because we caught him just as he was about to clean his paw.
Fussy Cutting/Printing – Lots of Photos
There have been a few questions about how I fussy cut and print the florals for the Pickled Lady blocks so I thought a short tutorial might be the best way to describe the method I use. Lester is watching rather intently.
When I decided to make the Pickled Lady blocks, the first thing I did was print one of the clam shapes on a piece of plain paper which I had cut to the size I would be using. Once that was done, the interior of the shape was cut out along the stitching line and I had my window template.
I identified a few flowers on this piece of fabric that were going to be perfect for fussy cutting. Once that’s done, I start looking for one of the flowers that’s near the edge of the fabric.
This is where the window template comes into play. Once I’ve found a flower that I want to fussy cut, I place the window template over it and move it around until the flower is in the centre of the clamshell.
If you look closely at this shot, you’ll see that I’ve got the quarter-inch line on the ruler placed on the printed ruler line on the paper. When I cut out my window template, I cut off about an eighth of an inch along two of the edges of the paper so that I could use the printed ruler line on the paper to line up with rather than trying to line up the edge of the ruler with the edge of the paper.
Here I’ve cut along two sides of the fabric, once again using the quarter-inch line on the ruler lined up on the printed line on the fabric. The printed line is directly above the cutting line of the shape and that gives me the perfect placement when it comes to ironing the fabric on to freezer paper and getting it ready to print.
The selvedge is still attached. I leave it on when I’m fussy cutting as sometimes there will be a flower at an edge that I want to use and I will need a sliver of it to have a large enough piece to iron on to the freezer paper. I know it will be cut away once the shape is printed, so I don’t worry about it. In this case, the majority of the selvedge will be cut away even before pressing it to the freezer paper.
Once I’ve cut the top and right side, I remove the window template and cut the bottom and left side of the fabric piece. At that point, all I need to know is the size of freezer paper I’m using to cut the fabric to the right shape. Then it’s simply a matter of pressing it on to the freezer paper and printing my shape. Here you can see that while the selvedge was still attached, once I cut out my shape there will be none of it left.
Once that’s done, it takes only a minute to cut the shape out and then start stitching. Smudge hopes you found this as relaxing as he did. In fact, he was unimpressed when the printer started as I think it woke him up.
A bit of stitching and a few minutes later, I had a Pickled Lady block finished to add to the stack.
The back.
Small Scraps and Basting Quilts
Yesterday I spent a little time and managed to cut exactly what I needed from the batik that had the flaw running through it. These small pieces are all that was left over. I knew it was going to be awfully tight, so I cut all the freezer paper sheets I needed first and then laid them out on the remaining pieces of the batik to ensure there was enough. Now all that’s left to do is print.
These tiny (an inch from tip to tip) little star-shaped scraps are from cutting out the HSTs. I can’t bring myself to throw them away and am thinking of using them to decorate cards. I have a small box that’s chock full of odd little shapes like these from cutting. I’m also tempted to get a piece of silk and just start playing with adding the shapes on to it for fun.
One of the jobs I dislike most is pin-basting quilts for machine quilting. Doing up those safety pins is tedious, painful and just plain not fun. I read somewhere, and I can’t remember where, about these things called Pinmoors. I’m intrigued by the idea. I watched the video at the Pinmoors Web site and it certainly looks simpler than using safety pins. Have any of you tried these? What do you think?
Scrap Bin
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been looking at these scraps of Oriental fabrics and trying to figure out what I can make with them. The first picture shows a variety of sizes, ranging from 3 x 5 to 2.75 x 6 and 5″ squares. The second picture is nothing but 3 x 5 rectangles. Lots of them. The 5″ squares I’ve got an idea for but the rectangles? The ideas for those seem to be far and few between so far. Any suggestions?
About two more hours of stitching and the last of the pink big and cream stars will be finished. Then it’s a matter of stitching the smaller setting blocks and putting the top together, which I anticipate won’t take long. The third Stormy Seas block was completed as well. Shapes for at least a dozen of the arcs for the Pickled Ladies were cut out and are ready to stitch. November really has been a prep month for me, it seems.
The rain began, but the migraine lingers. While I was able to take Tuesday off, today I’ve got to manage to get through some work. Once again, I’m way behind on responding to comments and visiting blogs.
Smudge was lounging on the couch.
While Lester was stretched out on the floor.
Stormy Seas
Putting together the second block was irresistible.. The third block is almost finished as well, but not quite. Each block has been a learning experience as I sort out a piecing sequence that works the best for me. My plan for the quilt requires 110 of these blocks, so I’ve got a long way to go. My goal for this week is to get all the shapes printed on the various fabrics and then get the pieces for each block put into an envelope, ready to stitch.
We apparently have a big low pressure system coming in with lots of rain starting today. Yesterday I got a migraine that put paid to doing much of anything, including replying to blog comments. I’m hoping that as today wears on and the rain starts, the headache will lift and I can do a few things including responding to comments.
The cats were pretty laid back on Monday, except at treats time. We found a kitty treat that’s made with ingredients that aren’t kitty junk food. Late last week Smudge began behaving like a finicky cat and had been turning his nose up at their food, so we hit the pet store on the weekend to buy a few different types and flavours. So far we’ve found a couple that he likes and the kitty treats. They learned the sound of the treats bag incredibly quickly — and now as soon as one of us picks it up, they’re right there. They can appear to be sound asleep, but the sound of that little bag being opened works better than any alarm clock could.
We didn’t get any pictures of them on Monday, so these are a couple of my favourites. First Smudge:
And Lester:
Very Little Stitching
That’s what has been going on around here lately — very little stitching. Lots of printing and cutting, though. And one pickled lady to add to the mix, but that’s about all there is to show. It seems like November is prep month. Made myself laugh thinking about it, but it’s as though I’m getting ready to hibernate for the winter and want all the preparation work done so that I have lots and lots of pieces printed, cut and ready to stitch.
One of the things I’ve been working on is printing the Storm at Sea shapes. It’s a good thing that the initial idea of going with the 4 batiks got changed to using 11 fabrics as I found one of the original four has a flaw that runs the entire length of the piece. There’s an area that’s about half an inch wide that has less than half the thread count of the rest of the batik. I’ve had the batik now for months and wouldn’t even contemplate taking it back, so I’ve cut the fabric to get rid of the flaw, but it’s possibly going to make it tricky to get the number of shapes I want from that particular fabric. Seems like my Storm at Sea quilt is undergoing some changes yet again.
There’s a group of florals that need to be fussy cut/printed for more Pickled Ladies. Two more of the large pink stars are done for a total of five finished, so there’s only one left to piece and then printing the shapes for the small pieced cornerstone blocks. More preparation work.
The weekend paper comes with lots of catalogues from various stores, particularly at this time of year. I had been looking at them while Smudge was curled up at the other end of the couch when Lester decided to join us. He wanted attention so made sure that the catalogues weren’t accessible.
I’m not sure that Smudge was all that thrilled about having Lester’s tail draped over his.
Fabric Challenge
These hand-dyed fabrics have been in my stash for ages. I cut each one of them in half, gave half to a friend, kept half for myself and we’re both going to work on a quilt using just them and perhaps one other fabric as a neutral. I’ve wanted to make something special with these for ages and am hoping that having this challenge will be just the thing I need to come up with the right design to showcase them. The hard part of this for me will be that it has to be a machine-pieced design. The fabrics are gorgeous but they’re very tightly woven, even more so than a batik, so I know that hand piecing would be too much for my hands. I’ve been pouring over some of the encyclopedia of blocks books and think this may be what finally gets me to absolutely force myself through EQ and play with some design ideas that way.
Do you ever feel like you should limit how many blogs you visit because of the sheer overload of inspiration? On Thursday, I saw a quilt at Nonnies Cedar Chest that really intrigues me. I can see it done in pinks and greens and creams or with a beautiful Christmas red and green. I love the ribbon effect Charlsey got with her design. I think it’s a very good thing I have no Christmas fabric as I have a feeling I’d be itching to start this one. But it may be hard to resist doing it in some lovely soft pinks and greens.
We had another amazingly mild day on Thursday with the promise of at least a couple more days like that to come. The longer we can put off the bitter cold and true winter weather, the better.
The cats are showing how well they can curl up into kitty circles. Lester in a kitty bed:
And Smudge on the couch:
Lest We Forget
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.– John McCrae
Quilt Obsession 