Do you recognize this fabric?

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I’m playing with a design idea and this fabric is absolutely perfect for one part of the design.  I have part of a FQ left of this but have no idea who the manufacturer or designer is, so I’m wondering if anyone out there knows.  One day I’ll finally learn to buy more than a FQ when I see a fabric like this as it’s so versatile!  I tried doing some searches for it on the Internet but really do need a little more information to enable me to find it.

It’s a small print, as can be seen in this shot with the yardstick.  Any help will be appreciated!

Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day, although still rather windy and still quite incredibly warm for this time of year.  We had a high that was close to 65 degrees Wednesday afternoon.

Lester is much better.  However, we didn’t manage to  get a good shot of him on Wednesday.  He spent a lot of time investigating the toy basket.   I had this shot taken almost exactly one month ago when there were still green leaves on the trees.

Smudge, on the other hand, we caught at the beginning of a yawn.

Fabric Play

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Usually when I print shapes for what will be a scrappy quilt, I print lots more than I need.  These are left over from when I was making my Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.  When I was making those blocks, I wanted to have lots of choices and the ability to change out colours when I was putting a block together. Then, when I had finished making the blocks, I had all these left-over pieces.  While some may think it’s wasteful, for me it’s like having a box full of ideas waiting to be discovered.  Over the past few days I’ve been playing with a design idea and last night I progressed from a rough sketch on paper to playing with the fabric shapes.  Once again, a digital camera is a great asset — I used it to take photos of the various layouts I’m playing with for future reference.

Tuesday was windy and rainy as a huge low pressure system came through.  I had a migraine from very early Tuesday morning but was still able to spend some time with fabric.  The tree in front of our living room window has now pretty well lost all its leaves thanks to the wind.

The vet called Tuesday and said he’ll call again on Saturday to see if Lester has had any symptoms reappear, in which case he’ll have another course of antibiotics.  So far, he seems like he’s over it but we’ll be watching him carefully over the next few days.  He was resting Tuesday evening.

Smudge was watching as I was laying out fabric pieces, although you can’t really tell that from this picture.  I kept waiting for him to decide to “help”, but he was interested in only watching this time.  I’m not altogether sure what the look on his face is saying — whether he was approving, bored or giving me one of those impossible to fathom kitty looks.

One Purple Pickled Lady

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This will probably be the darkest of the Pickled Ladies.  The purple is quite rich but I couldn’t resist the flowers in this print.  I’m going to try to fussy cut another couple of flowers from that print to scatter throughout the top.  I’m leaning more and more towards making this a bed-sized quilt, partially because I just love making them.

The back:

In half an hour last night I had all my diamonds printed and cut out for another few of the big pink star blocks.  The setting for the blocks is already figured out as well as the border I want to use, so I’m hoping to finish it this year.

Lester had the last of the antibiotics last night so now we’re waiting to see if there will be a reappearance of the symptoms.

Smudge was draped over my legs as I was sorting the diamonds into groups for the big pink star blocks.

New Pressing Board

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Friday night, we went to the Creativ Festival and I was thrilled.  I managed to get exactly what I was looking for — a new Quilter’s Cut ‘n Press.  My old one had finally got to the point of no return and it was time.  I use the Cut ‘n Press constantly as it’s the perfect size for pressing a block or two or pressing fabric to freezer paper and doesn’t necessitate dragging out the ironing board and then putting it away.

I also stocked up on the heirloom cotton thread I love to use for hand piecing and found 2 more florals for the Pickled Ladies as well as a pink FQ that just had to come home with me because it was — well, pink!  I don’t think I could ever have too much pink.

There was a white on white fabric that also came home with me but didn’t get photographed, as it’s rather hard to show the design in a white on white.  It’s one I’ve used before that has a lovely soft feel to it and is not hard to needle.  All in all, I’m thrilled with what I found at the show although I wouldn’t have minded a few more florals.  There were lots of quilting booths with lots of fabrics and bundles but they seemed, for the most part, to be more of the earth tones and the like with very few florals to be seen.  I wonder if that’s a product of the time of year and if at the spring show there will be more light-coloured and floral fabrics.

Lester continues to do well.  Today is his last day on the antibiotics so I guess the next few days will tell the tale as to whether the infection is gone.

Smudge has been busy chasing leaves as they go by the window.

Twinkling Stars

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This isn’t a new project.  It’s something I’ve been playing with for ages using some of the shapes in the Tumbler collection.  Stitching arcs for the Pickled Ladies quilt didn’t really appeal last night as I was battling a migraine, so I started organizing some of the things I have in varying stages of progress.  That long skinny triangle from the Tumbler collection is something I love working with.  I’ve made about a dozen of these blocks that finish at 5″ and am now pondering some setting ideas.  I think I’ll probably make another dozen or so of them and then come up with a setting for a little quilt.

The back:

While I was going through some of the projects, I was able to identify a couple that require only another block or two or a setting plan in order to finish them.  I may spend a little time on one of them this weekend and see if I can come up with a plan and finish it off rather quickly.  Then again, I may just put it away and concentrate on more arcs for the Pickled Ladies.  I also want to get another of the clamshell diamonds done and have picked out the clamshells for that.

Lester is continuing to improve.  We’re thrilled with how quickly the antibiotics have started to do their job.  He was playing with toys today, up on the windowsill for a while and, of course, resting.

Smudge was sleeping on the couch with one paw on the little “Quilts, A Beautiful History” book I like to look through frequently.

Another 7 Pickled Ladies

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Now that the first of the big pink star blocks is done, I had to get back to the Pickled Ladies.  I’ve now used all the arcs I had prepared, so for the next few evenings I’ll be stitching more arcs.  There are 35 more clamshells I had fussy cut/printed that are all cut out and waiting for arcs.  Once I get those done, I’ll have to have a good look through my stash for some more florals to add to the mix.

While I haven’t counted them as yet, I think there are about 45 or so completed Pickled Ladies.  If I’m correct, another 35 will take me up close to 80.  If I’m going to make this a bed quilt, which is what I’m leaning towards, finding more floral fabrics that will work for this will be my primary focus for quite a while.

Lester is continuing to improve.  We are very grateful for that and I am particularly grateful that he’s an easy cat to pill.  He even got in a little windowsill time on Wednesday.

Smudge was exhausted from running back and forth along the windowsill chasing leaves as they went by the window.

Big Pink Star Quilt

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An inelegant name for this quilt but so far that’s the best I can come up with.  This block measures 18″ tip to tip.  At the moment, I’m thinking about using only this pink fabric and the cream and making a total of 9 of these stars.  That would give me a 54″ square centre and then I think I’d do something with a border that included some smaller stars.  That’s a very preliminary plan.  Putting the star together was fun as there were tons and tons of opportunities for continuous stitching.

Pressing it was quick and easy to do, as I pressed after each round of diamonds was added to the centre star.  The back:

I was notified yesterday that Chintz Circles had won the contest — so thank you to everyone who voted for it!  I’m thrilled it won and can’t wait to call my aunt today to tell her that her quilt won in an online quilt contest.  I think she’ll get a kick out of it.

The trip to the vet’s office with Lester didn’t start well.  He really did not want to go in the carrier and we were both afraid he’d have a heart attack as he was getting very stressed.  We were literally at the point of giving up and just calling the vet to describe his symptoms when we were able to finally get him in the carrier without causing him more stress.  He has an upper respiratory infection which is apparently not uncommon in kitties who have HCM.  So he’s back on antibiotics, but a different one this time.  The difference within a few hours of his first dose was incredible.  He spent a lot of time curled up resting on the pink couch, and we’re all feeling much better now having seen the huge improvement.

Smudge seems to be watching him too.

Pickled Ladies Again

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After having stitched a number of the arcs together, it felt like time to add a few to the clamshells.  Putting the arcs together is a bit more challenging than adding the completed arcs to the clamshells.  As the curve is so gentle, it’s really quite easy piecing to add an arc.  Some evenings are meant for the easier stitching — and it’s easier to do when watching baseball.

Another 35 of the clamshells have been fussy cut/printed.  I’m amazed at just how fast the process is using a window template.  I had the 35 fabrics cut in next to no time and the printing took only minutes.   I think if you click on this photo to enlarge it you can see the clamshell printed on the back of the fabric with the flower in the centre.

Lester likes to drape his paws over the arm of the chair.  This is a typical Lester pose during the day sometimes.  We’re off to the vet with him this afternoon as it appears he has a cold.  He had this last year and a course of antibiotics cleared it right up, so I’m hoping that’s all it will take this time.

Smudge curled up and had a snooze on the couch.

Beginning of a New Project

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Last week’s list of priority projects clearly went out the window this weekend with this new project! The above is the beginning of a block that I can’t resist. It’s fairly quick to stitch, so I have some hope that I may have this first block done sometime tonight. I was going to use a muslin as the neutral but then remembered I had some Kona Bay cream, which is my favourite solid to use.  I still haven’t decided on a name for this one.

The back:

These blocks will grow quickly as they’re made using the 6-inch LeMoyne Star Inklingo collection.  Once I got the idea, I had  six pink and the cream fabrics printed within minutes with the diamonds needed.  A little while later, they were all cut out:

What is it about making these stars I find so irresistible?  No matter what else I’ve got going on, it seems I always need a star project of some sort on which to work. I have the centres of three more of the stars ready and waiting as well.

When I wrote the post on Friday about the making of Chintz Circles, it made me realize that it’s rather fun to have a post like that about a quilt.  Which, of course, meant I had to figure out a way to store my photos a bit differently.  So I am, as of now, starting to store photos about each specific project in their own folder as I think I’d like to do recap posts like the one on Chintz Circles every time I finish a project.  Although at the rate I’ve been starting and not finishing, the next one may be far off!

We’re definitely into fall weather.  Lots of leaves have fallen and, as it was a bit breezy on the weekend, they’ve been drifting past the window.  This is Smudge’s favourite time for watching out the window.  We got this shot of him on the weekend.

Lester seemed to be trying to make sure we didn’t change the channel when we had the baseball games on — notice the paw firmly planted on the remote control!

The Making of Chintz Circles

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As Chintz Circles is entered in this week’s contest at Quilting Gallery (and you can go vote here), I thought it might be sort of fun to look back at the process of making it. The picture above was taken almost immediately after I finished stitching down the binding but before it was washed.

But this is where it began back in late March of this year.  I used the Inklingo Orange Peel Deluxe collection to print all the Alabama Beauty shapes on the back of my fabrics, which makes a quilt like this so achievable!  No tracing of templates or worrying about matching points on curved seams — they were all there for me. Once I had determined I wanted to get that circle effect, I did have to be careful about my fabric placement.  When I got the first four blocks hand pieced by early April and saw the partial circles beginning to appear, I was thrilled.

By April 7,  2 complete circles had appeared.

By April 12, a total of 6 circles had appeared.

By April 21, 2010, there were 9 complete circles.

By April 26, a total of 12 circles had shown up.

Adding rows took a bit longer the larger it got, but by May 18 there were a total of 16 circles:

By the time the middle of June rolled around, it was up to 24 circles:

By June 21 a total of 30 circles had appeared, the hand piecing was completed and the top was finished.

Then the backing was found, the quilt was basted and the machine quilting began. By July 19, I had started tacking down the binding and the next day the picture shown at the top of this post was taken.

Then came the best part.  On August 1, 2010 the quilt was presented to my aunt on her 90th birthday.

Making Chintz Circles was a true labour of love and I owe thanks to Karen Dianne whose post inspired me to make the circles the predominant feature and to Linda Franz, the inventor of Inklingo, which I think is the best thing to happen in quilting since the rotary cutter and without which I doubt very much that I would have ever made Chintz Circles.

If you’ve stayed with me to the end of this post, please go to Quilting Gallery and vote!  You can vote here.