Monday Miscellaneous

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When picking up the frame on Saturday from Sew Sisters, I couldn’t resist these fabrics for the Alabama Beauty blocks.  It will be mostly made from stash but I will need to add a few fabrics along the way as I want to have each circle in the quilt unique.

The roof garden has been opened for the season.  We were out there for a while on the weekend.  So far, there are only a couple of little daffodils blooming but lots and lots of green shoots starting to show in the flowerbeds.

All of a sudden the grass on the roof garden seems green as can be.

We have been taking care of Winnie since Friday morning.  Last time we took a picture of her was shortly after she had been given the kitty lion cut last fall.  Now her fur has grown in as seen here.  When we go in, we’re greeted most times by the loudest meow imaginable.

The weekend saw some very lazy kitties in this household.  Lester curled up in one bed.

And Smudge curled up in another.

Klosjes — It Must be Saturday

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Not much to show this week in the way of Klosjes, but I did get this one little block done.  It seems the quilt is going to be larger than the 81 blocks previously made.  Mr. Q.O. loves these little blocks so I’ll keep going, I suppose, until I have enough to make at least a lap quilt.

The back:

While I may have only stitched one, I did take a few minutes this morning to print the templates on some more charms and muslin:

We picked up the floor frame from Sew Sisters this afternoon.  Oh, my — it is fantastic!  Wonderfully made and has velcro strips and ribbon to hold up the sides so they’re not draped all over the floor.  Easy as can be to use — no knobs to tighten or loosen.  Perfect for someone with limited hand strength like me.  And it actually looks nice!

We’re taking care of Winnie, our neighbours’ cat, this weekend.  Winnie who makes all those funny sounds when she eats.  She did it again tonight.

Our boys have been resting up, hoping we get warmer weather again soon and that there are lots of things to watch out the window.  Lester was guarding the toy basket.

While Smudge was doing one of his impossibly cute poses.

Piecing an Alabama Beauty Block

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Thursday night I printed some more shapes for the nameless quilt.  I refuse to call it “The Thing” any longer.  It needs a name!  I got the fabrics picked out for the next set of 3 blocks and this block stitched.  I’m finding it easier and easier to plan these blocks.  I lay out the pieces for each block, make sure that the pieces that create the circles are in the right spot and then it’s really a quick block to stitch.

This is the back:

And this is a close-up of the centre of the back.  I had promised someone (sorry, I forget who!) that I’d show a close-up of how I press this block, so here it is:

The batiks I had ordered from Sew Sisters last weekend arrived.  I think a piece of one, if not two, of these is going to be used in the Alabama Beauty quilt.  These were definitely my lucky fabrics!  Tomorrow we’re off to Sew Sisters to pick up the frame.  I can’t wait!

Along with the batiks was this cute FQ of Easter fabric.  Wouldn’t this make a great back for a little doll’s quilt?

Thursday was another rainy, grey day.  Lester spent some time on the windowsill, but there wasn’t much for him to see.

Smudge, on the other hand, decided it was a good day to curl up with a teddy bear.

More Alabama Beauty Circles

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Now there are four complete circles showing.  This is really a fun top to put together as each row reveals another set of completed circles.  It’s like watching a bit of a mystery unfold.  Winning the quilt frame has absolutely decided it.  This will be a king-size quilt.  I was hesitating as the thought of basting it for quilting was rather daunting.  But with the quilt frame meaning no basting, once I finish adding rows and rows of blocks it will be ready to quilt immediately.   It will be solely a matter of getting the batt and a backing ready.

Mr. Q.O. keeps asking me if I’m making drapes with this one.  He’s kidding, of course, but it makes me think of a picture in the book, The Patchworks of Lucy Boston, in which a hexagon patchwork is used as a window treatment.  I’d love to find a fabric that looked something like this that could be used for drapes.

Finding a name for this quilt is already something I’m thinking about.  At the moment, it’s known in this household as “The Thing”.  Not very flattering.  It really does deserve a nice name, I think.

It poured and poured and poured rain some more on Wednesday.  But suddenly, the roof garden is looking greener and greener and the first daffodil has bloomed.  I think we’re to have nothing but rain and perhaps even a thunderstorm or two today.  Hopefully we see the sun again on Friday.

The cats know what to do on a rainy day.  Curl up and snooze.  Smudge, in one of his classic poses that always manage to make us laugh:

And Lester sound asleep.

I Got Framed!!

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See this picture?  This wonderful quilt frame?  It’s a fabulous solid oak quilt frame that does away with the necessity of basting, folds up easily for storage and is a great asset for any hand quilter!

On Easter weekend, my favourite quilt shop, Sew Sisters, had a contest.  Every purchaser of fabric got an entry.  Sew Sisters had a very similar contest last year at Easter.  That was the first time I saw one of these frames and I’ve been wanting one ever since as basting is a nightmare and holding a hoop is completely beyond my hands’ capabilities.  When Judy announced the contest on the Sew Sisters blog last week, I knew I had to buy something and get an entry in the contest.  A few half metres of red batiks were purchased and a lot of finger crossing began.

I don’t usually have good luck in contests like this but this time —  I won!  When I got the e-mail from Judy Tuesday afternoon, I was thrilled — once I got over the surprise I had actually won it, that is.  I think the cats jumped at the noise I made when I read that e-mail!!  There are 3 big quilts waiting for quilting, a number of smaller ones and now — well, now I can’t wait!  I’ve done so little hand quilting in the past couple of years that the first thing I’m going to do is make up a sandwich of muslin and batting and get back into the rhythm of hand quilting before I start on any of the quilts.

The frame is made by Heartland Quiltworks, a Canadian company.  We’re picking it up from the shop on the weekend.  I can’t wait to get it home and try out quilting with a frame.  I have visions of the cats curled up under the frame and probably being little mischief makers trying to catch  the needle and thread.

There’s a table runner pattern I’m working on that will feature, among other things, this star.  I made it with the 6″ Storm at Sea collection.  The background fabric I used is one that I’ve had for ages and absolutely love working with.  It’s almost of the same thread count as a good batik but needles so easily.  I’ve been looking for the right pattern in which to use it for years.

The back:

It was a rainy, drizzly, somewhat cooler day on Tuesday and the cats didn’t spend any time on the windowsill.  Smudge did spend a lot of time in my desk chair, though.  It seems to be one of his favourite spots.  I’m not too sure what that look is all about — perhaps a bit of a Morris look.

Lester also has a funny look on his face.  He was actually awake but closed his eyes as he really dislikes the flash of the camera.

Alabama Beauty – Second Circle

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It seems that getting that first group of blocks done so that the first circle appeared was the hardest part of making this quilt.  Now it’s almost putting itself together.  There’s a little planning to make sure each block is going to have the right fabrics on the outer edges to match up with their adjoining blocks, but once that’s done they’re amazingly fast to put together.   As I’m pressing as I go, the top truly will be done when I finish the last block.  I’m already wondering about how to quilt it.  It’s a done deal now — this is going to be king-size quilt.

Monday evening I picked out some more shabby chic prints to add to the mix, cut them to the size needed to print my templates and now I’ve got enough prepped to keep going for a few weeks.  While I was prepping them, I was thinking about favourite types of fabrics.  I always seem to fall back to shabby chic for large scrappy quilts.  Do you have a favourite type of fabric that you always seem to go back to?

Monday was another absolutely gorgeous day.  Warm as an early summer day, clear blue skies, an absolutely marvelous treat for early April.  There are more and more green shoots showing up in the roof garden flowerbeds and the vines on the trellis are starting to show green leaves as well.

Both cats spent time on the windowsill Monday.   We have finches flitting about in the trees which I think they’re finding as fascinating as I am.   In the evening, Smudge relaxed.

Lester was back in his favourite spot in the pink chair.

First Alabama Beauty Circle

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Watching the circle appear as I joined the fourth block to the first three made me smile.  Now there’s no stopping me on this.  I love the look I’m getting with all these shabby chic fabrics.  Sort of like an old chintz print in an English cottage somewhere, I think.  Mr. Q.O. keeps looking at it and saying it looks old.  Just the look I’m after!

Putting this together is actually less of  a planning nightmare than I had anticipated.  The bonus of it is that, as I’m joining the blocks as I go, when I’m finished making the blocks the quilt top itself will be finished.  As I want a fair number of circles to appear, I think this will end up as a bed-sized quilt.  Maybe even king size.  That I’m not sure about yet.  But it will be large.

We had the most glorious weather on the weekend with highs in the mid to high 20s Friday and Saturday.  Sunday was mild as well.  Although we had fairly strong winds for a while on Saturday night, it wasn’t the heavy wind storm they initially predicted.  And no rain.  An absolutely perfect first long weekend of the spring/summer season.  The leaves on the crab apple trees on the roof garden are starting to make an appearance.

Smudge has been busy watching out the window with Lester.  We didn’t get a shot of him but Sunday he was very intent watching something.  Here he’s in an almost headless cat pose.

Lester relaxing Saturday night after a lot of watching out the window during the day.


Planning the Alabama Beauty Blocks

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It’s a bit of a change for me to be planning a scrappy quilt but to get the circle effect, I have to lay the outer pieces out to make sure I’m going to have the right ones in the right spots and stitch the 3-piece units before adding them to the peel.  Here I’ve laid out the four 3-piece units  just to make sure that I’ve got everything stitched the way it needs to be and am now going to start stitching them to the peel for the fourth block. The grey that shows in the photo is not the fabric I’m using for the peels in this next block.

Curved piecing is something I cannot get enough of, it seems.  With all the matching points that are printed on Inklingo shapes, it’s so easy to put these together and the curve in these is so gentle that I don’t even need to clip the seam allowance.

The gardener was back again on Wednesday.  Our forecast is extraordinary.  Friday and Saturday they’re saying we’ll have temperatures of 25C and a humidex reading of about 29C.  I don’t think I can ever remember it being that warm at the beginning of April.  I’d bet a lot of people go back to work on Monday with sunburns!

The weekend begins now for me.  I finished work late Wednesday night and have plans — although with our weather forecast, they may get changed a bit.  One of my plans is to once again try to organize my fabric into smaller containers that are easier for me to handle.  I currently have most of it in Rubbermaid containers that are a bit too large and heavy for me to move easily.  I found some great smaller ones at Staples last week so I plan to organize and move most of it into those.  That should make it easier for me to handle things.  I hope.

Lester spent a fair bit of time on the windowsill Wednesday watching the gardener.

Smudge loves to curl up on my computer chair.

Storm at Sea Block 1

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… is finished.  Finished size is 6.75″.  The back:

What I learned stitching this block?  That I really do need to get my machine piecing skills up to doing blocks like this.  Much as I love hand piecing, and it is my preferred way of stitching, this block would be super fast by machine and, with the stitching lines to guide me, I may actually be able to do it.  Maybe.  I think on the weekend I may print the shapes for one block on some other fabrics and see how I do on the machine.  Perhaps I’ll do it as a hybrid block — machine piece all the units and then put the rows and blocks together by hand.  Or perhaps, knowing me, I’ll break out in a cold sweat as soon as I sit down at the machine.

No gardeners on the roof garden on Tuesday.  And no activity for Lester to watch, so he decided to relax on the couch with a teddy bear for company.

Smudge posing, as usual, for the camera.

Stormy Sea

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Doesn’t this look like a churned-up, stormy sea? I am so impressed with how easy it is to put this block together.  I wish I’d had the time to finish it last night, but there’s only one long seam left to do and then I’ll press it.  Even though the bottom piece has yet to be added, the effect is already visible.  I can’t wait to stitch that last seam tonight and then press it.

We had a real surprise on Monday — the gardeners were out on the roof garden preparing the flowerbeds.  They have never worked on the roof garden this early in the year.  Makes me wonder if they have some long-range forecast from Environment Canada that says the threat of frost is gone.  The rule of thumb here is not to plant before May 24 and I cannot remember them ever working out on the roof garden much before then and definitely never this early.  I don’t know, but imagine we’ve broken all sorts of records this month.  I’m not complaining, as I love the warmer weather but I do wonder if we’re in for a really hot humid summer — oh, how I hope so!

Lester, of course, was sitting on the windowsill watching rather intently.

Mr. Q.O. brought home a new brush for the kitties on Monday.  Smudge was purring so loudly while he was being brushed that I could hear him on the other side of the room.  Afterwards, he was looking up at Mr. Q.O. as though he was made out of catnip or something!