Can You See Waves?

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These four blue batiks will all be incorporated into my Double Diamond Storm at Sea variation.  Five new Inklingo Collections were released Sunday night for various sizes of Storm at Sea — 4.5″, 6″ ,6.75″, 9″ and 12″ blocks.  There are a couple of extra shapes in each collection too, which really open up some design possibilities.  I already know there are some stars in my future using shapes from these collections.  I know I want to make a quilt incorporating different sizes of the blocks as well.  The free Design Book is a fabulous bonus that contains tons of information, including methods for constructing the blocks, as well as some shaded and unshaded design sheets.  The first thing I did was print out one of the design sheets and sort out what I needed to print for my first block.

I decided to first do a 45″ wall hanging using the 6.75″ templates in the Double Diamonds layout that can be seen at the bottom of the page here but with a twist.  I’m using all four of the batiks in the picture above as well as some white.  It took me only a couple of minutes to figure out my page sizes, cut and press the fabric to freezer paper, print and then start stitching.   I think batiks are my favourite fabrics to work with — and they’re perfect for this design as there are spots where a lot of seams are going to meet.  As batiks are such a fine fabric and press so perfectly, I won’t be fighting too  much bulky fabric at those points.  Here’s my centre square:

The back of my centre square was pressed in  a second thanks to the batiks.

I have the diamonds and their surrounding triangles printed and cut out, ready to go.  The little squares and their surrounding QSTs are printed, ready to cut

Last week Crispy asked about the cutting line, whether it was printed as well as the stitching line.  As I know the ink in my printer will rinse out without any problems, I printed the QSTs on this fabric in a darker red than I normally would use.   If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see that both the stitching and cutting lines, as well as matching points, are printed on the shapes.

I had hoped to go to the Etobicoke Quilt Guild show on Saturday but woke up with a monster migraine.  However, I got lots done on my Alabama Beauty blocks and have now got 3 of them put together.  One more block and the first of the circles will appear in its entirety.  I’m not sure how large this will grow but I think it may well end up as a large lap quilt as I want a dozen or more circles in the quilt.

Our weather this week sounds as though it’s going to be wonderful with a forecast that seems to indicate we may well see 70 by Friday.  I can’t wait!!   The nights are still quite cool, but to have days in the high 60s or low 70s in late March and early April?  Huge treat!

Smudge was very busy on the weekend, guarding the toys.  I think he knew I was about to grab them all up and put them back in the basket.

Lester decided it was a good time for a nap.

Fabric Choices

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Once I knew my idea for the Alabama Beauty blocks was going to work out as well as I hoped, it was time to get out the box in which I have the fabrics left over from the shabby chic king-sized quilt and from some of my Quilted Diamonds blocks.  This weekend I’ll spend some time picking out more fabrics and get the templates printed on to them.  I have no set plan, but will print the templates on however many fabrics I end up picking out from the box.  Then when I start to piece those blocks in earnest, I’ll have lots of pieces cut out and ready from which to choose.

My preferred method seems to be having lots of choices all ready to use, so that I can change my mind at the last minute regarding what fabrics are in a block.  That way I do end up with pieces left over but those left-over pieces often become part of something new or get incorporated into a quilt label.  Planning the whole quilt top out to the last fabric isn’t something I do very often, it seems.

We have had a quite a drop in temperature with an overnight low last night in the range of -7C, although that’s not going to last much past today.  It was quite windy on Thursday and, while Lester spent a little bit of time on the windowsill, it appears relaxing on the couch was the more appropriate thing to do.

Yesterday morning, Smudge decided that he wanted to spend some time in my desk chair.  I think this is one of the best shots of him we’ve got.

A Little Shabby Chic Curved Piecing

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These are some of the fabrics I picked out for shabby chic Alabama Beauty blocks.  There are other fabrics I’ll add to the mix as I do more blocks, but these are a starting point.

Once the fabrics were selected, it took me only minutes to cut my fabric, press it to the freezer paper and print the templates on the backs of my fabrics.  Then I was off to the races.  While we watched Angels & Demons last night, I stitched this block.

The back, which didn’t press as well as I would have liked.  I’m on the hunt for distilled water to use in the iron as we have extremely hard water and I’ve been told that using half distilled/half tap water will help lengthen the life of my iron.  As soon as I find the distilled water, this is going to be pressed again.

All that rain on Tuesday made a difference.  I looked out Wednesday morning and noticed, for the first time, some green shoots coming up in the flower beds on the roof garden.  Unfortunately, they’re saying we’ll have a wind chill of -11 on Friday, which I don’t think will do those little plants much good, but then it looks like it’s going to warm up and stay warm.  I hope they open the roof garden soon.  It can be absolutely wonderful out there on a sunny day in a sheltered spot.

The cats have been busy the last couple of days.  Almost every toy is now out of the basket.  Last night Lester was very busy with either the catnip pillow, which he licks and licks, or the practice golf ball.  Here is he relaxing after all that.

And Smudge doing his lounge act.

Curved Piecing

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One of my favourite things is to play with blocks that have curved piecing.  There’s something I find immensely satisfying about stitching a perfectly curved seam.   I made these six blocks back when the Orange Peel Inklingo collection came out and design ideas have been floating through my mind.  The six blocks in the picture above are going to be made into a Christmas table topper, I think.  I may add 3 more blocks just to make it a bit larger.

Last night I laid out the six blocks just for fun.  The idea I have will incorporate, in one instance, just the Alabama Beauty blocks (the top left in the photo), while another idea will use four of the different blocks.  Now it’s a matter of deciding what fabrics I want to use for this.  Perhaps hand dyed fabrics with some batiks or some soft shabby chic fabrics.   I think this is my favourite part — playing with design ideas and choosing the fabrics.   I know what I want to make and it’s really a matter now of whether I want it to be soft and flowing or dramatic and intense.  Perhaps both.  Who knows?  In the meantime, I get to play.

I proofread transcripts for court reporters.  This has now happened to me twice and it cracks me up.  I am so used to typing the word Inklingo and thinking about Inklingo that when a witness or lawyer says inkling in a transcript, it looks completely wrong to me and I instinctively want to change it to Inklingo!  I catch myself wanting to change what the typist has typed but it makes me laugh thinking about what a lawyer would say upon coming across the word “Inklingo” in a transcript.

I got started on the Anthony Trollope novels last night and, while I initially found the writing a bit stiff, can already see that I’m going to enjoy them.  Thanks to Betty who yesterday left a comment about another author, Angela Thirkell, who carried on the characters in the Barsetshire series into the WWII era.  I know I’ll probably devour those books as well. I love the idea of a great long series of books following a families through generations.

Lester, alert last night after another day of watching out the window — at rain and more rain.

And Smudge sound asleep.

A Pastel POTC Block

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There are still four purple squares to be added in the corners but, as that will take only minutes, this block is basically finished.  I love the colours in this one.  They remind me of pretty pastel dresses at Easter.

The back:

These books have been languishing on the bookshelves for ages.  I remember starting the first book in Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire novels ages ago and quite liking it but, for some reason, I put it down and didn’t go back to it.  Truth be told, I probably got distracted by a mystery.  This time I intend to read my way through both the Barsetshire and Palliser series.  I love having a stack of unread books like this.  This stack is the Barsetshire series.  The Palliser series is another 6 books.  These should keep me busy for a couple of months.  Next up after Trollope?  Maybe Dickens.  I have read some of his books, but not all and would really like to make my way through those as well.

The weather is improving every day and I think by mid-week we’ll see temperatures back near 50, if not a bit better.  Lester spent a fair amount of time on the windowsill on Monday.  At one point I was watching him and saw a bird fly by with wings that seemed to be tipped with quite a vibrant blue.  I didn’t see the bird again Monday but will be watching to see if we have some blue jays out on the roof garden.  Still haven’t seen a robin, although I have heard one.

A new favourite shot of Lester:

And Smudge working on his lounging:

More Spool Blocks

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The final 11 spool blocks from this group of fabrics are done.  I couldn’t resist finishing them off.  I have 81 little blocks so am debating whether to take these and turn them into a doll’s quilt with a 9 x 9 setting or if I want to keep adding.  I’ll think on it for a bit this week and make a decision before next Saturday.

Here they all are.  I’m amazed at how quick it was to put these together.

I found another great use for a digital camera today.  I wanted to check the value of some fabrics I had pulled for a project (yes, another project is in progress) so took a picture, which we turned into a black and white picture on the computer and I immediately could see the values.  Digital cameras have so many uses for a quilter!  Use it to check value, to photograph a layout if you don’t have a design wall and need to be able to refer back and I’ve found it to be a great way to see if fabrics really do work together — particularly when working with fabrics in the winter when the light is not the greatest.  We have a lamp with a daylight bulb in it that I use all the time but sometimes I see something on the computer screen that isn’t as immediately obvious when looking directly at the fabrics.  I suppose there are fewer visual distractions when looking at a picture on the computer screen.

Of course taking pictures of fabric or blocks or layouts means we have to take a few of the boys.  Lester was stretched out:

While Smudge was, as usual, lounging on the couch.

Saturday Klosjes Again

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This was not a really productive week as far as making these little blocks went.  There are so many other things I had on the go that my little blocks were neglected.  Perhaps I shall make a few more tonight.  Who knows? I’ve lost count of how many I have done now.  If I do manage tonight to finish all those that I have ready, I may do a trial layout of them and see whether there’s enough for a doll’s quilt and then start with different fabrics on a new set of Klosjes.

We are cat sitting Winnie again, although only overnight tonight and into tomorrow afternoon.  She had some chicken tonight and, while she wasn’t quite as loud in her appreciation as she was here, she still made me smile.  I couldn’t resist posting this little video again.

We woke up this morning to very chilly weather.  There were even snowflakes floating past.  The first day of spring and snowflakes after a full week or more of glorious mild weather?  Not fair!!  But this won’t last.  By Monday we will be inching our way back up to the wonderful mild spring temperatures.  I guess this was winter’s last gasp, such as it was.

This picture of Lester is definitely a new favourite.

And this one of Smudge taken tonight.  He really does know how to relax and stay warm.

Hexagon Rows

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This is the other hexagon project I’m working on.  It will be a large lap quilt composed of  row after row of hexagons.  They’re in no particular order, just added as I stitched them into rows.  I had lots of these 1″ hexagons from various swaps on the Inklingo list and knew I wanted to do something other than a traditional GFG quilt, so decided to do this.  It is going to be very colourful when finished.  All the rows are stitched so now it’s just a matter of stitching the rows to one another, which really doesn’t take all that long.  A portion of the back:

One thing I have learned is to press as I go.  So after I add each row, I press.  When I made this king-sized shabby chic quilt out of 1″ elongated and regular hexagons, I left the pressing to the end.  That was a very big mistake.  It took hours of standing at the ironing board.

Lester has a favourite toy.  It’s a blue and white ball that makes a jingling noise when moved.  He keeps it in his kitty bed most of the time and loves to spear it with a claw and wiggle it about to make the noise.  Yesterday he tossed it out of his bed and then appears to have decided he had to make sure Smudge couldn’t get it so he was lying like this, sound asleep, with the ball right under his chin.  For good measure he had another toy there as well.

Smudge, on the other hand, was back in full lounge mode.  As usual, he knew he was having his picture taken — if you look closely, you can see that one eye is just barely open.

A Framed Spring POTC Block

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I know I said I was going to keep joining the cream hexagons but I couldn’t resist and just had to add the cream hexagons and purple squares to this block.  Our weather feels so much like spring and a pink and green block says spring to me so I went with it.   For some reason the darker pink hexagons aren’t showing as their true colour in this photo.  It’s not quite as red as it appears.

The back of the block.  When I was joining the cream hexagons to the block, I used two colours of thread — green and a deep pink.

This photo is definitely a contender in the “where is his head” category.  When we saw Lester lying like this, we practically fell over each other to get the camera.

Smudge in a photo that is a bit soft focus, but I love the expression on his face.

Patchwork of the Crosses

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Remember these?  That picture is one I posted about 5 months ago of 9 of the Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses blocks .  There are others that have been surrounded by the white hexagons and purple batik squares but not all of them yet.  It’s time to get these done and find the right fabric for the connecting squares at the intersection of the blocks.  So what have I been working on?

The surrounding cream hexagons are what I’ve been working on.   I join them into groups of three which I’ll later join to make the frame for each block.  I have a stack of these cream hexagons all printed and cut out, ready to stitch and that’s what I’m going to concentrate on until that stack is all put together into frames ready to stitch to the blocks.  It has been so long now that I can’t remember how many more I’ll need to print, so once I get this grouping of them stitched I’ll be able to figure out how many more I need to complete the top.  While I work on these, I’m going to contemplate whether I want to make a few more of the blocks with some other fabrics, just for fun to see what other effects I can get with some stripes and other directional fabrics.

We had another early spring day on Tuesday, marvelous really for mid March.  But it sounds like winter isn’t quite done with us as we’re going to drop from temperatures around the mid 50s down to wind chills in the minus range sometime between Sunday and Monday.  I hope the forecast is wrong and that the cold weather will miss us.

Lester is ready for spring.  He’s spending more and more time on the windowsill or, to be more precise, on the heating unit stretched out, watching out the window for that first bird or squirrel to make an appearance.

Smudge won’t bother until he hears the birds.  The windowsill is really Lester’s territory.  Smudge is much more interested in looking cute and getting attention than paying attention to what’s going on outdoors.  Who could resist this face?