More Winding Ways & A Surprise

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Putting these Winding Ways blocks together is such fun. They press beautifully, following the pressing directions in the Winding Ways Design Book, and thanks to those pressing directions lie lovely and flat.

The back after pressing and snipping off the dog ears:

And a real close-up of the centre of the back. If you look, you can see that the middle is pressed open. Before doing that, though, I used the tiniest stitches I could manage and actually stitched the seam twice with thread that matched the fabric. It’s pressing like this that makes the block lie really flat, without a bump in the middle. It takes seconds, and makes a huge difference.

I’ve been inundated with work this week, rather unexpectedly, and haven’t really been responding to comments. I have deadlines to meet today, but then am taking a 3-day weekend. I love reading your comments and will respond, if not today, sometime on Friday.

Lester continues to improve. Here he is Wednesday afternoon:

Smudge licking the yogourt off the spoon — but keep scrolling down as there’s a surprise.

We finally got a video of Smudge drinking. If you turn your speakers up, you can hear the water dripping off his fur back into the water bowl. He likes to get his paw into the dry food and throw a few of those around and then he heads to the water bowl and — well, you can see for yourself:

Prepping Winding Ways pieces

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Five blocks to go and I’ll have the nine needed for the little top I’m making with these fabrics. One is in the process of being stitched and the pieces for the other four blocks are ready to stitch.

I am completely ignoring the groundhog reports and hoping for an early spring although, as I type this, it’s snowing rather a lot. In fact, this is the first time I can remember seeing snow actually staying out on the roof garden this winter. Maybe this is our one and only snowstorm and spring will start soon.

Smudge was catching up on his sleep:

Lester is continuing to improve. He has been alert, eating, purring and just being Lester. We took this picture late on Tuesday evening. When I woke up Tuesday morning, he was sharing my pillow with me. That was a great start to the day!

Drunkard’s Path in Rouenneries Again

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Before the Winding Ways collections became available Friday, I was working on putting together these blocks. I know I’m going to love this quilt when it’s done but, for now, everything is taking a back seat to the Winding Ways blocks. The design possibilities with it are incredible!


This is the back of one of the blocks:


Lester’s improvement throughout Monday was absolutely fabulous. He was back to making happy paw when patted and was purring and giving kisses. It is such a relief to see this improvement — he was alert, eating and generally back to himself. His appetite is back. That was the worst part of it, wondering how on earth we’d get food in him although we were prepared to use the chopsticks as we did after his little stroke a couple of years ago. Here he is resting on Monday afternoon.


Smudge enjoying his evening treat of yogourt.


Pink and Red

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The red and white print fabric I showed last week just don’t work for the pattern I’m playing with. I think the white has to be all white, rather than patterned. So what did I do? I decided to use pink! I love pink and red together. These are 9″ blocks.


On Friday, the new Inklingo Winding Ways collections were released — in 4.5″, 6″ and 9″ sizes. I knew they were coming and was thrilled as I have always loved the Winding Ways block and have tried to do it before, once with plastic templates which I traced and once with acrylic templates. Neither of those worked out well at all. These ones? These ones are absolute bliss to stitch — nice soft curves that don’t even require any clipping into the seam allowance. They go together in next to no time. There’s a fabulous Winding Ways Design Book available too, which is free right now, with some great stitching and pressing tips and some fabulous design ideas.

I have a design idea for a small table topper that will utilize all 3 sizes of the blocks. They go together so quickly that I think I can get the top done within a week. Everything else seems to be put on hold for this one. This is the back of one of the blocks, It presses like a dream, using the tips in the Design Book.


It was bitterly, bitterly cold here on the weekend. Saturday morning, when we had an 8:00 a.m. appointment at the vet office, it was -19C. Thankfully there was no wind. Otherwise it would have been unbearable.

Lester seemed not well on Friday, was sneezing and seemed to have a runny nose. I called the vet’s office and the only appointment we could get was 8:00 a.m. Saturday. Because of his heart condition, anything that seems to be affecting his breathing makes me nervous. Off we went, saw the vet who said it appears to probably be an upper respiratory infection and we came home with antibiotics. Until Sunday night, after he had had his fourth dose of the antibiotics he didn’t appear to be much better. But, fingers crossed, they seem to be having the desired effect. The good news on Saturday was that his heart murmur couldn’t be heard, so clearly his heart meds are doing their job. He’s clearly not himself and is a bit bedraggled looking, so here’s a picture taken mid-week last week:

Smudge loves to stretch out on the mattress cover when we’ve stripped the bed.


Spools, Spools and More Spools

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After the finish of the big block on Wednesday night, I had to work on these little ones. Each of the spool blocks finish at approximately 2 3/8″.

They are really fun to make — sort of quilters’ candy. The back of a couple of them:


I gave my eyes a rest from contacts on Thursday. Two days of 14 to 16 hours of wearing contacts after not wearing them for at least 6 years was probably pushing it a bit, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give them a rest. Today I’m trying out the third type.

Thursday was an odd day as far as weather goes. One minute the sky would be grey and snow flying by the windows. A few minutes later the sun was out and the sky blue as could be. Very little, if any, snow stayed on the ground but it is bitterly cold. Wind chills of -17C again.

The cats figured the best way to deal with that kind of weather was to curl up and nap. Lester decided to cozy up to a bear:


Smudge was happy curled up on his own:


Dresden Plate/Farmer’s Delight Block #2

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Another one done! Oh, how I love putting this block together. It’s an enormous block for me — 15″ seems gigantic!

Wednesday I tried yet another contact lens and the comfort was incredible. I didn’t need any drops at all. We went out for a bit of a walk and no discomfort even walking outside on a rather chilly windy day. The optometrist wants me to try some bifocal contacts next week. It seems that my glasses breaking was a rather fortunate accident. That said, they were back from being repaired Wednesday afternoon so now I have the choice of glasses or contacts.

Another photo of Lester that is, I think, my newest favourite.


Smudge sleeping after his nightly treat of yogourt.


Harpsichord Block

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The Harpsichord Quilt is another that I don’t want to let languish too long so I made this block.

The back:


I wore the contacts all day Tuesday with no discomfort. As an experiment, Tuesday morning I went to the grocery store without the readers to see how well I could manage. I was pleasantly surprised at what I could read, but realised I absolutely have to have the readers with me when looking at best before dates on perishable items. This morning I head to the optometrist’s office again, to try out another type of contact.

I’m in the throes of planning a red and white quilt. My experience with white on white prints has been not great as the heavily painted-on designs are so difficult to needle and finding a white on white which has the design woven in rather than painted on seems to be an impossible task. So I’m thinking this small print on white might work for my red and white quilt.


The mail brought this — the replacement iron from Rowenta. It’s not the same model as the one I had. My initial thought is to use this iron for things that need a steam iron for as long as it lasts and keep the little Sunbeam iron for dry ironing, which it does brilliantly. I have to give Rowenta credit as they must have put this replacement in the mail immediately upon receiving the cord from my old one. Now I just hope the iron works longer than its predecessor.

Smudge loves water. Absolutely loves water. If you click on this to embiggen it, you can see the water dripping down his ruff, how wet his face is and the water drops on his side. His preferred method of drinking is to stick his whole face in the water bowl and then catch the water as it drips down his face. Part of his ruff usually is in the water. This is his variation on lounging by the pool.


Lester was keeping his eye on the practice golf ball that is one of his favourite toys.


Patchwork of the Crosses – Blue Stripes Framed

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I don’t want to let my Patchwork of the Crosses blocks languish. I got the cream frame done for this one on the weekend and then joined it to the block and added the purple squares.

The back:

Monday was a bit of an adventure. I was about to start working, went to clean my glasses … and they broke. I can’t see 6 inches in front of me without glasses or contact lenses, so broken glasses is rather major. Mr. Q.O. took them downstairs to one of the opticians in the complex. They told him it would take until Thursday to get them repaired and back. I can’t see to do anything without glasses so waiting until Thursday was just not on!

When he came back up and told me what kind of timing I was looking at, I got on the phone to the optometrist from whom I used to get contact lens and was fortunate enough to get an emergency appointment for late afternoon. Thankfully, the optometrist is in the building so I didn’t have to try to go far and Mr. Q.O. was with me. After checking my eyes, the optometrist gave me a few sets of one-day contacts to try. I’m absolutely amazed at the clarity of my vision with these contacts.

The next hurdle was figuring out what I needed in reading glasses on top of the contacts. (There are bifocal contacts and now that I know I can wear contacts successfully again, I will investigate that.) Off we went to the bookstore where they have all sorts of reading glasses, and I tried on a few pairs before finding the right strength to be able to read a book or stitch.

Once we got back, I tried to get to work. I instantly found that the reading glasses I need to read a book or stitch are far too strong for computer work. Thankfully, I had an old pair of readers kicking around that were much weaker and they’re perfect for the computer work.

I had planned on checking out the options now available with contact lenses, but not quite this fast. Guess it was meant to be. I’m absolutely amazed at the comfort level. Not having worn them for over 6 years, I was stunned to find that after 8 or 9 hours I still had total comfort. I go back to the optometrist on Wednesday morning when she’s going to give me some other types to try for a few days so that I can then make a decision on which are the most comfortable. I am so grateful that this worked out so well as, had I not been able to wear contacts at all, I would have been absolutely stymied.

The cats were getting in some serious lounging practice on Monday. First Smudge, showing one of his special style of lounging positions:


Then Lester, being a bit more classic about lounging:


Pink Ice Block #24

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… is finished. Six left to do and the blocks for this will be finished.


The back:

Looks like our lovely lengthy January thaw is coming to an end. While it was quite mild on the weekend, by tonight we’ll be back into the minus temperatures and snow is in the forecast for later in the week. It’s odd to think of snow now. I always feel by the time we get to the end of January we’re through the worst of it. This has been such an odd winter so far that I’m actually hoping we get a real spring, which we haven’t had for years.

I am slowly working my way through the comments left late last week. When my wrists were really hurting, I was limiting my use of the keyboard. Now that they’re feeling better, hopefully I’ll get caught up.

The cats were pretty much doing this all weekend. I think they’re getting rested up for the Olympics. Lester with a teddy bear:


And Smudge — well, perhaps he’s practising for the lounge competition.


Pink Ice

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I tried to do some applique last night but that slightly different movement was too much for my wrist. I’m dying to try some of the Dresden applique collection, but that will have to wait till my hands have recovered from this latest flare.

So I grabbed an envelope from one of the boxes and started this pink ice block. While I clearly won’t have these blocks finished this month, I’m still aiming to have the blocks finished before winter is over.


The back of the centre of the block:


Thursday afternoon I had an eye doctor appointment, after which I had a raging headache. I think I reacted to the drops used. But I found out some great news. There’s now a contact lens for dry eyes that sounds like it may be the solution for me. I wore contacts for decades, until about 7 or 8 years ago when my eyes just got too dry to wear them comfortably. I can’t wait to get a trial pair to see if that will be the solution for me.

Lester resting:


And Smudge showing how he guards a toy while he’s lounging: