Preparing to Print Harpsichord Quilt Pieces

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This stack of fabrics are cut and ready to print either with octagons or squares for the Harpsichord Quilt. It takes no time at all to prepare to print as the Inklingo collection with these shapes gives suggested sizes of fabric pages, which I generally follow. Once I get all these pieces printed, I’ll have enough to keep me stitching for a few weeks.

It will take next to no time to get these all printed and then cut apart. All I need do is iron a few sheets to freezer paper, print, then re-use the freezer paper and print some more and so on until all the fabric sheets are printed. I plan to get these printed as well as more of the cream long hexagons for the Patchwork of the Crosses blocks this weekend.

Lester spent a fair bit of time on the windowsill on Wednesday so he was relaxing Wednesday night, stretched out on the sofa.


While Smudge had a real sleep.


Another Pink Ice Block Started

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One of the envelopes in the box I showed yesterday contained all the pieces for a Pink Ice block, so I got that started.


I finger press the blocks as I stitch so, although it’s not been pressed yet, you can see that when I do it will be a quick process. It takes only seconds to finger press as I go, and saves a lot of time at the ironing board.


Smudge, curled up having a snooze in the kitty bed, after another day of leaf watching on the windowsill.


Lester, reclining.

Three Quilts in a Box

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Decorative boxes are perfect containers for the pieces for quilt blocks. In this box I have glassine envelopes, each of which contains the pieces for a number of blocks, one block or a portion of one block of the Pink Ice, Harpischord and Patchwork of the Crosses quilts.

This envelope contains all the pieces to make 4 of the Harpischord Quilt blocks.

This one has all but the white squares for a Pink Ice block.

And this one contains a number of the purple squares for the Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.


I learned about using glassine envelopes to store block pieces when I was making my Quilted Diamonds 2 quilt. Having all the pieces for a block in one spot make it so easy to just pick out an envelope and start stitching.

Smudge on the windowsill again. The fall is his favourite time to be on the windowsill.


And Lester doing a Morris impression!


World’s Biggest Hexagon Quilt

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A few more hexagon rosettes were done over the weekend for the Aussie Hexagon Challenge. More will be made before the week’s out and then I’ll send them off.

The backs. They are so easy to make with lots and lots of lovely continuous stitching — and they press wonderfully.


I thought the migraine from last week would never leave. However, it finally did on Sunday. It’s this bizarre weather we’re having, I’m sure. It’s supposed to be amazingly mild most of this week. The longer the mild weather stays, the better.

The kitties were very busy chasing leaves as they flew by the window. Smudge was, I think, getting tired when we got this shot of him!

While Lester was incredibly alert.


Triangle of Triangles

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.. is what this piece seems to be turning into. I think I’ll make as many more of these as I can with the pieces from the swap and then see what I can turn those into.

On Thursday, I got this shot of Lester on the windowsill. He had lots to watch as not only was the gardener here most of the day, getting the roof garden ready for winter, but it appeared most of the leaves on the tree directly in front of the living room window had turned yellow and were beginning to fall.


Smudge dozing. He’s saving up energy to chase leaves as they fly by the window over the next few days, I think.


Triangles Again

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I’m still not altogether sure where this is going but on evenings when I’ve got a raging migraine, which I had on Wednesday evening, it’s totally mindless stitching. The weather was incredible on Wednesday, unbelievably mild but rainy. It sounds like the next couple of days are more of the same.

I could not resist this photo. I caught Smudge as he was grooming, with his tongue out.

Lester posing for the camera. It would be nice if I hadn’t managed to cut off the top of his ears but …


Patchwork of the Crosses – Another Framed

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As each block is framed, it becomes my favourite. It’s going to be hard to pick the centre block for the quilt when I get to that point. The centre of this one seems to vibrate.


The back:
One of the many Inklingo charm swaps we’ve had was of the 2.25″ equilateral triangles from Collection 3. I’m not altogether sure where I’m going with this, but I have a feeling that this is going to work up into a lap quilt that may well be a Christmas gift for someone. I have no real plan on colour placement with this other than alternating light and dark/medium, but that may change as I put together more of the triangles.


Smudge lounging on the love seat.

And Lester caught mid-yawn on the couch.


Another Harpsichord Block

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Harpsichord block number 15 is now done. Only 139 to go. Only!? These are actually quite quick to stitch together, but I’m trying to work on some Christmas gifts at the same time which means, rather than getting 2 blocks done while we watched the baseball, only 1 was finished.

The back:

This fabric was, I thought, perfect for the black octagons in the Harpsichord Quilt. I washed it and was stunned that the water was pitch black. Did a little research and read that soaking a fabric like this for 24/36 hours in plain cool water will draw out all the excess dye molecules. Did that. Water still pitch black. Rinsed it out and soaked it again, this time with a piece of plain cream cotton fabric. After a few hours, the water was again pitch black. The cream fabric didn’t pick up the dye, but it made me a bit apprehensive about using this in my quilt. To spend the hours it will take to hand piece this quilt and take the chance the black is going to spoil it when washed is just not a risk I’m willing to take!
The part I find most curious is that, even though the water consistently was showing a lot of dye, the fabric itself didn’t show any signs of fading. I’ve never run into this with a black fabric before. The fabric is now going to be used only in pieces which I expect will never be washed. Perhaps some fun needle books.

Smudge trying to ensure that no toys vanish from the toy basket while he sleeps.

And Lester on the windowsill — again. We’re supposed to have 3 or 4 days of quite mild temperatures so I think he’ll be enjoying the squirrel antics on the roof garden all week. Monday was rather mild as well and we were able to turn the heat off.


Festival Report

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Friday we went to the Creativ Festival. When we walked in, I was initially disappointed as it seemed much, much smaller. However, as we walked around I realized that the booths were all crafts related, rather than there being what I think of as the “sham wow” salespeople. The past few years there have been way too many of those vendors that really had no relation to crafts at all. This year? This year, it was all quilting, knitting, sewing, beading, embroidery and some scrapbooking. I think it’s a vast improvement.

The first order of business was getting the two things I was determined to bring home — a new Martelli rotary cutter and more of the Roxanne #12 sharps. I had a Martelli cutter but didn’t pay attention to the “use only Martelli blades” and, after using some other blades, it was ruined. The Martelli cutter is much easier on my hands. The needles are my absolute favourite to stitch with and use as pins when hand piecing.


Next on the list was a shorter ruler for cutting printed shapes. I saw some smaller ones than this, but I thought this might be a more useful size overall. The rulers I have are all longer than this and are just too large for some cutting.


Thread was next — more of the YLI Heirloom thread that I love to use and a spool of Aurifil for machine piecing. I had hoped to find a booth selling Superior Threads as I’d like to try their Masterpiece thread, but no luck. Maybe next year.


No fabric came home with me. I had hoped to find another black and white music print for the Harpsichord Quilt and was watching for an orange/yellow batik for the POTC quilt, but didn’t see either. There were some fabulous booths full of gorgeous fabric, but nothing that worked for the quilts I’m currently working on.

For the first time I noticed there were some booths with lovely embroidery items, including gorgeous hand-dyed threads. One booth was selling some historical British sampler patterns and I couldn’t resist this one.

Mr. Quilt Obsession bought this wonderful needle minder for me. It’s a little work of art on its own and is so handy! I have been working on a couple of biscornu for Christmas gifts and, if I put it down, I can just leave the needle on the needle minder and it won’t go anywhere!


The best part of Friday? We met some friends for dinner at a restaurant near the Convention Centre. It was a lovely way to end a great day.

Lester on the windowsill on the weekend.

And Smudge, as usual, showing just how relaxed he can be. If you look closely, you’ll see his eyes were open a bit. He was completely aware his photo was being taken.


Preparing Patchwork of the Crosses Cream Frames

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Seeing the POTC blocks laid out renewed my determination to get my Patchwork of the Crosses top together before the year’s over. So I have been taking little stacks of these and …

… stitching together sets of 3 and then …

… creating the cream hexagon frames for the remaining blocks. Once the frames are made, it’s just lots and lots of lovely continuous stitching to add them to each block. Adding the purple squares after that takes next to no time.


This weekend is our Creativ Festival. We’re going today — yes, Mr. Q.O. enjoys going as well. Then we’re meeting friends for dinner. It will be a very nice day, even though the weather leaves much to be desired. Snow, they say?? Snow in October? I’ve definitely got to get started on that beach ball quilt and pretend it just isn’t happening!

Smudge doesn’t care. He’s curled up, nice and cozy and warm.


Lester, on the other hand, was on the windowsill today. Look how green everything still is! How on earth can it snow when it still looks like this? There are still flowers!

I’m pretty sure he was watching the squirrels. You can see how green everything still is in this photo and some of the flowers.