Another Patchwork of the Crosses Block Framed

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Getting the purple squares around another of the POTC blocks was my goal Thursday night. I wanted to see how they looked surrounding a block that was very pink.

The back:

Looks like our wonderful warm, dry weather may be about to end. What a lovely couple of weeks we’ve had.

A close-up of some of Lester’s whiskers — they’re so long that we can’t get a close-up of them with the macro setting. Both the boys have long, long whiskers. Sometimes I call them our crayfish kitties. Lester’s are about 4″ long.

And, of course, Smudge’s.

Another Pair of Harpsichord Blocks

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The block with the purple squares is definitely going in the quilt. But I’m wondering about the block with the pale peach ones. It may be too washed out — yet, as I recall the decorative elements of those harpsichords, while they had some vibrant colours, they also had some more faded, pale ones. I’d love to hear some opinions on this.

The backs of the two blocks:

A very close-up view of Lester’s eye/profile. I cannot get over the detail this little camera captures.

And, to make it a pair, a close-up of one of Smudge’s eyes.

Fabric Repurposing

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Quiltobsession

As part of the stash organizing, I’ve been looking at kits and deciding whether they are really something I want to make. In most cases, they aren’t. In some cases, the fabric that is in those kits will turn into something totally different. These fabrics came out of a kit. I’ve washed them all now and am debating what to make with them. Stars? Drunkard’s Path blocks? Maybe a Double Wedding Ring table topper? Lots of options and some really pretty fabrics.

Mr. Quilt Obsession got this shot on Tuesday. If you “embiggen” the photo, you can see the bee that’s there — the detail is incredible. You can even see the bee’s wings clearly.

It was Smudge’s turn for the close-up shot.

While Lester was once again on the windowsill. The fall window cleaning has started and the ropes from their swing stage have been evident. Lester watches all this with great interest. Smudge used to hide under the bed the minute the ropes appeared but now seems to have decided they’re not that scary.

Harpsichord Block

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Another block done — this time with a more vibrant colour for the 8 little squares. I’m looking forward to having enough of these blocks done to put together the first two rows. However, I have a fair bit of stitching to do before I’m at that stage. Maybe in another week or 10 days I’ll be there.

And the back:

Although this is a wee bit fuzzy, I couldn’t resist using it. Pictures of the two of them sitting together are rather rare.

A Pair of Harpsichord Blocks

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The music fabric that arrived last week is in these two blocks. I’ve decided to use a few lighter colours as well as the bright ones for the little squares. They will be sprinkled throughout the quilt top when it’s done.

The backs:

We had the most glorious weather all weekend. Definitely more summer-like temperatures than we had all summer. At 10:00 at night it was still 72 degrees on Saturday.

Mr. Quilt Obsession has been having fun with the macro setting on the Canon camera. This one of Lester’s eyes:

And this one of his paw:

This is one of my favourite shots of Smudge.

Another Harpsichord Block

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Quiltobsession

… is done for a total, so far, of 5. By my calculations, that’s just slightly less than 1/30th of the number I need. They’re such fun to stitch that I have no worries that I’ll be sick of them.

And the back:

And this is the black music fabric that arrived on Wednesday from a very good friend. It’s washed and ready to be cut and printed.

The weather continues to be absolutely glorious. Lovely warm days. Mr. Quilt Obsession had to go north of the city on Wednesday and reported that some of the leaves on the trees up there are absolutely brilliant crimson. Around here nothing is turning much at all. I’ve seen a very few leaves turning yellow on the roof garden. I’m hoping we have leaves until late October as they make such a wonderful difference to our view. Although when the leaves fall and then it’s windy, the kitties have a great time trying to hit the leaves flying by the windows.

Lester is enjoying every minute on the windowsill:

And Smudge in one of his more regal poses.

Patchwork of the Crosses – Yet Another Framed

Posted on September 10, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The rotation seems to have gone out the window this week. Getting the cream hexagons added to the POTC blocks as well as the purple joining squares seems to be calling out, as do the Harpsichord blocks. The black music fabric I was waiting for arrived on Wednesday, so I’ll be printing as many octagons as I can this weekend.

But for now, the dark blue POTC block has been framed and a start made on joining the purple squares to it.

The back:

We are having the most glorious weather — probably better summer weather than we had for the majority of the summer! The nights are quite cool, but the days are gorgeous. Sunny and warm and lovely.

Lester is enjoying time by the window, although I’m not sure what he was looking at in this shot.

Smudge, on the other hand, is enjoying an afternoon snooze.

Quaker a 6 Mains – Finished

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The first cross-stitch sampler I’ve done in years is finished. I’m amazed at how quick it was to stitch. It was a wonderful little sampler to work. Now to decide how to frame it.

Smudge helping me as I was working on the squirrel in the bottom right.

Lester was sleeping with one of their favourite toys.

Patchwork of the Crosses – Two Framed

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Two blocks are now complete as far as having the purple squares in each corner and on two sides. This gives an idea of how they’ll look joined, although these aren’t yet joined.

My wrist is really bothering me again but I have now been able to determine what aggravates it. Unfortunately, it’s related to work so I’m going to have to be very creative in figuring out a work-around.

We were at a friend’s home on Monday and Mr. Quilt Obsession took these shots of some of the flowers in their front garden. I have no idea what the flowers are, but love the colours and am thrilled with the shots the camera is getting. It’s a Canon PowerShot A470.

Another shot of Smudge awake.

And one of Lester just after I had brushed his ruff.

Harpsichord Patchwork – Block 4

Posted on September 7, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The fourth block done. I love the splashes of colour the little squares add to these blocks.

The first 4 blocks side by side. Only the top two are actually joined at this point.

There’s more white music notes on black fabric on its way but, until it gets here, I may have to make a few different blocks using these shapes. Fussy cutting the octagons makes a really interesting block! I saw these on Sunday and am very tempted. I had a finish on the weekend — pictures later this week — so have an opening in the rotation for something and some fussy cut octagons seem like a great idea.

Sunday night as I was stitching that fourth block, I had Smudge on my lap and Lester glued to my side with his head on my knee. That’s almost 40 pounds of very furry, warm kitty all at once. They don’t often do that, so no matter what I wasn’t going to move and upset that.

Dorothy Baker is starting a wonderful BOM called Sweet Nostalgia. You can read about it here or by clicking the Sweet Nostalgia button on my sidebar.

A photo of Smudge awake!

One of the few pictures of Lester shortly after his ruff had been brushed and before he managed to start chewing on it and turn it into a mess again.

All of the little stars are now made and last night I started surrounding them with the white squares. It takes less than an hour to get two stars surrounded.

Seams graded and pressed.

There are now 17 of the little stars left to surround with the white squares. From here on out, it’s just nothing but continuous stitching to add the squares, then the connecting red diamonds and octagons and turn this into a finished quilt top. If I can stay focused, and I am pretty intent on doing just that, I could have this finished by the end of next week and be ready to quilt it next weekend.

I may take some time out this weekend and get the binding ready for Candy Stars as well as start printing for the Inklingo Periwinkle reverse mystery quilt. I think I’ve finally decided on the colours I want to work with for the Periwinkle quilt. No big surprise here — it will be pinks, pinks and more pinks. Maybe a mauve thrown in for a little relief from the pink. Maybe. Lessons 1 to 4 are available, free, at the All About Inklingo blog.

If you’re here to see who won the giveaway from the April Showers post, the winner will be announced later this afternoon after Baxter picks a winner.

“Mum’s Making Stars” is the title of today’s ‘toon.

As we were setting up to take pictures of the two little blue stars, he was right there just waiting for his photo to be taken because, after all, there is nothing that we could possibly want to photograph other than him!

Two Blue Candy Stars