Slow Progress

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The rainbow grew, but only a bit. I’m not really sure quite why I got so stalled on it this weekend, but I was. There are three of the purple/red diamonds left to join to the body of the rainbow, then the purples and then blues. If I’m very dedicated to this throughout the week, I may just have the rainbow done by week’s end.

I didn’t seem to get a lot of stitching done this weekend. I played with the Drunkard’s Path basket bits and got all the curved pieces ready for the remaining three blocks of it. I also started trying to sort out just how I’ll set the rainbow and the four “sun” blocks when the rainbow is done. This may be one time I’ll really wish I had a design wall!

The leaves on the trees out on the roof garden will be starting to open this week. I can’t wait. As soon as they’re all open, we barely can see all the other high-rise towers around us.

The following two pictures absolutely crack me up. It’s the looks on their faces!! First Lester:

Then Smudge:


Yet More Rainbow Progress

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Much as I wanted to keep working on the drunkard’s path basket blocks, the rainbow was calling. The last of the reds is now added and the first of the red/purple diamonds are attached in the middle.

I received a prize from the Quilt Festival hosted by Amy at Park City Girl, a $20 certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics. After spending ages looking at the fabrics, I finally settled on some great fabrics and ordered them on Thursday. It was fun to spend some time looking through those fabrics!

It poured and poured rain Thursday night and was quite windy. What did the cats do? Smudge snoozed. This picture gives you a really good idea of just how big he is and the length of his tail. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see his tail almost touches the floor.


I love this shot of Lester. I think it’s one of the best photos of him that we have.


A Basket Block

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I’ve had the fabrics printed and cut out for a few weeks and have been periodically picking up one or two pieces to stitch whenever I’ve needed my curved piecing fix. There will be 4 of these blocks that I need in total. The first one is done and I absolutely love the effect! The pattern for this is in an old issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting. I’m going to amend the setting a bit but absolutely love the block design.

I’ve written before about the kitties and their toy basket. About 5 minutes before this picture was taken, all the toys were in the basket. Lester came along and, with one big swipe of his paw, had about 6 or 7 of those toys out on the floor. Smudge came along and took over. He played for a moment but then was guarding the toys from his brother.
Lester took a break and will, now that I’ve put them all back in the basket, get them out again. We were watching them and, at one point, the two of them were trying to get their favourites out at the same time. That resulted in a few minutes of paw waving play fight and then Lester wandered off for a snooze.


More Rainbow Progress

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The oranges are all added and the first of the reds has now been joined to the rainbow. Two more reds, then purples and then the blues. It’s about two feet across at this point at its widest point. I think the rainbow itself is going to end up about 48″ wide.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas on the flannels and the gold Northcott print. I’m thinking that a star of some sort for the Northcott will be the way I go. Now I’m wondering about 9-patch blocks for the flannels. Will have to think on that.

The weather went back to rather chilly on Tuesday and quite damp. We even had to put the heat back on! This is so typical of our weather this time of year.

Lester contemplating a kitty toy that was on the floor.


Smudge posing, as usual, for the camera.

The work-related stress is still there, but I’m trying to just ignore it at this point. Easier said than done, but it’s a situation over which I have no control so it’s rather pointless to let it upset me to the point I don’t even want to stitch!

Pattern Hunting

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I’ve had this fabric for ages. It’s a gorgeous Northcott fabric that I love, but have yet to make anything with it. There’s lots of it — more than enough to make a two-fabric quilt, which is what I think I want to do, but I can’t seem to come up with the right pattern to use. Any thoughts?

Then there are these wonderful flannels. There’s a half-yard cut of each. Again, I cannot think of what to make with them. A nice cozy lap quilt for next winter is what I want to make with them, but coming up with a pattern? I keep thinking stars of some sort but never having worked with flannel other than for a backing, I have no idea how hard it’s going to be to get nice sharp points. Whatever I make, I think I’ll save the green and cream striped fabric for the binding. I love using a stripe for bindings.

There’s a fair bit of business-related stress going on in my life right now. I’m finding it really hard to relax while this mess sorts itself out, and even found it rather hard to stitch Monday night which is why there’s no progress on the rainbow shot. Hopefully, the situation resolves within the next few days. I know it’s affecting me rather completely, can feel the tension in my shoulders and neck.

Thank goodness for the kitties. Just looking at them can lower one’s stress levels. Smudge in yet another of his advanced paw poses.


Lester, looking like the wise kitty.


Rainbow Progress

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While I had plans of having all the reds added as well as the oranges by the end of the weekend, only the oranges are finished and a few diamonds in the first of the reds have been added to one end. The rainbow is going to be large! Larger than I think I was anticipating. I don’t want to take any of the fabrics/colours that were chosen out, so if it ends up a bed-sized quilt so be it. At this point I have 3 colours left to join — the reds, the purples and the blues. My guess is it’s going to be twice the size it is now if not a bit more.

Smudge curled up on the loveseat with a teddy bear and Raggedy Ann doll.

Lester under lace.


Weekend Report

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We went to the Creativ Festival on Saturday. My impression was that there were more quilt-related vendors than at the past 2 or 3 Festivals and there were definitely lots of lovely kits, charm packs and wonderful patterns.

However, I had a very definite list of things I wanted to find. First up was a couple of pairs of thread snips — one to keep by the sewing machine for those few times I do use it (and I even bought some new machine needles) and another to have in my hand stitching kit. Look what I found!

The pink and green thread snips are great. Not only do they work fabulously, I love the colours! The little scissors are just a tiny bit curved. They’re made with titanium blades and are listed as an embroidery scissor. However, they work like a charm when cutting out curved pieces of fabric! I had a few Drunkard’s Path blocks printed, ready to cut and it was as though the scissors knew, on their own, to follow the curve. They’re not great for straight cutting but with my love of curved piecing, these are a great tool for me.

Then there was YLI thread. I saw these two spools of quilting thread that I know I’ll use. I also topped up on some YLI Heirloom in pink, which seems to be the colour that works best with almost everything.

I’m saving the best for the end. Batik charm packs were on my list. While I didn’t find the standard charm packs, I did find these 7″ pieces of batiks. They’re not quite what I had in mind for the pattern I’m thinking of, but they’re going to be absolutely perfect for another pattern I have in mind. The funny thing? I got these batik squares at Sew Sisters‘ booth — Sew Sisters being my favourite quilt shop.

And the topper to the weekend? Late Friday afternoon, this arrived in the mail. The new Jane Austen Patchwork Mystery book by Linda Franz. It has some absolutely gorgeous photos of the Jane Austen Patchwork, wonderful instructions for making a Jane Austen Patchwork quilt and is a real joy to read.

It also has the pattern for this smaller version of a Jane Austen Patchwork.


There was a rather violent thunderstorm here late Saturday afternoon. It took us ages to get home from the Festival. The wind was a bit fierce, the rain came down in buckets, the lightning was incredible and there were some huge claps of thunder. Although we weren’t affected, there were apparently a lot of people without electricity as a result of the storm. I’m grateful neither of the kitties find storms frightening. In fact, it’s not unusual for them to be on the windowsill watching a storm.

Lester snoozing.
Half of a Smudge face. Sometimes he’s quite insistent on getting close to the camera. This sort of shot is the result.


A Little Progress

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The rainbow didn’t grow by much yesterday — just the first row of the yellow into orange and the next orange right in the middle. I love how this is starting to take shape. By the time I get through the oranges and reds, though, it’s going to start getting pretty large.

Our weather forecast is fantastic!! Three days of wonderful glorious warmth, even humidity. They’re forecasting we’re to have humidex readings in the high 20s/low 30s Celsius. Finally!! I know this won’t last at these high temperatures yet, but getting this first taste of real warmth is going to be a huge treat!

Lester snoozing.

And Smudge doing yet another of his lounge lizard imitations.

I am so glad this week is over. It has been a stressful and less than productive one on the work front. Today I’m off to our Creativ Festival. I have a very short list of things I hope to find, including the needles I prefer and some thread. I’m going to take a good look to see if any of the vendors have charm packs of batiks. I have a plan for a quilt that involves lots and lots of batiks. As I’d like to make it totally scrappy and not repeat any one fabric, if I can find a couple of batik charm packs, I’ll have everything I need for the quilt!

Bloggers Quilt Festival

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Amy at Park City Girl is hosting a Bloggers‘ Quilt Festival. You can join this quilt festival by selecting your favorite quilt, post about it on your blog, link back to Amy’s blog, and leave a comment that you posted the festival on your blog. I know I’m rather late in joining in on this but it’s well worth going to take a look as the sheer number of gorgeous quilts to go and look at is fantastic!

This is one of my favourite quilts. It’s hand pieced and is the first of a series of one-colour quilts I hope to make. This was an amazingly easy pattern to make and one that I’d like to repeat using a different colour fabric for each star. I may make a small one as a baby quilt. It goes together very very quickly and, because of the hand piecing, is perfect for lots of lovely continuous stitching.

What a great idea this is. This is like going to a major international quilt show somewhere but without the expense of travelling to get there. It’s a very green way to attend a great quilt show!

Rainbow Progress

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The rainbow now has the yellows added. Next up are the oranges and reds. I’m rather hoping to finish the rainbow over the weekend and then I can start playing with the setting of this.

This is a photo of Smudge shortly after he had been drinking water. If you click to enlarge it, you can still see small water droplets on his face.

Lester by the window.

And because we so rarely see them together, I couldn’t resist this. This is usually a prelude to a chase and mock battle, but I always hope they’ll curl up together.