Rainbow Beginnings

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The rainbow for the Sky Quilt is starting with greens. The first 3 greens are together now. Next come the yellows. This is wonderful fun– lots and lots of lovely continuous stitching. I’m using the diamonds from the Inklingo 6″ LeMoyne Star collection and have a feeling my rainbow is going to end up rather large. It will be the centre of the quilt with the 4 corners taken up by the various sun blocks (see below).

The other fabrics that will be added to the rainbow are shown in the order they will appear.

These are the four blocks that will be in the corners of the Sky Quilt. Some of the fabrics in the various sun blocks will also be in the rainbow.


While I was printing all sorts of shapes, I decided to print about 600 more of the .25″ hexagons. There are approximately 180 of the little hexagons in this tin now. To give you an idea of size, the tin measures around 3.75″ by 2.25″. I will be making hexagon diamonds with these and when there are enough will put together a doll’s quilt.


This is one of my favourite photos of Lester, perched on the loveseat.

I’ve told the story before about Smudge’s rather odd drinking habits. This picture tells the story. It was snapped just seconds after he had lifted his face out of the water bowl. If you click on it to see the large size photo, you will see he’s soaking wet. This is Smudge’s preferred way to drink water. Makes for rather a lot of paper towel mop-ups, but is endlessly entertaining.

One more day of rather cool temperatures and then we hit the warmth. The forecast is for temperatures in the mid 20’s Celsius on Friday and Saturday. I can’t wait!!

One Almost Finish, One Beginning

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The Double Wedding Ring runner was finished over the weekend but not pressed until Monday. I’m thrilled with how it turned out. Now to baste and quilt it. I’m playing with the idea of quilting around the flowers in the floral print in the centres. It’s only 12″ wide so I think this will be hoop-less quilting as my hoop is too large. Guess that means some serious basting.

Now that I know just how amazingly easy it is to do a DWR using Inklingo templates, I’m going to plan a larger one. I go back and forth between using a pretty floral or maybe even a toile print for the centres and then doing something interesting with the arcs or perhaps something more traditional with a plain centre and some very pretty quilting in the centres. I won’t be starting that for a while so I have lots of time to decide.

This is the beginning of the mini quilt using Drunkard’s Path blocks that I’m going to be working on over the next while. I love these curves!! Stitching these is, to me, like candy — I cannot do just one little block. Even though I want to get the rainbow block done for the sky quilt and started cutting the diamonds out last night, I couldn’t resist piecing a few of these little blocks!

I’m very undecided on the setting of Tropical Punch. I have the pieces cut to connect the 4 blocks but they’re not sewn quite yet.

It poured rain all day Monday and it was chilly. By the weekend they’re saying we may be in the low 20’s. I can’t wait!

As there was absolutely nothing to watch on the roof garden other than rain, the kitties snoozed most of the day.

This picture makes me laugh — we caught Lester cleaning his paw.


Lots Accomplished

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It may not look like much, but there is everything in this picture:
a) for the rainbow for the sky quilt and some of the setting diamonds;
b) to make 4 blocks for the Drunkard’s Path idea I have; and
c) another few hundred .50″ green hexagons for the little hexagon project.

I had everything printed within a couple of hours and will now start stitching on … hmm, don’t know. This feels like such a wealth of options!

The weekend was wonderful. Today we’re supposed to be having torrential rain all day with rather chilly temperatures. Good day to stay in and catch up on some work, I suppose. If I can get it done quickly enough, I’ll get some more stitching time.

We have two pairs of woodpeckers this year, it seems. I was really amused watching them Sunday afternoon. One pair appears to claim a tree as their own and seemingly scold the other pair if they land on the same tree. The kitties aren’t anywhere near as fascinated by this as I am.

Smudge sleeping.

Lester sleeping. I wonder if they’re getting well rested so they can spend hours on the windowsill when the squirrels reappear.


A True Hint of Spring

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The past two days have been wonderful with temperatures in the 60s and even low 70s. We have another drop coming, but this is a sure sign to me that winter is over.

I’ve made a little progress on my piece with the .50″ Inklingo hexagons. These go together so easily that the centre is growing relatively quickly. I’m still not sure how large this will be but it’s a lot of fun making the little 4-unit flowers and then adding them in a haphazard way to the centre.

Having learned the hard way, I now press after every few flowers. I finger press as I add each unit so when I do press it with the iron, it’s a very quick process.

So far, I’ve got a lot accomplished that was on my list of quilt-related items I wanted to get ready for stitching. All that’s left now to do is decide on the setting for Tropical Punch and get the diamonds for the rainbow of the sky quilt printed. The fabric is all cut and ready to iron to freezer paper.

Every year we have a pair of woodpeckers arrive in the spring. I thought I heard them the other day but couldn’t see them. Today I saw both of them. I’m always amazed at the amount of noise these little birds can make. I was fascinated watching them. Although the picture’s not great, the woodpecker has a red head.

It seems the woodpeckers aren’t what Lester is waiting for. He wasn’t the least bit interested in watching them.


Close to Finished

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Two more melon/arc units and the little runner will be finished. This has been a great experience and gives me total confidence that making a larger Double Wedding Ring quilt is something I’ll really enjoy. I’ll finish this during the weekend and then start planning a big one. I’m also thinking of a crib quilt one. For a baby quilt, I think I’d like to use some brights. Perhaps the Kaffe Fassett prints.

There’s a list of quilt-related things I want to accomplish over the weekend. First, finish piecing the DWR runner and possibly even get it basted. I found the perfect quilting thread for it last weekend at Sew Sisters. Second, get the Tropical Punch blocks stitched together with that glorious lime green batik. Third, print and cut the pieces for the rainbow of the Sky Quilt. Finally, print the pieces for the drunkard’s path basket quilt.

The weather today is supposed to be glorious with temperatures close to 19C and sun. Lots and lots of wonderful sun and warmth.

Lester still waiting for the kitty entertainment to show up. Still no squirrels and not too many birds.

Smudge posing for the camera. He literally holds the pose when he hears the camera being turned on. And then, when we start to walk away, he’ll strike another pose and look at us as if to say, “Well, aren’t you photographing this??”


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Second Ring

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The second ring of the Double Wedding Rings has been added. I cannot believe how easy this is. I had tried twice before, once tracing templates on to the back of fabric and once using the acrylic templates. Both of those attempts ended up in the trash. But this? This makes it a sheer joy to stitch and so effortless! I can see making a lot of variations of Double Wedding Ring quilts using different centre combinations and colours for the arcs.

Butterfly Stars was delivered to the new mom and dad and Emma yesterday. She’s an absolutely adorable little girl — so cute! When she’s a bit older, I’m going to ask if they’ll take a picture of her on the quilt.

I started reading this Tuesday night. While it’s not Jane Austen, it’s quite enjoyable. I’m looking forward to reading through this series.


Lester on the windowsill. We have had fabulous weather so far this week, sunny and mild, and it looks like that will continue until sometime during the weekend when it will drop back down to rather chilly temps.

Baby Quilt Finished

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The baby for whom this quilt has been made was born last night. I’ve had it ready since the weekend, but for the label. This morning I will wash and dry it and wrap it, ready to give.

After reading comments to the question I posed on my blog a while back and a post on Bunny Tales not too long ago about how to handle this, I decided to quilt over the embroidery and am quite pleased with how it turned out.

I found a wonderful flannel for the backing and, once we heard the baby had been born and her name, Emma Victoria, I got the label ready and affixed. I had made a couple of extra butterfly embroidery blocks and used one of them for the label.

Smudge keeping watch over the kitty toy basket. I pick up all the kitty toys periodically and put them all back in the basket. It’s always funny watching them work at getting their favourites out. When this shot was taken, the basket was rather empty.

Lester curled up in his kitty bed.


Flower Garden Beginning

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The .50″ hexagons I had printed for Insanity are being put together in 3 different types of hexagon flowers — ones consisting of 4, 7 and 9 hexagons. The 4-hexagon units will be at the centre of whatever this turns out to be and I’ve now started joining them. I’m purposely keeping them not lined up at this point.

Never wanting to have to press all the little seams at the end of a large quilt again — been there, done that — I’m pressing as I add every two or three flowers. I finger press as I go and that makes the pressing with an iron a lot faster. This is the back with all the little seam intersections pressed. Sometimes I think the back of blocks are as interesting as the front!

Smudge, awake and alert on the windowsill.

Lester, definitely posing for the camera.


First ring finished

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The first ring of the 3-ring DWR table runner is done. I just cannot believe how easy this is. It fits together perfectly. Now that I know just how easy these are to make, I have a LOT of plans for some other small DWR quilts.

I’m playing with the idea of finding the perfect fabrics for the pieced arcs to go with the Robyn Pandolph floral and making a bed-sized quilt using that. Thankfully, I have enough of the floral to do both the runner and a bed-sized quilt. The runner is, I think, destined to sit on the piano. I’m not sure but I’m thinking that because the hand dyes read as a solid, even though they are somewhat mottled, they’re a bit overpowering for the floral — yet I do like them with it. Seems to depend on the light when I look at the ring how I feel about it. When I do the larger quilt, I’ll look for something that truly does read mottled for the arcs.

It even presses like a dream. In this picture I’ve pressed the seam allowances towards the pieced arcs.

Smudge awake and alert – he was doing windowsill watching.

Lester was snoozing.


A Little Stash Enhancement

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We made the trip to my favourite quilt store, Sew Sisters, today as they had an Easter egg hunt on and I was looking for a few specific items. I came home with, first of all, these two fabrics for a basket block project I have planned. The pale fabric is a batik that has the faintest tints of blue and yellow. I got enough of it for the basket block project and for the sky quilt background.

Then, because I have decided to start collecting more batiks, thanks to the inspiration I get every time I look at Wanda’s blog, these 3 batik FQ’s jumped into my hands as well as the green Oriental FQ which I couldn’t resist and which is being added to the fabrics set aside for my Jane Austen patchwork quilt.

As part of the Easter egg hunt, when one was checking out, one opened a plastic egg and got whatever prize the slip inside indicated. I won these two pretty FQ’s.

The big find of the day was this! The perfect green batik for the Tropical Punch blocks! Somehow I knew I’d find the perfect green at Sew Sisters, and I did. Now to make the decision on how to set them.

‘Tis migraine season for me. Friday I could barely look at the computer screen and I know I deleted some unread e-mails by accident. If I haven’t responded to something, please e-mail me again. Today I thought it was pretty well gone but it has started to increase again. It’s also become rather windy in the last half hour or so, and I know that the intensity of a migraine seems to increase with wind.

Smudge doing a modified lounge lizard pose/look on the windowsill.