Hexagons, Hexagons … and Cats

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I just couldn’t resist starting to put those long strips of hexagons together! This will be an incredibly scrappy quilt — and a lot of fun to look at, I think. So far 6 of the rows are done. For me this is the perfect way to use the hexagons from our latest swap. I think I may surround the main body of the top with one colour, just to calm it down a bit but will make that decision when I have the rows all done.


As I was laying them out, Smudge decided he needed to help. This picture may look angelic — but when he was biting the hexagons I was less than impressed!

Just about all the leaves on the trees on the roof garden are still green. A few have turned, but not many. Lester has been very busy watching the antics of all the critters and birds out on the roof garden.


Cooler Weather Stitching

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The cooler weather seems to be here for sure. We even had to turn the heat on today! 😦 Turning the heat on is always the beginning of the winter lament for me — that dark tunnel we go into until just after Christmas when, thankfully, each day gets a tiny bit longer.

Nothing much quilty, other than I started putting together the hexagons from the last Inklingo swap. I debated making traditional GFG’s with them but decided to do a quilt like this:

The picture is from this book. So far I have 4 strips of 30 or 31 hexagons done. They go together amazingly fast. I go through this book over and over and want to make almost everything in it so I suppose this is a start. The goal is to get a really quick lap quilt done with these. I think I can get the strips done within 10 days and then another 10 or 15 days to put them all together. However, I’m sure I’ll be missing the little hexagons and will be back to working on Insanity later this week.

Lester, looking so contemplative — until he did something goofy. 🙂

Printing on Charms

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A question was asked re how I stabilized my little charms to print the hexagons for the Insanity quilt. There is a great video at the Inklingo Web site that is free to download and watch.

To give a really short explanation of how to stabilize fabric for printing — first I iron the charm. This is the charm, right side up.

Iron a piece of freezer paper to the right side of the fabric so that the wrong (back) side is what will be printed on.

Feed it through the printer, peel off the freezer paper — and you have perfect hexagons printed and ready to cut apart and stitch. I printed using a darker colour than I would normally on this charm so that it would show up well in a photograph. If you click on and enlarge it, you will easily see the cutting lines (solid lines), the stitching lines (dotted lines) and crosshairs where seams intersect.

If you’re curious about using Inklingo, right now there is a free collection available at the Inklingo Web site for download here (scroll down to the downloadable collections and you will see the free one) with all the shapes necessary to make a 4.5″ LeMoyne Star block. It also includes the first chapter of the new handbook, which gives you all the information you need to start printing and using Inklingo. Be warned — it is truly addictive!! LOL

Smudge with one paw hanging out of the kitty bed — temperature control maybe?


More Insanity

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Not a lot of stitching has got done this week, but a LOT of printing has been! I can’t even begin to imagine making this quilt without Inklingo — no basting, no whip stitching, just lovely quick running stitching. Makes it all so quick and so incredibly accurate!

All these charms have been printed with the .50″ hexagons and cut, ready to turn into a hexagon diamond.


These are the charms I have left to print, which will be done this weekend. Then all I need to print are a bunch of white hexagons and another shape as I’m thinking of amending the pattern a bit. And then it’s just all lovely hand piecing till they’re done! 🙂

One part of the pattern I definitely won’t change is the fact it needs some little GFG flowers so I started making a couple of those this week too. I’m using YLI Heirloom thread and I absolutely love how it just sinks into the seams. Perfect thread for these little pieces.



While I may be working with colours that look like spring, Smudge is definitely into fall mode curled up in one of the cat beds.


Insanity Progress

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This is the past week’s progress on Insanity. These little hexagon diamonds are quick as can be to put together, just under an hour for each one. I’ve been working in a reporter’s office as a registrar a few days the past week or so, and I take one of these with me to stitch on during the lunch break — great way to spend the lunch break.


I still have about 100 charms to print but that will be done by the end of this week. I can usually get about 50 or 60 of them printed in no time.

Last night was my first meeting of the quilt guild. It was a bit overwhelming — huge, huge guild with 465 members! Thankfully, I finally met Samadhi, to whom I am very grateful for her encouragement to join the guild. There was a great trunk show by Sherri Hisey — absolutely gorgeous selection of quilts including some fabulous barn finds!

I love this shot of Lester — he looks quite lost in thought. It was probably just before he pounced on a toy!


Front Garden

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All summer I’ve shown various pictures of the roof garden but have totally forgotten about the front. This is one of the areas in front of our building.

These are still blooming — and so pretty to walk up the pathway and see!

This is on the other side of the walkway up to the front door.

They’ve just planted these mums. The colour is absolutely glorious!

This is yet another part of the little garden areas that line the walkway up to the front door.

As is this — with more of the little roses.

All the rain this summer made for some very green grass.

Walking up the ramp to the building, we noticed that one of the trees had tons of these on it. I have no idea what kind of tree it is but am guessing these are some kind of seed pods? They’re really interesting looking.

On either side of the front entrance, there are two urns with plantings. The plantings change throughout the year. This is the current one.


And, once we get home, look at this — one of the boys waiting for us!

Tiny Stars

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Last night, after printing and cutting out another stack of the little hexagons, I was compelled to print out one charm of the diamonds. I couldn’t resist making two stars from the new .50″ diamond Inklingo collection. The seams are so short that it truly is one load of stitches on the needle and you’re done. One could make a lot of these stars in next to no time. I think I made the two of them in less than 20 minutes. Didn’t time it, but I will next time. From a 5″ charm, I had enough diamonds for 3 of these little stars.

Now I’m thinking of making a miniature Seven Sisters quilt using these. They are such fun to stitch.

Lester, one of the few times we’ve managed to get a shot of him when his ruff didn’t look awful. We can comb and comb and comb him but as we comb he is licking and chewing on his ruff so that it looks as though he’s never groomed! Or wandering about with it partially stuck in his mouth. Very goofy — yet another reason he is so well-loved!


Hexagon Diamonds Again

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More hexagon diamonds — now that I’ve decided to use the shabby chic colourway, I’m off to the races! I surrounded one with the white on white hexagons just to be sure. So now to print and print and print.

This is the little stack of fabrics I printed last night. I can get 8 of the .50″ hexagons from each 5″ charm. After they’re washed, those little charms definitely do shrink!

We’re definitely getting into fall weather. I’m finding it harder and harder to get good photos with true colours. It’s a wonderfully sunny day, but the light is just so different!

Smudge, of course, is happy — curled up for his afternoon snooze.


Hexagons and More Hexagons!

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The latest swap of Inklingo shapes was of 1″ hexagons. There were 12 participants trading sets of 7 hexagons, some in each of 10 fabrics and some in each of 20 fabrics. It was a centralized swap which I hostessed — so I got first look at the fabrics as they came in and have got my full set together with the exception of one swapper’s packet.

This is my set — and I was one of the swappers who chose to swap in 20 different fabrics. There are some wonderful fabrics in this gorgeous grouping.

Because we swapped in sets of 7, rather than 6, one could take 1 of each set and save it to go towards a charm quilt of hexagons or to use as flower centres with one of the sets of 6. This is the stack of single hexagons from the swap.

Good thing I love hexagons! I think there is a fairly good-sized quilt to be had out of this swap alone, and it’s not the first of the Inklingo swaps that involved hexagons. I’m not sure yet but am thinking of separating the hexagon sets by colour and may make a garden of flowers that’s graduated in colour. Or perhaps stitching together sets in a row and make a striped hexagon quilt.

It was a lot of fun to see all the different fabrics the participants used. Amazingly enough, there were no duplications between swappers that I noticed.

Smudge isn’t the least bit interested in hexagons — much more interested in having a snooze.


More Tiny Hexagons

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Last week, I made hexagon diamonds for the Insanity Quilt using the .50″ hexagons from the new Inklingo collections. These two were done in Orientals.

I surrounded one of them with more hexagons in the fabric I love using as a background fabric for Oriental prints. I’m not sure, but my feeling right now is that the Oriental prints don’t quite work in these tiny tiny pieces.

So then I did two of the little hexagon diamonds in shabby chic fabrics.

The shabby chic I will surround with a variety of white on white prints for the neutral background. The box full of shabby chic charm squares I’ve been saving for the right quilt was raided and I printed hexagons on quite a few of them.


Once I get a few more done and at least one of them surrounded by the white on white hexagons, I’ll make a decision whether to go with the Oriental prints or the shabby chic. Any opinions?

Lester, looking as regal as only Lester can. He doesn’t often sit on our laps for any length of time so when he settled like this I had to get a photo right away!