Hexagon Diamonds

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Two little hexagon diamonds for the Insanity quilt — made with half-inch hexagons. I’m still not sure whether I want to do this in Oriental fabrics or in shabby chic. The bonus of using the Oriental fabrics for this is that, with small pieces, one can get totally different looks from different areas of the same piece of fabric.

I printed some of the .50 hexagons from one of the new Inklingo collections last night and made these two.


To give you an idea of scale, here’s one beside a ruler.

I love how perfectly these press — it really helps distribute the bulk and they lie flat as can be.


I can really tell that fall is coming. The light, even on bright sunny days, is quite different. It’s getting much cooler at night now but the days are still warm. So far, only a few leaves on the trees on the roof garden have begun to turn.

Lester, dozing after a big play with one of his toys.

Yesterday’s Mail

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Look what I got yesterday in the mail — the new Inklingo Handbook. It’s absolutely crammed full of tips and tricks that, while they may be slanted towards using Inklingo, are applicable to non-Inklingo machine and hand piecing and applique. The cover cracks me up — I think I will forever call it the Owl and the Monkey cover. Forget Owl and the Pussycat!

There’s a section on printing using Inklingo with all sorts of tips and techniques.

A section on piecing by hand, machine or a hybrid of both which is a great bonus of Inklingo. Even I, machine phobic as I seem to be, am thinking of heading to the sewing machine and trying a few things again — I’ve already picked up a few tips from the workbook.

A section on applique which has great instructions on the back-basting technique.

And a chapter on how to use patterns in books and magazines using Inklingo. It’s all so easy and so incredibly accurate. And the wealth of information in this workbook is incredible. Even though it is slanted for Inklingo use, I think it is a great book to have on the shelf for the techniques it teaches.

While I pour over things like this what does Smudge do? Snooze! What else! He’s only interested when I’m trying to thread a needle and he figures a paw or two can help.

Late Summer on the Roof Garden

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I guess all the rain we had this summer really has helped make the roof garden look fantastic. This was taken just after some more rain early Sunday afternoon.

The flowerbeds still look wonderful.

The colour of this flower is so intense that it’s the first thing one’s eye is drawn to, even when looking down from two floors above!

The crab apple tree is loaded down with apples. They are so pretty to look at, and the birds and squirrels definitely seem to appreciate them.

Hmm — one of the squirrels sneaking up. They’re so funny to watch.

To keep this somewhat quilt related, I realized this weekend that the baby bow tie quilt is about one-third quilted. I cannot get over how much faster and easier it is to quilt without a hoop! Granted, I’m doing only straight lines of quilting and no fancy feathered wreaths or anything, but it’s incredibly fast.

A Lot of Little Blocks

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While waiting for the new Inklingo collections to be released, I’ve been stitching little 4-patch blocks. These all finish at 2″. I’m thinking about setting them with 2″ plain squares and making a small quilt — I love the simplicity of 4-patch blocks.


Also being stitched together were a few more 9-patch blocks. I think there’s another teddy bear quilt in the making here. There are about 20 or 25 more 9-patch blocks ready to stitch together. Mindless stitching like the little 9 and 4-patch blocks are perfect some evenings.


There are also a few hexagon flowers I’ve put together. After looking at that Japanese book, I have an idea for a rather simple yet pretty quilt with these flowers and others just sort of dotted across the top. The current Inklingo hexagon swap should be completed sometime next week and then I’ll have lots more to add. 🙂

The annual invasion of the movie fans around here has started. The theatre that is part of our complex is one of the participating theatres in the Toronto International Film Festival. A lot of us who live here dread the annual invasion, although it does make for some great people watching opportunities as well as eavesdropping on some conversations that are hysterically funny. I cannot believe the noise level in the retail mall. We were downstairs doing a bit of shopping yesterday and the din was incredible.

Lester doesn’t care — as long as he’s got somewhere comfy and warm to sleep, he’s happy.

Smudge feels the same way. Look at the whiskers on this cat!! I call him the crayfish cat sometimes! LOL


A Secret Project or Two Revealed!!

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Finally, I can reveal the secret. I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a tester for the new Inklingo. I wish I did, but I have no financial interest in Inklingo at all. Edited to Add: It is totallly Mac compatible!! I tested it on my Mac and it works like a charm!

These are the blocks/small quilts I have made with this free collection — so far. I’m playing with the idea of making a small Lone Star quilt too using these shapes. :-)) First I made this block:

Then this block:


Here’s the best news! The shapes for the 4.5″ LeMoyne Star blocks are free to download from inklingo.com. There are three new collections available for purchase as well! All you need is a computer (Mac or PC) and an inexpensive inkjet printer as well as some fabric and freezer paper and you too can try out Inklingo. Be warned — it’s addictive! There are more new collections coming too!

This is the first little quilt top I made using the shapes. Because of the precision of the lines and matching points, it is SO easy to make these!

It’s quilted and a couple of the bears decided to test it out on the weekend. They decided it was just right for an afternoon out, as you can see from the picture at the top of this post.

I have wanted to make the Snow Crystal block for ages and now, with this collection, it was dead easy. This block finishes at 9″. This may be the start of my pink and white quilt. I’m still deciding on that.

This is going to be a small wallhanging. I’ve got the setting triangles ready and have been stitching them in. Still deciding on a border for this. I love having the plain setting squares for some hand quilting. I’m going to go through my stencils and see what I can find — maybe a tiny feathered wreath. 🙂


Hexagons Again

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This week has completely got away from me! I spent the weekend printing sheet after sheet of fabric with hexagons, cutting them apart and then sorting them into groups of 7 for the upcoming Inklingo swap. Finally, on Tuesday night, I had all my hexagons sorted out and packaged up ready for the swap.

Look at this book I received this week! It’s called, I believe, Making a Hexagon Quilt. While the instructions are in Japanese, the pictures and diagrams are SO incredibly detailed that I believe one could figure out the patterns without being able to read Japanese. It is a gorgeous book with some stunning quilts made with hexagons. I can tell there’s more than a few hexagon quilts in my future!

I love the look on Smudge’s face in this shot. He loves to sit in our office chairs.


Lester, on the other hand, much prefers the softer upholstered furniture.

Teddy Bear Afternoon

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The bears decided to enjoy this last long weekend of the summer and headed out to the garden with the blue and white quilt and …

First of all, the two Churchill bears and one small bear arrived with a tote bag. Hmmm — wonder what’s in that tote bag?

Then three more little bears arrived and out of the bag came the book! What else would they be wanting to read but The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh!

As the two Churchill bears are the largest, they took on the reading duties and took turns reading out loud to the little bears.


Hexagons, Hexagons and More Hexagons!

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What did I do this weekend? Cut sheets of fabric — about 90 sheets of fabric in all.

Then printed hexagons on the back of them all and started cutting them out. We’re having a swap of hexagons on the Inklingo list and I needed to print approximately 1,200 hexagons. I’ve started cutting them out — what you can see cut out in the bag are hexagons from 2 of the 20 fabrics I’m using for the swap.

Smudge being — well, Smudge. I think he was either waking up or about to have a nap.


Another Reason Hand Quilting Takes a Long Time

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Tonight it was Smudge’s turn. It’s really comical to watch him approach this. First a paw goes out to test if it’s “safe” and then up he clambers. Thankfully, I had a fair bit left to go on that line and was able to complete it.


I’ve enjoyed the cooler nights this week and being able to work on the quilt. Tomorrow we go back up into the higher heat and humidity, so I think this will sit for a while again.

Bits and Pieces

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Last Friday, I met up with two non-blogging quilting friends; one from Burlington and one from Texas! We exchanged gift bags and look what was in mine! This gorgeous batik — all the way from Hawaii! I love batiks and the colours in this one just send me.


Last year, the friend in Texas had sent me this fabulous thumb pincushion which I would now be lost without. I don’t use it on my thumb, though — for hand piecing it seems to be perfect on my index finger. I had used the bottle cap type finger pincushions before I got this but this is far superior.

I guess I really did go on about how much I loved it because she gave me the pattern to make more! I can’t wait to try this pattern out. The pattern also includes a regular pincushion — interestingly, they suggest using dried rosemary to stuff that pincushion.

Not only the batik from Hawaii, but look at this wonderful applique pattern! This will be fun and, as it’s not all that huge, relatively quick to complete, I think.

Yesterday we were doing some tidying up/cleaning up and, as part of that, had taken the kitty beds up off the floor for a moment. Smudge, being not the most patient kitty in the world, decided he wanted to curl up in his kitty bed then and there. He didn’t care if it was perched in a chair. He almost instantly went to sleep. Of course, we left him and the kitty bed there until he woke up.


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