Another Teddy Bear Quilt

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This is another simple quilt that was made for the teddy bears. It measures approximately 22.5 x 27 inches and was such fun to make. Twelve 4.5″ LeMoyne Stars and a border and it was done. It’s hand pieced and machine quilted. This was the first quilt I machine quilted using anything but straight lines. On the borders I managed to quilt a cable, although it doesn’t really show up in the picture. That may be one of the benefits of working with a small quilt when machine quilting for me – I can manoeuvre the quilt sandwich a bit easier.

During the summer of 2008 it was also put to use for a teddy bear outing on the roof garden. Finding the old photos of these quilts is rather fun. I’m actually finding quilts I had completely forgotten about.

I’m still working away on the pieced border for the red and white quilt and, while I work on it, am thinking about another idea for a red and white quilt. The next one will be a small quilt though, I think. This red and white Feathered Star/Sunflower quilt is going to be rather large although I have sorted out how I will baste it. I’ll put it in the collapsible floor frame to baste it. No more crawling around on the floor with safety pins, not that that’s even an option with an inquisitive cat like Baxter around. I can just imagine what a nightmare that could be.

Speaking of Baxter, this photo was taken last week. Mr. Q.O. captioned it, “Any treats over there?”

A Favourite Revisited

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While I continue working on the red and white quilt, I decided I’d revisit some of my favourites. This is actually right up there at the top of that list. Simple nine-patch blocks, yes, but there’s something about this quilt and this photograph of it, in particular, that I just love. The nine-patch blocks measure 3″ finished, made with squares I printed using Inklingo. It’s hand pieced and machine quilted and looking at it makes me realize that the simple quilts are just as beautiful to me as the more involved ones.

It was the focus of a teddy bear adventure in this post back in June of 2008. When I looked back in my archives to find it, I was shocked that it was almost four years ago. Assuming I don’t get distracted again, which is never a safe assumption with me, I may show a few other quilts from the past on the blog over the next couple of weeks.

It was really quite chilly here yesterday. I think today’s supposed to be a bit better and then Wednesday better yet again. Yesterday the heat was back on and the windows closed again for most of the day. Oh, how we were spoiled by that lovely taste of summer in the middle of March.

Baxter was looking very alert for his photograph on Monday afternoon.

Happy Hexagons

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Having shown Cameron’s Windmills again seems to have piqued my interest in working with those little half hexagons once more. So out came some 1″ white on white hexagons I’d printed ages ago and I made these two little blocks.

They took only a few minutes each to make and, as I finger press as I stitch them, only a second to press.

I’m going to print and add 1″ white equilateral triangles to the pinwheels and then use them along with the new hexagon/half hexagon blocks and perhaps something else, just for fun, and put together something. I don’t have any idea how large this will end up or when it will get finished. I knew that box full of half hexagons was going to eventually come in handy. For now, I’ll just make blocks periodically and when I think there are enough I’ll play with a setting.

We were out running errands on Saturday and oh, how the temperature had changed. And even more so last night! It was cold and windy but it appears, if our forecast is right, that this colder weather isn’t going to last long and we’ll be back to the warm weather within a few days. I hope they’re right as the tulips are coming up, the daffodils are about to bloom and the crab apple trees are starting to get their leaves.

One of the errands was to pick up a new keyboard for my Mac. I had literally almost worn the L and N keys out. A lot of the letters on the keys were worn off, but the keys themselves being worn out? And only those two? I’ve had some fun thinking about what on earth I use those keys for so much that they were getting worn right out.

When we’re taking photographs of the little quilt blocks, we usually have a board propped up on the chair Baxter has claimed as his own. And most of the time he then jumps up and wiggles his way under the board. Sometimes he peeks out. Mr. Q.O. captioned this shot, “Is that thing gone yet?”

Other times, he’ll be right under the board but one paw will come up and he’ll try to grab whatever is on there.  Mr. Q.O.’s caption for this shot is, “I’ll wait here until it’s gone.” I think it should be more like, “Put that block closer to the edge, please.”

Cameron’s Windmills Quilt … Again

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Yes, I know this has been shown before but I have it entered in this week’s Quilting Gallery contest which is for hexagons. There are some beautiful quilts entered, so please go have a look and vote for your favourites. Yes, I said favourites as you can vote for two entries this week.

With a little advance planning I was able to get the machine quilting done within a couple of hours and had only 4 thread ends to work in. All straight line quilting, of course, as that’s my skill level when quilting by machine. When I found this flannel a few years ago, I bought enough yardage of it to use as backing for 3 baby quilts.

I’ve found that a 2″ hexagon is perfect for a label as it gives me lots of room to write. I baste the turn-under allowance down as that makes the appliqueing on to the back go very quickly. In this picture it’s ironed to a piece of freezer paper to stabilize it when writing on it.

The quilt was made with “other” half 1″ hexagons which I printed using Inklingo. I love tessellating designs and had started the quilt top long before we knew about the new baby. However, when I learned my cousin’s son and his wife were going to have another baby I knew what this particular UFO was meant to be. Once I made that decision, it only took a couple of weeks to finish piecing it. With a tessellating design like this, there are tons of opportunities for continuous stitching which makes the piecing go very quickly. Of course, using Inklingo to print the shapes on the back of the fabric makes it even faster as there’s no basting over papers and removing them.

The blocks are very quick to make with a simple running stitch. Because of the matching points, there’s no guessing at where exactly the joins should be made. I think I was making upwards of 20 or so of these blocks in an evening and then had the fun of arranging and putting them together into the top. I have lots of them left and plan to make another of these little tessellating quilts at some point.

They press beautifully.

Last night we bought a new vacuum cleaner. Baxter was eyeing the box it’s in, definitely not impressed. He is not a fan of vacuum cleaners at all, but with a long-haired cat a good vacuum cleaner is an absolute must for us.

Fabric Play

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While I was working on the red and white pieced border last night, I was thinking about playing with this group of fat quarters. Once the red and white, the Scrappy Star, the Pickled Ladies and the quilt I’ve decided to make with the fabrics I won in the Love the Lines contest (more on that quilt soon) are done, I’m going to start playing in earnest with those fabrics. I prewash all my fabric and then just fold it to put away. Ironing happens when I’m about to use it, which is why these FQs appear a bit wrinkled.

Right now I have too many ideas and not enough time to stitch! I think I need to teach Baxter to start stitching. Maybe I’d have better luck teaching Mr. Q.O. to stitch, although he’s making noises about perhaps playing with EQ. I hope he does actually, as I am sure his design ideas will be really intriguing.

It was yet another absolutely glorious warm day here on Wednesday. They finally opened the roof garden but we didn’t get out there to take a shot of the red and white top. Maybe today we will.

Baxter loves to sprawl on the floor with Cappy nearby.

Batik Star

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Seems I got a bit more distracted last night. I wanted to make another of the 6.75″ batik stars with the extra Storm at Sea pieces I had printed. It was sort of bargaining that went on internally, “Hmm. You have two of the four cornerstones for the pieced border done, so you can play again. But only tonight. Tomorrow you have to make another one of the cornerstones.”

Because it’s a batik, it presses like a charm. I really have no idea how many of these stars I’ll make and what else I’ll do with the extra pieces, but it’s fun to have the option to just pick up and stitch a block like this every once in a while. I think I’ve finally learned my lesson and am grading the seams as I go.

The Drunkard’s Trail/Snail’s Trail has me absolutely captivated. I have many ideas flying around in my mind now and know I’ll end up making at least two and probably more quilts using those shapes. There’s one idea that’s begging to be made soon. Of course, the fact that there’s all that delicious curved piecing has something to do with my fascination with that pattern. Whether these ideas will wait until the red and white top is finished remains to be seen.

It was another remarkably warm day here yesterday and today sounds like it’s going to be even warmer yet. Then it looks like we crash back to the reality of March but what a nice treat this taste of summer has been.

This may be one of my favourite pictures of Baxter yet. I love how well his lynx tips show up.

Shabby Trails

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It was inevitable, I suppose. I got distracted from the red and white last night. Why? Well, I just had to play with these little pieces. And I do mean little! Together they form a 2″ block. There were four new Inklingo collections released yesterday of Drunkard’s Trail, also known as Snail’s Trail – 2-inch, 3-inch, 4-inch and 6-inch. The possibilities with these sets of shapes is so enticing!

It’s been ages since I worked with the shabby chic fabrics, so I took the opportunity to start playing. I made four blocks last night and joined them.

The trail is going to meander all over, although I don’t plan on making this much larger than 12 x 12 inches. Play time is over though and now I’ll be back to focusing on the red and white Feathered Star/Sunflower.

That said, there are definitely plans afoot for the other sizes! Once I replenish my ’30s stash, I know I’ll make one with those. It’s also a definite possibility for a two-colour quilt. And the ideas just keep flowing. I was able to get a couple of the design ideas into an EQ design so that I don’t have to depend on my somewhat cryptic notes that can be a challenge to decipher months later.

It presses quite well, even with these tiny pieces.

We seem to have skipped spring and are right into summer weather. We went for a walk yesterday afternoon and I couldn’t believe how warm it is already. Wednesday they’re now saying we’ll have a humidex reading of 30C. In March? In Toronto? I think we’re all getting giddy at the very definite end of winter. Normally we go from winter to summer, but that doesn’t happen in March. That’s more something that we can expect in late May/early June.

Baxter has a habit of bracing himself but this made us both laugh. He was braced with one hind paw and one front paw as he snoozed on the couch yesterday afternoon.

Red and White Quilt

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The main body of the Feathered Star/Sunflower quilt top is finished, all stitched by hand. The last stitch joining the blocks was taken Friday evening. Two of the pieced blocks for one of the borders are done, but there are still many to go. Right now it measures 60 x 80. It doesn’t look its best draped over the sofa, but I was so excited it was done that I had to share!

I had hoped we could get out on the roof garden to take photos but they haven’t opened it yet. Maybe Wednesday, when our forecast high is an unbelievably warm 25C, they’ll open access to the roof garden and we can get a good photo of the top.

I feel almost compelled to finish this quilt before I work on anything else, which is so unusual for me. My vision of how this top will look when complete is driving me to keep working on it so I can see the actual finished top. If I stick with it, I think I can have the top finished within 2 weeks.

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This is a slight rant, so if you want to see Baxter’s daily picture just scroll down. I won’t be insulted.

Can anyone tell me why on earth Canada Post is now slower than a carrier pigeon would be? I don’t mean with packages which always take a long time. I’m talking about plain ordinary everyday business mail. An envelope that was mailed to me from about half a mile away took 18 days to arrive. Another business envelope was mailed last Monday, from about the same distance, and still has yet to arrive. And for this we pay a high price for postage? No wonder Canada Post is sometimes called Canada Storage!

I’ve thought for a long time that we live in an area that’s a black hole when it comes to mail. I dread mailing things as I never feel the least bit secure that they’ll arrive in a timely manner, if at all. But this has been the final straw for me. I think from now on I’ll forego using the post office altogether and depend on UPS or some other courier service.

Okay. Rant over. Back to our normal programming.

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I heard a robin out on the roof garden on the weekend. Practically fell over myself racing to the window to see it and there it was, on the lawn. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a robin this early. We are having temperatures that feel more like early summer than the end of winter and are breaking records. This has been the winter that wasn’t for us and it has been wonderful. But it does make me wonder what our summer will be like and what it may mean for the farmers as there was so little precipitation during the winter.

Baxter has had a lot to keep him occupied on the windowsill. Grackles, robins, squirrels and something that he seems to see out on the roof garden at night, although we can’t see what it is that has him so fascinated.

Happy Dance!

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Over the past two days, the prizes from the Love the Lines contest have arrived. They’re all absolutely fantastic!!

The fabrics from Northcott’s Kaleidoscope collection are delicious. As soon as I unwrapped the bundle, ideas immediately started to fly through my mind. I’ve always been a fan of Northcott’s fabrics as they really are cottons that feel like silk and are wonderful to work with.

The Electric Quilt Quilting Designs CDs are something I’ve looked at over the past few years and had on my wish list. There’s something for everyone in these quilting designs. The best part for me is that I don’t have to try to draw my quilting ideas freehand. I can play with these, either tracing or using Pounce or some other method – there are how-to instructions on the CDs. There are feathers and stars, animals and continuous line designs, abstracts and leaves, hearts and flowers, holiday designs and all-over designs and the list just goes on and on. There are hundreds upon hundreds of designs to select from on the seven CDs!

What I’ve already started using is the button finger pincushion. It’s dainty and not heavy and just plain fun. The note that came with it refers to the wonderfully funny Oscar-Awaiting movie “How to make a Finger Pincushion” which can be seen here.

I am so excited to have been one of the three runners-up. The prizes are fantastic, but the best part and the most enduring benefit is that it gave me that added push to learn EQ. I’ll be putting it to good use as I play with the design idea I have in mind for the Kaleidoscope fabrics. Before I cut and print anything, I’ll be able to download the fabric images from Northcott’s website, import them into EQ and then play to see how different the quilt will look depending on which fabric I use for each shape.

Once again, a huge thank you to Inklingo, Northcott and Electric Quilt for these wonderful prizes and an enormous thank you to Linda Franz at Inklingo for holding the contest.

Baxter was watching as we took photographs. I think his face says it all, “What, nothing for me?” I’ll have to keep my eye on him. He may try to make off with some of that fabric!

New Quilt Possibly Being Planned

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When I was looking around in my stash for yet another possible fabric for kaleidoscope stars, I opened the container in which the shabby chic fabrics are stored. I then realized just how long it has been since I’ve worked with them exclusively. I pulled out a handful of them to see what I come up with. While i have no real plan in mind, I think that it will likely involve curved piecing.

However, on my hunt I found this fabric. I had it out on the ironing board to audition it using the window template. This piece of fabric has the potential to make some wonderful kaleidoscope stars!

The grading of the red and white Feathered Star/Sunflower blocks is all done. Finally. Six of the blocks are joined. Today I’ll give them all a quick press and hopefully will have all 12 of the blocks joined up by the end of the week. If I stay focused on this, and this alone, I could have the pieced border done in about 2 weeks. But that’s a big if.

The Pickled Ladies are inching their way closer to completion too, so I may get distracted by them. It would be nice to time this so I finish both tops at close to the same time.

The orchid plant is doing incredibly well. More blooms have opened and there are still more yet to open.

Yesterday Kitty TV was very active. Along with the squirrel, the grackles made an appearance. I think I was more excited about that than Baxter was, although he spent a fair bit of time watching out the window during the afternoon.