Little Red and White Blocks

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Remember these little 6″ blocks? They’ve been languishing on my sewing table, waiting to be turned into a small quilt. I was looking at them last night and thought I had decided on a setting that will require only two more blocks. That is, I thought I had until I noticed the secondary star pattern they create when put together this way when I looked at the photo. That may change my setting idea.

Here are the pieces for one of the two remaining blocks, ready to be stitched together. With any luck, I might get the remaining two blocks done this weekend and may even get a start at putting the little top together.

One of my goals is to do a series of two-colour quilts. So far, all those that I’ve done have been lap size or larger. The little red and white one will be the first small two-colour quilt, but I’m now thinking that a whole series of two-colour little quilts might be fun.

Baxter caught sight of the pieces for the little red and white block and this was his reaction. He really loves to get a piece of fabric and march around with it in his mouth so I could almost imagine him thinking, “Yum, fabric bits!”

Leaping For Joy

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Yesterday afternoon, the winners of the Inklingo Love the Lines contest were announced in this post on the All About Inklingo blog. Imagine how excited I was to find out I was one of the three runners-up! There are some beautiful designs shown on the announcement post, so I’m quite honoured. I already felt that I had won something as the contest had been the push I needed to finally learn my way around in EQ, at least to some extent.

Given my love of curved piecing, my design had to include curves. While I was playing with designs for the contest, Mr. Q.O. suggested a design inspired by a Persian carpet. Thus my design is named Persian Carpet. I am so glad I finally took the plunge and started to learn EQ and I’m very, very grateful to Inklingo, Electric Quilt and Northcott for providing such fabulous prizes!

Baxter’s markings are starting to really show up, although he had just been having a drink and his fur was still rather wet.

Feathered Star Beginning

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The second-to-last Feathered Star is almost done. Once all the HSTs, diamonds and squares are joined it takes almost no time to add the kites, the centre and the outer setting pieces. There are tons of opportunities for continuous stitching. I’m getting excited about seeing the centre of the quilt together. Two of the rows are already joined. Once the centre is together I’ll add the first small border and then will be working on the pieced border.

Yes, I know, looking at a piece of muslin isn’t exciting. I needed more of the muslin for the sailboat quilt and I’ve found a great way to iron muslin. After it’s washed, I roll it up, put it in a bag and then put it in the fridge while it’s still slightly damp, and then leave it there overnight or even a couple of days before ironing it. Wrinkle-free muslin with very little effort.

Mr. Q.O. captioned this one “Baxter and Buddy.” He’s rarely far from Cappy, his favourite toy, and almost always knows where to find it. That is, of course, if he hasn’t shoved it under a piece of furniture and needs us to find it for him.

Kaleidoscope Stars

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There was a little play time with fabric this weekend, although I have to admit to not getting back to the sewing machine. I will this week. But after seeing and thinking about the kaleidoscope stars on the All About Inklingo blog here, which contains a fabulous tutorial on how to place the freezer paper on the fabric to get identical diamonds, I couldn’t resist trying a few. I used the 2″ 60-degree diamonds. I’m so used to working with tinier pieces that those 2″ diamonds seem enormous!

These are irresistible to stitch. It’s such fun to see the effect as each star is put together.

The fabric I chose had a relatively small repeat and so was great for this technique, and I plan to print some more sets.

This is one of my favourites.

They press beautifully. I’m pressing each one the same way so that when I start putting them together, however I decide to do that, I won’t run into any difficulties.

Baxter was waiting for his nightly yogourt treat. Mr. Q.O. captioned this one, “Well, are you going to let me have that spoon soon?”

Sailing Away to the Sewing Machine!

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After looking through a few quilt books and thinking about it, I finally decided on a quilt block. Within a few minutes of making that decision, the fabrics were pulled and I had everything cut for the first block. Some muslin rectangles, a print rectangle, two large squares — one of muslin and one of the print — for the HSTs and I was ready to go.

In just a few seconds, the muslin square was printed, using Inklingo, with the 3″ HSTs for the block. The muslin was layered with the print. Using the machine, I stitched along the stitching lines. The fabrics were then cut along the cutting lines, the pieces were pressed and …

A few seconds later I had perfect 3″ HSTs. No dog-ears, no having to cut down to size. Just easy perfect HSTs.

A few minutes later the HSTs and rectangles were joined and the first of the sailboat blocks was done. The block finishes at 12″. I’m going to use a three or four-inch muslin sashing between blocks. My plan is to make 12 blocks and set them 3 by 4 as this is destined to be a lap quilt.

I didn’t time it, but I doubt the block took even half an hour to make. Once the HSTs were done, it took only a few more minutes. So I may just get all the blocks finished today. I’m curious to see if I can get the whole top done by the time the weekend is over. I may get distracted by a hand-piecing project .. in fact, I can almost be sure of that happening.

Baxter was practicing his lounge lizard look, I think. The crossed paws make me laugh every time.

Success! A New Ironing Board Cover

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It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough. I used 2 layers of Warm and Natural batting underneath the muslin and now it feels and looks so much better! When I started thinking about doing this, I found a few tutorials and ended up following this one as it seemed by far the easiest.

It is so nice to have a clean new ironing board cover. I know the muslin will show discolouration faster than a print but now that I’ve done this once, I can do it again easily. It sounds more complicated than it is. I think it took me longer to read through the tutorial than it did to actually make the new cover.

The new quilt wasn’t started yesterday as I ended up doing a lot of computer clean-up stuff as well as making the ironing board cover. There were tons and tons of photos that didn’t need to be on my hard drive but could be burned on to DVDs. Today I will get a start on the quilt. To start, I’ll be printing 3″ HSTs using Inklingo. I’m using muslin with a variety of fabrics so will only need to print on the muslin and then stitch on the sewing lines.

Baxter has many favourite spots but lately he seems to really like reclining by the quilt hoop. Wonder if he’s trying to tell me to get some hand quilting done.

What is the Muslin For?

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Rather boring picture, I know. But I’m finally going to make a new ironing board cover. I’ve been threatening to do this for next to forever and have found a couple of tutorials online that seem pretty straightforward so today’s experiment shall be making myself a clean new ironing board cover. My old one is so far beyond the pale I wouldn’t even dream of taking a picture of it.

For a fleeting moment or two I thought about dressing up the ironing board and using a pretty print fabric but, given the wear and tear my ironing board takes being shoved in the closet and dragged out again, I’d rather be a bit more frugal about it. Watch for tomorrow’s report on just how easy (or not) making this ironing board cover proved to be!

Last night Mr. Q.O. suggested a quilt be made for a friend. So out came the quilt books looking for some quick inspiration. I think I’ve settled on a design and, if the ironing board cover experiment goes well, I might even get the first block made today. It will be a machine-pieced quilt and one that I hope to put together quickly.

Baxter was draped over the arm of the chair looking at the quilt books too. He’ll be happy with whatever design so long as he has a chance to bite the fabric.

Little Bits of 3 Little Borders

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So where is the fourth of the little borders? It’s pressed and already on the quilt top. Once I finished piecing the last of these I couldn’t wait to see how it was going to look. With any luck I’ll have all four of them on the quilt top by the end of the week. Then I’ve got to decide if I’m going to add the final pieced border(s) I originally had planned for the quilt.

That’s where the camera becomes a design assistant. Once all four of the little borders are on, a picture will be taken and I can then look at it on the computer screen before I decide whether to add that final pieced border. While I’ve already started piecing elements of that final border, it can easily be put away and used in another quilt.

Baxter knows how to really relax. He’s a very long kitty and he’s still growing!

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

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I played and played with EQ over the weekend. Hopefully I’ll get this out of my system soon and be back to playing more with fabric! But this design is one that I will make. How could I possibly resist all that curved piecing of Winding Ways and Drunkard’s Path blocks? This coloration of it I’m calling Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Some of you may remember Tiny Tim singing Tiptoe Through the Tulips. I was giggling the whole time I was working on this design thinking about that.

Playing with designs in EQ has quickly become addictive. Saturday night I had to have an MRI and, as I am claustrophobic, took a rather strong tranquilizer. So as the machine made its infernal racket, rather than feeling like the walls were closing in, I was dreaming up this design. As soon as we got home, I started playing with it in EQ.

I guess you could say I am now well and truly hooked on Electric Quilt. I love that I can try out my ideas and see how they’re going to look before I start printing shapes on my fabrics. It’s just another great tool to have available. What’s perfect about it for me is that I can design a quilt using Inklingo shapes and then play with colours.

Baxter was very intent on getting to the yogourt on the spoon. If we don’t hold the spoon close enough, he’ll reach out with a paw and hook it around the stem of the spoon to drag it closer.