26 Pickled Ladies

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The fourth row is now added. They’re easy to put together, thanks to the stitching liens and matching points.

It’s a little difficult to tell from this photo, but the intersection where they meet is easy to press by pressing one of the arcs over the other beside it and then pressing the one below it over both of those.  It may look a bit bulky, but it actually isn’t.

Quilting on the Ferris Wheel quilt is going rather slowly but I am getting it done. Baxter is insistent on helping whenever there’s a quilt on my lap, whether I’m quilting or tacking down binding. At one point last night, he was right under the hoop. He seems to think it’s play time as he attacks my hand that’s underneath the quilt.

Stars of Different Points

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Among the stars I have ready to stitch are a number of LeMoyne Stars in different fabric combinations. They’re from a swap of Inklingo pieces that was done a couple of years ago. While I’m not sure just how many stars I’ll end up with, I don’t plan to add to them unless it’s necessary to get an appropriate number for a small quilt setting.

They take only a second to press.

Another one of the 6-point stars made with 1.5″ diamonds. When they’re all made, I’ll decide how I want to set them.

It rained all day Tuesday and, by the sounds of our forecast, is going to rain all day today. At one point Tuesday it looked like perhaps there was some freezing rain mixed in, but thankfully no snow.

Another photo of Baxter helping as I was putting the binding on the flannel quilt.

Flannel Quilt Finish

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On the weekend, I got the flannel top quilted and bound. The label went on and it was washed and dried yesterday afternoon. Now it’s on its way to its intended recipient. It finished at 56″ x 64″.

Machine quilting it was definitely a case of fabric wrestling. I am so spoiled now using the silk batts that I really noticed how much heavier and more difficult to manoeuvre the cotton batt was. That’s the trade-off, I suppose, for the ease of basting a fusible batt. It ended up as a totally machine-made quilt, other than tacking down the binding, which is totally unusual for me. However, it also made me more confident about my  machine piecing skills.

Putting the binding on was fun. It was lovely and warm and was a true cat magnet. Baxter landed on my lap almost the minute I started tacking the binding down and stayed put for much longer than he usually does. Clearly a little flannel quilt is a must just for him.

Inspiration Finally Struck

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For the past few years, I’ve had these set aside – two charm packs and a yard of one of the fabrics – waiting for an idea. Every few months, I’d get them out and look at them hoping for inspiration.

On the weekend, thanks to a new Inklingo collection of squares that are designed to go with this collection of HSTs, inspiration finally struck. I’m going to make a quilt composed of a couple of different sizes of square in a square blocks.

These blocks finish at 5″ and are made using the 3.53″ square with the 2.5″ HST. I’ll also make some 2.5″ blocks using the 1.77″ square with the 1.25″ HST and perhaps two more sizes, just for the sheer fun of making them.

They go together very quickly and press like a dream.

Baxter is definitely becoming a real quilter’s cat. Here is he lounging beneath the quilt rack and draped over the base of the floor hoop. His favourite toy, Cappy, is also close by.

Stars of Two Sizes

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This seems to be my week of working on stars and more stars. The larger purple star is made with 1.5″ diamonds and seems enormous in comparison to the little pink star made with 1″ diamonds.

Finger-pressing as they’re stitched means it only takes one quick press with the iron and they’re done.

There’s a box full of the larger diamonds in varying shades. While I’m not 100 per cent sure yet, I’m pretty sure I’m going to set these with large hexagons.

Baxter spent a lot of time on the windowsill on Wednesday. There were a lot of grackles on the roof garden lawn keeping him entertained.

One Big Star

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The scrappy star is still growing. With this latest round of diamonds it’s now almost 32″. Each round is taking longer to add, but I’m determined to get it to around 45″. Then I’ll add some elements to turn it into a rectangular quilt that can be used as a lap quilt. At least that’s the current plan.

It’s also taking longer to press after each round.

Baxter was determined to get in the picture.

Earlier in the day he was watching squirrels playing in the trees out on the roof garden. I think he looks like he’s smiling.

Still Seeing Stars

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Along with the 8-point pink stars, a bevy of colourful 6-point stars are being made. I have some ideas for setting these, but will wait to decide until I have all of them made. Perhaps a multi-colour Seven Sisters quilt?  Or perhaps hexagons and stars? Or perhaps something altogether different. In the meantime, I’m having fun putting these together. They’re very quick to stitch and it’s really satisfying to see the stack of stars grow.

These are all 1″ diamonds ready to be stitched into stars. I have no idea how many stars I’ll end up with or how many quilts might be made using them. While some are ones I printed, the vast majority came from various swaps of fabrics printed with the 1″ diamonds using Inklingo.

Baxter was very interested in the diamonds. Shortly after this picture was taken, a few of the bags containing the diamonds were on the floor.

He’s looking less and less like a little kitten now, although he’s definitely still acting like one.

I’m Seeing Stars

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Pink stars, that is. Not sure what these are going to turn into, but making these stars just seemed to have to happen. So far there are 16 of them. They will be 6″ if finished as LeMoyne Star blocks but that’s completely undecided at this point.

They may end up as the centres of a different block altogether.  Or perhaps they’re going to be a border on something else. I’m really just having fun making stars.

Baxter has been very busy the past week, chasing leaves as they fly by the window and watching as the gardeners prepared the flowerbeds on the roof garden for the winter. Here he was relaxing on the couch.

Last week I was dealing with fatigue from a treatment. I can feel my energy level increasing and am looking forward to getting back to blogging this week.

Diamonds, Diamonds and More Diamonds

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Not a lot of stitching has been done this week, although I now have enough diamonds joined into pairs to start the next round on the scrappy star top. As the scrappy star has grown, I’ve found it easier to put them together into pairs and then, once the placement is figured out, join the pairs into sets for each of the 8 segments.

It’s definitely looking like fall now.

This birch tree has now lost almost all its leaves.

This is a shot of Queen’s Park, a park near our building. Some of the trees still have their gorgeous fall colours.

Baxter was watching me stitch. We think this is his Morris look.

Curved Piecing and a Bit of a Curveball

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As those who have read my blog for a while probably know, I love curved piecing more than just about anything (although hand quilting is quickly climbing back up the favourites list). There is something about it that I find absolutely irresistible. So once the flannel top was finished, I was thinking about my Summer Picnic Dish a.k.a. pickle dish quilt top and, as I had done a lot of printing of the various pieces for it a few weeks back, I started making the melon/arc combos so I can get this one to the lap quilt size sometime within the next few months. I’ve also been adding a bit to the Joseph’s Coat top.  A couple more of the Pickled Ladies have joined the others as well.

Even pressing the melon/arc combos is fun.

I couldn’t resist taking this picture. It’s not the best, but it made me laugh. It was raining here last night and a leaf blew up against our window and stuck there for the longest time. Baxter was on the windowsill countless times while it was there and completely ignored it. I was convinced he’d be trying to paw at it, but obviously it just wasn’t interesting as it wasn’t moving.

Almost all the leaves are off the trees on the roof garden now and Baxter is spending an enormous amount of time on the windowsill watching them. I love this photo of him as it shows off his white eyeliner so well!

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I’ve had a bit of a curveball thrown my way. Over the past few months, I’ve been dealing with a health condition and the resultant tests, specialist appointments, et cetera. I’ve now been given the diagnosis of remitting-relapsing MS. There are more tests to come, treatments to begin and more specialist’s visits, so there will undoubtedly be days when I may not have a new post on the blog and/or be visiting and commenting on other’s blogs.

It appears I have had this for at least 20 years and have clearly done quite well, up until this summer. According to my neurologist, there are many, many people who walk around with MS and don’t know it. I am in very good hands. I have had invaluable support from friends who have MS and have given me lots of good information as I’ve travelled down this path and, of course, have had enormous support from Mr. Q.O.

Baxter is providing his very own type of kitty support – laughter is the best thing and watching kitten antics like this, when he was trying to “help” Mr. Q.O. with his cryptic crossword, are guaranteed to bring about laughter and smiles.

Going forward, my intention is not to turn this into a blog about MS, although it may periodically be mentioned as it is part of my life and my blog is about things in my life as well as quilting.