Pickled Ladies Joining Up

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Out came the box in which the clamshell pickles, aka Pickled Ladies, were stored and I began putting the top together.

The first two rows are almost all joined together now. They’re going together quickly and oh, so easily. I’m hoping to get the centre done within a couple of weeks. That, of course, remains to be seen as I’m so easily distracted by other projects!

The piecing of the Twinkling Stars top is complete. The two borders were added yesterday and it was finished even before the second game of the World Series began. We couldn’t figure out where to photograph it last night, but will be getting a good photo of it today.

Baxter had another very busy day on the windowsill, as we had a fairly windy day again and there were leaves flying by the window. Last evening he was posing in my computer chair – or was he perhaps plotting and waiting for his chance to get on the keyboard?

Colourful Little 9-Patches

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The last pieced border for Twinkling Stars was finished last night, but the baseball game was on and I didn’t want to be at the sewing machine attaching it to the quilt, so out came the 9-patch blocks to set on point. They’re now going to become a little quilt on their own rather than be incorporated into the Twinkling Stars quilt.

As the blocks are finished, they’ll be stored in a very special box from a friend. So far 13 of them are done. Once they’re all done, the quilt will be quick to stitch together. They finish at 4.24″. I think I’ll have about 100 of them by the time they’re all stitched.

There was some great feedback yesterday on working with flannels. I think I’m going to make a double 4-patch with the flannels. Once they’re washed and ironed I’ll get started. But today my plan is to attach the two borders to Twinkling Stars and hopefully get a good picture of it.

Baxter was posing in the pink chair after another busy day on the windowsill.

What to Make With Flannel Fabrics?

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These fabrics have been in my stash for ages and ages. I seem to bring them out every year just around this time and try to sort out what to do with them. They’re mostly FQs, with a few half yards and one piece that’s a couple of yards.

I’ve never really worked with flannel, so am rather at a loss as to what to make. I’ll definitely be piecing the quilt by machine and would like to be able to get a couple of lap quilts out of these fabrics. I’m thinking that perhaps a simple 9-patch, using 2″ or 3″ squares, might be one possibility but …

What would you make with these? Is it necessary to use a wider seam allowance than a quarter inch when working with flannels?

I have perhaps another hour or so until the pieced border for Twinkling Stars is done. Then it’s a matter of pressing the borders and sewing them on. I’m definitely on track to get this done, perhaps even before the second game of the World Series.

Baxter loves to lick/chew fabric so when we were setting up to take the pictures Tuesday night, he was eyeing the fabrics and doing this.

Earlier in the day, he had been showing his more elegant self posing as kitty in lace.

Ideas from Fabric

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This group of 10 FQs is really calling to me. I haven’t quite figured out yet what I want to make with them, but I keep looking at them and trying to decide what would show them off to their best advantage.

Yesterday a friend asked me for some ideas for a quilt using a certain type of fabric and it got me thinking about those FQs again. All I need to do now is choose the right background fabric for them and then play. But that’s not happening until the Twinkling Stars top is finished and the Pickled Ladies top is well on its way to being finished.

I’m almost halfway through making the pieced border for Twinkling Stars and am well on the road to finishing it before the baseball is over. The little 9-patch blocks on point are going to end up in a quilt of their own as I completely changed my mind about the Twinkling Stars borders.

Baxter was relaxing after another busy day of watching out the window. The leaves are starting to fly by the windows as it has been a bit windy, and he’s quite busy during the day on the windowsill, going back and forth trying to get them.

Twinkling Stars Progress

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The main part of the top is together. Now to make and add the borders and this year’s baseball playoffs quilt will be done. With any luck, it will be finished before the World Series is over.

This is a big milestone for me. While I hybrid pieced some of the blocks and totally hand pieced some others, the majority of the quilt was put together by machine. it’s given me a lot more confidence about machine piecing, which will come in handy for some quilts I want to make.

On Friday evening I got a call from the LQS and, after close to 6 months, the white on white fabric has finally come in. I’m thrilled as it means I can definitely finish off the Feathered Star/Sunflower quilt exactly as I wanted with the pieced border I had envisioned for it.

Baxter is still teething and, on the weekend, he lost (and we found) a baby tooth. Rather than put it in a little pillow for the kitty tooth fairy, Mr. Q.O. tossed it. I think Baxter deserves a new toy and plan to get him one from the kitty tooth fairy.

Little 9-Patch Blocks on Point

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The 9-patch blocks are just so much more fun set on point that I couldn’t resist. They’re very quick to stitch, and give me the look I wanted for these little blocks.

Earlier this week, two new Inklingo collections were released with the triangles needed to set 4.5 inch blocks and 6 inch blocks on point, and that helped give me the idea for the 9-patch blocks. I have a little stack of 4.5-inch blocks that were made years ago but which have sat all this time. Now that the math has been taken out of figuring out what size QSTs and HSTs I needed to set them on point, I’ll get them out once the Twinkling Stars top is finished.

I’m still on schedule with this year’s baseball playoffs quilt. Although I’ve had a couple of evenings when I really wanted to work on something else, I have managed to resist and now am really glad I did.  There’s not too much hand piecing left to be done, maybe another 25 or so of the 9-patch blocks and then their setting triangles.  The rest will be done by machine.

Baxter seems to have decided my computer chair is a favourite spot — after walking over the keyboard on his way to the chair, that is. A couple of times he has almost managed to send an e-mail while marching over the various keys and the trackpad, but none have been sent … yet.

Colourful Little 9-Patches

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Almost half of the 9-patch blocks i need for the Twinkling Stars quilt are done. With any luck, I’ll have them finished before the end of the weekend and then can get started putting the top together. I’m piecing them by hand, as that’s the perfect thing to stitch while watching baseball games, and they finish at 3 inches.

There were quite a few good ideas in the comments yesterday and I’ve followed up on all them. So far, no luck but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one of the avenues I’m exploring will result in a find of the fabric.

Baxter was insistent on getting in the picture of the 9-patch blocks. He climbs up beneath the board on which the background fabric and blocks are laid out. We think he’s curled up under there, but then all of a sudden his head appears.

Later on, he had to go rest in the hallway.

Help Needed Finding Fabric

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When I started the red and white feathered star/sunflower blocks, I thought I probably had enough of the white on white but wasn’t really worried about it as it seemed to be a staple WOW fabric at the LQS. That was, as it turns out, a silly assumption on my part and I had totally under-estimated just how much I’d need.

Over the past few months, the owner of the LQS has been trying her best to find me more of this particular white on white but hasn’t been having any success. Now I’m thinking that perhaps it’s out of print and my only hope is going to be that someone has it in their stash and is willing to part with it or knows of a store that has it in stock. I’ve put some of the other white on whites that I have next to it and they are just not going to work — the difference is quite obvious.

This picture is really only for scale with the penny on it as the colour isn’t quite right, although white on white is next to impossible to properly photograph anyway. It’s a very small-scale all-over print.

This picture is a bit closer as far as the tone of the white on white goes. It’s made by Santee Print Works and is what I think of as a very icy white on white. There’s almost a bit of a shimmer to it, although it’s not a metallic.

Six of the blocks are made but I need at least 6 more yards of it to make the remaining 7 blocks and pieced border to finish the quilt. I can use anything from FQ size on up, so if you can help and/or know where I can find this fabric please let me know!

Baxter was resting after another busy day on the windowsill, watching the squirrels and birds and falling leaves. We’re not sure what he was calculating, but his paw was firmly planted on the calculator.

Stars, Stars and More Stars

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All 80 of the Twinkling Stars are made and ready to be stitched into the larger 15″ 9-patch blocks. My goal was to finish them before our long Thanksgiving weekend was over and I got it done!

Hybrid piecing worked out really well for me once I worked out this method of pinning the skinny triangles to the half tumblers. My previous attempts at machine stitching have usually resulted in seams that seem slightly distorted by the pinning.  So rather than pinning through matching points or crosshairs, I used a fine pin as though I was using a needle and thread. Checked the front and back of the seam and as long as my pin was right on the stitching line, I was off to the races. That’s how I reached my goal of finishing the stars. I don’t know how well that pinning idea would work on long seams, but for these skinny tris it worked like a charm for me.

Our Thanksgiving weekend was perfect – warm and sunny. The weather felt more like Labour Day weekend than Thanksgiving. So much so that people were out on the roof garden sunbathing. I’m hoping this is a sign that we’ll have a mild winter.

A few leaves have been dancing by the window and Baxter has been busy watching. Here he was resting up after a long afternoon of leaf chasing and bird and squirrel watching.

More and More Twinkling Stars

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Much as I’ve wanted to steal time away from making the Twinkling Stars and work on something else, I’ve managed to stay on course and now have slightly under half the stars done. I’m hoping to finish them off by the end of this long weekend and then will only have the little 9-patches left to make before I can start putting the top together.

They’re hybrid pieced. I’m joining parts of the blocks by machine and then finishing it by hand piecing. I know the blocks can be totally made by machine, but I enjoy putting them together by hand and they’re relatively quick to stitch. For those who have asked, I’m using shapes from the Inklingo Tumbler Collection. It’s easy to get the long skinny tris perfect when one has the stitching lines and matching points.

This is our Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and our weather sounds like it’s going to be much more like summer than fall, with humidex readings in the 30C range on Saturday and Sunday. Makes me wonder how many people will have barbecues for Thanksgiving rather than heat up their homes cooking turkeys.

Over the last few days, Baxter has spent more time on the windowsill than anywhere else. He has a tendency to wave one paw in the air, which we’ve dubbed his royal wave. Here I’m not sure what he waving at — perhaps a squirrel or bird.