Introducing ….

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Here he was at just over 2 weeks.

At 6 weeks.

Then at 7 weeks.

And here …

… is Baxter!! We brought him home last night and have been fascinated watching him explore his new surroundings. He’s a blue/silver with white tabby Maine Coon kitten who is now 10 weeks and 2 days old.

He is unbelievably tiny, only about 2.5 pounds, but he purrs like a big kitty already! After we got home with him, the evening seemed to be nothing but watching Baxter and watching Smudge watching Baxter. It’s going to be so much fun watching the little guy grow and grow. It can take 3 or 4 years for a Maine Coon to reach their full size, which can go as high as 25 pounds, so we’re in for some fun watching the changes.


Smudge is interested.  When we got home, we let Baxter out of the carrier and watched as Smudge immediately came over to sniff Baxter. There was no hostility on Smudge’s part at all.  In fact, he seemed rather bored by the whole thing. Was really interested in the kitten food, though.

And now my blog feels normal again.  Two kitty pictures to post each day instead of just one.

Smudge says it feels more normal around here already!

Lots of Shabby

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Joseph’s coat is growing. It’s amazing just how quickly it’s growing. I can imagine having a lap quilt done within a few weeks — if I devoted all my stitching time to it, that is.

That said, I don’t want to leave out the Yin Yang blocks. Monday night I got this one put together, another one half done and the partial ring that can be seen in the top picture of the shabby coat.

Every time I make one of these Yin Yang blocks and press it, I’m thrilled with how easily it presses flat.

Smudge was posing on the top of the loveseat.  Mr. Q.O. calls this photo “Quilter’s Cat” because of the quilting paraphernalia visible in the background.

A Busy Weekend

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A lot of the weekend was spent reorganizing my fabric. By the time Sunday night rolled around, I had everything sorted and in a container. This is something I’ve been trying to get done for the past few weeks and, as we’re heading into hot and humid weather, I decided this weekend was time.

As I was sorting through fabric, I pulled out the piece shown in the photo. I remember buying it at Creativ Festival about 5 years ago. The minute I saw it, I had to buy it. Since then, I’ve pulled it out from time to time but have yet to use it. This time, though, I was struck again by just how much I like it. Some lime, pink, hot pink, a light blue, maybe even a black are going to be pulled and put with it and see where that leads me. Will it be some type of Dresden? Perhaps a clamshell design? A lot of ideas are already starting.

I wonder how many of us have pieces that we keep looking at and putting away again. Do you have a fabric which you keep looking at, wondering just how you’re going to use it?

Smudge is really enjoying the warmer weather stretched out on the windowsill.

Melons and Yin Yang — Oh, My!

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Lots and lots of melons printed and ready to stitch to the connecting cream bits. Lots and lots of yin yang pieces printed and ready to stitch. This is definitely going to be a very shabby chic summer.

Two more of the Dresden Plates are now done and ready. Before I get too much further with these, I’m going to play with some layout ideas. Hopefully I’ll get that done this weekend.

We had some computer glitches, so I’m recycling this photo of Smudge on the windowsill from last summer.

A Little More Shabby Coat

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I know, I know. I said I was going to stick with the little Dresden Plates but I couldn’t resist adding a bit more to the shabby Joseph’s Coat. I’m so thrilled with this new Inklingo collection that I really can’t leave it alone! It’s really quick to stitch and presses oh, so easily. Even with all those seams intersecting in the centres, it lies flat as can be. This could grow into a lap quilt rather quickly.

Quilts that go together as you stitch them, rather than having blocks to join at the end, always attract me. When I finish stitching the blocks, it’s done.

The back:

We had crazy weather Wednesday night. First fog, then rain, then thunder and lightning and heavy rain. Sounds like there’s more of the same in store for us today.

Smudge was enjoying himself, stretched out on the windowsill. That’s a definite sign that summer is here.

Stitching A Flying Swallows Block – Lots of Photos

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A bright summery block of flying swallows seemed right for this little tutorial. Mr. Q.O. calls them bats, but …

There are a number of pieces in the block, but it really is an eight-point star made up of pieced 90-degree diamonds. Each of the pieced 90-degree diamonds is made up of 3 diamonds and 4 triangles. First piece the 3 diamonds together.

Then take advantage of the continuous stitching opportunity offered when adding the 4 triangles to the diamond unit as shown in this photo. Following the arrows, it’s possible to stitch all the triangles to the diamonds without breaking the thread.

Make sure the top and bottom triangles are placed the right way so that you end up with a larger 90-degree diamond.


While I usually wait until a block is completed to press it, this block is an exception. Pressing the pieced diamonds before joining them to one another makes the final pressing easier.

Join the 90-degree diamonds to create the eight-point star, making sure all the swallows are flying in the same direction.

Add the setting squares and triangles and the block is done. This block finishes at about 15″ and is destined to be part of a stitching book cover. I made it using the 6″ LeMoyne Star Inklingo collection, which has all the shapes to make the block other than the outer setting triangle.

Smudge found this whole process so calming that he fell asleep with some soft stuffed toys to keep him company!

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It seems that our ISP is bouncing some e-mails from friends. If you have e-mailed me in the past day or two and haven’t heard back, please let me know in a comment.

Summer Plates

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Getting the Summer Plates done has moved up the list. Why? Because I really want to get this top done while we can still get good pictures outdoors. Somehow taking pictures of this one in summer seems right. So Monday night, although Joseph’s Coat was really calling to me, I got started and added the frames to two of the plates.

The blocks finish at 9″. I’m thinking this will be a small lap quilt that will look wonderful draped over a chair or the loveseat. Makes me think I want to find a wallpaper with huge cabbage roses in faded peaches and pinks for the living room and have a completely shabby chic look. Not sure what Mr. Q.O. would think of that.

The back:

Smudge, caught yet again just shortly after diving in his water bowl. If you enlarge the photo, you can see that his ruff is looking rather matted after getting so wet. Thankfully, his fur is so silky that it combs out in seconds.

Shabby Coat

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Did I get distracted this weekend? Oh, yes! Saturday a new Joseph’s Coat Inklingo Collection was released and I was immediately and totally captivated. Couldn’t resist. Thanks to the fact I hadn’t yet put away the shabby chic fabrics after cutting and printing Yin Yang shapes, I immediately grabbed a bunch of them, some background fabric and started printing. By late Saturday night the first ring was done.

Sunday evening, I added a bit more. The curves are so gentle that no clipping into the seam allowance is needed at all. More curved piecing. Irresistible to me. I know this will be a lap quilt so have printed 150 melons so far. Between this and the Yin Yang, I’m going to have a wonderfully shabby summer!

It presses like a dream. I followed the pressing suggestion in the Collection and pressed the seam allowances towards the melons.

Smudge was sitting in Mr. Q.O.’s computer chair after diving in his water bowl. He was just about dry when we got this shot.

Flying Swallows

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A friend asked me how I’d stitch the Flying Swallows block. I had to stitch one to figure out the best stitching sequence. It’s a rather fascinating block to put together by hand and actually went together quicker than I thought it would. I used shapes from the free Inklingo collection to make the block, which will finish at approximately 10.75″.

It’s easy to press.

Now that I’ve made one block and sorted out what I think is the best stitching sequence, I will make another and take lots of photos to do a mini tutorial.

Smudge was stretched out snoozing on the couch.

Fifteen Years Ago Today

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Fifteen years ago today, my Mom passed away. It’s hard to believe it was that long ago, as it still seems like yesterday sometimes. This week has been particularly poignant as, as soon as I got my website up and running on Monday evening, the first thing I wanted to do was call my Mom and tell her. Even after all this time, that urge was still so strong.

There have been many times over the 15 years when I’ve thought I should call her and tell her about something that happened or something that struck me as funny, as we shared much the same sense of humour. I was very fortunate, as she wasn’t just my mother; she was also my friend. We shared the same taste in books and would often moan at each other about staying up way too late to just read “one more chapter” in whatever book we were reading. Mom was always a baseball fan and was at the very first Jays game in the snow, back on April 7, 1977. So  in 1992, when the Jays won the World Series for the first time, she was ecstatic about the win. I am so grateful that she lived long enough to see her team win the World Series.

Mom was brought up with cats, and used to tell a funny story about her mother’s Persian cats who would sit on top of a grandfather clock and hiss at her and her sister, the aunt for whom I made Chintz Circles. She had a lifelong love of cats. When she moved into the same building in which I lived after my father’s death, she used to come and visit Max, the first Maine Coon cat I had, every day while I was at work. He was a smart cat and knew that she couldn’t bend over to pat him, so would jump up on a desk as soon as he heard her come in the apartment.

She always encouraged me in whatever needle art or craft I was dabbling and I like to think that she would have been fascinated by the use of technology now in so many crafts, although I remember her being somewhat bewildered by a laptop I had brought home from work and took to her apartment to show her.

I often think about how much my Mom would have loved to have seen Smudge drinking. I know she would have been as fascinated by it as we are. I remember the day I got Max. As soon as I got home, I called Mom and she immediately came down. Thinking back, it’s rather funny. There we were, two grown women, sitting and watching a kitten for hours and hours that first afternoon. He was, in many ways, as much her cat as mine.

The kitty picture today is one of Max.