You’ve seen this box before. It’s jammed full of 1″ 60-degree diamonds that I’ve printed on fabrics and that I received in various Inklingo swaps. (As an aside, that’s one of the bonuses of Inklingo – you know that any … Continue reading
Ever since Inklingo first came out, I’ve been a huge fan of the 60-degree diamonds. When I’m cutting fabrics for other projects, I will often cut off a small piece of fabric just for the 1″ diamonds. Iron the fabric … Continue reading
Yes, it’s another project in a box. This looks like, and is, a small box but each of the glassine envelopes in there contains enough pieces for multiple stars. This project box came out on the weekend and I made … Continue reading
After making the squares in squares on Tuesday, I decided last night to make a few more of the 9-patch blocks set on point. They’re bright and cheerful and just what I needed after a few hours of working on the dreaded tax stuff. And the stack of finished blocks is slowly growing.
A couple more stars for the little hexagon quilt were made as well. There’s something about making a six-pointed star that I find irresistible. Possibly it’s because they always seem to go together so effortlessly. A few years ago I printed and printed the 1″ 60-degree diamonds on ’30s fabrics and solids. They’ve already been used to make one baby quilt and more will be used in the new hexagon quilt I’ve started, but that won’t even come close to making a dent in the number I’ve got printed.
That was one thing I learned early on with Inklingo. It really does pay off for me if I print lots of a shape that I know I like working with. One year I had the flu and wanted to stitch, but definitely didn’t have the energy to print or cut. So I opened up a box containing lots of shapes that I’d already printed and cut, and was able to stitch as many blocks as I wanted. Ever since then, I’ve tended to print extras of shapes. It’s also, for me, a fun way to design. I’ll grab a handful of shapes and play with them on my design book to see what I can come up with.
We have more work (hopefully, this is the end of it) to do on the taxes today. If nothing else, I’m going to start working with some form of a spreadsheet so I can keep track of everything and just be able to print off summaries at the end of the year.
Baxter was bored by the whole process and had a nap.
Close to half a dozen more of the little hexagon blocks were added to the group on the weekend. As each of these hexagons measures 2″, the quilt should grow fairly quickly. That said, for now it’s only weekend play stitching as I’m going back to work on the red and white piecing during the week.
We had a beautiful Easter weekend with mild temperatures and lots of sun. And, unfortunately, lots of allergens in the air. There’s a lot of sneezing going on in this household.
This week I’m hoping to go through my quilt books as I know there are a number that should go to new homes. They’re taking up a lot of shelf space and are books I know I won’t be looking at again. What do you do with quilt books which you longer want?
Then I’m hoping to attack, once again, my fabric and try to get it organized in a better fashion. I need to figure out a way of storing it that doesn’t involve large containers as they’re too heavy for my hands. One idea I’ve had is to empty a bookshelf or three and use them for the fabrics I most often turn to. That way they’d be out where I could see and easily access them. But that would also put fabric within reach of a certain kitty who just loves nothing better than to get a piece of fabric.
Saturday night I failed to put all the little hexagon blocks out of reach and Mr. Q.O. woke up Sunday morning to find two of them on the bedroom floor. There was no damage done and no teeth marks. Baxter just likes carting them around.
Mr. Q.O. captioned this one, “You woke me … for food?”
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?”
While initially I thought I’d turn these into multi-coloured Seven Sisters blocks, the block is turning into a very large family of sisters! So far there are 19 of them. How much further I’ll go with this block I’m not sure. Right now I’m thrilled with it. Of course I am – it’s mostly pink. As those who have read my blog for any length of time know, pink is my favourite colour. I think I was going through withdrawal not having a pink project on which to work. That said, perhaps I’ll add some green or some more purples and mauves or move into the blues. All I know is it’s fun putting these together and goes amazingly quickly.
When I started joining the stars I realized I hadn’t pressed them all in the same direction, so some time had to be spent at the iron. Now they’re all pressed the same way and that makes pressing the back of the block a breeze! Right now the block is about 14.5″ x 13.25″.
We are having an incredibly mild January, so far at least. It feels more like early spring than winter and the forecast seems to indicate it will be like this for the next couple of weeks. A sure sign of this being the oddest of winters? We went for a walk and, rather than seeing snow ploughs (of course not – there has been no snow and no, I’m not complaining), we saw street sweepers out and about. This really makes me wonder what the spring and summer will be like.
Baxter is proving to be a real quilter’s cat. Not only does he lie about under the quilt rack and hoop, he just loves to grab a piece of fabric and run off with it. I’ve found little 6-point stars on the floor. Last night, as I was working on another Feathered Star block, I turned my back for a few moments and there were some of the pieces from that on the floor.
Last night I got out the box full of little stars and decided to start putting them together. I’m starting with the centre and will work my way out. Right now it sort of looks like it’s going to turn into a Seven Sisters block, but it’s just the first round of many. The row of six joined stars clearly isn’t yet added to the centre star, but I wanted to get a rough idea of the effect and think about how I’d proceed. Now I hope to get the next round added quickly.
Earlier in the day I made a few more stars as I had a rather nasty headache but wanted to stitch. These little 6-point stars are what I almost always decide to make when I want to stitch but don’t want anything too difficult. Do you have a favourite block to stitch?
Baxter’s ruff is getting quite luxurious. We were looking at some of the pictures of him when he was a really small kitten and can’t get over the difference already — and he’s not even 9 months old yet.
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.
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.
Quilt Obsession 