Tag Archives: cats

Taking Out Quilting

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A while ago I started quilting Ferris Wheel by machine. Then I got back into hand quilting and am now thinking about taking out the machine quilting and replacing it with hand quilting. The reason I want to replace it with hand quilting is that there’s a quilting design I want to use that will be easier for me to do by hand than by machine.

What I’m wondering is if there is a quick way to do this or if it’s just going to be a painstakingly slow process of taking it out stitch by stitch. Thankfully, only 3 of the blocks have been quilted so far. Has anyone done this? Any tips?

Baxter was lounging on the windowsill shortly after having had a drink of water. The wet fur on one side of his neck is a sure giveaway that he has been at the water bowl.

Colourful 9-Patches

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These 3-inch blocks will be incorporated in the design of the Twinkling Stars quilt as well. There are still quite a few of the stars to be made, but I couldn’t resist making a couple of the little 9-patches just because they’re so much fun to put together and they’re easy to stitch by hand when one is watching an exciting baseball game!

On Monday, after successfully adding the star points by machine to some of the half tumbler/square combination, I decided to try making one of the star blocks entirely by machine. Can you tell which block is machine-made and which by hand?

What has inspired me to try stitching more by machine? It’s the fact that I really want to get started on putting the Pickled Ladies quilt together.

Baxter spent a lot of time on the windowsill on Monday, watching the birds and squirrels. His tail was swishing and he was extremely intent on watching the activity. It’s going to be interesting when the leaves start to fall and are flying by the window.

Twinkling Stars Update

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The first weekend of the baseball playoffs meant a lot of stitching got done. This is the stack of blocks now ready to incorporate into large 9-patch blocks. I’m close to a third finished when it comes to making these.

I decided to try speeding it up a bit by partially stitching the blocks by machine. I put the half tumbler and 2″ squares together by machine.

Can you tell the difference? One of these blocks is partially done by machine while the other is totally hand pieced. I can’t tell the difference except, of course, by looking at the back of the blocks and am quite pleased with the result.

I realized on the weekend that my design idea was going to result in a square quilt of about 66″. For some reason, I always prefer my quilts to be rectangular rather than square so I’ve changed the design a wee bit to make it longer than it will be wide. I’m intrigued by the fact I’m so determined to not make it a square quilt. I can’t quite sort out why I have such a strong preference for the rectangular sizes. Do you have a preference when it comes to a lap quilt being a rectangular or square quilt?

Baxter has been very busy now that he has discovered the living room windowsill. On the weekend he started clambering up there with Cappy in his mouth. We’re convinced Cappy is his blankie and he doesn’t want to go anywhere without it. I’m hoping we can get a video of him getting up there with Cappy once it stops raining, which they say should be today.

Pickled Ladies Layout

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The stitching of the centre blocks is finished. There are 72 pickled ladies in total, although there will be a number of half pickled clams added around the perimeter to square it up.

Once the rows are together, I’ll audition fabrics individually for the half pickled clamshells that will go around the perimeter. I know there are lots of florals in my stash that will work perfectly as half clamshells and have enough of the black and white triangles already printed for the partial strips of triangles that will be needed.

It took ages to take them down off the temporary design wall as each one is labelled with its placement so that when I start stitching them together I won’t get them mixed up. I’m really excited about this one and can’t wait to get started stitching on it as soon as the baseball playoffs are over. There’s a rich blue floral in my stash that may be perfect as the border for the Pickled Ladies. There may need to be a small stop border as well, but I’ll sort that out once I get the centre of it completed.

There is no way I would have attempted this without Inklingo. With the 6-inch Pickled Clamshell collection, I knew it could be done. Having the perfect stitching lines and matching points is going to make putting the rows together a breeze. This is one quilt top I want to finish for sure before the end of the year. I’m already thinking of the quilting possibilities, perhaps quilting around each flower and possibly the white triangles.

Baxter discovered how to get up on the windowsill in the living room on Thursday. There was lots of activity out on the roof garden for him to watch as the birds and squirrels seemed quite busy. He went back and forth a few times and then settled down to sit and watch.

Twinkling Stars Ready to Stitch

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Since the weekend printing marathon, I’ve been cutting and getting pieces ready to stitch for Twinkling Stars as well as other quilts. As of the end of yesterday, everything for Twinkling Stars is ready to stitch.

Now Twinkling Stars is a quilt in a box, complete with the threads I’ll be using as I stitch the blocks during the baseball playoffs. The box contains some of the 5″ squares needed for the large 9-patch blocks. There are some other design elements to the quilt that aren’t in the box as they don’t fit, but they’re ready. I had been playing with a couple of different ideas and yesterday the entire quilt design really came together. I’m hoping I can get this finished before the end of the World Series, but that’s going to depend on how many games end up being played in the playoffs and World Series.

Baxter napping with his favourite toy, Cappy. He now brings Cappy to bed at night and practically tucks it in. The other morning I woke up to find Cappy under a pillow.

Printing and More Printing for Quilts

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What’s that?  It’s the stack of fabrics I printed over the weekend for the Scrappy Star, Twinkling Stars, Summer Picnic Dish, Harpsichord and Joseph’s Coat quilts. The last couple of weeks I’ve been identifying the size I want certain projects to finish at. WIth the size of each determined, it took only a few minutes to figure out what I needed to print to reach that goal. Sometimes I print only a few of each shape for a couple of blocks until I’m sure I want to make it into a quilt. Once that decision is made, I prefer to get everything printed at once and get the shapes cut and into a box ready to stitch such as I’ve done for the Stormy Seas quilt.

This gives you a glimpse of the some of the shapes I printed for the Harpsichord, Joseph’s Coat and Summer Picnic Dish quilts.  Using the various Inklingo collections to prepare my templates makes it so easy to print on any number of fabrics, even black fabrics as most are markedly lighter on the back than the front and the templates will show up perfectly with one of the many choices of ink colours.

Almost all the shapes are now cut and ready to be put in a box, along with the matching threads, for the Twinkling Stars quilt, which I plan on trying to finish between now and the end of the World Series.

Because it was such a beautiful day on Monday, we took Scrappy Star out to the roof garden to photograph. It’s growing and is now 24″ across.  It will be at least twice that width before I’ll stop adding rounds. I needed more of the squares, which was another reason for all the printing that was done on the weekend.

The back after pressing.

Baxter is starting to look like a grown-up kitty in some photos, although his antics are still pure kitten antics. I think he was trying out his hypnotic kitty look in this photo.

And Then There Were 10

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Ten more sparkling twinkling stars, that is.  I’ve found a stitching sequence that makes putting these stars together quick as can be.

Normally when I start making blocks, I have a vague idea of a layout but this time? This time the entire quilt top is planned, right down to the border. I have a feeling I may have the whole thing together by the time the baseball playoffs finish.

Baxter’s markings are showing up more and more each day. With the grey cloth as a backdrop, his lynx tips are really showing.

Stormy Seas Blocks 15 & 16

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Two more of the Stormy Seas blocks are done and added to the group. Only 26 more blocks to go. That in itself is enough to encourage me to stitch at least parts of the blocks by machine.

This second block is one of my favourites.

Over the past week I have been doing a lot of hand quilting on the whole cloth quilt. So much so that the finger on the hand beneath the quilt is getting really sore. I’m going to try wearing a very thin, flexible leather thimble on my finger underneath the quilt to see if that helps when quilting. Now that I’m back in the habit of hand quilting, I don’t want to stop because of a sore finger.

Baxter hanging out on the quilt on the couch with some teddy bear friends.

Twinkling Stars

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Starting a new quilt as the baseball playoffs are close to beginning seems to be something I do each year. Last year it was the pink and cream star quilt. This year it will be the twinkling stars. I think I choose stars as they’re easy to stitch while watching the games.

There are 10 colours I’m using for the spiky little stars. I have all the spiky long triangles and coloured squares printed and most of the half tumblers and large white squares. By the end of this week, all the shapes for this quilt will be printed, cut and ready to stitch. With any luck, the quilt top will be finished by the time the World Series is finished.

I finger press as I stitch and then, when I have a few done, give them a quick press with the iron.

Baxter close-ups.  First a paw.

Then his face.

Twinkling Star

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There are a few of these twinkling stars already made that have been sitting for ages and which will be made into a small quilt. I decided to make one more last night just for fun, and because I’m playing with a design idea that would use this block, among others, in a starry quilt. The block is made using shapes from the Inklingo Tumbler collection and it finishes at 5″.

It’s simple to stitch and quick to press.

A comment was left the other day and a few follow-up e-mails exchanged that have led me down a fun path, reading about treadle sewing machines. I’ve often thought that would be a great way to machine quilt. The more I read, the more I think that it’s a great solution for me. Of course, it’s much easier said than done — finding one that’s in working condition and affordable and then sorting out how to get it here, as I think they are very heavy. I plan to do a lot more reading and research on the weekend.

We finally got some video of Baxter drinking. This is how he drinks all the time. He walks up to the water bowls, turns around, lies down and then reaches over his shoulder to drink. When he’s done one side of his face and neck are usually sopping wet. If we’re not in the kitchen, he meows to let us know he’s about to drink and then looks to make sure we’re paying attention. A friend who has seen this little video wrote and shared her theory, “I think Smudge told Baxter that drinking water is a performance art form.  Baxter had to develop his own art, but it couldn’t be something mundane like standing in front of the bowl of water and lapping – it had to be unique.” I think she’s on to something!