Tag Archives: cats

TIny Cake Stand Block

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Looks like I may not get much stitching done this week.  Monday night I was absolutely exhausted, partially because I had barely slept Sunday night for some reason, and got very little done.  This little cake stand block was all I managed to stitch Monday night.  It seems I’m determined to make a small quilt with the 2.5″ blocks.  I decided to use a QST for the triangle at the bottom of the block and am going to use the same cream for all blocks as the neutral.  I’m not sure how many blocks I’ll make, but it’s definitely going to be a tiny teddy bear quilt.

The back:

I’m going to continue making some of the 5″ blocks as well, with a view to making a small baby quilt.   I have an idea for the borders of both the tiny and slightly larger quilt and am planning to piece the borders as I stitch the blocks.  That way when I finish stitching the blocks I should have most of the pieced borders completed.

Monday wasn’t a long day at the hearing, but it appears that today will be as will Wednesday.  So blog posts for the next couple of days are probably going to be rather short.

Smudge was looking at a toy I was holding above his head while Mr. Q.O. got this shot.

Pickled Ladies Update

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It’s time for the monthly Clamshell Club report.  To see what other members of the Clamshell Club have posted, the links can be found here.

While the projects I’ve been working on lately have, for the most part, taken over, I have been making a few of the Pickled Ladies blocks bit by bit.  Friday I put them all up on the temporary design wall to get a sense of how many more I need to make. With 69 of the blocks done, I’m looking at something that will be approximately 46 x 34.  I want to make this a larger quilt than that, so I’m contemplating doing another 45 or 50 of the blocks and then will start working on the layout as well as making the half pickled clams for the edges and then will think about a border or borders.

When talking to a friend about the Pickled Ladies and why I had not done more, I realized that I had got out of the rhythm of stitching these.  While there is another large project that’s seemingly taken over my stitching time, I’m going to try to get at least half of what I need to finish the main part of the top done by the end of May.  I have a number of the clamshells fussy cut already, so need to make more of the arcs and then put them together.

We found two foods that Smudge seemingly loves.  Friday he ate more on his own than he has in weeks.   Here he was resting after eating.

Storm at Sea & Harpsichord

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One more Storm at Sea block has been completed.  For fun, I put the completed ones up on my temporary design wall.  Obviously I’m going to have to do a lot of arranging of the blocks, when they’re all completed, to get the effect I’m after.  So far, though, I love the look of all those lovely luscious batiks!

Along with completing that one more Storm at Sea block, I made a few more of the Harpsichord blocks.  The row on the far left has been joined, but the other blocks are not.  There are still many blocks to be made for this top, but it feels good to be adding a few more to it weekly again.

One thing I’ve realized about the temporary design wall is that the spot it is in is probably an area of the apartment that has the worst possible lighting.  Some rearranging may have to be done so that the design wall is in an area where there is better lighting available.  Perhaps by a window?

Smudge was playing more with his favourite toy on Thursday, although in this picture he was reclining on the couch.

Batik Ovals

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On the weekend I was going through projects.  This one has come out to be finished. It’s going to take a while as it’s all applique and I can only do a little applique at a time.  Found that out again on Saturday when I tried to do a bit too much, appliqueing about 6 of the ovals, and paid for it with hand pain the next day.  Now my plan is to applique a few each week and slowly finish them off.  What’s shown in the top photo is about a third of the total there will be when finished.

They finish at 3.75 by 5 inches and are all batiks and hand dyed fabrics.   The ones that are yet to be appliqued have been sitting in a box, already back-basted, for at least 2 or 3 years which will make the applique quick and easy.

Smudge was posing for the camera Monday night.

Shabby Chic Cabin

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On the weekend I not only did some machine piecing, I was actually doing chain piecing by machine.  That was a big step for me.  I was amazed that, in the space of a few hours, I had 10 log cabin blocks done.   There are 12 blocks finished so far and another 20 or so to make.  So two more afternoons at the sewing machine and I’ll have the blocks finished.  The little blocks finish at 5″ so it won’t be a large quilt but rather a fun small one with a couple of borders.

I’m not sure if this is how I’ll set the blocks or what I’ll do for the borders yet, but this will be a fun little quilt top to finish.  It  has become my learning path on machine piecing.  Not that I think I’ll be doing a ton of machine piecing, but for something like these blocks it’s perfect.  That said, hand piecing is still what I prefer.

Spring is definitely here.  We saw our first robin on the weekend and the temperatures were wonderful.  Saturday and Sunday were both mild and sunny days.

Smudge was relaxing Sunday evening after being syringe fed.  I think we’ve tried pretty well every food on the market and he just doesn’t seem to like any of them, yet  is quite content to be syringe fed.

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A Red and White Beginning

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The beginning, that is, of the largest of the red and white quilts I’m planning.  At least, so far it’s the largest of the ones I’m planning.  I couldn’t resist adding a sunflower to a feathered star and have the entire quilt planned out, including sashing and borders.  Curved piecing and continuous piecing — what more could I want?  It’s completely hand pieced and took about 3 evenings of stitching, on and off, while working on a few other things as well.

It presses like a dream and lays flat as can be.

Would I have attempted this block without Inklingo?  Not a chance!  With Inklingo, it’s not daunting at all as perfect stitching lines and matching points make a block like this easily achievable.

This quilt is demanding to be made quickly, I think, so there may be a lot of red and white seen on my blog over the next few weeks.  I can’t wait to get the blocks done so I can start with the pieced sashing and border.

I had a migraine on Tuesday that pretty much kept me off the computer as I was finding it difficult to focus on anything.  Hopefully I’ll get caught up on comments and replies to comments over the next couple of days.  I’m working as a registrar today and tomorrow so my computer time will be limited.

It was a grey overcast day on Tuesday.  Smudge found a cozy spot to have a cat nap.

Snuggly Stars

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The baby quilt which I named Snuggly Stars, thanks to a suggestion from Karen Dianne, was finished Friday night.  After cross-hatch quilting the two stitching books, I decided I’d cross-hatch quilt the baby quilt as well.   I started quilting it around noon on Friday and by the time the evening was over, I had finished the quilting, put the binding on and tacked it down. All that was left was to add the label, which I did Saturday morning before I left to go to the Creativ Festival.  The little quilt finished at 24 x 36 and was totally machine pieced and quilted.

Sunday morning we threw it in the wash, which was a bit of an adventure.  Mr. Q.O. took it up to the laundry room to put it in to wash and, when I went up to transfer it to the dryer, the machine had seemingly malfunctioned.  Rather than draining the soap suds, it seemed to be making more and more.  We think someone had put detergent in the machine previously and then not used it so that, when we used it, it had much more than recommended amount of detergent.  When it finished the final spin, I couldn’t even see the little quilt for all the soap suds.  I was holding my breath when I opened the door.  As soon as I did, there was an avalanche of suds on the floor.  I finally fished out the little quilt and put it in another washing machine with no soap to let it run through an entire cycle with just water as I figured that was the only way to get all the soap out of it.

We made a decision on Friday that, as we don’t want to leave Smudge alone for too long,  Mr. Q.O. would stay home on Saturday while I went to the Creativ Festival on Saturday and I’d stay home while he went to the baby shower on Sunday.  By the time it finished its second run through a wash and then dried, there was just enough time to put it in the gift bag before Mr. Q.O. had to leave.

Saturday the rain poured down for most of the day.  Sunday we had snow.  It didn’t stay on the ground, but there were a few times I looked out the window and couldn’t believe how heavily the snow was coming down.  Smudge decided the best thing to do was have a snooze.

Small Log Cabin Blocks

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Last week, a new Inklingo collection for a log cabin using .50″ logs was released.  Up until recently, I have never been inclined to make a log cabin but I loved having the rectangles with all the matching points and stitching lines, as there are a lot of uses for rectangles.  On Thursday, though, I started playing with some ideas and printed 2 sets of the logs on 16 pink and 16 green fabrics.  As I’m contemplating stitching this by machine, I printed with a somewhat darker ink than I would use for hand piecing.

After cutting out a few of the logs, I started playing with laying them out using my design book.  I hope to spend some time on the weekend stitching at least a couple of these blocks.  It won’t be a large quilt, probably only a small table topper or teddy bear quilt, but I’m looking forward to seeing the blocks come together.

If I actually stitch these by machine, it’s possible I’ll have made 2 quilts by machine within a couple of weeks.  That’s rather hard to believe!  Today I’ll be working on the baby quilt all day and evening.  It has to be finished up to the point of getting the binding on by the time the night’s over as I’m heading off to the Creativ Festival Saturday afternoon.   I can tack the binding down Saturday night and then wash it on Sunday morning in time for the baby shower.  Then I get to play with the log cabin blocks.

Smudge was posing for the camera Thursday night.  We’re seeing quite a change in him.  He’s much more vocal and wants to have us within his range of vision at all times.

Red and White Again

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One more of the red and white blocks was finished late last week for a grand total of four so far.  I was going to set them with plain white 6″ squares in between, but now that I see them side by side I rather like the effect.  A lot more blocks need to be made before I make that decision.

I couldn’t resist making a red and white 6″ sunflower block.  This is definitely a favourite block to make for me.  Putting the ring of diamonds and triangles together takes no time thanks to continuous stitching.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll end up with sunflowers as the alternate block for the other blocks.

The back of the little sunflower.

A close-up of Smudge relaxing on the couch Wednesday evening.

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Rouenneries Drunkard’s Path

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Over the past week or so, I’ve been stitching the Drunkard’s Path units together into 4-unit blocks.  Last night I decided to lay out some of them.  There are more that are already put together and yet more to be stitched together so it will finish at a decent size for a lap quilt, exactly as I hoped.   An idea for a border for the quilt is starting to form in my mind but until I get all the blocks put together and laid out I’m not making a decision.

The baby quilt top is stitched together.  I didn’t get it basted on Tuesday, so am slightly behind but I do have a little wiggle room in that I can work on it all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday and, if need be, wash and dry it Sunday morning.

Smudge was just waking up from a nap on the couch when we got this photo of him.