Tag Archives: cats

Arcs for Pickle Dish Block

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Seeing Karen Dianne’s beautiful Pickle Dish block done in Kaffe Fassett fabrics inspired me to get back to work on my Summer Picnic Dish.  Another dish actually got added to those already joined but we didn’t get a photo of that yet.

Putting together the arc/melon combination is something I really enjoy so I think I’ll concentrate on making the arcs for a bit and hopefully get the quilt top finished fairly quickly.  I’m not planning to make the Summer Picnic Dish larger than a lap quilt, so it shouldn’t take too long.

The back of an arc/melon combo.  I prefer to press the arc towards the melon as it ensures that the points of the triangles in the arcs stay as sharp as possible.

Over the past few days I’ve been trying to decide exactly what my goals for this year are as far as quilting goes.  While I have a number of projects on the go that I want to finish, I also want to start concentrating more on designing.  Sometimes I feel like I want to do it all, and I know that’s rather unrealistic.  I’ve flirted with these ideas:

  • make a series of two-colour quilts
  • make a series of heirloom baby quilts
  • concentrate on designing and learning EQ or some other drawing program
  • make a series of shabby chic quilts
  • make a series of batik quilts

It seems like a daunting list, and I’m sure I’ve left off some items.

The baby quilt was basted on Monday and the quilting of it will begin today.  It won’t take long as it’s not a big quilt, but I’d like to have it done and bound by the weekend.  Then I’ll just be waiting to hear what the baby’s name is to finish the label.  Other than the baby quilt and some hand piecing in the evenings, the balance of my quilting time this week is going to be spent on learning EQ.

It was incredibly cold again on Monday and the cats found cozy spots to curl up. Lester on the couch.

And Smudge was in a kitty bed.

Lost and Then Found

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The POTC blocks, that is.  I was looking for a particular fabric and, along with finding it, found these blocks.  I knew they weren’t lost, just incredibly well tucked away.  It was a good thing I found them so easily as this is one of the projects that I’m determined to finish in 2011.

There aren’t many blocks that still need their cream hexagon frame, so I decided to add the framing hexagons to one block on Sunday.  It still needs the purple connecting squares, but those don’t take long to add.

The back:

The weekend was bitterly, bitterly cold.  We’re supposed to get somewhat warmer temperatures on Tuesday, so just have to get through today when they say we may have wind chills of -30 yet again.   I’ll be spending time this afternoon crawling around on our neighbour’s floor as I baste a couple of quilts, including the baby quilt.

On Saturday, we noticed Lester on the loveseat and had to take this picture.  Made us laugh to see his tail hanging straight down to the floor.

Smudge couldn’t resist an empty bag.   He was in it before we could turn around and we got this shot just shortly after he came back out.

More Stormy Seas

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A bit more contrast than the last one.   Putting these blocks together gets easier with each one.  Hopefully that means I’ll be able to keep to my goal of 2 blocks a week.  No guarantees on that as I found myself looking at the autumn colours fabrics I had pulled out for a Winding Ways idea.

There’s another design floating in my mind that’s made with Drunkard’s Path blocks.  That one is as irresistible as the Winding Ways.  So far I haven’t pulled any fabrics for it, but it’s getting awfully close. As soon as the baby quilt is quilted and bound, I have a feeling I’ll be starting one of those two.

My Patchwork of the Crosses blocks seem to have been put away a bit too well.  This may finally teach me to label the boxes in which I put blocks so that I don’t need to go through every one in order to find whatever it is I’m looking for.

Smudge was eating a bit more on his own on Thursday.  Still nowhere near the 250 calories he needs, so the syringe feeding continues.

Earlier in the day, Lester had been grooming Smudge.  Normally, Smudge would never let him do that but these days he seems to be quite enjoying the attention.

A Few Little Blocks

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The final few klosjes are done.  I think my total is somewhere around 120 of them finished.  Once I get a chance to lay them out and figure out the arrangement, it won’t take long to get the little teddy bear quilt put together.

Wednesday night I really couldn’t seem to focus on just one thing so, along with making the final few klosjes, I put together these LeMoyne Stars.  I have a total of 11 of them done, with the pieces for 19 more printed and ready to stitch.  Another baby quilt in the making — this one clearly for a girl as all the stars will be a pink of some sort or another.

The political ads are beginning — although no election has been called yet, it seems it may not be that far off.  I have a feeling we’ll be renting a lot of videos or watching things we’ve recorded so we can fast forward through the ads.   My tolerance for the self-serving or attack ads is zero.  I don’t usually say anything about politics on my blog, but the ad I saw Wednesday night made my skin crawl.  If this is what we have to look forward to, I’d rather ignore the whole thing altogether.

It was very cold on Wednesday and promises to be even colder today.  We are definitely back in the deep freeze for a few days.  Great timing to spend lots of time stitching.  Smudge found a spot to curl up.

While Lester decided to guard the toy basket.

Two Pickled Ladies

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While I’ve made quite a few of the arcs for them, I haven’t put together many of the Pickled Lady blocks this month.  So I thought I’d best get a start on making some for January with these two.

Our weather has been incredibly topsy-turvy the past few days.  We’ve gone from relatively mild for mid-January to bitter cold  to rain and mild and now we’re heading back into the deep freeze for a few days.  At least the rain that fell got rid of most of the snow that lingered.

Smudge decided to sprawl out on the loveseat.  This winter weather definitely means sleepy kitties.

Lester was curled up in a kitty bed.

Low Contrast Stormy Seas

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A low-contrast Stormy Seas block.  I’d like to get this top completed relatively quickly, so am going to try to complete two of the blocks each week.

I’m still trying to resist starting something with the Winding Ways shapes.  There’s something so magical about putting that block together that I find it almost impossible to resist.  I’m trying to bribe myself with the promise I can start a Winding Ways project when I get something finished — the baby quilt, the pink and cream or another toddler quilt that has been waiting to be quilted for ages.

My wrists were hurting Monday, so I decided to stay away from doing anything that would aggravate them and it worked.  By late Monday evening, the pain had pretty well gone completely.   So today I will catch up with responding to comments.

It was a cold day on Monday and both cats found places to snooze.  Lester sprawled out on the loveseat.

Smudge in one of those poses that always makes me laugh.

Piecing a Seven Sisters block — lots of photos

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There were a couple of questions last week about how I pieced a Seven Sisters block so, rather than try to explain it in words, I thought I’d do this mini tutorial.  Lester is hoping this is relaxing and easy to follow.

The first step is to make the seven 6-pointed stars that will be in the block.  For each block, I need 18 white diamonds, 6 half elongated hexagons and 42 blue diamonds for the seven stars.

Once that’s done, the next most important step is to press them making sure that the seam allowances of each star are pressed the same way.  This photo is of a star in a different fabric, which shows the seam allowances a bit better.

My next step is to surround one star, which will be the centre star in the block, with white diamonds.

Because I hand piece, the inset seams are something I look for as it offers the opportunity to continuously stitch around the star.  To add the six white diamonds around the blue star, I used one length of thread.

In this photo you can see, on the white diamonds and half elongated hexagons, that each has the stitching line and crosshairs at the end of each seam.  The lines are printed on my blue fabrics as well, but they don’t photograph as well.  Because of the perfect  stitching lines and crosshairs one gets when printing templates on to the fabric using Inklingo, it makes stitching a block like this a breeze.  I simply match up my crosshairs, pin and stitch.

My next step is to join the six remaining stars with white diamonds so that they’re ready to stitch to the centre star.

Then I pin the first of the strip of six stars to one of the white diamonds surrounding the centre star and start to stitch.  Again, lots and lots of continuous stitching.

A couple of threads are all it takes and the centre star is completely surrounded.

All that’s left to do now is add the six remaining white diamonds and six half elongated hexagons around the outside edge and the block will be done.  Once again, lots and lots of continuous stitching.

The block is finished.  While I didn’t really keep track of the time it took to make the block, I think that it took somewhere around 3 hours in total from making the seven stars to adding the final white diamonds around the outside of the block.

A quick press and it’s ready to be added to the stack of the blue and white Seven Sisters blocks that I am making.

Smudge hopes you found this as relaxing as he did.  He had to go curl up with some softies and have a nap!   He had lost a pound again when we went to the vet.  So we’re continuing the syringe feeding for now and have gone back to the vet-suggested foods.  Sunday night he finally started to eat hard food again for the first time in two months.   We were really encouraged to see that.

Pink and Cream Stars

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All the hand piecing is done and everything is ready to put this top together.  As I’m planning on doing that by machine, I have some hope that it will be a finished top by the time the weekend is over.  As I so rarely use my sewing machine, the sewing table ends up as a collection spot for fabrics I’ve been auditioning for blocks, stacks of blocks for yet unfinished tops, notes that haven’t quite made it into my ideas book and who knows what else is lurking there.  It’s going to be a small treasure hunt organizing and putting everything away.

Every time I need to use the sewing machine I seem to go through this.  Maybe this time I’ll learn my lesson and keep the table clear so that it’s not such a production getting to the point of being able to sew by machine.

Thursday Smudge showed a little interest in food, but nowhere near what he was showing earlier in the week so the syringe feeding continued.  I’m starting to wonder if he has lost his sense of smell which would affect his appetite.  We’re off to the vet with him this afternoon.

Lester has definitely been enjoying all the various foods we’ve had on offer trying to get Smudge to eat.  I know he has put weight on, which isn’t necessarily a good thing for a kitty with a heart condition.  So that’s another thing we’ll be asking the vet about.  Somehow we’ve got to balance the two issues.

Works in Progress

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There’s still a little hand piecing to do on the pink and cream quilt, but I am thinking now about what projects jump to the head of the queue once it and the baby quilt are finished.  Along with the Stormy Seas and Pickled Ladies quilts, the Summer Picnic Dish is definitely moving up the list.  A little more has been done since this photo was taken, but not a lot.

The POTC blocks definitely have to move up the list to be finished and the top put together.

I want to get this piece, which I’ve dubbed star of stars,  basted and quilted.  I know why it has languished this long — because I kept thinking I need to add to it and make it square or rectangular.  But I’ve decided to leave it in a star shape.

I’m going to arrange these applique blocks and get the top put together.

Of the above projects, the one that will take the longest is likely the Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.  On top of this I’m still working on getting to the point I feel confident using EQ6.

My plan for the weekend is to get the fabrics ready and printed for the Summer Picnic Dish as well as finally select the fabric for the 2″ squares used when connecting the POTC blocks and get it printed.

Smudge has a new habit.  When we empty the dishwasher in the morning, he likes to sit on the door.  I may have been a bit premature in thinking we were over the worst of this eating thing with him.  Wednesday he wasn’t interested in food again at all so we immediately went back to the syringe feeding.  I am very grateful he’s so accommodating about that process as I can only imagine how difficult it would be with many kitties.

We caught Lester in the midst of a huge yawn.  This photo makes me laugh.

Seven Sisters

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The third of the blue and white Seven Sisters blocks is done.  This is a very long-term project, as I’ve only made 3 or 4 of them over the past year.  The little stars are amazingly quick to put together and I’ve finally found a stitching sequence when putting the blocks together that involves lots of continuous stitching and seems much faster.

The back:

The baby quilt didn’t get basted on Tuesday, but will this week.  I’m getting very close to putting the pink and cream star top together.  There are only two more blocks left to which I need to add the setting triangles and squares, which I can probably get finished today.  Then it will be time to add the sashing and borders which I plan to do by machine.  At this rate, I’ll be ready to baste it at the same time as the baby quilt — and a couple of other tops that will be wallhangings.

Our vet called on Tuesday and we’re taking Smudge in on Friday for a weigh-in and colour check.  He’s definitely eating more on his own, so it will be interesting to see what his weight is now.

A close-up of Lester.