Tag Archives: cats

Blues on Monday

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I exchange fabric gifts with a friend whose husband makes regular trips to Toronto on business.  This time when we went to his hotel to drop off the bag to be taken back home to my friend, this is the bag the concierge gave me.  With the pink bow, we had to take the picture of the bag with the tiny white bear who also has a pink/red bow!

Look at these gorgeous blue fabrics that were in that bag!!  Something tells me there’s another blue and white or blue and cream quilt in my future — and not too far off!  I have a lot of ideas that are swirling around in my mind already!

The red and white, blue and white, green and white, pink and white, yellow and white, purple and white blocks for the baby quilt are done and there are only a few of the peach and white blocks left.  I didn’t get as much stitching done Monday night as I had anticipated, but will definitely finish them off tonight.  Then the fun will begin — laying them out and figuring out which colours/fabrics of the other element surrounds each block.  That’s the part of making this baby quilt that I’m most looking forward to.  Once I get the placement all figured out, then it will be lots and lots of lovely continuous stitching that should go quite quickly.

On the way to the hotel Monday afternoon, more photos were taken.  We travelled down University Avenue, a wide street in the downtown core that has beautiful tress and flowers in the boulevard separating the northbound and southbound lanes.

Back at home later Monday, Smudge was busy with the Cappy toy again.

While Lester was on the windowsill.

Shopping on Friday

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On Friday we went to Staples, one of our favourite stores it seems, and then to the pet store.  While Mr. Q.O. drove, I was taking pictures.  The above one is of the streets we travel along to get to Staples, just after we turned on to it.  It’s pretty even in the dead of winter because of the tree limbs.

A little further along the street.  This is one of my favourite streets in the downtown area.  The houses are all rather fascinatingly quirky.  It must be rather wonderful to live there with nothing but trees to see out one’s front windows.

We’re almost there now.

Even the parking lot at Staples is surrounded by trees.

Then we were off to the pet store.  On the way, we went along the street on which the emergency vet clinic is found.  More trees and planters out in front of buildings.

And for those buildings where there’s no room to put out a planter?  They find room somewhere on the building.

On Sunday we had thunderstorms and rain.  This was taken from our living room window as the rain was absolutely pelting down.

My plans for the weekend as far as quilt-related things went pretty well.  I didn’t quite finish piecing the blocks for the baby quilt, but only have 9 or 10 left to go.  If there’s a good baseball or soccer game on tonight, I’ll likely be able to finish those up then.  But the big accomplishment for me was that I did manage to sit down and start learning EQ.  I m so impressed with the capabilities — and that’s after barely scratching the surface.  Once I started working my way through the lessons in the manual, I was pleasantly surprised to realize it is much more intuitive than I initially thought.

I have a Mac and really dislike having to put PC-related software on it.  However, at Christmas, Mr. Q.O. found a great used PC laptop so on Saturday morning I loaded EQ on it and started.  About four hours later and I was already feeling like I could manage to design a quilt.  I’m not finished working my way through the lessons but will spend a little time each day this week on it so that I don’t lose what I’ve learned so far.

I have EQ6 and, as I hadn’t used it, I didn’t take advantage of the pre-release upgrade price for EQ7.  So for those of you out there who do have EQ7, I’d be very interested in hearing what you think are the benefits of EQ7 over EQ6.  Are there more blocks in the block library, more capabilities?  What struck you first when you started using it as being a great-to-have feature?

Smudge was quite alert on Saturday evening as he lounged about on the couch.

While Lester was catching up on some sleep.

Friday Fabric Picks

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For some reason, this group of fabrics is really calling to me.  Somehow a small square or round table mat that could be under a centrepiece keeps coming to mind along with a set of placemats.

This second group is one that I think I’d like to use for a small quilt, possibly of hexagons and stars.  I was actually hunting for my container full of hexagons, with no success, when I started looking at fabrics on Thursday evening.  I got an idea when I started playing with some of the layout pages in the new free Inklingo Hexagon Quilt Design Book which was released on Thursday.  Guess this means the coloured pencils will be in use again unless I become proficient in EQ overnight.  This weekend I am going to spend some time trying to get to the point I can do some things in EQ.  It sounds like it’s going to be an incredibly hot and humid weekend, so perhaps it’s a good time to attempt to learn it.

Thursday night, we were invited to go see Winnie.  She refuses to allow anyone to groom her and her fur mats terribly, so periodically the lion cut is the only solution.

Mr. Q.O. found this video of the lyre bird on YouTube.  It is really quite amazing to hear how well the bird imitates so many sounds — definitely worth a watch!

Along with trying to learn EQ this weekend, I plan to get the pieced blocks for the baby quilt finished so that it will be just a matter of stitching them together with the joining shapes.

On Thursday, Lester had some windowsill time.

A Smudge profile.

Foliage and Flowers

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We had to run a few errands on Wednesday and, as Mr. Q.O. drove, I was taking pictures of the various trees and planters along Bay Street, one of the main streets in downtown Toronto.  This top one is in front of a hotel quite near us.

This is one of my least favourite parts of the city, but Mr. Q.O. really likes this photo so …

Toronto is a very green city, with lots of trees and planters out on the street, as can be seen in these.

The new grocery store was opened on Wednesday — and wow, what an improvement!!  The old store was desperately in need of renovation and new management and that’s what has happened.  The choices we now have are fabulous, the store seems much more spacious even though it’s in the same space and it is so modernized that it will be a real treat to shop there.  I used to think going downstairs to the grocery store was a bore.  While I’m sure the novelty of the new store will wear off, going downstairs to shop is going to be much more enjoyable!  We are quite spoiled in that we have the grocery store, a drugstore, electronics store, florists, post office outlet, couple of restaurants, 4 or 5 different coffee places, huge bookstore, shoe store, couple of hair salons, card/stationery store, jewellery store, luggage and leather goods stores,  clothing stores, a branch of one of the major banks, a couple of opticians, a chocolate shop, a specialty cheese shop, a furniture store, a linens and towels shop, a multi-screen theatre, dry cleaners, shoe repair and probably something else I’ve completely forgotten about in the retail mall.  During the cold winter months, it is the perfect place to live!

Lester was quite interested in something he saw out on the roof garden on Wednesday afternoon.

While Smudge was very interested in having his picture taken.

Fabric Plans

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This group of fabrics could, I think, make a really pretty table topper.  I keep looking at them and daydreaming about some patterns I think would show them off.  But until the baby quilt is done, daydreaming is all that will happen about that design idea.  The reason I want to finish the baby quilt so fast?  Because I’d like to have it finished while we can still take photos out on the roof garden.  It is going together quite quickly, but it will take me at least another 3 weeks to finish it.

All of the above is a way of letting you know that quilt content here may be in rather short supply as I’m keeping this one under wraps until it’s done.  I may miss a day or two here and there while I complete this little quilt.  Or I may just keep showing groups of fabrics I’m daydreaming about turning into projects.

By Tuesday afternoon, the after-effects of the migraine were gone and I felt back to normal.  However, I am once again behind in replying to comments and visiting blogs but will remedy that over the next few days.

Today we get to see what the new grocery store in the retail part of our complex is like.  We are so spoiled with a full grocery store in the building but while it has been closed for renovations for the past few months we’ve had to find other grocery stores in the area at which to shop.  I will be so glad to have the convenience back of having that store downstairs.  Because we were so used to the store always being there and open 7 days a week, we never really planned and did a big shop at any one time but would just pop downstairs and pick up whatever was needed on a daily basis.  It was a real eye-opener having to think ahead when going out to shop once or twice a week.

Lester spent some time on the windowsill Tuesday.  Smudge was there earlier in the day as a few pigeons decided to come investigate the roof garden, but no photo as he was moving the whole time he was on the windowsill.

However, we did get this shot of him later in the day.

Baby Quilt Block 1

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So far 20 of the 49 of these blocks I need for the baby quilt are done.  All the pieces for these blocks are cut out and the others printed, so now it’s solely a matter of stitching them.

Monday was a monster migraine day.  I basically got nothing done and didn’t even look at EQ.  I did start to leaf through the manual but quickly put it down.  I am determined to learn it, although I have a feeling it may be the weekend before I look at it again.  This week is going to be a bit busier than I had anticipated and I know that when I do sit down to start learning the program, I want to be able to dedicate blocks of time to it rather than a hit-and-miss half hour here or there.

Smudge was curled up most of Monday.

As was Lester, but we had this photo from the weekend of him in his usual spot on the windowsill.

Fabrics for Baby Quilt

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All the pieces for the baby quilt are printed.  About a third are cut out and ready to stitch.  While I’m making this scrappy, it’s going to be controlled scrappy with shades of 7 colours — red, blue, pink, green, yellow, purple and peach with a white as the background fabric.  Printing all the shapes needed for the quilt took less than an hour.  What took time this weekend was planning it.  I spent hours on Saturday with coloured markers and a printed-out layout, colouring in where each piece will go to meet my goal of ensuring no two pieces of the same colour are beside each other.

That convinced me — I have to make the effort to learn EQ.  I’ve tried before with limited success mostly because sitting in front of the computer trying to learn it feels like work.  But after spending hours and hours on Saturday and countless printed-out layouts later, I realize how much quicker and easier it would have been had I been able to do that part of the planning in EQ.

So my goal for this week?  As it looks like work has hit the August slow-down, I’m going to spend at least an hour or two each day learning EQ.  Between Inklingo and EQ, I would have the best possible combination for planning quilts.  Along with that, I’m going to try to work solely on the baby quilt for the next week or so and see if I can get the top put together quickly.

It was a rather overcast weekend with light rain on and off so it worked out perfectly for planning the quilt and getting the shapes printed.

Sunday afternoon the cats were curled up.  Smudge with a teddy bear.

Lester on the pink chair.

Summer Picnic Dish

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A bit more has been done on the Summer Picnic Dish.  While I’m working on the baby quilt, I’m going to try to set aside a few evenings per week when I work on some of my other projects.  The Summer Picnic Dish is one of those projects.  How large I’ll make this is still up in the air.  I think it will be a good-sized lap quilt.

While out on the roof garden taking the above picture, we got some of the various flowers.  The hosta are now all blooming.

We noticed a bee fly into one of the hosta flowers and got this close-up.  I think if you click on the photo to enlarge it, you’ll see the bee.

I love the splash of red on this flower.

Once again, they forecast the possibility of thunderstorms on Thursday and once again there wasn’t even a drop of rain.  It was breezy but quite sunny and there were only a few clouds to be seen.

Smudge curled up for a while Thursday afternoon to catch up on some sleep.

Lester was on duty on the windowsill.

Designing a Quilt

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What does a shampoo bottle have to do with designing a quilt?  I don’t know, but shampoo seems to be a definite aid.  Whenever I’m playing with ideas for a quilt and then wash my  hair, the idea for the quilt comes to me almost immediately.  In the case of the baby quilt, the entire quilt was planned before I even rinsed the shampoo out including how it will be quilted and what I’ll name it.

This happens over and over.  Whenever I’m working on a plan for something to do with a quilt and have hit a snag, it almost invariably sorts itself out while I wash my hair.   I wonder what it is about shampooing that makes creativity flow.

I then stash shopped and gathered a grouping of fabrics to audition for the quilt.  Not all of these will make their way into the quilt.

Finalizing just which fabrics I’ll use is still going on, but a few of the choices are definite so I was able to cut and print enough fabric for the first 7 blocks last night.

While sitting out on the roof garden, I got this shot of the sky.  The forecast had said we might have thunderstorms and periodically a big dark cloud would appear only to float away and be replaced by these wispy ones.  The heat and humidity are ongoing, but I am not complaining.  The cold winter weather will be here all too soon, so I want to soak up as much of this warmth as I can.

For a while Wednesday afternoon, I was looking at websites for expats living in places like Ecuador and Costa Rica.  The thought of winter coming usually drives me to think about things like moving to a milder climate.  Although I doubt we’d ever do it, it’s fun to look and daydream.

Smudge wasn’t daydreaming in this shot.

Lester in his usual summer spot on the windowsill.

Harpsichord Blocks

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The Harpsichord Quilt blocks have been neglected for months, it seems.  They were last seen here.  The story behind why I’m calling this the Harpsichord Quilt can be seen here.  Tuesday night I decided to remedy that neglect by making two of them, one with partial sashing and one without.  The backs:

I was going to make a flower or two for One Flower Wednesday, but in my organizing I have managed to put the box containing all the hexagons I have cut out and ready to stitch in a very safe spot.  So safe, in fact, that I can’t find it.  I’m sure it will eventually turn up.

While we were at the birthday celebration for my aunt on Sunday, Mr. Q.O. got this shot of the view from the dining room.

It was very hot and humid here on Tuesday but we spent an hour or two out on the roof garden where it was wonderful.  It’s always somewhat cooler and there was a wonderful breeze.  While out there, I got all the planning for the baby quilt done.  A little stash shopping is the next step.

Tuesday afternoon, Smudge was quite content to curl up on the sofa.

While Lester was curled up on the floor.