Tag Archives: cats

Hexagon Rows

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This is the other hexagon project I’m working on.  It will be a large lap quilt composed of  row after row of hexagons.  They’re in no particular order, just added as I stitched them into rows.  I had lots of these 1″ hexagons from various swaps on the Inklingo list and knew I wanted to do something other than a traditional GFG quilt, so decided to do this.  It is going to be very colourful when finished.  All the rows are stitched so now it’s just a matter of stitching the rows to one another, which really doesn’t take all that long.  A portion of the back:

One thing I have learned is to press as I go.  So after I add each row, I press.  When I made this king-sized shabby chic quilt out of 1″ elongated and regular hexagons, I left the pressing to the end.  That was a very big mistake.  It took hours of standing at the ironing board.

Lester has a favourite toy.  It’s a blue and white ball that makes a jingling noise when moved.  He keeps it in his kitty bed most of the time and loves to spear it with a claw and wiggle it about to make the noise.  Yesterday he tossed it out of his bed and then appears to have decided he had to make sure Smudge couldn’t get it so he was lying like this, sound asleep, with the ball right under his chin.  For good measure he had another toy there as well.

Smudge, on the other hand, was back in full lounge mode.  As usual, he knew he was having his picture taken — if you look closely, you can see that one eye is just barely open.

A Framed Spring POTC Block

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I know I said I was going to keep joining the cream hexagons but I couldn’t resist and just had to add the cream hexagons and purple squares to this block.  Our weather feels so much like spring and a pink and green block says spring to me so I went with it.   For some reason the darker pink hexagons aren’t showing as their true colour in this photo.  It’s not quite as red as it appears.

The back of the block.  When I was joining the cream hexagons to the block, I used two colours of thread — green and a deep pink.

This photo is definitely a contender in the “where is his head” category.  When we saw Lester lying like this, we practically fell over each other to get the camera.

Smudge in a photo that is a bit soft focus, but I love the expression on his face.

Patchwork of the Crosses

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Remember these?  That picture is one I posted about 5 months ago of 9 of the Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses blocks .  There are others that have been surrounded by the white hexagons and purple batik squares but not all of them yet.  It’s time to get these done and find the right fabric for the connecting squares at the intersection of the blocks.  So what have I been working on?

The surrounding cream hexagons are what I’ve been working on.   I join them into groups of three which I’ll later join to make the frame for each block.  I have a stack of these cream hexagons all printed and cut out, ready to stitch and that’s what I’m going to concentrate on until that stack is all put together into frames ready to stitch to the blocks.  It has been so long now that I can’t remember how many more I’ll need to print, so once I get this grouping of them stitched I’ll be able to figure out how many more I need to complete the top.  While I work on these, I’m going to contemplate whether I want to make a few more of the blocks with some other fabrics, just for fun to see what other effects I can get with some stripes and other directional fabrics.

We had another early spring day on Tuesday, marvelous really for mid March.  But it sounds like winter isn’t quite done with us as we’re going to drop from temperatures around the mid 50s down to wind chills in the minus range sometime between Sunday and Monday.  I hope the forecast is wrong and that the cold weather will miss us.

Lester is ready for spring.  He’s spending more and more time on the windowsill or, to be more precise, on the heating unit stretched out, watching out the window for that first bird or squirrel to make an appearance.

Smudge won’t bother until he hears the birds.  The windowsill is really Lester’s territory.  Smudge is much more interested in looking cute and getting attention than paying attention to what’s going on outdoors.  Who could resist this face?

Harpsichord Quilt Blocks

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Two more of the Harpsichord Quilt blocks done.  It has been quite a while since I worked on these little beauties.  On the weekend I got out my Patchworks of Lucy Boston book and was again so inspired by all the beautiful patchworks she made.  The original patchwork made by Lucy Boston using this design is called the Keyboard Patchwork but because of the gorgeous harpsichords we saw two summers ago I decided my version of that patchwork would be called the Harpsichord Quilt.

The back of the blocks:

Yesterday, Karen Dianne asked about supplies for and where people hand piece.  I have no particular set-up.  I piece wherever I have good light.  That’s the most important ingredient for me.  I piece on the couch when watching television, outside on the roof garden, anywhere there is good light.  All I need are needles, thread,  thread snips and my finger pincushion.  The finger pincushion was a gift from a friend and is worth its weight in gold.  I am so used to using it now that I feel lost without it.   I usually wear it on the index finger of my left hand when hand piecing, although I know a lot use it on their thumbs, and that’s where I park the needles that I use as pins.

#12 sharps are both needles and pins when I hand piece.  They are much finer than any pin I’ve ever tried and don’t throw a seam off when pinning.  I pin one step ahead of myself rather than pinning a whole seam.  When I reach the pin/needle, I move it to the next spot of the seam where I want a pin and so on to the end of the seam.  As I use Inklingo to print my templates on to the back of the fabric and as the templates all have matching points, all I need to do is line up the matching points, pin through them and then stitch.

Thread is a whole other matter.  I love using YLI Heirloom, YLI Select, DMC and Mettler 60/2 threads.  I’m one of those who likes to match thread to the fabric I’m stitching.  In the picture above, there are spools of black, grey, cream and blue thread.  For the Harpsichord block that has the blue squares I used three different threads — the black, the blue and the cream.  The black thread was used for all seams that involved the black fabric.  The cream thread was used when I was joining the outer beige octagons.  When I added the cream octaagons around the block, I used both black and blue thread.  I think I have as much fun picking out the right threads as I do hand piecing the blocks.

The grey YLI thread in the photo is one of my favourites when piecing something that is completely scrappy and has many, many colours in it.  I used it to piece my shabby chic king-sized quilt and am using it to put together the other hexagon top on which I’m currently working.  It seems to melt into the seam and match just about every colour. Except for black fabric, that is.  Whenever I work with black fabric, I use black thread.

The cats aren’t the least bit interested in any of it except for the finger pincushion.  That appears to have magic kitty attraction powers.  Lester, in particular, likes to spear it with a claw.

He was sprawled right out of his kitty bed Monday.

Smudge was, I think, contemplating what mischief he could get into.

Farmer’s Delight Block #6

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Another Farmer’s Delight block done.  I think I’ll try to work on different projects each evening this week.  I unearthed one hexagon UFO this weekend that I really do want to start working on a little bit more diligently so it will show up this week as well as some of the Harpsichord Quilt blocks, perhaps a Patchwork of the Crosses block and who knows what else.

Sunday was nowhere near as rainy and windy as they had predicted.  At least the rain held off for the St. Patrick’s Day parade.  That, to me, is always a sure sign of spring.

It was a grey day again, though, and both cats found good spots to curl up.  Smudge on the chair.

And Lester in one of the cat beds.

Saturday Klosjes … on Sunday

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These are the spool blocks I stitched on Saturday.  I’m coming to the end of the stack of pieces that I had printed and cut out for these little  blocks. One more week of stitching and they will be all finished.  Then I’ll decide how many more I want to add.

To that end, I pulled out a bunch of charms that will, for the most part, go with the fabrics I’ve already used.  Now it’s just a matter of ironing them on to freezer paper and then sending them through the printer to print the half long 90-degree hexagon and the 1″ squares.  I’ll have to print some more of the half hexagons on muslin as well.

It was a very rainy, windy day here Saturday.  Today is supposed to be more of the same.  I’m planning on spending most of the day playing with fabric and an idea that seems to be working its way to the top of my ideas list.

Lester is much more restrained about drinking water than Smudge but he gets water on his chin too — as this shot shows.

Smudge knows what to do on a rainy, windy day — curl up and look as gorgeous as possible so as to get as much attention as possible.

Getting Ready To Stitch Saturday

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The Farmer’s Delight block is almost finished and will be finished tonight but I also had to get some more shapes ready for Klosjes Saturday.  I’m hoping to get all these pieces stitched into the tiny spools blocks on Saturday.

Am I ever glad I didn’t get a permanent colour done on Wednesday!  When I looked at it yesterday morning, I realized that I really do like my silvery white hair.  Perhaps if I’d been able to get a red rinse that was close to my original hair colour I might have liked it better, but my hairdresser told me that wasn’t going to work in a temporary rinse.   I spent about 20 minutes in the drugstore last night trying to find a clarifying shampoo so I can encourage the fading/washing out to take place faster.  No luck at that drugstore, but I’ll go to a larger one with more stock on Saturday.   If I have to wash my hair 5 times a day for a week or two to get rid of this rinse, I’ll do it.  I think my hairdresser got a little scissor happy too.  When he styled it, it wasn’t so obvious but when I tried to do anything with it yesterday I realized just how short it was.  At the moment I feel like a human Q-tip, as one of my friends says.  I won’t need to get it cut again for at least 3 or 4 months.  Thank goodness we’re going into the summer when hair grows somewhat faster!

Lester is spending more time on the windowsill.  He’s even having naps stretched out there.  I guess he’s determined to spot the first robin.

We caught Smudge in the midst of yawning.  It’s a bit blurry as his head was moving, but I couldn’t resist posting this one.

Quaker Patchwork Sampler, Part 3

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A little more was done on the sampler.  I seem to be getting into a bit of a routine of stitching this, picking it up once a week to add a few more stitches.  I’ll certainly not win any speed records getting this done, but am enjoying every minute I do spend on it.  I still look at each motif and see a quilt block.  I was contemplating duplicating some of the motifs using 1/2″ squares for each stitch.  I don’t know if I’ll do that, but the idea rather intrigues me.

Another mild day Wednesday.  And our forecast is looking better and better as far as nice mild temperatures go, although rainy.  This has to be the warmest it has ever been this early in March.

I got my hair cut again on Wednesday and this time had a temporary rinse put in.  I had wanted to tone down the silvery white a bit and when my hairdresser said this rinse will just fade/wash out over the next 6 to 8 weeks, I figured it was worth a try.  The rinse is a sort of light beige blonde that is going to take me a bit to get used to.  Probably by the time I grow accustomed to it, it will be fading completely.  At least this way I get to try it out without worrying about upkeep or touch-ups and, if I decide I really don’t like it, it will be gone in less than two months

Lester had another busy day on the windowsill and was in need of some rest Wednesday evening.

While Smudge was wide awake and alert:

Farmer’s Delight Beginning

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Now that the Olympics are over and I’ve put the spools aside until Saturday, I’m back to working on the Farmer’s Delight blocks.  This is the beginning of the next block. I have the outer strip of triangles to put together then I’ll stitch the two triangle strips together before joining them to the centre.  While the block looks quite complex it is, thanks to Inklingo, amazingly quick and easy to put together.  All the triangles in this block have a curve of some sort on one edge.  When I’m putting the triangle strips together, it’s just lots and lots of lovely continuous stitching.  This shot shows the back of the first triangle strip.

Has anyone else been running into problems leaving comments on blogs?  I’m finding it impossible to leave comments on 5 or 6 of my favourite Blogger/Blogspot blogs.  It started out with just one last week and now has grown to 5 or 6.  I’ve tried using different browsers on both the Mac and the PC, but no success.  The one thing I’ve noticed is that when I click on a couple of them, a small window pops up asking whether it’s okay to allow the Lucinda font.

Lester was very busy Tuesday watching a grackle pecking away at the lawn on the roof garden.  After watching for quite a while, he had to have a rest on the windowsill.  I think we’re back to the windowsill shots for a few months.

While Smudge was back in the kitty bed after having had another swim in the water bowl.

Spools and More Spools

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I couldn’t resist making a couple more spools in yet another size.  These finish at 3 3/8″.  I still prefer the small ones but think I’ll probably end up making a quilt that incorporates all three sizes, although the small ones will be the predominant ones.

Here are all three of the sizes I’ve made together with 3 actual spools of thread in different sizes.  I think of them as economy size, large and regular spools.

It was Mr. Q.O.’s birthday yesterday.  About ten years ago, we found this little music box in a store called “The Elegant Garage Sale.”   When wound up, it plays “Happy Birthday.”  Once we saw the teddy bears in it, there was no question it was coming home with us.  It’s now our tradition to wind it up and play it on our birthdays.

The detail on this is incredible.  Here you can see the little birthday cake with the candle.

And here’s one of the little teddy bears who had been into the cake, it seems.  He’s given away by the icing on his fur.

The boys were relaxing after a day of helping Mr. Q.O. celebrate his birthday.  If you look closely, you can see that Smudge has been drinking — the fur on his face is still a bit damp.

Lester was doing what he does best — stretched out, relaxing.