Tag Archives: cats

Patchwork of the Crosses – Block 22

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In honour of summer, I just had to make one of the POTC blocks with a floral and some greens.

The back:

We had another glorious hot and humid day. I wish summer lasted more than a couple of months. This weather is fantastic!

I couldn’t resist this shot — as the sun was going down, it was reflecting off the glass in one of the office towers and the gold shining through the leaves was really pretty.

Smudge — I’m not quite sure what that look is saying, but he looks almost small in this shot!

And Lester in his favourite spot — on the windowsill. He stretches right out and shows off his lovely big paws!


Patchwork of the Crosses – Block 21

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Block 21 done — lots of dots and some stripes. This block went together very quickly.

The back:

Wendy at Ivory Spring has been working on a sampler called the Mary Wigham sampler. I’ve been reading Wendy’s posts about this and have been fascinated by it. The sampler itself is something I think I’d love to stitch. Wendy’s posts led me to Needleprint, which is making the idea of the sampler altogether too tempting. I’m trying hard to resist though. I have enough on the go with quilting — at least that’s what I’m trying to tell myself!

Lester, once again enjoying himself on the windowsill.


Patchwork of the Crosses – Block 20

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Block 20 — well, block 20 just had to have all these different stripes in it, all pink or with pink. I couldn’t resist putting these all together and love the effect!

The back:


What an incredible weekend — Saturday very damp and quite cool with temps only in the high teens. Sunday? Sunday was absolutely glorious with temps in the high 20’s and a humidex in the low 30’s (all Celsius). Hot, humid and sunny. Perfect weather for the first day of summer. I live for this hot humid weather every summer. My theory is we need it to thaw out after our winters. The best part? We’re supposed to have this lovely hot, humid weather most of the week.

The planters outside buildings are all a riot of colour. This is just one example outside a building across the street:


Saturday we were out for a while and when I saw these leaves with the raindrops on them, I had to take a picture. The colour of the leaves is incredibly vibrant.

Lester enjoying the windowsill:

Smudge also enjoying it. Check out the crossed paws. He makes me laugh with these poses!


Patchwork of the Crosses

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I decided Thursday night to try auditioning a fabric for the connecting squares. This is interesting, but perhaps a bit dark considering that I’ll be doing some fussy cutting of 1″ squares for the units that are used at the intersections of 4 blocks. We’ve got errands to run today but when we get back, I’ll try some others.

One of the errands may just get us real close to the LQS. Just in case, I’ll have the window templates with me as I want to look for border prints, stripes and paisleys to start getting the fabrics together for the large POTC quilt. Thursday was day 2 of a migraine, and it’s not quite finished yet but I refuse to let it stop me.

Lester mid yawn or perhaps in the midst of saying a little something:

And Smudge relaxing in a typical Smudge position:

Patchwork of the Crosses – Block 19

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Six more blocks to go and I’ll have the 25 for the lap quilt done. It may actually be eight more blocks as I think two of the ones I have need to be replaced, but that’s a decision to be made when the remaining six are done.

As of right now, I think this will be the centre block of the 25. I love the idea of a yellow and orange centre.

The back:

Ideas for a border are floating through my mind already and I keep coming back to something with curved piecing. The other decision to be made is what colour fabric to use for the 1″ connecting squares between blocks. I’m leaning towards something either very bold and bright or something very soft and unobtrusive. Think I’ll finish adding the setting pieces to one more block so that I can start auditioning fabrics for those little squares.

I’m not the only one making these addictive blocks. Charlsey has posted some of the ones she has been making. I love seeing what others are doing with these blocks as they all have such a different look!

Wednesday was an overcast, rainy day, the first of three. They say we will finally get some real summer heat towards the end of next week. I can’t wait.

Lester on the windowsill on Tuesday:

A close-up of Smudge. I think he was practicing his lounge lizard look.


Patchwork of the Crosses — Block 18

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The little Patchwork of the Crosses lap quilt is going to be made of 25 blocks — I think. I’ve got an idea for a pieced border but won’t be sure about that until all the blocks are done. The centre of this little quilt is going to be a yellow/orange block.

This block went together really fast once I had picked the fabrics:

The back:
Lester on Tuesday afternoon, having a snooze on the windowsill. He was very busy a few minutes before this picture was taken watching a robin in the tree right in front of the window.

Smudge snoozing on the love seat. I keep trying to get a shot of him in action but he moves so fast that the pictures are just too blurry!


Patchwork of the Crosses — Block 17

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After looking at the photo taken outside of the 16 blocks, I realized that there are a couple that may need to be replaced as I think they may stand out a bit too much. I want to make this a 20 or 24-block quilt anyway, and have an idea for using the blocks that may be removed.

The other thing I realized is that there’s not much blue in the first 16 blocks. So I picked out the pieces for and made this block — with a little purple for good measure.

The back:

We have these plants in a couple of spots on the roof garden. The colour of the flowers is incredibly vibrant.


A close-up of one of the flowers on the plant.

Lester in his favourite spot on the windowsill Monday afternoon:

And Smudge resting. He has recently discovered that a straw is a great toy. It’s so funny watching him — those enormous paws hitting the straw and batting it around. He gets very intense about it and will play for ages. Other than his caterpillar toy, the straw seems to be the only toy he really enjoys playing with. Lester, on the other hand, will play with just about any of the kitty toys in the basket.


Patchwork of the Crosses — Outdoors

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The outside setting hexagons make a big difference, I think, to the effect I’m getting with the fabrics in these blocks. I’ve got one finished so far and 3 attached to another. Each block has 24 of these setting pieces attached and then they’re joined to one another with 1″ squares.

We took the blocks out to the roof garden on the weekend to see how they looked together in natural light — and without any kitty helpers. I think I’ll make another 4 or possibly 9 in these sorts of fabrics and then will probably have enough for a nice-sized lap quilt.


I’m definitely going to do a full-sized Patchwork of the Crosses, but want to do a lot more fussy cutting to get the same sort of effects Lucy Boston did. This is going to mean a hunt for stripes and directional prints, border prints and paisleys. I love the idea of doing it in predominantly purple fabrics, but am not completely sure about that yet.

Lester in his favourite spot — the windowsill. Look at the look on his face!

And, in a typical Smudge move, resting his eyes while keeping one paw on the kitty scratching post. He’s very possessive about his favourite things sometimes.


Inspiration!

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220 little 6-point stars and no idea what to do with them. Then, out of the blue, I decided to turn them into large diamonds of stars and make a large 6-point star. This will only use up 72 of the stars, but it’s a start. I’m thinking of using diamonds made of 1″ diamonds in one border and then perhaps making diamonds from hexagons in a second border. Sort of keep it all diamond-related, I suppose.

On the weekend I decided to try knitting again. I haven’t been able to knit for ages because of arthritis but I bought some Sea Silk and am going to try to make a lace stole/scarf from Victorian Lace Today. The yarn is very soft and has the most wonderful sheen. Tonight I’ll cast on and hope that I can knit for an hour or so every couple of nights. This will be a long-term project, doing one of my favourite things — knitting lace.

Smudge is very possessive about the caterpillar and pretty well always has it within his reach.

Peonies

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The deluge of work I expected arrived and haven’t had a chance to do much stitching at all this week, but am getting close to finishing piecing the table runner. I think by the time tomorrow night comes around, I will have the piecing finished and can get it basted and start quilting it.

Once the workload eases up a bit, I plan to put together a small quilt using these half hexagon blocks in ’30s prints.

Peonies are my favourite flowers and, when they’re in season I make a point of having a few in a vase. The smell, every time we walk past the piano where the vase is, is just incredible.


This is our little cat, Smokey, who had some serious health problems last summer and finally left us in early September. She was a tiny cat, only about 7 pounds, but she ruled the roost — the two 25-pound boys definitely were no match. She loved it when her basket was placed on a chair — she could watch over the antics of the boys. She had the loudest voice too — we think she may have had some Siamese in her background.