Tag Archives: Clamshell Club

Rainbow Flower & January Clamshell Report

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The Cranes Circling Flowers at Dusk, aka rainbow flower, is something I can’t resist stitching!  So much so that, when I couldn’t sleep because of a migraine, I was fussy cutting six more flowers and cranes from another fabric at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday.  I have everything cut and printed now for the rest of this piece and hope to have the main piecing finished by mid-week.  When it’s finished, we’re going to have to find a way to photograph it.  The light at this time of year makes for not great photographs.  I can’t wait until spring comes and the roof garden reopens!

When I pulled out the storage container with the Oriental prints and batiks to choose the fabrics in this, I also hauled out the container with striped and directional fabrics. I have a feeling fussy cutting some stripes for this block will be the next thing I play with, although I’m also very tempted to do something with shabby chic fabrics.

I don’t have much to show for the January clamshell report.  While I’ve made lots of the black and white arcs for the Pickled Ladies, I only put together two of the pickled clamshells.  To see the list of and links to participants in the Clamshell Club, go to Cybele’s Patch.

On the weekend, I got a lot of the cream hexagons for the POTC blocks stitched.  At this point, I only need to stitch together the ones needed for two more blocks and that part will be done.  So I feel like progress is being made.  We were taking trying to take a picture of a finished POTC block when Smudge decided he needed to help. You can just see a bit of the block that he’s lying on.

Lester was having a snooze.

December Clamshell Club Report

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The months are flying by — I cannot believe it’s already time for another Clamshell Club report!  The Pickled Ladies had a few new additions in December, but nowhere near as many as I had hoped.  The count is now up to 56 Pickled Ladies made.  I’m going to keep going until I hit around 110 and then lay them out and decide how much, if at all, bigger I want to make it.  It’s hard to think of not making them as they are so much fun!  I’m clearly out of design floor room to lay these out now, so next month will probably only show the new additions.  Once the numbers are up to 110, I will then start working on fussy cutting and printing the setting pieces made up of vertical half and horizontal half clamshells.

To see what other members of the Clamshell Club have reported for this month, go to Cybele’s Patch blog post here.  I’m looking forward to seeing what the others have done.

It’s hard to believe that this is my last post for 2010.  The year seems to have flown by.  Thank you to all who have shared my quilting obsession this year and I hope to share more with you in 2011.  I wish you all a safe and healthy and Happy New Year.

Lester is going to ring out the old year in typical laid-back Lester fashion; having a snooze.

While Smudge is going to treat us to one more of his classic almost headless cat poses for 2010.

October Clamshell Report

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Time for another Clamshell Club report.  The months seem to be flying past!!  This month I made some progress on two clamshell projects — Clam Balloons and the Pickled Ladies.

In October I was actually able to tear myself away from the Pickled Ladies and add another clamshell diamond block, so now there are three.  Two of the three are quite similar in that there’s a lot of the same fabrics in them, but once there are more blocks done and they are separated from one another I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.   Mr. Q.O. says they remind him of hot air balloons which led me to a name for the quilt, Clam Balloons.

I have been so focussed on stitching the Pickled Ladies that I forgot just how much fun it is to put the clamshell diamonds together, and how quick.  Two evenings of stitching and the diamond was done.  Getting enough of the clamshell diamonds done to be able to sort out placement is a goal I have now for the end of the year. Then I can start adding the black sashing where necessary as well as the setting pieces and hopefully have this done rather quickly.  The Clam Balloons won’t be a large bed quilt, but rather a good-sized lap quilt.  I think it will be a great one to have in the winter as all those lovely bright colours that will make me think of summer.

There are now 43 Pickled Ladies, with another 35 or 40 waiting to be stitched. Some exotic Asian florals have been added to the mix.  There are lots of little pieces waiting for me to stitch to make the arcs, and I plan to work on those this evening. This will be a long-term project as I’m pretty sure that I will keep going on this until it’s a bed-sized quilt.

One thing I really do need to do is sit down and figure out how many I’ll need for a bed-sized quilt and make some window templates for the setting pieces that I’ll use to square it off.  Having the window templates will mean that I can print and cut those setting pieces as I’m printing and cutting the clamshells.  And I know myself — if I leave that all to the end, I’ll keep putting it off and putting it off but if I have all the pieces ready to stitch, then the quilt top will get finished as soon as there are enough of the Pickled Ladies.  I have a feeling I have less than a quarter of the blocks I’ll need for the quilt, so I’d best get back to work on them!

The cats have had a very relaxing weekend.  Smudge:

Lester:

August Clamshell Club Report

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I didn’t get a lot done to show for the August Clamshell Club report but early in the month, I did add sashing to the first of the clamshell diamond blocks I’ve made. Although I’ve now printed enough sashing for a number of blocks I won’t know until I get them all done where they will be situated, so will delay adding sashing to the other blocks until I’ve figured out the placement.

August was pretty well taken up working on a baby quilt, so not a lot of attention got paid to my clamshell projects.  However, when the new Inklingo clamshell pickle collections came out on the weekend, I couldn’t resist and have, so far, made one of each of the three sizes — 6″, 9″ and 11″ ones.  The design possibilities with this variation of a clamshell are seemingly endless.  I have a design in mind that will use all the sizes.  This photo shows the 3 sizes on top of one another.

The next photo shows them laid out separately and gives, I think, a good idea of the difference in sizes.  They all seem huge in comparison to the size of the ones I’m using in the first picture.

As the baby quilt which has taken so much of my attention will be done within a couple of days, I expect to have a fair bit of progress to show in September’s Clamshell Club post.  Now I can’t wait to check out the progress of other Clamshell Club participants.

The weather for us is wonderful for this late in the summer — lovely and hot and humid.  I don’t think it will last too long, so am enjoying it as long as it lasts.

Lester was enjoying it too.

While Smudge was more interested in sitting in the desk chair.

July Clamshell Report

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One more clamshell diamond was finished this month.  I had hoped to finish Pink Clamshells, one of the smaller clamshell projects I’ve got on the go, this month but that just didn’t happen.  Maybe next month.  The pieces for the third clamshell diamond have been picked out and are ready to stitch.

I also started making a little quilt I’m calling Clams on the Half Shell with half and quarter clamshells using the Inklingo 3-inch clamshell edges collection.  This little quilt will have half clamshells in the centre, a plain first border, a second border made up with quarter clamshells and finally, another plain border.  The half clamshells are as much fun to put together as the full clamshells and the quarter clamshells are very quick to stitch.  In the picture below there’s only one block of quarter clamshells put together so far, but a few of the half clamshells.  To see some other examples of quilts that could be made with half clamshells, go to Linda’s blog post here.

Hopefully in August I’ll get both the Clams on the Half Shell and Pink Clams small quilt tops finished as well as making the third diamond.

Lester had some windowsill time on Friday.

While it was Smudge’s turn to curl up with the teddy bear.

Clamshell Club

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When I first read about the Clamshell Club on Cybele’s Patch, I was immediately captivated and now somehow I seem to have three clamshell projects on the go at once!  It’s worth it to go over to Cybele’s Patch blog and visit the other clamshell makers listed there.

My first project is being made with the Inklingo 3″ clamshell collection and will be at least a lap-sized quilt.  I fell in love with the quilt in Kaffe Fassett’s Museum Quilts and am using Kaffe fabrics for my diamonds of clamshells.  I’m hand piecing all of the projects and have found that even pressing them is simpler than I expected.  This is the back of my first of the Museum Quilts quilt block.

The second project is also being made with the 3″ clamshells and will turn into a teddy bear or doll’s quit.

The third project is going to be another small quilt telling the story of some pink clams making their way out of the water on to a beach.  I’ve just got started on it and for this one I’m using the Inklingo 3.5″ clamshell collection.

By this time next month when it’s time to report on clamshells again,  I think the two small quilts will be finished and hopefully at least 1 or 2 more clamshell diamonds for the large quilt will be done.

This is the second week in a row I have no flowers to add to my garden.  I’m hoping to have at least 3 or 4 to show next week.

Tuesday I got this shot of Lester and, although it’s a bit fuzzy, couldn’t resist posting it.  It makes me laugh just to look at it.  If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you’ll see his tongue is out.

Smudge was quite intently looking at something I was holding just above the camera when I took this shot.

Clamshells

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For a very long time I have been fascinated by clamshell quilts.  Then I got a copy of Kaffe Fassett’s Museum Quilts book and was sure a clamshell quilt was in my future — somehow.  There is no way my hands will stand up to tracing templates, but I could dream about it.  Then I learned about the Clamshell Club and wanted to join in but knew I wouldn’t be able to do it, so decided I’d just enjoy watching others, like Karen,  make them.

Then, last night, a fabulous Inklingo clamshell collection was released.  Problem solved!!  I’ve joined the Clamshell Club and will be working on a quilt of clamshells now.  Perfect shapes every time and wonderful matching points which make stitching these little gems a delight!  Just a plain running stitch, no basting or stitching over papers for me!  Although there is a page of the shape without seam allowances in the collection that one could print out and use for English Paper Piecing, if wanted.  I had printed out about 400 clamshells on a variety of fabrics within minutes of downloading the collection.

A close-up of one of the printed sheets of fabric which shows, if you click on it to enlarge the photo, the stitching lines and matching points.

They are incredibly quick and easy to stitch thanks to the matching points.  If I had picked out the fabrics for this diamond of clamshells ahead of time, I think I could have finished that first diamond easily.  But I was auditioning fabrics as I went, which slowed me down a bit.  So much for completely devoting my stitching time to the Spring Circles.  As the Clamshell Club officially starts on June 1,  I just couldn’t resist getting a start on the clamshells but they are going to be in the wings waiting until I finish the quilt for my aunt.  I may work on them one evening a week until then, but no more than that.

The back of the clamshells I’ve put together so far.  Not the best pressing job I’ve ever done, but I was being extra careful not to distort the shapes as they’re nothing but bias.

Monday was quite hot and humid and I had a migraine that just would not quit.  It finally started to rain late in the evening and the headache started to lift so I was left with just the bruised head feeling that one gets from those.

Lester was enjoying the windowsill and watching the robins and grackles.

And this is what I wake up to almost every day.  Smudge loves to curl up on my pillow and often will rest either his head or a paw on my head.  Mr. Q.O. got this shot before I even woke up.