Tag Archives: clamshell pickle blocks

Fabrics for Pickled Ladies

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On Saturday we went up to Sew Sisters as I wanted to look for more florals for the Pickled Ladies blocks.  I found these and then, on Sunday, went through the final container of shabby chic fabrics here and found another great grouping.  So now I think I’m getting close to the halfway mark with florals for the clamshells.  I’m thinking of adding some Oriental florals into the mix as there are some that play quite nicely with the shabby chic.

As well as the florals, I found some great blacks that will work perfectly for the spiky triangles in the arcs.  There are some super black fabrics around now and they’re light enough on the back that printing the shapes with Inklingo is no problem.  I find that now I look at the back of fabrics when choosing them and am surprised at just how many dark fabrics are quite light on the back.  This photo doesn’t really show the black fabrics that well — they’re much darker than they appear in this.  I think I had the flash on when I took the photo.

Sunday afternoon I got out my window template and fussy cut and printed enough of the clamshells to keep me stitching for a couple of weeks.  Using a window template makes it so easy and quick that I had close to 30 blocks ready in next to no time.

Friday we had temperatures in the 90s.  Saturday?  Saturday it was maybe in the low 60s but very breezy and it felt unbelievably chilly after that heat the day before. The sky on Saturday looked so stormy, although we had nothing but a few sprinkles of rain.  We got this shot just down the street from Sew Sisters.

This one of some of the trees in the area looks very much like fall to me.  I kept saying to Mr. Q.O. that the clouds looked like snow clouds.  Hopefully we don’t see any of that white stuff until January or February.

Last week I went to visit one of the blogs I read, Ann Champion‘s, and got a warning about malicious content.  On Sunday, Ann posted about what had happened — all as a result of links left in comments to pages that no longer exist.  It seems Google has a bot that crawls through links on blogs and if a link doesn’t work, the warning goes up about that blog.  Rather than repeat what Ann wrote, I’d suggest you go to Ann’s blog and read about her experience.  What it has made me realize is that links in comments are something I’m going to go through and delete.  It’s going to take a couple of weeks to do so but, after reading about Ann’s experience, I’m thinking I’d rather be pro-active on this issue.  I think I’ll also test any links I had in older posts and, if they no longer work, then I’ll delete them as well.  Ann wrote, “As you have time..go through your blog and check your links.  Active links of any kind are considered dangerous by the Google ‘bot’ when they reside in your comments,” so I think it’s worth the effort.

We had the heat on, on and off, during the weekend.  At one point, Lester was sitting on the windowsill and the warm air blowing up from the heating unit was making his ruff look rather  — well, interesting.

Smudge we caught in mid-yawn.

Pickled Ladies 13 & 14 and Progress to Date

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Two more pickled ladies were completed this week.

And here’s the group of pickled ladies so far.

They were laid out on the floor and, while I was picking them up after the photograph was taken, Lester was very interested!  I was racing to pick them up before he came to inspect as he has a tendency to want to lick and/or bite things like quilt blocks.

Smudge was curled up in a kitty bed with his favourite toy, Cappy, well and truly anchored beneath him and a couple of other toys within paw’s reach.  You can just see the tip of Cappy peeking up.

Pickled Ladies 10, 11 and 12

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Three more of the pickled ladies are ready.  As they are 6″ blocks I’m thinking that for a small lap quilt I’ll need somewhere in the range of 130 of them.  I do plan on adding a border to these, so that number may decrease.  The deciding factor will probably be just how many shabby chic florals I have that are appropriate for fussing cutting/printing.

These two are among my current favourites.

It’s getting to the point now that I need to print more of the black spiky triangles for the arcs, and go through more of the shabby chic prints looking for appropriate florals to fussy cut/print.  It takes no time to prepare a few dozen, so I hope to get that done sometime between now and Monday.

We had a gloriously warm sunny day on Tuesday.  It felt like a summer day rather than the first day of autumn.  The longer it stays this way, the better.

A close-up of Smudge:

Lester was relaxing on the pink chair:

Pickled Ladies 8 and 9

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Stitching these blocks is well underway for this week.  First, this rich red one.  And its back:

This one isn’t quite the right colour, as it’s more a green than the brown it appears in this photo.

And its back:

On Saturday we were out doing some shopping.  As we were coming home, we ended up behind a Model T truck much like the one below that was in absolutely fabulous shape.  The truck had some wooden alcohol barrels rolling around the back. Although we didn’t realize this when we were behind it, but did when we pulled up beside it, inside the cab were a man and woman dressed in prohibition era clothing. That was when we saw “Boardwalk Empire” written on its side.

Ford Model T Truck

Image via Wikipedia

We had great weather on the weekend — a lovely late summer weekend and, from the sounds of our forecast, we will have a few more days of summer-like temperatures this week. The cats, however, are in their fall/winter snooze mode. Lester with a teddy bear and frog:

And Smudge in a kitty bed with a couple of toys nearby.

A Week of Clamshells in Review

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The pickled clams of one sort or another have clearly taken over!  Thanks to Inklingo, these blocks are very simple to stitch — but without it, I can’t imagine tackling them.  Another four of the pickled star clams were added this week, creating a new blue star at the intersection.  It’s difficult to get a good shot without a design wall as it is growing rather quickly.  I’m thinking it’s not going to take long to make this lap quilt as this one is being made with the 11″ clamshells.

A close-up of the little star shows that it too has a very gentle curve along one edge of each piece.

The back.

All the Pickled Ladies done so far.  There are another 15 or so fussy cut/printed clamshells waiting for their arcs.   On the weekend, I’m going to go through more of the shabby chic fabrics looking for others that will work for the fussy cutting/printing.

Thursday was a rainy, dark, dismal day and the kitties were snoozing.  However, earlier in the week we took a series of photos of each of them on the windowsill. Lester was looking out the window.

While Smudge was posing and showing off his magnificent tail.

Pickled Ladies Block 7

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Another block with another favourite fabric.  There are all sorts of different elements in this fabric, so I may well fussy cut another part of it for another one of the looped lasses aka pickled ladies.

The back:

Window replacements, where necessary, are done every fall.  Over the past few days, we’ve seen the ropes from the swing stage the workers use.  The other day it was obvious that they’d be going by our window so we thought they might get a laugh out of three little teddy bears lined up watching them.   We’re used to the window cleaners doing double takes when they see one of the cats.  I remember one of the window washers saying to his partner on the swing stage something along the lines of, “Look, there’s a lion in there!” when he caught sight of Lester who sat staring out at him, completely unperturbed.  Smudge, on the other hand, will hide under the bed the minute he sees the ropes.

Ideas for the fall quilt are flying through my mind.  This weekend I’m going to spend some time working with EQ again and see if I can sort out the design idea that is forming in my mind that way.  If not, paper and coloured pencils are my next choice.

Wednesday was a lovely mild day.  Lester spent some time on the windowsill.

While Smudge was working on his fall sleeping poses — this one almost qualifies as a headless cat pose, but not quite.

Fall Fabric & Pickled Lady 6

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A fall or a leaf quilt has never been something that I’ve thought of doing.  But then I came across these fabrics in my stash.  They are so perfect for a fall quilt that I can’t resist them.  What kind of pattern, though?  I remember some of the wonderful Japanese hexagon quilts I’ve seen online and in books and keep thinking that perhaps some hexagons falling on to the ground might be my version of a fall quilt. Maybe.

Or perhaps a Winding Ways quilt.  I’m leaning towards that as I’d love to make something in the Winding Ways pattern again, but this time with the smaller blocks. There’s a cream batik in my stash that would work with these fabrics.  Starting the fall quilt won’t happen immediately as I really want to keep going with the Pickled Ladies  and the Pickled Clam Star blocks, but these fabrics are going to be kept together and a note is now in my ideas book.

The sixth Pickled Lady block is done.  Again in a favourite fabric.

The back:

Tuesday was a gloriously sunny day and both kitties were watching out the window. Smudge at one end:

And Lester at the other:

Pickled Ladies 5

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Another blue one — and another favourite print.  I’ve had this fabric in my shabby chic stash for ages and have used little pieces of it in every shabby chic quilt I’ve made.

The back:

Monday started out rather cool but turned into a lovely mild sunny day.  That said, the heat  was back on when the sun went down.  I suppose I really shouldn’t find this so surprising as it’s not uncommon for us to go from having heat on in the morning to having the a/c on by afternoon in May or June, but it just seems like fall arrived very suddenly this year.

Lester is still finding the windowsill attractive as there are still lots of birds out on the roof garden for him to watch.

Smudge, on the other hand, is all about finding spots where he can curl up and snooze.

Pickled Ladies Quilt, Block 3

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Block 2 is probably going to be taken apart and redone with black triangles that have little white, if any.   When I look at this block and the first one I showed on Tuesday, I like them better than the one shown Wednesday.

The back:

The baseball game was fun, although the Jays lost.  At least we saw Bautista hit a home run, his 44th of the season.  We had amazing seats, 11 rows up from the field and so close to the field on the third base side that we could hear the home plate umpire.  The thing that struck me most was how much the television cameras distort what we see when watching the games on television.  The players, when shown on television, look much bigger than they are.  Seeing them in person I realized just how many pounds the camera does actually add!  This photo was taken at one of Bautista’s at-bats, but not the one when he hit the home run.

When we got home, I came up while Mr. Q.O. went to the store across the street.  Lester was waiting for us.

Smudge was rather relaxed.

Planning a New Quilt

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Of course, I can’t resist the idea of some shabby chic and some fussy printing/cutting with the pickled clams.  An idea is slowly forming and will definitely include some black and/or deep grey.

Another 4 or 5 hours of piecing and the baby quilt will be done.  With any luck, I’ll have it finished by the time Thursday evening is over, will be able to do the final pressing on Friday and then hopefully get it basted over the long weekend.  I’ve got the quilting for it planned and hope to finish the quilting and have it bound before month end.

I’m going to take a brief blog break and have an extra-long weekend and will be back on Tuesday.  I hope everyone has a great weekend .

Lester in his normal spot on the window.

And Smudge relaxing on the couch.