Tag Archives: Craft

Half a Dozen Melons

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I’m hooked.  No question about it.  Stitching these little blocks is nothing but fun. They’re a quick stitch and those perfect curves make me smile every time.  I need around 40 of them for the border I’m planning but, at the rate they’re going together, it’s not going to take long.  But ideas for a quilt made with just these blocks keep floating through my mind.  It’s one of those blocks that I find irresistible.

Thursday was a great day.  The pink and cream quilt top is finished.  When I got up Thursday morning, I decided it was time.  Sashings were cut, sewn to cornerstones and added to the blocks and then the final border was added.  What I learned yesterday?  That machine piecing isn’t that difficult.  All the joining was done by machine, while the blocks themselves were hand pieced and I got it all put together without having to rip out any seams.  The top finishes at around 60 x 70, and I am thrilled with it.  Pictures when it’s quilted.  I’ve already got the quilting planned for it.

Charlsey posted some pictures on her blog post here from our two days of stitching, talking and planning as well as some interesting people watching.  There’s one shot of Charlsey’s Seven Sisters quilt and my X’s and O’s quilt that I love.  The hotel lobby is rather beige and I think our quilts added some needed colour!

For some reason we got no new photos of the cats on Thursday.  Things are definitely looking up — the two of them had one of their mock battles on Thursday evening, which they haven’t really done for a couple of months.  This is one of my favourite photos and a rather rare shot of the two of them together that was taken a few months ago.

Melons

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I’ve started putting together one of the elements for the borders of the X’s and O’s quilt.  These little 4″ blocks go together so quickly that I don’t think it will take long at all to get this part of the border ready to put together.

The back of one of the little blocks.

We’re definitely going to have a couple of days of milder temperatures.  If the forecast is correct, we may hit 50 on Friday!  It looks like it will go back to the cold winter weather shortly after that, but what a treat to get a day that warm in February.

Lester continues to improve.  Mr. Q.O. was taking pictures of the boys, focusing on their paws.

Smudge was showing off his paws while he slept.

X’s and O’s

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My Improved 9-Patch quilt top which I’ve named X’s and O’s, and which was hand pieced in a few weeks.  I started piecing it on August 9 and took the last stitch completing the main body of the top on September 1, 2010.  The picture was taken on September 2, when the lawn on the roof garden was still green and there was no snow.  Without borders it measures approximately 41 x 48″.  One of the two borders I have planned for X’s and O’s will be pieced.

I used the Inklingo Orange Peel Deluxe collection to print all the shapes for this. Perfect stitching lines and matching points printed on the back of my fabrics made putting this together a breeze.  Even though I knew it would go together easily as I had just finished the Chintz Circles quilt made with shapes from the same Inklingo collection, I was amazed at how quickly I finished stitching it.  Once I got the idea for this quilt, I worked out a plan for my quilt using the design sheets and Monkey’s Cheat Sheet which are part of the Inklingo collection and filled out a cheat sheet, chose the fabrics and printed my shapes.  All done in one evening.  By the time two days had passed, I had all the 9-patches pieced and then it was just a matter of lots and lots of continuous stitching as I joined the melons to the 9-patches.

The biggest challenge for me with this quilt was keeping things in order.  Once I had the 9-patch blocks pieced, I laid them out with the melons and rearranged until I was satisfied with the placement.  Not having a design wall, I laid it out on the bed and we took photos.  Although I kept the pieces for each row of the quilt in separate zip-lock bags, I printed one of the photos and that was my virtual design wall to which I referred constantly to ensure I hadn’t mixed anything up.

My plan is to print the shapes I need for the pieced border sometime within the next couple of weeks and hopefully have the pieced border ready within a week or so after that.  I’ve already decided on the quilting design for the quilt, so I’m hoping to have this one done within a relatively short period of time.

We were lucky and didn’t get anywhere near the kind of storm they were predicting. It snowed for hours, no question, but we didn’t get the amount they had forecast. The migraine finally lifted Wednesday evening so now I’m just left with the bruised head feeling that always comes after and will get caught up on blogs and responding to comments today.

The cats found spots to snooze on Wednesday.  Lester on the pink chair.

Smudge got his turn on the pink chair a bit later in the evening.

Rainbow Flower

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(Click on photo to enlarge)

In the February/March 2011 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine, there’s an article on Mosaic Patchwork blocks and Rainbow Flower is one of the blocks featured.  With all the fabulous curves in this block, I think it’s irresistible — particularly as a new Inklingo collection for the Rainbow Flower was released on Thursday.

I’m calling this “Cranes Circling Flower at Dusk”.  It’s not quite finished as one more round will be added to it, if not more.  This one won’t be a large piece, but rather a smaller one with a pretty border which I’m already planning.

Within minutes of downloading the collection, I had prepared my window templates so I could fussy cut the two larger shapes.  Within a few minutes after that, I had the fabric cut and ready to print.  A few hours later, my block was done.

I was tempted to start another shabby chic quilt with this collection, and may well do that yet but the Oriental prints were what first grabbed my imagination.  Imagine this with novelty prints fussy cut for a child’s quilt!  Maybe some stripes for the connecting shapes.   Or a wonderful polka dot print or — the ideas just are flying through my mind!

The back:

When we take photos of quilt-related things, we generally put a board on the pink chair with a piece of grey fabric over it.  As I was getting things ready to take the photo of the Rainbow Flower, Smudge decided he wanted to lay down and have a snooze.  I literally turned my back for a second to get the block, turned around and there he was, already asleep.  We gently moved him and carried on.

Lester found himself a comfortable spot on the loveseat.

A Few Little Blocks

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The final few klosjes are done.  I think my total is somewhere around 120 of them finished.  Once I get a chance to lay them out and figure out the arrangement, it won’t take long to get the little teddy bear quilt put together.

Wednesday night I really couldn’t seem to focus on just one thing so, along with making the final few klosjes, I put together these LeMoyne Stars.  I have a total of 11 of them done, with the pieces for 19 more printed and ready to stitch.  Another baby quilt in the making — this one clearly for a girl as all the stars will be a pink of some sort or another.

The political ads are beginning — although no election has been called yet, it seems it may not be that far off.  I have a feeling we’ll be renting a lot of videos or watching things we’ve recorded so we can fast forward through the ads.   My tolerance for the self-serving or attack ads is zero.  I don’t usually say anything about politics on my blog, but the ad I saw Wednesday night made my skin crawl.  If this is what we have to look forward to, I’d rather ignore the whole thing altogether.

It was very cold on Wednesday and promises to be even colder today.  We are definitely back in the deep freeze for a few days.  Great timing to spend lots of time stitching.  Smudge found a spot to curl up.

While Lester decided to guard the toy basket.

Piecing a Seven Sisters block — lots of photos

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There were a couple of questions last week about how I pieced a Seven Sisters block so, rather than try to explain it in words, I thought I’d do this mini tutorial.  Lester is hoping this is relaxing and easy to follow.

The first step is to make the seven 6-pointed stars that will be in the block.  For each block, I need 18 white diamonds, 6 half elongated hexagons and 42 blue diamonds for the seven stars.

Once that’s done, the next most important step is to press them making sure that the seam allowances of each star are pressed the same way.  This photo is of a star in a different fabric, which shows the seam allowances a bit better.

My next step is to surround one star, which will be the centre star in the block, with white diamonds.

Because I hand piece, the inset seams are something I look for as it offers the opportunity to continuously stitch around the star.  To add the six white diamonds around the blue star, I used one length of thread.

In this photo you can see, on the white diamonds and half elongated hexagons, that each has the stitching line and crosshairs at the end of each seam.  The lines are printed on my blue fabrics as well, but they don’t photograph as well.  Because of the perfect  stitching lines and crosshairs one gets when printing templates on to the fabric using Inklingo, it makes stitching a block like this a breeze.  I simply match up my crosshairs, pin and stitch.

My next step is to join the six remaining stars with white diamonds so that they’re ready to stitch to the centre star.

Then I pin the first of the strip of six stars to one of the white diamonds surrounding the centre star and start to stitch.  Again, lots and lots of continuous stitching.

A couple of threads are all it takes and the centre star is completely surrounded.

All that’s left to do now is add the six remaining white diamonds and six half elongated hexagons around the outside edge and the block will be done.  Once again, lots and lots of continuous stitching.

The block is finished.  While I didn’t really keep track of the time it took to make the block, I think that it took somewhere around 3 hours in total from making the seven stars to adding the final white diamonds around the outside of the block.

A quick press and it’s ready to be added to the stack of the blue and white Seven Sisters blocks that I am making.

Smudge hopes you found this as relaxing as he did.  He had to go curl up with some softies and have a nap!   He had lost a pound again when we went to the vet.  So we’re continuing the syringe feeding for now and have gone back to the vet-suggested foods.  Sunday night he finally started to eat hard food again for the first time in two months.   We were really encouraged to see that.

Works in Progress

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There’s still a little hand piecing to do on the pink and cream quilt, but I am thinking now about what projects jump to the head of the queue once it and the baby quilt are finished.  Along with the Stormy Seas and Pickled Ladies quilts, the Summer Picnic Dish is definitely moving up the list.  A little more has been done since this photo was taken, but not a lot.

The POTC blocks definitely have to move up the list to be finished and the top put together.

I want to get this piece, which I’ve dubbed star of stars,  basted and quilted.  I know why it has languished this long — because I kept thinking I need to add to it and make it square or rectangular.  But I’ve decided to leave it in a star shape.

I’m going to arrange these applique blocks and get the top put together.

Of the above projects, the one that will take the longest is likely the Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.  On top of this I’m still working on getting to the point I feel confident using EQ6.

My plan for the weekend is to get the fabrics ready and printed for the Summer Picnic Dish as well as finally select the fabric for the 2″ squares used when connecting the POTC blocks and get it printed.

Smudge has a new habit.  When we empty the dishwasher in the morning, he likes to sit on the door.  I may have been a bit premature in thinking we were over the worst of this eating thing with him.  Wednesday he wasn’t interested in food again at all so we immediately went back to the syringe feeding.  I am very grateful he’s so accommodating about that process as I can only imagine how difficult it would be with many kitties.

We caught Lester in the midst of a huge yawn.  This photo makes me laugh.

Baby Quilt Top Finished

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It’s pressed and ready to baste.  Hopefully that will happen this afternoon.  It finished at 38 x 27.  Names for quilts usually don’t present a problem for me but not this time.  I cannot come up with a name I like at all.  Maybe once I start quilting it something will come to me that works for it.  Suggestions are more than welcome.

We’re in the midst of doing some reorganizing and, as part of that reorganization, I’m hoping to free up an area in the apartment where I can use a wall as a design wall.  That would be great for photographing something like this little quilt.  For today’s photo, we laid it out on the floor and Smudge had to immediately come to inspect.

Monday I spent a bit of time trying to get more comfortable with EQ.  Today I plan to spend more time.  I am not finding it a very intuitive program at all, but hopefully it will become easier the more time I spend using it.

We think that Smudge has turned a corner.  He started eating a lot on his own on the weekend.  And eating.  And eating some more.  That was a huge relief!  The next step will be getting him off the kitty junk food and back on to some of the better foods.  We also managed to find some foods that have no tuna in them that he likes.  Here he was relaxing after one of his meals.

This picture of Lester makes me laugh.  He looks like he’s sleeping sitting up.

Pink and Cream Stars

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The pink and cream quilt will be the next top finished this year.  All that’s left to do is the setting squares and triangles of the large blocks.  The cornerstone blocks and sashing are ready, so it should be relatively quick to put together.

The piecing of the baby quilt was completed last night and the final pressing will be done today.  I’m hoping to start quilting it this weekend.   That will depend on whether our neighbour whose floor I use to baste is around.  While I’m at it, I’m going to baste a couple of other small quilts that have been waiting too long to be finished.

I’ve decided to approach the work situation from the perspective that it’s giving me lots of time to play with quilt designs and finish up a couple of pieces.  I’m going to fall back on the therapeutic benefits of quilting to keep me centred through this.

We had a bit of snow on Thursday.  The cats decided it was a good time for a snooze.  Smudge found a soft toy to curl up with.

Lester headed for the kitty bed.

Getting Closer

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Another hour or two of stitching, and all the edge pieces will be attached and it will be time to press and baste the baby quilt.  I’m thinking that a scrappy binding made up of ’30s prints will be what I choose for this.

Because I normally match my thread colour to the pieces I’m stitching, to finish off a spool of thread isn’t something that happens frequently as a spool will last a very long time.  Because of the scrappy nature of the baby quilt, I’ve been using a peachy pink heirloom cotton thread which seems to melt into the seams of every colour for piecing and on Wednesday night actually used the very last bit on the spool.

I’ve not been doing well in responding to comments this week or in leaving comments.  There’s no real good excuse for this other than I’ve been dealing with some news about changes in one company with which I work which has left me rather drained.  I really do appreciate and read every comment and hope to get caught up on the replies and comments over the next day or two.

Smudge was posing for the camera Wednesday.  He has always been a camera ham but, for the past month or so, hasn’t been quite as interested.  However, on Wednesday when he heard the camera being turned on, he definitely started striking poses.  I think it’s another sign he’s feeling better.

Lester was caught in a funny pose in the kitty bed.