Another 10 of the Drunkard’s Path blocks are done. Only 423 to go. I am going to start joining them into groups of 4 blocks soon rather than leave that all to the end. Remember this box full of the … Continue reading
More Drunkard’s Path Blocks
Tag Archives: Crafts
Four Little Quilt Tops
First up, the little tumbler star table runner that finishes at 12 x 48. I’m Not sure exactly how I’ll quilt this one, but it’s going to be pretty basic.
Second, the 24″ square tumbler star doll quilt. This one is going to be quilted, I think, to emphases the stars.
Third, China Plates. I think I’m going to do straight line quilting through the middle of the hexagons.
The fourth is the pink and red Winding Ways that finishes at 27″. I’m going to quilt to emphasize the circle effect. This one I should have done before now. It would be great to have this one hanging around Valentine’s Day. Next year it will be!
All of them have the batting cut and ready and I’ll get the backings and bindings ready for them on Friday. I’m going to baste some temporary muslin borders on each of the four so that they’re large enough to put in the hoop and I can get right to the edges, although I may do the table runner without a hoop. I think that will work as long as I baste it well enough.
Why have I got all 4 of them out? Because I really want to get back to hand quilting the Ferris Wheel quilt, but would like to use these tops as my warm-up quilts.
Last night I designed yet another quilt in EQ but that’s it for a while. I need more stitching time! I’m almost three-quarters of the way through making one of the pieced borders for Scrappy Star. Once I get that done and added to the main body of the quilt, I’ll decide whether it needs the final pieced border I was thinking of adding.
Baxter is 10 months old today. He’s growing so fast now that we’re seeing changes in him almost daily and his silver markings are starting to show more and more.
Dreaming in Wedgwood, Part 2
While precious little stitching has been going on around here the past few nights, after I finished playing in EQ last night I couldn’t resist stitching two more of the Dreaming in Wedgwood blocks.
I’m trying to decide on a layout, as I think I’m going to add something else to the mix even if it is just plain 12″ squares. That would lend itself to some wonderful quilting.
One more night of intense EQ play and then back to my normal stitching time. I’m glad I’ve taken the time to work with EQ as much as I have over the past week, as I think it will help in the future when I’m playing with ideas. That said, it also has the potential to take much too much time away from actual stitching.
Mr. Q.O.has been busy playing with photo effects. Baxter is definitely not opposed to having his photo taken.
Dreaming in Wedgwood
When I was growing up, my mother decorated our house in mostly Wedgwood blue and white/cream. Wedgwood blue is, to me, one of the most soothing colours imaginable. When I finally decided to take the leap and start a two-colour Rose Dream quilt, this time using the 6″ collection, I chose this Wedgwood blue that I’ve had in my stash for next to forever. I knew the right quilt idea would eventually come along and it has. The working name for this quilt is “Dreaming in Wedgwood.”
While I’m having fun with the scrappy Rose Dream blocks shown last week, I knew the minute the collections came out that I wanted to make a classic two-colour quilt. The big question for me was what colour. I had a wonderfully long and silly internal debate going on all last week about pink and white, yellow and white, blue and white, purple and pink and even went so far as to get some fabrics ready for each of those.
I have a pink and cream top waiting to be quilted, so pink and white? I’m sure another pink quilt is in my future, but not quite yet. Yellow and white? Still a possibility, I suppose, perhaps using the larger size Rose Dream block. Purple and pink? Definitely in my future. The Wedgwood blue and white? I couldn’t resist it. Yes, I’ve made a blue and white quilt before, as seen in my blog header, but that is a much deeper, richer blue.
One of the things I enjoy about hand piecing is choosing the thread(s) for each project. With a two-colour quilt, it’s so easy. Find one thread that works, and that’s all that’s needed. I had the perfect thread to match the blue fabric.
The entire quilt is planned in my mind. I know how many blocks are needed, the border is figured out and a possible quilting design for this one is already roughly sketched out.
The blocks press beautifully. As I don’t want to have to do all the grading of seams at the end, I’m doing these as I go.
At the end of last week, I fell quite behind in responding to blog comments. I will catch up this week.
Baxter adores his Cosmic Catnip Alpine Scratcher. Along with using it as a scratching post, he often will fall asleep on it. Mr. Q.O. captioned this shot “Photo Life – I’m Posing For It”.
Three Little Stars
I couldn’t resist making three little stars with some of the pieces I have left over from the Scrappy Star. I’m not sure what these will end up in or how many more I’ll make, but there’s something about putting together the little 4.5″ LeMoyne Stars that I can’t resist. Maybe I’ll just keep making them until I have enough for a small doll’s quilt or perhaps this is the beginning of yet another large quilt.
I love how perfectly they press. For these little blocks with so many different fabrics, I use either a mustard gold thread or a slate grey one. Somehow both those thread colours work perfectly with all the various fabrics.
Mr. Q.O. captioned this shot of Baxter “Waddaya mean, no cheeseburger?” I think he wants the cheeseburger, not Baxter!
Hand Quilting Tools
Ferris Wheel is still in the process of being hand quilted. I have actually taken out some of the hand quilting because what I thought I’d like I definitely don’t like. So I’m redoing a couple of blocks. Now that I’ve got a plan for the quilting, it will go much faster … I hope. Not only have I taken out the machine piecing I originally started with, I’ve also taken out some of the hand quilting.
My favourite tools for hand quilting include these 4 thimbles and the YLI thread. For the most part, I use either the cone Thimblelady thimble or the original silver one. The little black leather thimble I wear on my finger beneath the quilt. It saves wear and tear on the finger underneath, but is thin enough that I still feel the needle as it comes through. The spoon thimble is my favourite when I quilt without a hoop, which I sometimes do, particularly when I’m at the edge of a quilt. YLI hand quilting thread is my absolute favourite and the one to which I always turn.
This is my favourite hoop, although it’s a bit large and sometimes too heavy for me.
On nights when the round wooden hoop seems too heavy, and there are many of those, out comes this Q-snap rectangular hoop. The difference in weight is really noticeable. How lucky are we that we have so many tools that we can find and use the appropriate one, depending on the application and how we feel?
Then there is this, my wonderful floor frame which I’m not quite as comfortable using for hand quilting but what a bonus it is for basting! I can put the quilt sandwich in it and baste that way. No more crawling on the floor to pin or breaking my back leaning over a table to baste.
I taught myself how to hand quilt mostly from books. These are two of my favourites. I picked up a lot of hints from the Jinny Beyer book Quiltmaking by Hand, some from That Perfect Stitch but I think the most important lesson I learned was from watching the Thimblelady’s DVD on hand quilting. I’ve developed my own method which is a combination of all of the above.
There’s one thing that I find makes a big difference for me and that’s using my index finger, rather than the middle finger, to rock the needle. I’ve often wondered if anyone else finds that it’s easier to quilt using their index finger. I find my hand doesn’t fatigue anywhere near as much.
What about you? How did you learn to hand quilt? What are your favourite tools and methods?
A Baxter close-up. He was reclining near a quilt book.
One Centre Done, Another Begun
I didn’t quite make my goal of having two of the sunflower centres for the Feathered Stars done, but at least one is complete and the second is mostly done. Part of the reason I didn’t get the second one completed is that a fair amount of time was spent cutting the shapes for the spring Winding Ways. There’s still a lot of cutting left to do, but I hope to have that finished by the time the weekend is over. I think I may have to get a larger box for that project.
A couple of times I’ve left the grading of seams until the entire Feathered Star block was done. It is so much easier to do it in increments, so now I grade the seams of the centre sunflower right away.
The ring of diamonds and triangles that go around the centre of the second sunflower are done. Once that ring is made, the rest of the piecing of a sunflower block takes no time. I may get the second one finished tonight and the third started.
One of Baxter’s Christmas presents was this feather toy. I think it’s a toss-up between this and Cappy as to which toy he prefers sometimes. Last night he was playing with it, managed to get it under the couch too far for him to reach, then meowed pathetically for help retrieving it.
Feathered Star Again
Another one done and three more to go. If I can buckle down and concentrate on stitching the three remaining blocks, I think I could have the centre of the quilt done within 9 to 10 days. Whether I can do that remains to be seen, but I’m going to try. Once the centre sunflower is done, it seems like the block is almost halfway done so today I shall try to get at least two of those centres done.
I love how easy it is to press this block. I graded the seams for two reasons. There are a lot of pieces in each block, so it really helps cut down on the weight and will make the quilt drape nicely. Secondly, I definitely don’t want the red shadowing through.
Yesterday afternoon the fog rolled in and the view out our window was quite eerie. I love how quiet it seems when there’s a thick fog.
Mr. Q.O. captioned this one “That’s the biggest bag of catnip I has ever seen!” Made me laugh the second I saw the picture.
Colourful Little 9-Patches
The stack of 9-patch blocks on point has been growing. Not rapidly, but slow and steady growth. There are some evenings I work on something more complex and just want an easy stitch, and that’s when these get made. There will be 140 or so of them.
It will be a fun and colourful little quilt.
I’m grading the blocks as I make them. Even with these little blocks, it makes a big difference.
The blocks finish at 4.25″. When I was making Twinklingo Stars, I printed lots of the little squares thinking I might use them all in a border. As it turned out, I had many left over. That was when I decided to do the 9-patches on point and turn them into their own little quilt.
There’s a magical moment in the late afternoons at this time of year when the sun hits the buildings across the street from us and bathes them in a wonderful pink glow. We were lucky enough to get this shot on Tuesday.
Baxter waiting patiently for a treat.
Afterwards he looked quite satisfied and maybe ready for a nap.
A Quintet of Pickled Ladies
The additions for the Pickled Ladies quilt are underway.
The second addition.
The third addition.
The fourth addition.
The fifth addition. Just about 20 more to go and I’ll be finished with the additions.
Baxter is fascinated by pens. If Mr. Q.O. leaves his puzzle and pen within paw’s reach, this is what happens. What isn’t shown is that shortly after this photo was taken, Baxter had the pen down on the floor. Pens and fabric, he just can’t resist them.
Quilt Obsession 