Tag Archives: Crafts

Seven Sisters and Then Some

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While initially I thought I’d turn these into multi-coloured Seven Sisters blocks, the block is turning into a very large family of sisters! So far there are 19 of them. How much further I’ll go with this block I’m not sure. Right now I’m thrilled with it. Of course I am – it’s mostly pink. As those who have read my blog for any length of time know, pink is my favourite colour. I think I was going through withdrawal not having a pink project on which to work. That said, perhaps I’ll add some green or some more purples and mauves or move into the blues. All I know is it’s fun putting these together and goes amazingly quickly.

When I started joining the stars I realized I hadn’t pressed them all in the same direction, so some time had to be spent at the iron. Now they’re all pressed the same way and that makes pressing the back of the block a breeze! Right now the block is about 14.5″ x 13.25″.

We are having an incredibly mild January, so far at least. It feels more like early spring than winter and the forecast seems to indicate it will be like this for the next couple of weeks. A sure sign of this being the oddest of winters? We went for a walk and, rather than seeing snow ploughs (of course not – there has been no snow and no, I’m not complaining), we saw street sweepers out and about. This really makes me wonder what the spring and summer will be like.

Baxter is proving to be a real quilter’s cat. Not only does he lie about under the quilt rack and hoop, he just loves to grab a piece of fabric and run off with it. I’ve found little 6-point stars on the floor. Last night, as I was working on another Feathered Star block, I turned my back for a few moments and there were some of the pieces from that on the floor.

Two More Red & White Blocks

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I love stitching these blocks. Eight of them are now done so only four left to stitch and then the first pieced border. I’m contemplating another pieced border, but will make that decision when the top is together.

All the pieces for the remaining four blocks and the first pieced border are ready to stitch and in this shoebox. I know, I know — a shoebox is hardly elegant enough for this, but it’s the best size and it works. The pieces won’t be in there long at all as this is one quilt top that I definitely want to finish sooner rather than later. The sheet I printed out from the Feathered Star Design Book, which is the perfect reference tool for stitching the blocks, is tucked in at the side of the box along with the spool of red thread I’m using for this project.

Each block takes about 3 evenings to stitch but, as there are lots of opportunities for continuous stitching in both the Sunflower and Feathered Star portions of the blocks, it seems to fly by.

One of the by-products of making these blocks are all these wonderful little pieces from cutting out the HSTs. I know most people would throw them out, but I’m saving them and have a plan for making Christmas cards with them as to me they look like little snowflakes. They’re just too cute to toss.

This is a sheet that I’ve printed, on which you can see, if you click on the photo to enlarge it, the HSTs and where the little snowflakes appear.

And what did the shoebox used to contain? These fun runners. I couldn’t resist them when I saw them in the store. Who says comfortable footwear can’t be fun? And they’re nice and bright which helps cheer up the grey days of winter.

Baxter is definitely looking like a grown-up cat now, particularly in this photo. He may look that way, but he’s still definitely acting like a kitten.

And Then There Were 10

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Ten more sparkling twinkling stars, that is.  I’ve found a stitching sequence that makes putting these stars together quick as can be.

Normally when I start making blocks, I have a vague idea of a layout but this time? This time the entire quilt top is planned, right down to the border. I have a feeling I may have the whole thing together by the time the baseball playoffs finish.

Baxter’s markings are showing up more and more each day. With the grey cloth as a backdrop, his lynx tips are really showing.

Scrappy Little Stars

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These stars are the beginning of a quilt requested by Mr. Q.O.  He really likes the look of these reproduction fabrics, it seems. I’ve got a couple of ideas for setting these and once i get a dozen or so done I’ll start playing with that.

They press very easily. To ensure whatever layout I end up using will be easy to put together, I’m going to make sure that I press all the stars the same way.

There’s a stack of fabrics ready to print the diamonds from the free Inklingo collection and, once printed and cut, this will be yet another quilt in a box. The freezer paper is ready to iron on the fabric and I’ll print 10 or 12 sheets every day until they’re all done. Then the fun will begin as I want to try to ensure that no two stars are identical. And yes, there’s a lot of fabric there ready to be printed. There will likely be enough for a few little quilts as well.

Baxter is very nocturnal. He tends to wake up around midnight and is awake and wanting to play until just before dawn. So during the late afternoon/early evening he finds a comfy spot and snoozes.

Scrappy Stars

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Definitely not my normal choice of fabrics, but I’m having fun playing with these scrappy little LeMoyne Stars. The weekend before we got Baxter, I spent a lot of time reorganizing my fabric (knowing that doing that with a kitten around would be a bit difficult) and found a small stash of reproduction prints. Not knowing how much I’d like working with them, I printed sets of 8 diamonds on 16 pieces and started making these little LeMoyne Stars. They’re destined to be a small quilt for a friend.

Pressing them takes only a second or two.

It has been really hot and humid here the past couple of days.  Perfect summer weather, especially out on the roof garden where it always seems cooler as there is usually a breeze.

The flowers are absolutely gorgeous this year.

Baxter is getting more and more adventurous and has so far clambered up on Mr. Q.O.’s keyboard and on the telephone.  He has discovered chasing his tail in the past couple of days, which I can’t resist watching. He plays hard and then, in the blink of an eye, he’s fast asleep. This pose as he was having a snooze absolutely cracked me up.

Pink Ice Finish

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After way too many months to count, the Pink Ice lap quilt top is finished. I’m thrilled with how it turned out. Every stitch was done by hand, including joining the blocks into rows and the rows into the top.

There’s a bit of a story to Pink Ice. I fell in love with the Snow Crystal block when I first saw it in this little book called Quilts, A Beautiful History. When the free downloadable collection of Inklingo shapes came out that included all the shapes I needed to make Pink Ice I immediately knew I’d make this quilt. Luckily, another Inklingoist also wanted to make the blocks using pinks so we swapped a number of printed diamonds.

I’ve had the top together for a while and kept wondering about adding a border. I tried a few ideas and nothing seemed right. I often find that borders don’t appeal to me for the quilts I’ve made, although there are definitely exceptions to that. When I look at pictures of antique quilts, I’m always struck by how many of them don’t have borders.

Once I decided that no border was necessary I chose this dark pink with black dots fabric for the binding, as I think it will frame the quilt quite nicely.

A new pattern for Pink Ice has been added to my website here. It includes the printing and cutting instructions, as well as stitching and printing tips, for a scrappy two-colour quilt, a classic two-fabric quilt and a three-colour variation.

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Mr. Q.O. and I are very grateful for all the wonderful heart-felt comments we’ve received about Smudge since Monday’s post. It’s still a bit too emotional an issue for me to say much about it, but oh, how we miss him and find ourselves still looking for him. His drinking habits, his tiny little meow, that glorious tail and that adorable face are permanently etched in our minds and in our hearts. We feel Smudge knew it was time and had passed the baton to Baxter. He passed peacefully on my lap. For that I will be forever grateful.

Baxter’s personality and character is becoming more and more obvious. He likes watching baseball, loves to play with kitty toys and is very determined to get his way when he wants something. That said, he is the sweetest of cats with a non-stop purr. He has proven that he’s definitely going to be a quilter’s cat. I was stitching last night with him on my lap and he was having a great time batting at the fabric. Right now we think he may be teething as any paper he can find gets a few bite marks. We’re quickly learning that books and magazines have to be out of kitty reach.

He’s also not the least bit camera-shy. We’re really intrigued by his eyes, wondering whether they will be gold or green. I think they’re going to be gold, Mr. Q.O. says green. Whatever colour they end up, he is a wonderfully sweet kitty and we are enormously thankful that he has come to live with us.

Shabby Chic Yin Yang Blocks

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All it took was making one shabby chic Yin Yang block. I knew I was in trouble. Friday afternoon I found myself pulling out the shabby chic bin of fabric to print more. I think I’m aiming for  a lap quilt that is a true charm quilt. Once I sort out exactly how large a quilt I want to make, I’ll pull out more fabrics and print just what I need.

Summer’s definitely almost here. Friday the gardeners came and planted all the flowers on the roof garden, which to me is always a sign that summer is right around the corner and the risk of frost is gone.

Smudge is back to being super finicky about his food, but he’s still loving his yogourt treat.

Two More Dresden Plates

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Two more finished on the weekend. That’s 5 complete now, and now the decision has to be made as to the layout, as the ideas I have don’t require more full plates but rather half and three-quarter plates.  That will be a decision I have to make this week, as I really don’t want to stop making them for any length of time.

Finally – finally! – I managed to learn enough in EQ to design a quilt. I’m thrilled!!  It has been years that I’ve had EQ but had never really gotten anywhere with it. This weekend I just sat down and worked my way through it and was so pleased at the end. Now I understand why people like it so much — I was so tempted to play and design a few more quilts once I had made it through the first one, and have a feeling I’ll be doing just that sometime today.

We’ve had what seems like weeks and weeks of rainy weather, which has meant very little in the way of adventures for Hugo. He was helping Mr. Q.O. do a cryptic crossword the other day. It’s about time for Hugo to leave here. However, I’m a bit concerned about sending him off anywhere as there’s the threat of a postal strike here and I’d hate for him to end up languishing in a box in the post office while a strike is on.

Smudge was absolutely tuckered out after one of his sessions at the water bowl on Sunday. Mr. Q.O. managed to get a video of him drinking which will be edited and posted sometime this week.


Spice or Chocolate and Caramels Quilt Beginnings

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Ever since I saw the Yin Yang block on Barbara Brackman’s blog months and months ago, I’ve wanted to stitch it.  On Sunday, a new Inklingo Yin Yang collection was released and I had to dive right in!  The fabrics I had set aside for the Spice quilt were back out, I had the shapes printed and cut out in a matter of minutes and a few hours later, four blocks were done.

About a month ago, I tried to prep pieces to stitch this block with freezer paper templates.  In the past I’ve used freezer paper templates without problems, but for this shape?  It just wasn’t working at all.  When stitched together, the block had a rather tent-like look that was impossible to get rid of no matter how much I pressed it.  My stitching lines and matching points just weren’t anywhere near perfect or fine enough.  But with Inklingo printing the stitching lines and matching points, it was easy as could be.  So I was absolutely overjoyed when the collection was released.

They press like a dream and, once pressed, are perfectly flat.

I’m torn now between thinking of this as the Spice Quilt or Chocolate and Caramels. There are tons of fabric choices one could play with working with this shape — batiks and hand-dyed fabrics, ’30s repros, shabby chic, black and white, primary colours. The list just goes on and on.  I have an idea for a baby quilt made with this shape which will be very fast to stitch as the blocks almost put themselves together.

Smudge was nowhere near as excited as I was about these new shapes.  He’s happy as long as he’s curled up in his kitty bed with the toy basket nearby.  Sunday night I was watching him as he ever so slowly put both front paws in the toy basket and dragged it over closer to the kitty bed.

Storm at Sea & Harpsichord

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One more Storm at Sea block has been completed.  For fun, I put the completed ones up on my temporary design wall.  Obviously I’m going to have to do a lot of arranging of the blocks, when they’re all completed, to get the effect I’m after.  So far, though, I love the look of all those lovely luscious batiks!

Along with completing that one more Storm at Sea block, I made a few more of the Harpsichord blocks.  The row on the far left has been joined, but the other blocks are not.  There are still many blocks to be made for this top, but it feels good to be adding a few more to it weekly again.

One thing I’ve realized about the temporary design wall is that the spot it is in is probably an area of the apartment that has the worst possible lighting.  Some rearranging may have to be done so that the design wall is in an area where there is better lighting available.  Perhaps by a window?

Smudge was playing more with his favourite toy on Thursday, although in this picture he was reclining on the couch.