Beginning of a New Project

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Quiltobsession

Last week’s list of priority projects clearly went out the window this weekend with this new project! The above is the beginning of a block that I can’t resist. It’s fairly quick to stitch, so I have some hope that I may have this first block done sometime tonight. I was going to use a muslin as the neutral but then remembered I had some Kona Bay cream, which is my favourite solid to use. I still haven’t decided on a name for this one.

The back:

These blocks will grow quickly as they’re made using the 6-inch LeMoyne Star Inklingo collection. Once I got the idea, I had six pink and the cream fabrics printed within minutes with the diamonds needed. A little while later, they were all cut out:

What is it about making these stars I find so irresistible? No matter what else I’ve got going on, it seems I always need a star project of some sort on which to work. I have the centres of three more of the stars ready and waiting as well.

When I wrote the post on Friday about the making of Chintz Circles, it made me realize that it’s rather fun to have a post like that about a quilt. Which, of course, meant I had to figure out a way to store my photos a bit differently. So I am, as of now, starting to store photos about each specific project in their own folder as I think I’d like to do recap posts like the one on Chintz Circles every time I finish a project. Although at the rate I’ve been starting and not finishing, the next one may be far off!

We’re definitely into fall weather. Lots of leaves have fallen and, as it was a bit breezy on the weekend, they’ve been drifting past the window. This is Smudge’s favourite time for watching out the window. We got this shot of him on the weekend.

Lester seemed to be trying to make sure we didn’t change the channel when we had the baseball games on — notice the paw firmly planted on the remote control!

Arcs for the Pickled Ladies

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Quiltobsession

This is what I’ve been doing on and off for the past few days, stitching the arcs together to make more of the Pickled Ladies blocks. Thanks to continuous stitching, it is actually quite quick to put one of these together as I’m only knotting off and starting a new length of thread twice when making each one — once at the beginning and once about halfway through. I’ve seemingly settled into a routine of getting 10 or 15 of these arcs stitched and pressed. Then in a few hours I can have them stitched on to some of the fussy cut clamshells. It’s sort of fun to see 10 or 15 completed blocks at once before I start on the next batch of arcs.

Over the long weekend I came to the conclusion that I’ve got too many things on the go and out where I can see them. My plan is to settle on 5 or 6 projects and keep them out but the others are going to be put away for now. Orphan blocks may get turned into stitching books or perhaps pillows or perhaps they’ll just remain orphan blocks for a while longer. While I’ve not completely decided, I think the ones that are going to the top of the to-do list are, in no particular order:

setting the Pink Ice blocks into and putting the quilt top together
finishing the Lucy Boston blocks and getting that top set together
working on the Pickled Ladies and sunshine star clamshell pickles
making more of the Harpsichord quilt blocks
working on the Stormy Seas blocks
quilt the baby quilt

I may add one more to that list but this weekend I plan to move things around, put things away and then reassess. Knowing me, I’m sure some idea or another will come up and I’ll start something else but for now that’s at least my basic plan.

We got this shot late Monday night of the two cats clearly sleeping off their turkey treat.

Circle of Fractured Hearts

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Quiltobsession

On Monday’s post, I showed a photo of one of the quarters of the applique I had done over the weekend. Last night, I finally got up my courage and sat down at the sewing machine to stitch the four quarters together. I was, as usual, practically breaking into a cold sweat at the thought of having to make sure my sewing was this precise, as my sewing machine skills are less than wonderful. But, thanks to the fabulous lines that one can use as matching points, with a little careful pinning I was able to stitch the four quarters together and now have a circle of fractured hearts. I didn’t have to frog stitch any of the seams!

The back shows just how perfectly the lines matched up. I don’t know that I’d want to try this with anything other than the shapes printed with Inklingo, though — as I doubt I could trace anything with this kind of precision. In fact, I wouldn’t even want to try. But now that I’ve got this block under my belt, I think I’m going to try one of the Celtic applique designs that are available in this collection.

One of the things I really loved about this applique block was that I set the size. I could have printed a 4″ block, a 6″ block, a 8″ block but I chose to print the design in quarters and then have a larger block that finishes at 14.5″ but I didn’t have all that fabric bunched up in my hand while I appliqued. That’s an added value for me, as my hand will begin to hurt very quickly if I’m having to hold a large piece of fabric.

I have an idea for the fall fabrics I showed a while back using Winding Ways blocks that’s begging to be made. I’m trying to resist but it’s getting more and more difficult. I have so many projects on the go and so many others in the ideas book that I’d like to finish at least one before starting this. Whether I can continue to resist the siren call of those Winding Ways blocks remains to be seen!

Lester was curled up asleep on the couch, showing us the paw pads on one of his feet.

While Smudge had taken over my desk chair.

Pickled Ladies and the Cabin Quilt

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Quiltobsession

Two more Pickled Ladies blocks are done. I have about 10 arcs ready now to add to clamshells, so should have a fair number of the blocks finished by week’s end. One of the things I want to do over the next week or so is figure out just how big I really do want to make this and then sort out the exact number of blocks I’ll need. Perhaps it will end up as a lap quilt, but I’m having so much fun making them that I don’t think I’ll want to stop there but may just end up turning this into a bed-sized quilt.

Over the past few days some stitches were taken on the Cabin Quilt as well and two more of the stitchery blocks are done.

Tuesday was a grey rainy fall day. The kitties took full advantage of the snoozing opportunities. Smudge got himself really tucked into the kitty bed into an almost headless cat pose.

While Lester curled up with a teddy bear for a nap.

Back-Basting Tutorial — Lots of Photos

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Quiltobsession

Lester is intently watching as we go through the steps I take when doing applique using the back basting process.

For back basting I use both a larger needle and larger thread.

When I do any applique, my method of choice is back basting. I’ve found a few tricks that really help me. First of all, I use a larger needle. In the above picture, the top needle is a #8 straw and the bottom one is a #12 sharp. I use the #8 straw for back basting with a thicker thread, as shown below. And I always wear a thimble when doing this as getting that needle through some fabrics, particularly a batik, requires some protection for the finger!

The thread on the left is the normal heirloom 80 weight thread I use for piecing and applique. The thread on the right is 30 weight DMC thread I use for backbasting.

With the applique design printed on the back of my background fabric, I pin a piece of fabric that’s large enough to cover the shape to be appliqued on to the right side of the background, with the right side of the fabric to be appliqued facing up. Then, from the wrong side of the background and following the lines, I baste the pieces on to the background fabric using the large needle and large thread and taking relatively small stitches. Here you can see all the pieces on the quarter block basted down. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you’ll see the basting stitches quite clearly on the pieces to be appliqued.

This is the back and it shows the basting following along the lines of the shapes that are printed on the wrong side of the background.

What this picture doesn’t show, and I wish I had taken one after this next step, is how flat it sits after I run my nail along the lines of basting to relax any gathers that have occurred as a result of pulling the basting thread a bit too tight. Running a nail along the stitching line is all that’s needed to ease out those little gathers.

I’ve found that leaving a piece that’s basted overnight before starting to applique it makes the next step a lot easier. The next day I pick up the piece and clip the basting thread at about every 5th or 6th stitch as seen in this picture.

This next step is where the magic of this technique appears. After clipping the threads, I pull out the first one or two sections. Take a look at this picture and you’ll see the perforations in the fabric to be appliqued where the basting line was.

The fabric folds along that perforation line so easily it’s always amazing to me. With my needle, I fold it under and start to applique. I don’t look at the back again where the lines are until I finish all the applique. And every time my applique stitches are close to being perfectly on the line. The reason I leave the basting stitches in overnight is that I’ve found that it makes that little perforated line really do its job. Think of it like a piece of paper that has some perforations to make it easier to remove. I think the basting line does the same thing but, in the case of fabric, makes the fabric easier to turn under.

I begin to applique, pulling out a section or two of the basting thread as I go along. The basting thread also serves to hold the fabric being appliqued in place. So no fighting with pins, no freezer paper to remove, no overlay to try to keep out-of-the-way and no lines that might show on the front if the applique isn’t right on the lines of the design. Just needle, thread and fabric.

In this picture you can see how closely my applique stitches are right on the line of the design. It also shows the lines of another shape, which I chose not to add to this part of my applique block.

Again, another picture showing how closely the applique stitches follow the line of the design.

Everyone has their favourite method, but I hope this little tutorial gives you the information you need if you’d like to try the back-basting method.

Smudge is hoping you found this relaxing and informative.

Fabric Choices for More Pickled Lady Blocks

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Quiltobsession

Although I already have close to 30 of the clamshells printed for more of the Pickled Ladies, I decided to go through and pick out some other fabrics that are candidates for fussy cutting/printing. Some of the ones I’ve picked out are shown above. With any luck, I may be able to get 2 different clamshells from most of these fabrics which should take me up to 80 or so blocks. My goal is to make approximately 120 of them and then either decide to continue and make it a bed quilt or stop there.

Work has suddenly become extremely busy, which meant that on Thursday I didn’t get a chance to visit many, if any, blogs and very few of the other clamshell club participants. Hopefully I’ll get caught up on the weekend.

The cats are beginning to settle in for the fall. Smudge was curled up on the sofa.

Lester was having a snooze in one of the cat beds, with one of his favourite toys nearby.

Cabin Quilt Block 1

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Quiltobsession

This is the first of 12 stitchery blocks for a lap quilt that is from the other kit that I had mentioned last week. Once the stitchery blocks are done, then it’s a matter of some quick machine stitching. I said quick machine stitching?? It involves cutting some flannel squares into triangles to surround the stitchery and pieced blocks and I’m a bit concerned about the flannel stretching. Mr. Q.O. really likes this quilt, though, so I’m going to give it a try.

I managed to do the first stitchery block last night. When we were at Sew Sisters on the weekend, I asked what they used behind fabric when doing stitcheries and they suggested either a fusible batt or fusible fleece. I got a small fusible batting and I’m sold! It makes it quite easy to travel thread for a bit when stitching without it shadowing through on the front. As the back shows, I took advantage of that capability a few times.

I have always loved doing a little hand embroidery but the hoop has been my biggest issue for the past few years as tightening and loosening it was almost impossible. So I found this hoop and tried using it. What an amazing difference! It’s easy and quick to use, holds the fabric perfectly for stitching and there’s no hardware on which to catch the thread.

This is what the quilt will look like when finished, although I’m not sure I’m going to do the tree appliques on the border. I’ll decide that when I get that far. The pattern calls for tea-dying the stitchery blocks when finished. As I like the look of the stitchery blocks in the photo of the quilt, I think I may try that as well.

Monday, like Friday, was a migraine day. While not quite as bad as Friday when I could barely move, yesterday was bad enough. Today is the bruised head feeling that always seems to follow. So once again I’m behind in replying to comments but hope to get caught up through the week.

Smudge curled up sound asleep.

I have to use an antique DOS program for work so, rather than cluttering up my Mac with any Windows software, I have an older laptop just for that purpose. Lester is constantly trying to “help” and I’m usually on guard for a paw on the laptop keys. I think he watches the cursor moving on the screen.

Fall Fabric & Pickled Lady 6

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Quiltobsession

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.