Ferris Wheel Quilt

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Quiltobsession

Thanks to Elly, I have a name for the Farmer’s Delight quilt. Ferris Wheel seems to me to be the perfect name for this quilt. It makes me think of summer and movement and that’s definitely what a ferris wheel means to me. It reminds me of when the Canadian National Exhibition is open in August and all the rides on the midway, not that I go anywhere near them. The ferris wheel is probably as adventurous as I would ever get when it comes to rides.

It was amazingly quick work to put the blocks together into rows and then stitch the rows together. I started stitching them together on Friday evening and finished Saturday evening. All by hand. Although I had thought I’d join them by machine, I think it probably didn’t take me much longer to stitch by hand than it would have by machine.

I thought I had the perfect fabric for the backing, but it’s just a bit too short. All that’s left now is to do the final pressing, get the backing prepared, baste and start quilting it. I have the quilting planned and think it will go fairly quickly.

Over the weekend, I decided to give my blog a facelift. It’s a bit of a work in progress, but then I suppose a blog always is a work in progress. For now, I’ve started listing favourite quilt blogs on a separate page rather than in the sidebar.

This is possibly one of the most quirky pictures we have of Lester. I don’t know if it was the angle at which it was taken on Sunday or what, but there’s something about this one that I love. He looks like a much smaller cat than he is.

Smudge had just been sticking his head in the water bowl, which is how he seems to prefer to drink, and Mr. Q.O. got this shot. If you click on it to see the large picture, you can tell the fur on one side of his face is still wet.

Farmer’s Delight

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Quiltobsession

All 12 of the blocks on my makeshift design wall. I’m pretty sure that this is the layout of the blocks I’m going to go with. I suppose it’s no surprise that I have more pink blocks than any other colour. There are 4 pink, 3 blue, 3 green and 2 gold. As it stands now, the top would finish at 45 x 60 which is, I think, a good size for a lap quilt. Now I’ve got to start thinking of a name for this one. Usually names for quilts come to me easily, but this one? Not so easily. The blocks remind me of something but I can’t quite put my finger on just what that something is.

It won’t take long to join the blocks into rows and then into the top, and then I suppose I’ll make a final decision as to whether I add any border. My initial thought is no border as I really don’t want to take away from the blocks. That may change. How to quilt it is another question altogether.

This is the fabric I plan to use for the binding. It has all the colours that are in the blocks and will frame the quilt.

I’ve finally figured out how I can put up a design wall that’s easily removed and hope to get that organized in the next week or so. But in the meantime, masking tape and a partial batt work. It’s far, far better than trying to lay blocks out on the floor with four-footed helpers!

Smudge was back on his pillow, but this time wasn’t looking at the camera.

Lester wasn’t trying to convince me to look up at the ceiling this time.

Farmer’s Delight Block 11

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Quiltobsession

Getting these blocks done has moved to the top of the list and, as I’m very close to being finished, they are all I plan to work on until they’re done. One more block to go, then add the surrounding pieces to turn the last 4 blocks into squares and the piecing is done. The final step will be figuring out how I want to set them.

Block 12 has been started. The two triangle strips won’t take long to make and add to it and then it will be finished.

A few days ago I wrote about testing different markers for marking the quilting I want to do on the pink and cream quilt. I made some marks on a scrap piece of the cream fabric with various markers and then let it sit for over a week. Wednesday I decided to see if the marks would come out. I was amazed at how easily they all rinsed right out of the fabric with just water. No soap was necessary at all. The pink and yellow Fineliner marks rinsed out without an issue. The most surprising to me was that the General’s graphite pencil marks practically flew out of the fabric as soon as it got close to water. After drying and ironing the scrap piece there isn’t a hint of any of the marks. As I always wash my quilts as soon as they’re bound, I feel quite safe about using any of the markers I tested.

Now to find my quilt stencils. Some of them are rather large so there aren’t too many spots I could have put them where they could lie flat. It seems I found a really good spot for them — and one that I can’t remember. I’d like to get that top ready to quilt this weekend, so hopefully they turn up today or tomorrow.

I spoke too soon about the weather. Wednesday was quite cool again and extremely windy. Our high was only -4. Today’s high is supposed to be -3. However, the difference in the light is becoming more obvious each day. We got pictures of both the cats without having to turn on lights or use the flash.

Lester was lounging.

Smudge was posing.

Another Farmer’s Delight

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Quiltobsession

Once this and two more blocks are finished, and the next one is already partially put together, the blocks for this quilt will be made. Setting the blocks is something I’ve started thinking about and, while I have no firm ideas as of yet, I’m thinking about something that will involve some applique. I’ll make that decision once all the blocks are done and I start playing with layouts.

An idea for another Dresden Plate variation is slowly working its way to the top of the list. I may play with some fabric choices for it and perhaps make the first block this week.

Thanks to the rain early Monday, we have no snow left on the roof garden. As it’s now March 1, I’m hoping that we get no more snow until next year. Spring can’t arrive soon enough for me. There’s something about it being March that always feels so promising. We got through January and February and it’s all good from here.

We didn’t manage to get any photos of the kitties on Monday. We just didn’t seem to have a camera at hand at the appropriate times, so I thought I’d dig up some photos from a year ago.

This was Lester just under a year ago.

And Smudge slightly over a year ago, giving a classic Smudge look.

Farmer’s Delight in Stages

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Quiltobsession

Another Farmer’s Delight block completely finished.

One that just needs the frame around it to square it up.

And a third which is awaiting its two bands of triangles. I’ve decided to make the remaining blocks all at once. It’s faster, I think, if I make the blocks up to the point of completing the addition of the two rounds of triangles and then, once the remaining 3 or 4 blocks are at that stage, I’ll add the frames to square them up all at once. That’s what I’ve been working on this week.

We ran down to the hospital for a bit on Wednesday afternoon to meet Cameron, who was born late Monday afternoon, and to deliver his little quilt. His father, who is the son of a quilter, wasted no time in making sure Cameron was cozy and warm with the quilt wrapped around him.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and messages about Lester — they were greatly appreciated and helped enormously. Lester has been slowly recovering. This is his third stroke and the recovery time has been longer this time. As of Thursday night he’s eating on his own, drinking and even playing a bit with kitty toys. It has been a roller coaster of emotions watching him, wondering how well he’ll recover. We took no pictures of him this week until last night, when he was acting more like Lester, our house lion — lounging in the kitty bed near the kitty toy basket. We were, once again, extremely lucky.

There has been good news with Smudge as well. He finally seems to be eating enough on his own. So much so that Thursday was the first day in close to three months that there was no syringe feeding at all. Tuesday and Wednesday were rather tough days with syringe feeding necessary for both of them and then Thursday was like magic — they were both eating on their own. Smudge was having a snooze after eating on Thursday night.

Farmer’s Delight … Again

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Quiltobsession

Along with finishing the quilting of the baby quilt, I started piecing another Farmer’s Delight block on Thursday. The photo above was taken back in April, and there are a couple more blocks that have been done since but this is another of the UFOs that has made its way up the list. It will only take 3 or 4 more blocks to finish it.

Tonight I’ll add the binding to the baby quilt and make the label. Pictures of the finished baby quilt and the newest Farmer’s Delight block will be taken for Monday’s post.

A surprise package arrived from a non-blogging friend that included the book EQ6 Simplified. I was thrilled and can tell already, from just looking through it, that it’s going to make a huge difference. I’ve already picked up a couple of things.

We were absolutely delighted when Smudge decided he wanted his yogourt treat again. He hasn’t evidenced any interest in it for what seems like forever, so watching him go for the yogourt Thursday night made us both feel fabulous! He has been eating a bit more each day on his own, and we’re still struggling to find a food that he likes and that is good for both him and Lester.

Lester seemingly will eat almost every food we offer. There have been a few he’s not liked, but he’s nowhere near as finicky as Smudge.

Farmer’s Delight Block 7

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Quiltobsession

… is completed. This time I tried something a bit different. Normally, I piece together the two strips of triangles (or snakes, as Mr. Q.O. calls them), then join the two strips and then join that two-strip unit to the centre of the block. This time I thought I’d put the first strip of triangles together and then start joining the triangles for the second one directly on to the first rather than making another long snake of triangles.

What did I learn? That joining them into the long triangle strips before joining the two together is faster. I thought it probably was, but wanted to try adding the second group of larger triangles one by one to the first set. There’s still the opportunity for some continuous stitching, but nowhere near as much. The little envelope containing the pieces for block 8 has been pulled from the box and is ready to be started sometime this week.

I was looking at the various blades in the Dresden Plate collections this weekend and am now contemplating making a Dresden Plate sampler of blocks, each of which would contain a different combination of the blades. It’s very tempting, but I am trying to resist. Who knows how long that will last. Probably not long.

Sunday afternoon, we ventured out for a short walk and saw a couple out walking their cat. A gorgeous British blue kitty on a leash. The cat seemed quite at ease with the whole thing although the woman told us that you don’t have the cat walking and following where you lead — rather, you follow the cat’s lead. It was rather fun to see the look on people’s faces when they first saw that it was a cat on a leash. I’m pretty sure my face was probably pretty comical when I first noticed it too!

I say ventured out because the weekend was really quite sad here in Toronto. I have never in my life seen anything as horrible as some of the sights as a result of the vandals who infiltrated the genuine protest groups who had planned peaceful protests of the G20/G8 summits. I had tears in my eyes at seeing police cars set on fire at, among other places, the very intersection where the office I used to work at is located. Things being thrown at the police on horseback, to the point that one of the police officers was knocked off his/her horse. Windows of businesses being smashed. Looting. If this is what hosting a G20/G8 summit means, then I think that the best thing that could happen is if a permanent site was set up for them at perhaps a remote island somewhere or at a military base. Given the outrageously high cost of hosting those summits (over $1 billion here), I think it would make more sense for all the countries involved to chip in and build a place where they could be held from here on out — somewhere that could be easily secured. No city should have to go through what happened here on the weekend.

Lester was content watching out the window on to the roof garden. Good thing he wasn’t there on Sunday night as it appears we have a new resident out on the roof garden — a skunk! The smell for a while was quite — well, pungent is probably the only way to describe it. Actually, while Mr. Q.O. and I noticed the odour immediately, neither cat seemed to be noticing it at all.

Smudge earlier on Sunday evening, waiting for his yogourt treat.

Farmer’s Delight Block 7

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Quiltobsession

As I had printed all the pieces for the remaining Farmer’s Delight blocks and as I have an idea for setting these together, I decided to work on them while I wait to do the final pressing of Chintz Circles and then baste it. There will be 12 of these blocks in total. The first six can be seen here. I had forgotten how much fun these blocks are to put together. The centre goes together in no time. Stitching the bands of triangles that surround it is fast as can be, lots of continuous stitching makes it fly by!

The back of the centre part:

Lester was resting on the windowsill for a while after watching what was going on out there. The teddy bear in this photo with Lester is a special token of appreciation from the kitties to Mr. Q.O.

Smudge, resting after his yogourt treat Monday night.

Farmer’s Delight Blocks

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Quiltobsession

These blocks have been languishing since I got started on Spring Circles, but are about to get worked on again. I had planned to make 12 of these blocks and have the fabrics for the remaining 6 blocks cut and ready to print. So this weekend, the shapes shall be printed and then I will start working on these again as well as focusing on the Spring Circles. I’m playing with the idea of a pieced sashing for these, but will make that decision when I get the remaining 6 blocks completed.

While we were out on the roof garden taking pictures of quilt blocks, we got this shot of the two condominium towers going up across the street. There are so many condominium high-rise towers in this area that sometimes it feels like we live in an absolute concrete jungle. That’s one of the reasons I’m so grateful for the roof garden and that we face on to it with a tree in front of our living room window. Once the leaves on the tree have come out we barely notice all the concrete that surrounds us.