There are a huge number of little blocks that have been waiting to be turned into a quilt for a very long time. 832 of the 2″ Drunkard’s Path blocks, in fact. This is the setting I’m going to use, but … Continue reading
I was really trying to be good and focusing on finishing a few things, including the Morse Stars top, before I even began to think about a new project seriously. But then I saw the announcement of the Cross the … Continue reading
When we took the picture of the stack of quilt tops waiting to be quilted, we also took some of them out to the roof garden for their outdoors photo. First up was the crib size Dresden Plate quilt. This … Continue reading
Another project that got worked on over the past weekend was the ’30s Drunkard’s Path quilt. Eleven more blocks done. Now the numbers are 386 done, 446 left to make. Even typing that makes me shake my head, but I … Continue reading
I played and played with EQ over the weekend. Hopefully I’ll get this out of my system soon and be back to playing more with fabric! But this design is one that I will make. How could I possibly resist all that curved piecing of Winding Ways and Drunkard’s Path blocks? This coloration of it I’m calling Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Some of you may remember Tiny Tim singing Tiptoe Through the Tulips. I was giggling the whole time I was working on this design thinking about that.
Playing with designs in EQ has quickly become addictive. Saturday night I had to have an MRI and, as I am claustrophobic, took a rather strong tranquilizer. So as the machine made its infernal racket, rather than feeling like the walls were closing in, I was dreaming up this design. As soon as we got home, I started playing with it in EQ.
I guess you could say I am now well and truly hooked on Electric Quilt. I love that I can try out my ideas and see how they’re going to look before I start printing shapes on my fabrics. It’s just another great tool to have available. What’s perfect about it for me is that I can design a quilt using Inklingo shapes and then play with colours.
Baxter was very intent on getting to the yogourt on the spoon. If we don’t hold the spoon close enough, he’ll reach out with a paw and hook it around the stem of the spoon to drag it closer.
Finishing this top was an almost bittersweet moment, as I have loved every second of working with the gorgeous Rouenneries fabrics. It was hand pieced, other than adding the two borders. While I generally don’t make square quilts, this one finishes at 54″ square. It’s large enough to use as a throw. I can also imagine it as a large wall hanging.
I made it from 5 charm packs of Rouenneries plus two larger pieces of fabrics from that line for the borders and used the 3″ Inklingo Drunkard’s Path collection. I know Rouenneries Deux is coming out sometime in the future, and can’t wait. Working with these colours/designs was an absolute joy. I’m thinking that a star quilt in Rouenneries Deux may just be in my future.
This quilt was being worked on when I finished Chintz Circles. I knew I wanted to use the same binding fabric, so made enough binding then and it’s ready. The backing fabric I used for Chintz Circles will be used for this one too. All that’s left to get is the batting and then this one will be hand quilted. And I need to find a name for it.
The past few nights I’ve been working on hand quilting the whole cloth quilt, but everything is going to come to a standstill for a few days while I make a quilt from the flannel fabrics I showed last week. I’ve decided on a double 4-patch. It needs to be made quickly as it’s for a friend’s brother-in-law who has just been given a rather grim diagnosis/prognosis.
Baxter showing that he’s a real quilter’s cat – posing under the quilt on the temporary design wall, by the floor hoop.
The blocks for this have been done for ages and were sitting, waiting to be put into a top. Part of the reason for the delay was that I wasn’t quite sure how I’d finish it. Now I know. Without the border, it’s 36 x 42. It’s completely hand pieced.
Last week, 6 new Inklingo collections were released with new sizes of the Drunkard’s Path shapes, ranging from 2″ to 7″, along with an absolutely fabulous Drunkard’s Path Free Design Book. The book is wonderful and, for the moment, free to download. It’s full of tips and tricks for both hand and machine stitching Drunkard’s Path blocks as well as tons of layouts.
The new sizes gave me a completely different idea than I initially had for the border I’ll add to make it into a lap quilt. The top was made with shapes from the 3″ collection. I’ll be using shapes from the 6″ collection to make the pieced border. The fabrics for the border are ready and washed and now I just need to find one of them. I’ve obviously tucked it away too well, but I think I have an idea where it is.
Baxter is growing in leaps and bounds — and is leaping and bounding around here too as the kitten antics go on daily. We were fortunate to get this shot of him awake and still.
I want to make the Drunkard’s Path quilt a good-sized lap quilt, so I need to prep some more of the Rouenneries charms for printing. I already know that I can print both pieces of a Drunkard’s Path unit on a 5″ charm, so it’s a matter of ironing them on to the freezer paper that I have already cut to size and then feeding them through my printer. Here you can see that I’ve separated them by colour as I will use different ink colours for printing, depending on the fabric colour. Some of those pieces of freezer paper have been used 10 or 15 times already and are still fine for another few uses.
One thing I have learned is that even 5″ charms shrink when washed and not evenly. There’s almost a full quarter inch shrinkage in width or length, depending on how you look at it, when these little charms are washed and pressed.
I received the Clothworks e-mail yesterday with news of their upcoming collections and immediately fell in love with the Hungarian Blues collection that you can see here. Blue and white quilts are among my absolute favourites and these fabrics are stunning. I know I’m going to want yardage of every one of those when the fabric is available. I’m already dreaming of a blue and white Winding Ways quilt or perhaps a Dresden Plate in blue and white.
Smudge has the funniest look on his face in this photo.
Lester, on the other hand, is looking somewhat majestic.
Quilt Obsession 