Once I started playing with the diamonds in the 6″ Hunter’s Star collection, I knew I had to make a small Hunter’s Star quilt using that size. There was a French General layer cake in my stash that I had … Continue reading
Sew Sisters, a fabulous Canadian online and brick-and-mortar quilt store, is sponsoring a week-long event “Canadian Quilters Connect Blogathon Canada” from November 19 to 24, 2012 to highlight Canadian quilting bloggers’ creativity and talent and give us all a chance … Continue reading
That almost sounds like a song title, doesn’t it? To me it sounds like a very cheerful and fun song. I’ve added another block to the Jelly Beans quilt beginning. I love how happy this quilt is going to be. … Continue reading
I was surprised when I realized I now have 25 blocks finished. Only 17 more to go. Maybe this weekend I’ll put the 25 up on the design wall just to get a feel for how they look so far. … Continue reading
Preparation of the centre blocks is almost complete. All that’s really left is to do is the grading of seams on the first 6 blocks.
It presses beautifully. The final six blocks have had all the seams graded. Why I left it with the first six I have no idea, but it won’t take long and is definitely worth the effort. It will make the quilt drape better, there will be no chance of the red shadowing through to the front and it will make the quilting easier.
I stacked them together for fun. It will be fabulous to see this quilt centre put together, but taking a picture of it will definitely have to wait until we can get out on the roof garden. Which, by the looks of our weather forecast, may not be too far off at all.
Making these blocks has been so much easier than they look, thanks to the perfect stitching lines and matching points of Inklingo, that I’ve got an idea for a completely different feathered star quilt that I’d like to make.
Baxter had to get in on the act of photographing the blocks. Mr. Q.O. labelled this one, “The Critic.”
Although it was Mr. Q.O.’s birthday yesterday, Baxter got a present. One of our neighbours gave this to him. He absolutely loves it and played with it for hours.
Remember these little 6″ blocks? They’ve been languishing on my sewing table, waiting to be turned into a small quilt. I was looking at them last night and thought I had decided on a setting that will require only two more blocks. That is, I thought I had until I noticed the secondary star pattern they create when put together this way when I looked at the photo. That may change my setting idea.
Here are the pieces for one of the two remaining blocks, ready to be stitched together. With any luck, I might get the remaining two blocks done this weekend and may even get a start at putting the little top together.
One of my goals is to do a series of two-colour quilts. So far, all those that I’ve done have been lap size or larger. The little red and white one will be the first small two-colour quilt, but I’m now thinking that a whole series of two-colour little quilts might be fun.
Baxter caught sight of the pieces for the little red and white block and this was his reaction. He really loves to get a piece of fabric and march around with it in his mouth so I could almost imagine him thinking, “Yum, fabric bits!”
After looking through a few quilt books and thinking about it, I finally decided on a quilt block. Within a few minutes of making that decision, the fabrics were pulled and I had everything cut for the first block. Some muslin rectangles, a print rectangle, two large squares — one of muslin and one of the print — for the HSTs and I was ready to go.
In just a few seconds, the muslin square was printed, using Inklingo, with the 3″ HSTs for the block. The muslin was layered with the print. Using the machine, I stitched along the stitching lines. The fabrics were then cut along the cutting lines, the pieces were pressed and …
A few seconds later I had perfect 3″ HSTs. No dog-ears, no having to cut down to size. Just easy perfect HSTs.
A few minutes later the HSTs and rectangles were joined and the first of the sailboat blocks was done. The block finishes at 12″. I’m going to use a three or four-inch muslin sashing between blocks. My plan is to make 12 blocks and set them 3 by 4 as this is destined to be a lap quilt.
I didn’t time it, but I doubt the block took even half an hour to make. Once the HSTs were done, it took only a few more minutes. So I may just get all the blocks finished today. I’m curious to see if I can get the whole top done by the time the weekend is over. I may get distracted by a hand-piecing project .. in fact, I can almost be sure of that happening.
Baxter was practicing his lounge lizard look, I think. The crossed paws make me laugh every time.
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.
The top is finished. It’s a relatively small quilt, perfect for a teddy bear picnic or perhaps a crib quilt, finishing at 36 x 45 inches. This is the second quilt top I’ve made using the Inklingo Fancy Pieced Dresden Plate Collection and I’m not finished. There are at least two other designs that I’ve got planned. Ferris Wheel, which I’m machine quilting, is the other Dresden Plate quilt I made using that collection.
The quilt was inspired by the floral used as the setting frames for the plates. I had the layer cake of Fig Tree fabrics, which is what I used for the blades in the plates, and as soon as I saw that floral fabric I knew exactly what I’d make.
The picture isn’t great as putting up the temporary design wall with an inquisitive kitten helping means things get done quickly. We had hoped to take a picture of this outside but I finished it on Sunday, when it was rainy and windy. Monday wasn’t much better. In fact, it was almost chilly Monday night. We seem to have gone from hot, humid summer weather on Saturday to cool fall weather on Monday.
The binding is ready and I know what I’m going to use for the backing. All that’s left is to get a silk batt as I plan on hand quilting this one.
Baxter was lounging on the floor between our two desks when we got lucky and got this shot of him licking his nose. Makes me laugh.
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.
Quilt Obsession 