Tag Archives: half-hexagons

Cameron’s Windmills Quilt … Again

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Yes, I know this has been shown before but I have it entered in this week’s Quilting Gallery contest which is for hexagons. There are some beautiful quilts entered, so please go have a look and vote for your favourites. Yes, I said favourites as you can vote for two entries this week.

With a little advance planning I was able to get the machine quilting done within a couple of hours and had only 4 thread ends to work in. All straight line quilting, of course, as that’s my skill level when quilting by machine. When I found this flannel a few years ago, I bought enough yardage of it to use as backing for 3 baby quilts.

I’ve found that a 2″ hexagon is perfect for a label as it gives me lots of room to write. I baste the turn-under allowance down as that makes the appliqueing on to the back go very quickly. In this picture it’s ironed to a piece of freezer paper to stabilize it when writing on it.

The quilt was made with “other” half 1″ hexagons which I printed using Inklingo. I love tessellating designs and had started the quilt top long before we knew about the new baby. However, when I learned my cousin’s son and his wife were going to have another baby I knew what this particular UFO was meant to be. Once I made that decision, it only took a couple of weeks to finish piecing it. With a tessellating design like this, there are tons of opportunities for continuous stitching which makes the piecing go very quickly. Of course, using Inklingo to print the shapes on the back of the fabric makes it even faster as there’s no basting over papers and removing them.

The blocks are very quick to make with a simple running stitch. Because of the matching points, there’s no guessing at where exactly the joins should be made. I think I was making upwards of 20 or so of these blocks in an evening and then had the fun of arranging and putting them together into the top. I have lots of them left and plan to make another of these little tessellating quilts at some point.

They press beautifully.

Last night we bought a new vacuum cleaner. Baxter was eyeing the box it’s in, definitely not impressed. He is not a fan of vacuum cleaners at all, but with a long-haired cat a good vacuum cleaner is an absolute must for us.

Half Hexagon Madness!

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Just over a year ago, when Cameron’s Windmills was finished, I put the box containing all the extra pieces away. Over the past while I have been thinking about them and couldn’t resist making a few. I love tessellating designs and this is definitely a fun stitch.

There are a fair number of the “other half” hexagons in the box, so I have a feeling another small quilt may be in the making.

I continued on my journey of working in EQ last night. While I am getting more used to it and it’s fun to see design ideas on the screen, I prefer playing with real fabric. That said, I have another idea that I’ve wanted to play with for months. For this particular design I have in mind, it’s going to make a lot more sense to work it out in EQ before I start printing on fabric so I may just work on it for a while today.

Even though we’ve had quite the cold snap, Baxter still was hanging out on the windowsill.

Klosjes — It Must be Saturday

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Not much to show this week in the way of Klosjes, but I did get this one little block done.  It seems the quilt is going to be larger than the 81 blocks previously made.  Mr. Q.O. loves these little blocks so I’ll keep going, I suppose, until I have enough to make at least a lap quilt.

The back:

While I may have only stitched one, I did take a few minutes this morning to print the templates on some more charms and muslin:

We picked up the floor frame from Sew Sisters this afternoon.  Oh, my — it is fantastic!  Wonderfully made and has velcro strips and ribbon to hold up the sides so they’re not draped all over the floor.  Easy as can be to use — no knobs to tighten or loosen.  Perfect for someone with limited hand strength like me.  And it actually looks nice!

We’re taking care of Winnie, our neighbours’ cat, this weekend.  Winnie who makes all those funny sounds when she eats.  She did it again tonight.

Our boys have been resting up, hoping we get warmer weather again soon and that there are lots of things to watch out the window.  Lester was guarding the toy basket.

While Smudge was doing one of his impossibly cute poses.

Spools

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After reading about Klosjes day, I decided to devote stitching time on Saturdays to these little blocks!  Each finishes at 2 3/8″.  They’re tiny.  But addictive.  Seriously addictive.  Perfect use for a charm pack or two.

While there are other methods of making them I’m hand piecing them, as I love to hand piece and love Y-seams for the continuous stitching that they make possible.  I’m using 1″ squares and half hexagons  from the 90-degree 1-inch hexagons in the Patchwork of the Crosses Inklingo collection.  I was able to print three of  the half  hexagons on each charm and have a plan for the border for this quilt, however large it ends up, using that third half-hexagon from each charm.

I have no idea how many of these little beauties I’m going to make, but as Mr. Q.O. is quite taken by them, I have a feeling it may be as many as is needed to make a lap quilt for him.

An alternative plan is to make a doll’s quilt using these tiny blocks and then start another set using the shapes using the long half hexagon from the 1.5″ 90-degree hexagon collection and the 3″ squares from the Drunkard’s Path collection to make somewhat larger blocks.

The other night Lester decided to “help” when I was working on the Quaker Patchwork cross-stitch.  Great huge kitty paws on the chart make it rather difficult to keep one’s place!

Smudge was, as usual, perfecting his lounging.

Finished Project!

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Finally, I finished the ’30s table runner. Every piece in it is an Inklingo shape which made it so easy to do. Actually, I finished it a few weeks ago but didn’t get pictures till last week. I’m quite pleased with it, even with my machine quilting on it which is quite something for me — I am not thrilled with my ability to machine quilt at all, so feeling good about this was great!

We have been enjoying the late summer days lately — love the heat and those wonderful blue skies, but am really shocked at the number of leaves changing colour already. Makes me wonder if we’re in for an early winter.

The kitties have been very busy lately playing with their caterpillar toy. We get such a huge kick out of their antics with this toy that I sometimes wonder who has more fun, them or us!

Peonies

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The deluge of work I expected arrived and haven’t had a chance to do much stitching at all this week, but am getting close to finishing piecing the table runner. I think by the time tomorrow night comes around, I will have the piecing finished and can get it basted and start quilting it.

Once the workload eases up a bit, I plan to put together a small quilt using these half hexagon blocks in ’30s prints.

Peonies are my favourite flowers and, when they’re in season I make a point of having a few in a vase. The smell, every time we walk past the piano where the vase is, is just incredible.


This is our little cat, Smokey, who had some serious health problems last summer and finally left us in early September. She was a tiny cat, only about 7 pounds, but she ruled the roost — the two 25-pound boys definitely were no match. She loved it when her basket was placed on a chair — she could watch over the antics of the boys. She had the loudest voice too — we think she may have had some Siamese in her background.

Monday Musings

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Work is definitely getting in the way of my quilting plans. I would much rather be stitching than working! Still working on the ’30s hexagon, half hexagon surprise and hope to have it finished by the end of this week. This is it so far:


As I work on that, I’m pondering a setting for all these little 6-point stars from the first Inklingo swap. Do I wait and make more from the next swap and end up with a bed-sized quilt, hopefully in some sort of colour graduation, or figure out a setting and use these ones for a totally scrappy lap quilt? I’m leaning towards saving them and using them with those from the next swap.

And then there are the batiks for the oval applique quilt I’m planning. As I use the backbasting applique technique, this is the perfect outdoor stitching project this summer. I won’t have to worry about pieces flying off if it’s breezy.


Lester and Smudge share lap time when I’m stitching in the evenings, although sometimes they get a little too intent on catching the thread as I pull it through. This is our wonderful golden Maine Coon boy, Lester.

He had a small stroke caused by a heart condition about 2 months ago and is on heart meds now, so we’re hoping that the meds will keep his heart condition under control and that he’ll be with us for a very long time. He is a big lovey of a cat — absolutely adores attention and draping himself over my lap in the evenings. In the winter it’s great, but during a heatwave?? That’s when we need to turn up the a/c!