Tag Archives: hand piecing

A Week of Clamshells in Review

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The pickled clams of one sort or another have clearly taken over!  Thanks to Inklingo, these blocks are very simple to stitch — but without it, I can’t imagine tackling them.  Another four of the pickled star clams were added this week, creating a new blue star at the intersection.  It’s difficult to get a good shot without a design wall as it is growing rather quickly.  I’m thinking it’s not going to take long to make this lap quilt as this one is being made with the 11″ clamshells.

A close-up of the little star shows that it too has a very gentle curve along one edge of each piece.

The back.

All the Pickled Ladies done so far.  There are another 15 or so fussy cut/printed clamshells waiting for their arcs.   On the weekend, I’m going to go through more of the shabby chic fabrics looking for others that will work for the fussy cutting/printing.

Thursday was a rainy, dark, dismal day and the kitties were snoozing.  However, earlier in the week we took a series of photos of each of them on the windowsill. Lester was looking out the window.

While Smudge was posing and showing off his magnificent tail.

Pickled Ladies Block 7

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Another block with another favourite fabric.  There are all sorts of different elements in this fabric, so I may well fussy cut another part of it for another one of the looped lasses aka pickled ladies.

The back:

Window replacements, where necessary, are done every fall.  Over the past few days, we’ve seen the ropes from the swing stage the workers use.  The other day it was obvious that they’d be going by our window so we thought they might get a laugh out of three little teddy bears lined up watching them.   We’re used to the window cleaners doing double takes when they see one of the cats.  I remember one of the window washers saying to his partner on the swing stage something along the lines of, “Look, there’s a lion in there!” when he caught sight of Lester who sat staring out at him, completely unperturbed.  Smudge, on the other hand, will hide under the bed the minute he sees the ropes.

Ideas for the fall quilt are flying through my mind.  This weekend I’m going to spend some time working with EQ again and see if I can sort out the design idea that is forming in my mind that way.  If not, paper and coloured pencils are my next choice.

Wednesday was a lovely mild day.  Lester spent some time on the windowsill.

While Smudge was working on his fall sleeping poses — this one almost qualifies as a headless cat pose, but not quite.

Pickled Ladies 5

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Another blue one — and another favourite print.  I’ve had this fabric in my shabby chic stash for ages and have used little pieces of it in every shabby chic quilt I’ve made.

The back:

Monday started out rather cool but turned into a lovely mild sunny day.  That said, the heat  was back on when the sun went down.  I suppose I really shouldn’t find this so surprising as it’s not uncommon for us to go from having heat on in the morning to having the a/c on by afternoon in May or June, but it just seems like fall arrived very suddenly this year.

Lester is still finding the windowsill attractive as there are still lots of birds out on the roof garden for him to watch.

Smudge, on the other hand, is all about finding spots where he can curl up and snooze.

Pickled Ladies Blocks 2 and 4

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The second block was redone with a more solid black for the triangles, and I like the effect much more.  Compare that to how it looked before:

Pickled Ladies 4 is, I think, so far my favourite.  I absolutely love this floral print.

We are definitely into fall weather with very cool nights — so cool, in fact, that we are finding we have to turn the heat on once the sun has gone down.  It seems unbelievably early to be turning the heat on.  This week is going to be quite cool, by the sounds of it, so I’m guessing we may have to have heat on during the day as well some days.

The cats were definitely finding cozy spots to curl up and have a nap during the weekend.  Smudge on a chair:

Lester with a teddy bear:

Pickled Ladies Quilt, Block 3

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Block 2 is probably going to be taken apart and redone with black triangles that have little white, if any.   When I look at this block and the first one I showed on Tuesday, I like them better than the one shown Wednesday.

The back:

The baseball game was fun, although the Jays lost.  At least we saw Bautista hit a home run, his 44th of the season.  We had amazing seats, 11 rows up from the field and so close to the field on the third base side that we could hear the home plate umpire.  The thing that struck me most was how much the television cameras distort what we see when watching the games on television.  The players, when shown on television, look much bigger than they are.  Seeing them in person I realized just how many pounds the camera does actually add!  This photo was taken at one of Bautista’s at-bats, but not the one when he hit the home run.

When we got home, I came up while Mr. Q.O. went to the store across the street.  Lester was waiting for us.

Smudge was rather relaxed.

Pickled Ladies Quilt, Block 2

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These blocks are addictive.   I think I may end up changing out 2 of the black and white triangles in this one as, while there is a touch of black in the two, there’s not quite enough contrast to their neighbouring white triangles.  I’ll leave that decision for a bit as it may just work with the whole pickled ladies story.

The back:

The Pickled Ladies story is based on an image I have in my mind of  a very elegantly dressed Audrey Hepburn-like lady with an absolutely smashing hat sitting in an art deco bar.  It goes on from there and will probably involve Daphne, the martini-drinking duck previously seen here, before it’s over.

Tuesday was a gorgeous day with lots of brilliant sunshine and warmth.   I know our days of summer are quickly drawing to a close but am resisting the idea of switching out summer clothing for fall as long as I possibly can.  Denial seems to be my middle name when it comes to the colder weather.

On Monday, we finally saw a squirrel out on the roof garden for the first time this summer.  Since then, Lester has been spending time on the windowsill keeping an eye out for the squirrel.

Smudge in one of the almost headless cat shots.  Notice he has toys strewn all about within paw’s reach for when he wakes up.

Pickled Ladies Quilt, Block 1

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The new clamshell pickle collections have me completely enthralled.  I immediately had at least three different ideas, one of which will involve  my favourite shabby chic fabrics and some Oriental prints.  I’m calling it Pickled Ladies as there’s a story that goes along with it which I will eventually write and share.  The first of the Pickled Ladies is shown above.

The back:

I’m fussy cutting/printing the clamshells.  It’s quite quick to do as I printed out one clamshell on a piece of paper cut down to the right size for printing just one shape, Mr. Q.O. cut out the interior of it and I have a window template which makes it very simple to figure out how to cut the fabrics and have a flower or other item as the centre of the clamshell.

The baby quilt top is finished, pressing is partially done and I’m still hunting for the flannel backing for it.  As soon as it’s quilted, which I expect will only take a weekend or two, we’ll get good pictures of it.

Labour Day weekend was chilly.  In fact, so chilly that on Monday we turned the heat on for a bit.  It’s too bad that it was chilly, windy and rainy as so many people head to cottage country for that one last summer long weekend.  Of course, today it’s supposed to be quite warm and humid again — typical of the weather here, as I can’t remember a year when, on the first day of school, we weren’t all roasting by the time school was over.

Smudge was curled up on the pink chair.

Lester was also on the pink chair … at the same time.

Planning a New Quilt

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Of course, I can’t resist the idea of some shabby chic and some fussy printing/cutting with the pickled clams.  An idea is slowly forming and will definitely include some black and/or deep grey.

Another 4 or 5 hours of piecing and the baby quilt will be done.  With any luck, I’ll have it finished by the time Thursday evening is over, will be able to do the final pressing on Friday and then hopefully get it basted over the long weekend.  I’ve got the quilting for it planned and hope to finish the quilting and have it bound before month end.

I’m going to take a brief blog break and have an extra-long weekend and will be back on Tuesday.  I hope everyone has a great weekend .

Lester in his normal spot on the window.

And Smudge relaxing on the couch.

Clamshell on a Pickle Dish

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Back in June on Barbara Brackman’s blog post here, I saw pictures of clamshells done with a triangle arc and fell in love with them.  On Sunday, three new Inklingo collections were released with the shapes for 6″, 9″ and 11″ clamshells on a pickle dish, including all the edge pieces so that one can have a straight edge.  Of course, I couldn’t resist.  And I even made the largest, which is completely unusual for me.  The yardstick shows centimetre measurements rather than inches, but it seems huge — at its widest, it’s 11″.  I have a design idea in mind that will use all 3 sizes in one quilt.  The bonus to the large size is that I can have a quilt done in next to no time.  The design possibilities with these shapes seem endless.  It took hardly any time at all to put the arc of triangles together as it’s all continuous stitching.  Then adding the arc to the clamshell was easy as could be.

The back:

The baby quilt is still at the almost finished stage.  There aren’t that many pieces left to join to finish the top, so hopefully I’ll get it finished by Wednesday.  I just couldn’t resist the pickled clams and, as the baby isn’t due until February, my self-imposed deadline of August 31 can be extended.

We’re going into a few days of high heat and humidity with humidex values in the 40C range through to Wednesday.  The longer it stays lovely and hot the better.

Lester was getting in some windowsill time over the weekend.

And Smudge was posing for the camera.

Clamshell Diamond Sashed

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Ever since I first saw the picture in Kaffe Fassett’s Museum Quilts of the clamshell quilt in the V & A, I wanted to make one with the sashing.  If you haven’t seen a picture of that quilt, there is a picture on the V & A web site.  I had intended to sort out how to do the sashing after I had all the diamonds ready but on Saturday a new Inklingo collection was released for the sashing of the 3″ clamshells that makes it oh, so easy.  I initially thought about sashing them in a stripe of some colour but then realized that as each diamond is going to have multiple colours in it, finding just one stripe that would work was probably not going to be possible.  So I decided on a black and I’m so glad I did.  I think it really makes the colours pop!

Pressing is a breeze.  The back:

I’m never quite sure where I’ll find some of Mr. Q.O.’s drawings.  This is one that made me laugh out loud.  He always puts a banana beside my orange juice in the morning, but this was a first.  Banana art:

Monday was a pretty quiet day as far as the cats were concerned.  Very early in the morning, Smudge was on the windowsill chattering at a bird that was sitting on a branch directly in front of the window.  I wasn’t quick enough to get a shot of him there.  But later in the day he was having fun dragging toys out of the toy basket. Then he had to rest.

Lester loves to sort of hang over the arm of the chair.  He had quite a look on his face.