Tag Archives: Harpsichord Quilt

Harpsichord Patchwork – Block 4

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The fourth block done. I love the splashes of colour the little squares add to these blocks.

The first 4 blocks side by side. Only the top two are actually joined at this point.


There’s more white music notes on black fabric on its way but, until it gets here, I may have to make a few different blocks using these shapes. Fussy cutting the octagons makes a really interesting block! I saw these on Sunday and am very tempted. I had a finish on the weekend — pictures later this week — so have an opening in the rotation for something and some fussy cut octagons seem like a great idea.

Sunday night as I was stitching that fourth block, I had Smudge on my lap and Lester glued to my side with his head on my knee. That’s almost 40 pounds of very furry, warm kitty all at once. They don’t often do that, so no matter what I wasn’t going to move and upset that.

Dorothy Baker is starting a wonderful BOM called Sweet Nostalgia. You can read about it here or by clicking the Sweet Nostalgia button on my sidebar.

A photo of Smudge awake!


One of the few pictures of Lester shortly after his ruff had been brushed and before he managed to start chewing on it and turn it into a mess again.


Harpsichord Patchwork – Block 3

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These are starting to go together very quickly. Block 3 was done in no time. I’ve decided to add the setting octagons along 2 sides of each block as I make them. That way I won’t need to add too many at the end.


The back:


It was a chilly weekend and definitely feels and looks like fall. Sunday evening it was below 60F. I’m wondering what happened to our summer this year. We got maybe a week and a half of our normal summer heat. However, they say we’ll have a warm week once we get past today.

If you left a comment in the past couple of weeks and I didn’t respond, I apologize. I got so far behind with responding to comments that I feel like I’ll never catch up. The comments are very much appreciated and I will stay on top of them this week.

Lester in his normal window spot:

Smudge wrapped up with his lamb:


Harpsichord Quilt

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The second block of the Harpsichord Quilt is done and attached to the first. I’m not planning to attach them all as I go, but was excited to see the first two joined. Thanks to a non-blog friend, Barb, I used a different music print for the centre black octagons of the second block.

The requisite number of the outer octagons will be joined to each block as I go, however. I’ve learned from the Patchwork of the Crosses blocks that leaving all the connecting pieces to the very end might not be the best idea.


The back:


I am so far behind on reading and commenting on blogs that I wonder if I’ll ever catch up. Sometime over the next 4 or 5 days, I plan to make my way through reading and commenting.

Mr. Quilt Obsession was having fun taking pictures of Smudge today. I love this one.

And this one of Lester:


Fabrics Selected

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It was unanimous — the brighter fabrics are the choices for the 7 necessary for the Harpsichord Patchwork. These are the 7 I’ve decided on.


I started organizing my fabric stash on the weekend. It’s something I’ve been putting off for ages. Friday I got some smaller plastic containers that I can actually handle and Sunday afternoon I got a good start. I’ll work at it throughout this week slowly, so as to not aggravate my hands, and hope to have everything organized and put away by the end of the week. I don’t know how much stitching will get done this week to post about, but it will be a great accomplishment to have my fabric in containers that I can actually manage rather than struggle to move around. I’d love to have my fabric on shelves but, with the dust that’s part of downtown living and the cat hair floating in the air, I don’t think that’s a good idea.

Smudge, wide-eyed and awake.


And Lester, in his normal spot on the windowsill, also wide-eyed.


Fabric Selection

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There are 10 fabrics in this grouping. I need to pick 7 of them for the little coloured squares on the outside of the black octagons in the Harpsichord Quilt blocks. The squares are only .75″ so I”m thinking the 7 fabrics on the left are the ones to choose as they’re a bit darker and/or brighter.

We had incredibly violent thunderstorms Thursday evening. There was non-stop, intense lightning and thunder that was so loud and so close that we could actually feel the vibration from it. The wind was wild and the rain was intense. I like storms, but I found this one a bit frightening. As it turns out, there were tornadoes in various areas around us, including one that did some fairly severe damage to homes to the north-west of the city. At one point, there was a tornado warning for Toronto. I do not remember us having tornado warnings before for the city.

Earlier in the day, Lester was hanging out on the windowsill and I got this picture of him. This has to be one of my favourite photos of him.


Smudge, stretched out on the couch. What I found interesting was that, during the storm, neither cat seemed to be the least bit upset by it. Smudge, in fact, slept through the whole thing. Lester too.


Harpsichord Patchwork

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My version of the Lucy Boston Keyboard Patchwork has been started! As soon as I saw the Patchworks of Lucy Boston book last weekend, I fell in love with the Keyboard Patchwork. When a new Inklingo collection came out with the shapes for it, I had to make at least one block. Each side of the octagons is 3/4 of an inch and the little squares are 3/4″. Because the seams are so short, it’s very quick to stitch.

This is quite a change in how I approach a quilt. I knew I wanted to make it in a very controlled set of fabrics, rather than my normal scrappy quilts. My quilt is inspired by both the original Lucy Boston patchwork and the amazing harpsichords we saw last summer with the incredible decorative artwork that is on them. I will be doing half the blocks like the one above, with black and white music fabric octagons and the other half with coloured octagons.  All the blocks will be similar to the one above.

The back of my block. I wanted a brocade-type effect for the outer edge octagons, but didn’t want the darkness of the “right” side of the fabric, so decided on using the wrong side.

This fabric, which is a Kona Bay fabric, is the last of the pieces that I need to have fall into place to start in on this quilt in earnest. I’m feeling relatively confident I can find it somewhere and have e-mailed Kona Bay in an effort to find out the name of the line and/or number. If anyone has that information, please let me know as that will help me locate the extra yard of it that I need for this quilt.

I am taking a page out of Wanda‘s book and will start working on all these projects in a bit more controlled fashion. I haven’t quite decided which project gets worked on on which day of the week, but that’s something I want to figure out this week. I will be leaving two days a week open for play.

Mr. Quilt Obsession had fun last week guest blogging. I think he may pop in now and again. Thank you for all the fun comments — I will try to respond to them all over the course of this week. I really did have to give my hands as much of a break as I possibly could. And it helped.

We are finally getting real summer weather. The humidity is getting a bit oppressive, even for me. But I am not complaining. I’d far rather have this than wind chills of -20 in February!

The kitties were pretty laid back and lethargic this weekend. Even though our apartment is quite cool, I think they must feel the heat/humidity in some way or another.

For Quilt Hollow and all you other kitty lovers, here’s one of Smudge, awake on the windowsill.


And Lester, in his normal spot.