I know, I know – it has been a very long time since I blogged. I don’t even want to think about how long it has been. Lots has been going on, but I just haven’t blogged. I’m going to … Continue reading
Curvy Seven Sisters
Tag Archives: Inklingo Collections
Spring Hexagon Flowers
It felt like spring on Monday. So I decided to make a few of hexagon flowers in the spring colours. As I stitch using hexagons that have been printed with Inklingo templates right on to the back of the fabric, I can put together 4 of these flowers in about 2 hours. No basting, no whip stitching. Just a plain running stitch and lots of continuous stitching when it comes to joining the outer ring to the centres. These are made using 1″ hexagons.
This is how the back looks — which is another reason I like this method. It’s easy to distribute the bulk of the seams by pressing like this:
I know I’m tempting fate by writing this, but it truly does feel as though spring is starting. The air had a different feel to it on Monday. Even though it’s nowhere near warm, the real chilly bite in the air seems to have gone. We’re even going to have highs this week that may see us reach 6 or 7 Celsius. One of our neighbours swears that we cannot say we’re out of the woods as far as winter goes until March 17. Usually I listen to her, but not this year. This year I’m putting on the rose-coloured glasses and saying spring is here. And oh, how I hope I’m right! Even the cats seem to be showing a bit of spring fever and lots of activity.
The voting is now open for the Golden Quilter Awards. If you go to Insights from SewCalGal here, you can vote for your favourite nominees in the categories of Best Designer, Best Teacher/Instructor, Best Author, Best Quilt Store (Physical), Best Quilt Store (Online), Best Long Arm Quilter, Most Innovative New Product (physical item), Most Innovative New Product (software) and Most Influential Person in the World of Quilting To date, aka “Lifetime Achievement.”
The boys were very much in lounge mode today, as they were getting over the past 17 days of Olympic activity. I think Smudge’s pose almost qualifies as one of the “where is his head” photos.
Our ISP is having issues once again. While some e-mails are getting through, others aren’t. As of midnight Monday, all e-mails that I have received have been answered. If I haven’t answered an e-mail from you, it means that it hasn’t arrived in my inbox. With any luck, this gets cleared up quickly!
Olympic Stitching
… didn’t seem to equal much getting finished. One Farmer’s Delight block. So much for hoping to get them all done during the Olympics but at least I managed to get all the fabrics cut and ready to print for the last 7 blocks.
And a few more of the first block that will be in the Jewels at Night table runner. But that’s about it. The ideas were flying fast and furious though and my notebook has a lot of notes for the future, including a setting for the Tropical Punch blocks.
Am I complaining? No! It was an absolutely magical 17 days watching all the events and, in particular, the Canadian athletes. Wow — 14 gold medals for Canada!! Although I am not a hockey fan, even I watched some of the gold medal game. When the audience joined in the singing of the Canadian anthem after the hockey medals presentation, I had goosebumps. The noise in downtown Toronto carried on well into the night as those celebrating the hockey win congregated and part of one of the main streets was closed to vehicular traffic to accommodate them.
Congratulations to Vancouver and the Vancouver Olympics Organizing Committee — I thought it was absolutely fantastic. So did our little Olympic team. The beaver and moose are thrilled to have been represented in the closing ceremonies. This little moose even has his own version of a gold medal!
Smudge and Lester did their very best to win lounging awards. I think they did a very good job. First Smudge:
And then Lester:
I’ve got all the posts from my old blog moved over and am going to work on getting the categorization and tags done so that they’re actually helpful. The way they are now is pretty hit and miss as I wasn’t too conscientious about categorizing them. I’m really glad you’ve come over to visit here and hope you come back!
Spring Hexagons
I haven’t worked with hexagons for quite a while. Yesterday, I saw this post on Barbara Brackman’s blog and it reminded me of this grouping of hexagons from an Inklingo swap that I had set aside as I love the fresh, spring colours. I think the windy conditions and snow that has been falling for the past 18 hours or so may have something to do with the appeal these have right now.
Because the hexagons templates were all printed on the backs of the fabric using one of the Inklingo hexagon collections, as you can see in the picture below, there’s no basting over paper or whip stitching involved at all. Just a lovely running stitch and the flowers can be put together in no time. I think this weekend, as well as trying out a few other ideas that I’m anxious to try, I’ll spend some time making a few of the flowers and pick out a background fabric.
We’ve been glued to the Olympics now for two weeks and have seen some marvelous competitions, but I don’t think anything can come close to watching Joannie Rochette’s skate last night. I’m so glad she won a medal.
One of the things I plan on doing this weekend is to move my blog posts from the previous blog over. Hopefully by Monday most, if not all, of them will have found their way here.
The cats know how to deal with snowy, windy days. Lester curled up in a kitty bed.
While Smudge found a comfortable spot on the couch.
Revisiting an Unfinished Project
While I got the bands of triangles put together for the next of the Farmer’s Delight blocks finished last night, I didn’t get them pressed or even begin attaching them to the centre. However, one of the other things I did do was take stock of unfinished projects. Tropical Punch is one of them.
I’m rather glad I didn’t finish it as I now have an idea that is quite a bit different than I initially had for finishing it. Since I made those blocks a number of new collections have been released and one of them will, I think, be perfect for the new setting I have in mind. I think I’ll have a 3-day weekend this weekend, so will first print out the shapes I think I’m going to use on paper and then, once I’m sure that it will work, I will print the shapes I need on the back of the batik along with some more on the purple batik used as background for these blocks.
That is one of the other benefits of Inklingo for me. I can print the shapes without seam allowances and play with ideas to make sure they’re going to work the way I think they will before I print on my fabric. It’s a fabulous design tool.
We’re in for a big storm by the sounds of it. The first truly big snowstorm of the winter for us. I’ve had a migraine since mid-day Wednesday, which I usually get when there’s a storm. Snow all day today, they say, and then turning to rain on Friday.
I am slowly making the changes necessary to move to a blog at WordPress. I plan on moving all the Blogger blog posts over eventually but until I’m ready to do that will be posting on both blogs. Hopefully I get that sorted out this weekend. I do hope that those who read this blog will follow me over to Quilt Obsession at WordPress.
The kitties are still enjoying their new beds. While they’re quite content to use either one of the two beds, Wednesday they seemed to be taking turns in the one nearest the toy basket. First Lester, showing that he really does like to curl up in there:
And then Smudge, sprawling out a bid:
Jewels at Night
… is the working name for this, which will no doubt be changed. I’ve done a few of these blocks so far, each of which finish at 5″. There’s another block that goes in the design. I have the fabric cut and ironed to freezer paper so I can print my shapes on the back of the fabrics tomorrow for the other block.
This is the back of one of the blocks:
It seems winter isn’t done with us. They’re forecasting more snow Thursday, Friday and into the weekend.
The kitties have been taking turns guarding the toy basket, it seems. First Lester who, as he’s a very big cat, sometimes spills out of the bed:
Then Smudge, who was practising his sprawl. Interestingly, none of the toys have been taken out of the toy basket yet.
New Project Beginnings
On the weekend I kept getting an idea for a new project and pulled some pieces of fabric for it. Trying to resist this idea proved to be impossible — when I fell asleep I was thinking about it, I woke up thinking about it and finally had to give in and start it! I had these 7″ batik squares which are perfect for it — particularly with the black and white fabric as the background. Some of the batiks are too dark and won’t get used in this piece, and others will be added but this is a start. Over the weekend and on Monday I used a couple of the Inklingo collections to print some of the shapes on to the fabric I’m using. Not much stitching has been done though I can’t pay attention to anything but watching the skaters when the ice dance competition is on.
Sunday night a migraine hit. I had no idea we were going to wake up to this on Monday but it explains the headache which was finally starting to ease off Monday night.
This is the first time this winter that we’ve had snow on the roof garden. Thankfully we’re almost at the end of February, so know that it can’t last long.
I am so excited about our win in the ice dancing competition. I thought Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were absolutely fantastic, as were the U.S. team who won the silver. Just watching both teams gave me goosebumps. When Virtue and Moir won and the medals were presented, I had tears in my eyes. I have always loved figure skating, and the dance competition in particular.
We got new kitty beds for Smudge and Lester. Within seconds of putting them out, they were both curled up and working on their lounging form. Smudge hasn’t had a chance yet to work on this one to turn it into a kitty oval.
Lester was not only checking out the new kitty bed but also keeping his eye on the toy basket.
Spools Continued
While the skating had me glued to the television Thursday night, I did manage to stitch these little spool blocks. There are a number still left to do and I’m quickly revising my goal of stitching to finish while watching the Olympics. The new goal? Whatever I manage to stitch during the Olympics will be more than good enough.
My favourite figure skating competition starts tonight — the dance pairs. I doubt any stitching will be done during tonight’s short program or the final on Sunday. I do have a new idea for a block that I absolutely have to stitch. I’ll get some fabric printed this afternoon and hopefully get at least one block of it done sometime this weekend.
Lester was curled up with a teddy bear after watching some of the skating while draped over my knees.
While Smudge was relaxing in his kitty bed:
Farmer’s Delight Block #5 Centre
The centre of the block is done. I can’t believe how little stitching I’m getting done during the Olympics!! Tonight is the men’s figure skating long program, so I doubt I’ll get much done at all — again.
We watched the medals ceremony Wednesday night for our second gold medal — it is so exciting to hear our anthem being played, see the flag being raised and hear the crowds. It must be incredible to actually be there and experience that!
Smudge didn’t seem quite so impressed, although we have caught both of them maybe watching some things. I think the movement of skiiers or snowboarders is rather intriguing to kitties.
Lester is completely back to normal and has been spending time on the windowsill. However, we got this shot Wednesday night as he was relaxing after another day of watching little snowflakes drift by:
Farmer’s Delight Block #5 Beginning
This is probably going to be the longest time I’ve ever taken to stitch a block. But while the Olympics are on, and particularly the figure skating, my stitching time slows right down. I liked Kathy’s comment yesterday about stitching during commercials. That’s probably exactly what I’ll be doing.
So what did I get done Monday? All the little pieces cut for the next Farmer’s Delight block. I actually got a start on stitching the centre part together, but not enough to photograph. However, these are all the pieces, ready to stitch:
If you click to embiggen the photo, you can see the stitching lines printed on the back of the cream triangles. Making sure the matching points actually match up is a great way to make sure the triangles are positioned properly.
Smudge had to have a rest from another day of Olympics viewing:
While it was Lester’s turn to guard their favourite toy:
Quilt Obsession 