Patchwork of the Crosses

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Quiltobsession

I’ve been waiting for the new Inklingo collection, Lucy Boston’s Patchwork of the Crosses, and had fabrics picked out and ready. It was released yesterday afternoon. I barely wanted to take time out to eat dinner — I am so fascinated by that quilt. The effects one can get with border stripes and other directional fabrics with this simple hexagon shape are amazing! This is the front of my first block. Each block will be surrounded by a creamy white plain hexagon as well as squares, just like the original.

And the back. Sometimes I find the backs of blocks as much fun to look at as the front.

Reading about Lucy Boston’s patchworks is fascinating. Two of my favourite sites to read about her online are here and here.

Lester in his favourite spot.

Weekend Report

Posted on April 26, 2009 by Quiltobsession

We went to the Creativ Festival on Saturday. My impression was that there were more quilt-related vendors than at the past 2 or 3 Festivals and there were definitely lots of lovely kits, charm packs and wonderful patterns.

However, I had a very definite list of things I wanted to find. First up was a couple of pairs of thread snips — one to keep by the sewing machine for those few times I do use it (and I even bought some new machine needles) and another to have in my hand stitching kit. Look what I found!

The pink and green thread snips are great. Not only do they work fabulously, I love the colours! The little scissors are just a tiny bit curved. They’re made with titanium blades and are listed as an embroidery scissor. However, they work like a charm when cutting out curved pieces of fabric! I had a few Drunkard’s Path blocks printed, ready to cut and it was as though the scissors knew, on their own, to follow the curve. They’re not great for straight cutting but with my love of curved piecing, these are a great tool for me.

Then there was YLI thread. I saw these two spools of quilting thread that I know I’ll use. I also topped up on some YLI Heirloom in pink, which seems to be the colour that works best with almost everything.

I’m saving the best for the end. Batik charm packs were on my list. While I didn’t find the standard charm packs, I did find these 7″ pieces of batiks. They’re not quite what I had in mind for the pattern I’m thinking of, but they’re going to be absolutely perfect for another pattern I have in mind. The funny thing? I got these batik squares at Sew Sisters‘ booth — Sew Sisters being my favourite quilt shop.

And the topper to the weekend? Late Friday afternoon, this arrived in the mail. The new Jane Austen Patchwork Mystery book by Linda Franz. It has some absolutely gorgeous photos of the Jane Austen Patchwork, wonderful instructions for making a Jane Austen Patchwork quilt and is a real joy to read.

It also has the pattern for this smaller version of a Jane Austen Patchwork.

There was a rather violent thunderstorm here late Saturday afternoon. It took us ages to get home from the Festival. The wind was a bit fierce, the rain came down in buckets, the lightning was incredible and there were some huge claps of thunder. Although we weren’t affected, there were apparently a lot of people without electricity as a result of the storm. I’m grateful neither of the kitties find storms frightening. In fact, it’s not unusual for them to be on the windowsill watching a storm.

Lester snoozing.
Half of a Smudge face. Sometimes he’s quite insistent on getting close to the camera. This sort of shot is the result.

Rainbow Progress

Posted on April 23, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The rainbow now has the yellows added. Next up are the oranges and reds. I’m rather hoping to finish the rainbow over the weekend and then I can start playing with the setting of this.

This is a photo of Smudge shortly after he had been drinking water. If you click to enlarge it, you can still see small water droplets on his face.

Lester by the window.

And because we so rarely see them together, I couldn’t resist this. This is usually a prelude to a chase and mock battle, but I always hope they’ll curl up together.

Rainbow Beginnings

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The rainbow for the Sky Quilt is starting with greens. The first 3 greens are together now. Next come the yellows. This is wonderful fun– lots and lots of lovely continuous stitching. I’m using the diamonds from the Inklingo 6″ LeMoyne Star collection and have a feeling my rainbow is going to end up rather large. It will be the centre of the quilt with the 4 corners taken up by the various sun blocks (see below).

The other fabrics that will be added to the rainbow are shown in the order they will appear.

These are the four blocks that will be in the corners of the Sky Quilt. Some of the fabrics in the various sun blocks will also be in the rainbow.

While I was printing all sorts of shapes, I decided to print about 600 more of the .25″ hexagons. There are approximately 180 of the little hexagons in this tin now. To give you an idea of size, the tin measures around 3.75″ by 2.25″. I will be making hexagon diamonds with these and when there are enough will put together a doll’s quilt.

This is one of my favourite photos of Lester, perched on the loveseat.

I’ve told the story before about Smudge’s rather odd drinking habits. This picture tells the story. It was snapped just seconds after he had lifted his face out of the water bowl. If you click on it to see the large size photo, you will see he’s soaking wet. This is Smudge’s preferred way to drink water. Makes for rather a lot of paper towel mop-ups, but is endlessly entertaining.

One more day of rather cool temperatures and then we hit the warmth. The forecast is for temperatures in the mid 20’s Celsius on Friday and Saturday. I can’t wait!!

Lots Accomplished

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Quiltobsession

It may not look like much, but there is everything in this picture:
a) for the rainbow for the sky quilt and some of the setting diamonds;
b) to make 4 blocks for the Drunkard’s Path idea I have; and
c) another few hundred .50″ green hexagons for the little hexagon project.

I had everything printed within a couple of hours and will now start stitching on … hmm, don’t know. This feels like such a wealth of options!

The weekend was wonderful. Today we’re supposed to be having torrential rain all day with rather chilly temperatures. Good day to stay in and catch up on some work, I suppose. If I can get it done quickly enough, I’ll get some more stitching time.

We have two pairs of woodpeckers this year, it seems. I was really amused watching them Sunday afternoon. One pair appears to claim a tree as their own and seemingly scold the other pair if they land on the same tree. The kitties aren’t anywhere near as fascinated by this as I am.

Smudge sleeping.

Lester sleeping. I wonder if they’re getting well rested so they can spend hours on the windowsill when the squirrels reappear.

A True Hint of Spring

Posted on April 18, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The past two days have been wonderful with temperatures in the 60s and even low 70s. We have another drop coming, but this is a sure sign to me that winter is over.

I’ve made a little progress on my piece with the .50″ Inklingo hexagons. These go together so easily that the centre is growing relatively quickly. I’m still not sure how large this will be but it’s a lot of fun making the little 4-unit flowers and then adding them in a haphazard way to the centre.

Having learned the hard way, I now press after every few flowers. I finger press as I add each unit so when I do press it with the iron, it’s a very quick process.

So far, I’ve got a lot accomplished that was on my list of quilt-related items I wanted to get ready for stitching. All that’s left now to do is decide on the setting for Tropical Punch and get the diamonds for the rainbow of the sky quilt printed. The fabric is all cut and ready to iron to freezer paper.

Every year we have a pair of woodpeckers arrive in the spring. I thought I heard them the other day but couldn’t see them. Today I saw both of them. I’m always amazed at the amount of noise these little birds can make. I was fascinated watching them. Although the picture’s not great, the woodpecker has a red head.

It seems the woodpeckers aren’t what Lester is waiting for. He wasn’t the least bit interested in watching them.

Second Ring

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The second ring of the Double Wedding Rings has been added. I cannot believe how easy this is. I had tried twice before, once tracing templates on to the back of fabric and once using the acrylic templates. Both of those attempts ended up in the trash. But this? This makes it a sheer joy to stitch and so effortless! I can see making a lot of variations of Double Wedding Ring quilts using different centre combinations and colours for the arcs.

Butterfly Stars was delivered to the new mom and dad and Emma yesterday. She’s an absolutely adorable little girl — so cute! When she’s a bit older, I’m going to ask if they’ll take a picture of her on the quilt.

I started reading this Tuesday night. While it’s not Jane Austen, it’s quite enjoyable. I’m looking forward to reading through this series.

Lester on the windowsill. We have had fabulous weather so far this week, sunny and mild, and it looks like that will continue until sometime during the weekend when it will drop back down to rather chilly temps.

Flower Garden Beginning

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The .50″ hexagons I had printed for Insanity are being put together in 3 different types of hexagon flowers — ones consisting of 4, 7 and 9 hexagons. The 4-hexagon units will be at the centre of whatever this turns out to be and I’ve now started joining them. I’m purposely keeping them not lined up at this point.

Never wanting to have to press all the little seams at the end of a large quilt again — been there, done that — I’m pressing as I add every two or three flowers. I finger press as I go and that makes the pressing with an iron a lot faster. This is the back with all the little seam intersections pressed. Sometimes I think the back of blocks are as interesting as the front!

Smudge, awake and alert on the windowsill.

Lester, definitely posing for the camera.

First ring finished

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The first ring of the 3-ring DWR table runner is done. I just cannot believe how easy this is. It fits together perfectly. Now that I know just how easy these are to make, I have a LOT of plans for some other small DWR quilts.

I’m playing with the idea of finding the perfect fabrics for the pieced arcs to go with the Robyn Pandolph floral and making a bed-sized quilt using that. Thankfully, I have enough of the floral to do both the runner and a bed-sized quilt. The runner is, I think, destined to sit on the piano. I’m not sure but I’m thinking that because the hand dyes read as a solid, even though they are somewhat mottled, they’re a bit overpowering for the floral — yet I do like them with it. Seems to depend on the light when I look at the ring how I feel about it. When I do the larger quilt, I’ll look for something that truly does read mottled for the arcs.

It even presses like a dream. In this picture I’ve pressed the seam allowances towards the pieced arcs.

Smudge awake and alert – he was doing windowsill watching.

Lester was snoozing.

A little progress

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Quiltobsession

As I had the pieces ready, I decided to finish adding the melon/arc units to the centre of this Double Wedding Ring centre. The fabrics I chose for the pieced arc aren’t quite right but I’m looking at this as a practice piece for now. These two melon/arc units are hand pieced, the other two will be partially done by machine and then I’m going to use the completed ring as a practice piece for — once again — trying out some free motion quilting.

I still cannot get over how easy this is to put together. The hardest part is picking out the fabrics! I’m playing with the idea of doing something with a Laurel Burch print for the centres and probably some batiks for the arcs. The weekend will see me with a pile of fabrics on the ironing board as I try some combinations. I know I want to make something that’s not even close to a traditional DWR and have had a few ideas.