This is the past week’s progress on Insanity. These little hexagon diamonds are quick as can be to put together, just under an hour for each one. I’ve been working in a reporter’s office as a registrar a few days the past week or so, and I take one of these with me to stitch on during the lunch break — great way to spend the lunch break.

I still have about 100 charms to print but that will be done by the end of this week. I can usually get about 50 or 60 of them printed in no time.

Last night was my first meeting of the quilt guild. It was a bit overwhelming — huge, huge guild with 465 members! Thankfully, I finally met Samadhi, to whom I am very grateful for her encouragement to join the guild. There was a great trunk show by Sherri Hisey — absolutely gorgeous selection of quilts including some fabulous barn finds!

I love this shot of Lester — he looks quite lost in thought. It was probably just before he pounced on a toy!

Last night, after printing and cutting out another stack of the little hexagons, I was compelled to print out one charm of the diamonds. I couldn’t resist making two stars from the new .50″ diamond Inklingo collection. The seams are so short that it truly is one load of stitches on the needle and you’re done. One could make a lot of these stars in next to no time. I think I made the two of them in less than 20 minutes. Didn’t time it, but I will next time. From a 5″ charm, I had enough diamonds for 3 of these little stars.

Now I’m thinking of making a miniature Seven Sisters quilt using these. They are such fun to stitch.

Lester, one of the few times we’ve managed to get a shot of him when his ruff didn’t look awful. We can comb and comb and comb him but as we comb he is licking and chewing on his ruff so that it looks as though he’s never groomed! Or wandering about with it partially stuck in his mouth. Very goofy — yet another reason he is so well-loved!

The latest swap of Inklingo shapes was of 1″ hexagons. There were 12 participants trading sets of 7 hexagons, some in each of 10 fabrics and some in each of 20 fabrics. It was a centralized swap which I hostessed — so I got first look at the fabrics as they came in and have got my full set together with the exception of one swapper’s packet.

This is my set — and I was one of the swappers who chose to swap in 20 different fabrics. There are some wonderful fabrics in this gorgeous grouping.

Because we swapped in sets of 7, rather than 6, one could take 1 of each set and save it to go towards a charm quilt of hexagons or to use as flower centres with one of the sets of 6. This is the stack of single hexagons from the swap.

Good thing I love hexagons! I think there is a fairly good-sized quilt to be had out of this swap alone, and it’s not the first of the Inklingo swaps that involved hexagons. I’m not sure yet but am thinking of separating the hexagon sets by colour and may make a garden of flowers that’s graduated in colour. Or perhaps stitching together sets in a row and make a striped hexagon quilt.

It was a lot of fun to see all the different fabrics the participants used. Amazingly enough, there were no duplications between swappers that I noticed.

Smudge isn’t the least bit interested in hexagons — much more interested in having a snooze.

Two little hexagon diamonds for the Insanity quilt — made with half-inch hexagons. I’m still not sure whether I want to do this in Oriental fabrics or in shabby chic. The bonus of using the Oriental fabrics for this is that, with small pieces, one can get totally different looks from different areas of the same piece of fabric.

I printed some of the .50 hexagons from one of the new Inklingo collections last night and made these two.

To give you an idea of scale, here’s one beside a ruler.

I love how perfectly these press — it really helps distribute the bulk and they lie flat as can be.

I can really tell that fall is coming. The light, even on bright sunny days, is quite different. It’s getting much cooler at night now but the days are still warm. So far, only a few leaves on the trees on the roof garden have begun to turn.

Lester, dozing after a big play with one of his toys.

While waiting for the new Inklingo collections to be released, I’ve been stitching little 4-patch blocks. These all finish at 2″. I’m thinking about setting them with 2″ plain squares and making a small quilt — I love the simplicity of 4-patch blocks.

Also being stitched together were a few more 9-patch blocks. I think there’s another teddy bear quilt in the making here. There are about 20 or 25 more 9-patch blocks ready to stitch together. Mindless stitching like the little 9 and 4-patch blocks are perfect some evenings.


There are also a few hexagon flowers I’ve put together. After looking at that Japanese book, I have an idea for a rather simple yet pretty quilt with these flowers and others just sort of dotted across the top. The current Inklingo hexagon swap should be completed sometime next week and then I’ll have lots more to add. 🙂

The annual invasion of the movie fans around here has started. The theatre that is part of our complex is one of the participating theatres in the Toronto International Film Festival. A lot of us who live here dread the annual invasion, although it does make for some great people watching opportunities as well as eavesdropping on some conversations that are hysterically funny. I cannot believe the noise level in the retail mall. We were downstairs doing a bit of shopping yesterday and the din was incredible.

Lester doesn’t care — as long as he’s got somewhere comfy and warm to sleep, he’s happy.

Smudge feels the same way. Look at the whiskers on this cat!! I call him the crayfish cat sometimes! LOL

Finally, I can reveal the secret. I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a tester for the new Inklingo. I wish I did, but I have no financial interest in Inklingo at all. Edited to Add: It is totallly Mac compatible!! I tested it on my Mac and it works like a charm!

These are the blocks/small quilts I have made with this free collection — so far. I’m playing with the idea of making a small Lone Star quilt too using these shapes. :-)) First I made this block:

Then this block:

Here’s the best news! The shapes for the 4.5″ LeMoyne Star blocks are free to download from inklingo.com. There are three new collections available for purchase as well! All you need is a computer (Mac or PC) and an inexpensive inkjet printer as well as some fabric and freezer paper and you too can try out Inklingo. Be warned — it’s addictive! There are more new collections coming too!

This is the first little quilt top I made using the shapes. Because of the precision of the lines and matching points, it is SO easy to make these!

It’s quilted and a couple of the bears decided to test it out on the weekend. They decided it was just right for an afternoon out, as you can see from the picture at the top of this post.

I have wanted to make the Snow Crystal block for ages and now, with this collection, it was dead easy. This block finishes at 9″. This may be the start of my pink and white quilt. I’m still deciding on that.

This is going to be a small wallhanging. I’ve got the setting triangles ready and have been stitching them in. Still deciding on a border for this. I love having the plain setting squares for some hand quilting. I’m going to go through my stencils and see what I can find — maybe a tiny feathered wreath. 🙂