A Star of Stars

Posted on January 24, 2008 by Quiltobsession

These stars are all from one of the Inklingo swaps last year. I got this far but now I’m stuck. Do I just finish it off with large pieces to square it up and then add borders or … It has been done for a while and I seem to be totally uninspired as to how to finish it. Any thoughts?

It has been a really busy week with work and I’m hostessing another Inklingo swap, this time of equilateral triangles, so have been fielding e-mails with questions. This weekend I will get my triangles printed and ready.

I’d really like to figure out how to finish off this star. I have one idea, but am not sure how it will work. May try my idea on the weekend and, if it works, will post a photo.

Another Idea

Posted on January 8, 2008 by Quiltobsession

One of the other swaps on the Inklingo list last year was of diamonds to make little 6-point stars. I think I have about 200 of these little stars made and have been playing with different setting ideas. The more I look at this one, the more I like it. It’s made up of Inklingo 1″ diamonds for the stars and the setting diamonds and 2″ hexagons.

I have some other ideas, but think I like this the best — the open space in that 2″ hexagon would be great for some pretty quilting.

First project for 2008

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Quiltobsession

There were a few swaps on the Inklingo list in 2007. One of those swaps was of one-inch squares. Now that the Christmas rush is over, I want to do some hand piecing and wanted to do something with those one-inch squares.

A 25-patch centre seemed like a start. Then I decided to turn them into 10″ star blocks using the flying geese method in Inklingo.

The stars will be scrappy, although each will be made using striped fabric. Why stripes? It seemed like a fun idea.

For each star, I need 8 HST’s, one 6.25″ square of the neutral and 4 3″ squares of the same neutral.
Lining up four of the printed HST’s on the large square, two lines are sewn — one on each side of the centre line.

Once sewn, cut along the centre line and press.

Line up two more of the HST’s on the remaining corner and sew on both sides of the centre line.

Cut apart on the centre line and press and you have the perfect star point unit — actually four perfect flying geese from one large square of neutral and 8 HST’s.

No cutting fabric with specialty rulers, no fussing trying to deal with stretchy bias edges. Just perfect units each time.

For me, it’s great. I love hand piecing, so will hand piece the 25-patch centres and put the blocks together by hand once I’ve made the flying geese units on the machine. This is nice relaxing work after the Christmas table runner assembly line I seemed to have been on! 🙂

Blue & White Table Runner and the Cat and Canary

Posted on December 22, 2007 by Quiltobsession

This is, by far, my favourite of the table runners I’ve made so far for Christmas. The stars were made with .75″ diamonds and related bits from Inklingo collection 3. I was really surprised when I realized that there are 748 pieces in this small runner! It went together really quickly and the fabric was heaven to work with. There’s something about blue and white that is so soothing!

A friend sent us a new cat toy for the boys. It has been hysterical watching the antics of the two of them with the “Canary Toy”. First they played:
Then they played some more:

Lester seems to be taking possession of it for now and the other night was even sleeping with it under his paw!

Christmas Gifts

Posted on December 11, 2007 by Quiltobsession

Two friends who are dedicated machine piecers are getting a block like this plus Inklingo 2 for Christmas. I’m using the blocks I made as wrapping. 😉 I am so impressed with how easy it is to make HST, QST and flying geese using the Inklingo method that I want to share the excitement. This was another block I made totally by machine and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I can’t believe how fast it was to put together, but I’m still uncomfortable with those bulky seam intersections in the corners. Possibly I need a better iron to really “tame” them.

One table runner leaves here today. No pictures till the recipient has received and opened it. I’m thrilled with how it turned out. One more is now quilted, just needs the binding put on. The third is ready to baste and the fourth is still being stitched!! I still need to make 13 little 6-point stars for the fourth one and then finish putting the rows together. It’s getting awfully close. I have a feeling there will be a few really late nights this week and weekend in order to get this done. There is a fifth runner I would really like to get done before Christmas as an extra gift, but time is becoming a real issue.

Hybrid Blocks

Posted on December 4, 2007 by Quiltobsession

The points on these two blocks match much better than the one I did totally by machine — and no more bulky intersections! I printed more of the HST’s and QST’s and it was a snap to put together the flying geese, QST and HST units by machine and then put the blocks together by hand. Thanks to Inklingo we really do have the best of both worlds. One can do things like flying geese, HST’s and QST’s with the machine and get those units put together really quickly and accurately. Then, to get intersections that one can fan out and get rid of those incredibly bulky areas, one can piece the rest by hand using the stitching lines that Inklingo prints on your fabric. Of course, for those who are much more comfortable with their machines than I am, I’m sure this would go together in a snap all by machine.

For me, the idea of a hybrid block — done partially by hand and partially by machine — is the perfect solution. I’m really quite excited by this and am even looking at other blocks that I can do in this hybrid fashion.

Who knows, maybe I’ll actually get comfortable using the sewing machine. 🙂

Seven Sisters Table Runner Progress and A LIght Bulb Moment

Posted on November 29, 2007 by Quiltobsession

It’s halfway done now and is going together so easily, thanks to Inklingo. I’m using 1.5″ diamonds and triangles from Collection 3. At this point, it’s almost 26 inches long. The next two blocks will be more shades of green/turquoise that all go together quite nicely. I actually have the third block almost finished and ready to attach to this so hopefully by the end of next week that will be the third of the four Christmas gifts finished as far as piecing goes.

The light bulb moment? Well, I’ve been studying my Christmas Star block and realized that I could — and I’m going to — use the sewing machine to piece the units such as the HST’s, QST’s and flying geese and then put the units together into rows and rows together into the block by hand. This will, I’m sure, make a block that I’m much happier with. I just can’t get over the bulky intersections one gets when using the machine!! But I’m thrilled with how fast I can make the units by machine.

I will definitely get the best of both worlds. Thanks to Inklingo, I have the seam lines already printed on my patches so don’t have to worry about that. I’m really quite excited about this as I can see having these blocks done relatively quickly. My plan is to do 30 blocks, 15 with green centres and 15 with the red centres. While the quilt may not be done for this Christmas, I will be working on it over the Christmas season — and that’s fun! This weekend I plan to get at least one block done with the green centre and one with the red centre. I can’t wait to see how they go together!

Christmas Star — part 2 of adventure

Posted on November 27, 2007 by Quiltobsession

The block was together in next to no time. The flying geese, HST and QST units were incredibly easy and fast to do with Inklingo and I had absolutely no precision rotary cutting to do, no curious math to cope with, no stretchy bias edges to deal with and no bits of paper to pick off. For a novice at machine piecing, I’m pretty pleased with how the block turned out.

I have been using Inklingo for about a year and a half now and have made countless hand-pieced items, including the shabby chic king-sized quilt, but decided to find out what machine piecers love about Collection 2 — and I’m sold! This may actually encourage me to become a machine piecer for some blocks.

The only real problem I had was with the bulky seam intersections when sewing the rows together to complete the block. My machine seemed to really labour at the intersections and then the seams tended to get a bit crooked. I’m sure this is me not having experience using the sewing machine for piecing and I intend to try another block of the Christmas Star on the weekend when I have more time and see if I can put together a perfect one.

All in all, although this block will go into the orphan block box, I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I’m enough of a perfectionist that I want to do better. One thing’s for sure — I will be able to make this quilt top really fast! I had the pieces printed and was at the sewing machine within minutes.

Christmas Star Adventure

Posted on November 25, 2007 by Quiltobsession

No pictures to post — yet. Picked up Vol. 16, No. 2 of Australian Patchwork & Quilting yesterday and fell in love with a few quilts — particularly the Christmas Star one. So I have decided to try making the Christmas Star quilt before Christmas. Using my sewing machine. This is unheard of for me as I do 99.99% of my piecing and appliqueing by hand.

However, I really want to try out Inklingo 2 using the machine. I’ve used it for blocks I’ve made by hand and love how easy it makes HST’s, QST’s and flying geese. But for this Christmas Star quilt, I want to try to make it by Christmas and, no matter how fast I might be at hand piecing, that is definitely not going to happen unless I haul out the machine.

Now to sort out which fabrics I want to use and get them printed with the shapes I need. I’d like to have at least one block of this done by mid-week and will be taking pictures of my progress as I go.

Tiny Stars

Posted on October 25, 2007 by Quiltobsession

I made this the other day with the 3/4-inch diamonds and other bits using collection 3 of Inklingo. It was a test piece for me — I wanted to see just how much fun it was to put these little stars together. It was fabulous. They go together so perfectly and quickly. Uh oh — now I’m thinking that I’ll use a bunch of hand dyes and batiks and make a lap quilt using them set in these little rectangles with plain rectangles for the alternate blocks! The finished little star rectangles will each measure 2.5″ by 2.25″. Guess it’s going to take a lot of blocks to make a lap quilt, but they go together so fast that I think I can have the top done by spring.

Tomorrow I’m off to our Creativ Festival. I can’t wait! My shopping list is ready — although I think it should be called more properly a wish list. However, there are a few items that I am determined to find!

Quilt Obsession

Tag Archives: Inklingo Collections