Dresden Plate/Farmer’s Delight Block #2

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Quiltobsession

Another one done! Oh, how I love putting this block together. It’s an enormous block for me — 15″ seems gigantic!

Wednesday I tried yet another contact lens and the comfort was incredible. I didn’t need any drops at all. We went out for a bit of a walk and no discomfort even walking outside on a rather chilly windy day. The optometrist wants me to try some bifocal contacts next week. It seems that my glasses breaking was a rather fortunate accident. That said, they were back from being repaired Wednesday afternoon so now I have the choice of glasses or contacts.

Another photo of Lester that is, I think, my newest favourite.

Smudge sleeping after his nightly treat of yogourt.

Harpsichord Block

Posted on January 27, 2010 by Quiltobsession

The Harpsichord Quilt is another that I don’t want to let languish too long so I made this block.

The back:

I wore the contacts all day Tuesday with no discomfort. As an experiment, Tuesday morning I went to the grocery store without the readers to see how well I could manage. I was pleasantly surprised at what I could read, but realised I absolutely have to have the readers with me when looking at best before dates on perishable items. This morning I head to the optometrist’s office again, to try out another type of contact.

I’m in the throes of planning a red and white quilt. My experience with white on white prints has been not great as the heavily painted-on designs are so difficult to needle and finding a white on white which has the design woven in rather than painted on seems to be an impossible task. So I’m thinking this small print on white might work for my red and white quilt.

The mail brought this — the replacement iron from Rowenta. It’s not the same model as the one I had. My initial thought is to use this iron for things that need a steam iron for as long as it lasts and keep the little Sunbeam iron for dry ironing, which it does brilliantly. I have to give Rowenta credit as they must have put this replacement in the mail immediately upon receiving the cord from my old one. Now I just hope the iron works longer than its predecessor.

Smudge loves water. Absolutely loves water. If you click on this to embiggen it, you can see the water dripping down his ruff, how wet his face is and the water drops on his side. His preferred method of drinking is to stick his whole face in the water bowl and then catch the water as it drips down his face. Part of his ruff usually is in the water. This is his variation on lounging by the pool.

Lester was keeping his eye on the practice golf ball that is one of his favourite toys.

Patchwork of the Crosses – Blue Stripes Framed

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Quiltobsession

I don’t want to let my Patchwork of the Crosses blocks languish. I got the cream frame done for this one on the weekend and then joined it to the block and added the purple squares.

The back:

Monday was a bit of an adventure. I was about to start working, went to clean my glasses … and they broke. I can’t see 6 inches in front of me without glasses or contact lenses, so broken glasses is rather major. Mr. Q.O. took them downstairs to one of the opticians in the complex. They told him it would take until Thursday to get them repaired and back. I can’t see to do anything without glasses so waiting until Thursday was just not on!

When he came back up and told me what kind of timing I was looking at, I got on the phone to the optometrist from whom I used to get contact lens and was fortunate enough to get an emergency appointment for late afternoon. Thankfully, the optometrist is in the building so I didn’t have to try to go far and Mr. Q.O. was with me. After checking my eyes, the optometrist gave me a few sets of one-day contacts to try. I’m absolutely amazed at the clarity of my vision with these contacts.

The next hurdle was figuring out what I needed in reading glasses on top of the contacts. (There are bifocal contacts and now that I know I can wear contacts successfully again, I will investigate that.) Off we went to the bookstore where they have all sorts of reading glasses, and I tried on a few pairs before finding the right strength to be able to read a book or stitch.

Once we got back, I tried to get to work. I instantly found that the reading glasses I need to read a book or stitch are far too strong for computer work. Thankfully, I had an old pair of readers kicking around that were much weaker and they’re perfect for the computer work.

I had planned on checking out the options now available with contact lenses, but not quite this fast. Guess it was meant to be. I’m absolutely amazed at the comfort level. Not having worn them for over 6 years, I was stunned to find that after 8 or 9 hours I still had total comfort. I go back to the optometrist on Wednesday morning when she’s going to give me some other types to try for a few days so that I can then make a decision on which are the most comfortable. I am so grateful that this worked out so well as, had I not been able to wear contacts at all, I would have been absolutely stymied.

The cats were getting in some serious lounging practice on Monday. First Smudge, showing one of his special style of lounging positions:

Then Lester, being a bit more classic about lounging:

Pink Ice Block #24

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Quiltobsession

… is finished. Six left to do and the blocks for this will be finished.

The back:

Looks like our lovely lengthy January thaw is coming to an end. While it was quite mild on the weekend, by tonight we’ll be back into the minus temperatures and snow is in the forecast for later in the week. It’s odd to think of snow now. I always feel by the time we get to the end of January we’re through the worst of it. This has been such an odd winter so far that I’m actually hoping we get a real spring, which we haven’t had for years.

I am slowly working my way through the comments left late last week. When my wrists were really hurting, I was limiting my use of the keyboard. Now that they’re feeling better, hopefully I’ll get caught up.

The cats were pretty much doing this all weekend. I think they’re getting rested up for the Olympics. Lester with a teddy bear:

And Smudge — well, perhaps he’s practising for the lounge competition.

Pink Ice

Posted on January 22, 2010 by Quiltobsession

I tried to do some applique last night but that slightly different movement was too much for my wrist. I’m dying to try some of the Dresden applique collection, but that will have to wait till my hands have recovered from this latest flare.

So I grabbed an envelope from one of the boxes and started this pink ice block. While I clearly won’t have these blocks finished this month, I’m still aiming to have the blocks finished before winter is over.

The back of the centre of the block:

Thursday afternoon I had an eye doctor appointment, after which I had a raging headache. I think I reacted to the drops used. But I found out some great news. There’s now a contact lens for dry eyes that sounds like it may be the solution for me. I wore contacts for decades, until about 7 or 8 years ago when my eyes just got too dry to wear them comfortably. I can’t wait to get a trial pair to see if that will be the solution for me.

Lester resting:

And Smudge showing how he guards a toy while he’s lounging:

Some Little Blocks

Posted on January 20, 2010 by Quiltobsession

My hands are really bothering me again, so I’m grateful that I tend to print and cut out lots of shapes for different blocks. Much as I want to do another Farmer’s Delight block right now, there is no way I can cut the shapes out until this flare-up dies down. But no worries as I have many projects on the go, ready to stitch.

Tuesday night, I decided to play with the Drunkard’s Path units I had stitched. This is one of the 6″ blocks I put together.

Oh, how I love that Rouenneries fabric! The back of it:

A few of the little spool blocks were put together as well. These are very quick to make and a little doll’s quilt will be done relatively quickly.

The back of one of the little blocks.

I love this shot of the boys. I think it’s one of the best we have of Lester.

Dots and Swirls for Dresden/Farmer’s Delight Blocks

Posted on January 19, 2010 by Quiltobsession

I seem to be planning a lap quilt of Dresden/Farmer’s Delight blocks. I picked out these fabrics tonight, thinking that each of them would make an interesting block. I love the movement of the curved blades like the block I showed yesterday but also want to try each of the blade variations, so it seems pretty sure that I’ll end up making a few Dresden quilts. I also want to make blocks using the Dresden applique collection. So many choices!!

A very contemplative Lester.

And Smudge with a look that’s rather hard to describe. Sometimes I think he does Morris the cat impressions!

First Dresden/Farmer’s Delight Block

Posted on January 18, 2010 by Quiltobsession

My first block is finished. For me, this is an enormous block — it finishes at 15″. Now the decision is whether to make more of this identical block in various colours or make others using different blade shapes. The variations that are possible in the new Fancy Pieced Collection are seemingly endless. Stitching the little rows of triangles together was quick, lots of lovely continuous stitching. I’m still not sure if I like the centre I used and may well replace it with a circle of the pink fabric I used in the block.

Lester, looking oh so innocent. What he’s really doing is trying to sneak up on that glass of water. We’ve caught him many times drinking out of an unattended glass of water.

Smudge. I love the look on his face.

Block Beginning

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Quiltobsession

This latest Inklingo set of collections based on Dresden Plate and Farmer’s Fancy designs are irresistible! I’ve decided to do 15″ blocks, making as many variations using the various blade shapes as I can. This one with the curved blades has such fabulous movement that I couldn’t resist it as the first one to do.

I have all the triangles for the second row around cut and ready to stitch and the background setting pieces are ready as well. If my hands were less sore, I think I could have finished it tonight. However, I’m happy to have got this far. I may replace the centre with something different but will make that decision when I’ve got a few of the blocks done.

As a follow-up to last week’s post about the incontinent iron, I contacted Rowenta and was pleasantly surprised when they responded saying that if I sent them the cord from the incontinent one they’d send me a new iron! I sure didn’t expect that response. It will be interesting to see if the replacement lasts any longer than the original. In the meantime, I’m quite happy with my little Sunbeam iron.

This is, I think, one of the best shots we have of Lester:

Smudge practicing for the lounge competition again.

Dresden Plate & Variations

Posted on January 13, 2010 by Quiltobsession

On Tuesday, the Inklingo Dresden Plate collections were published. They’re incredible. These 2 sheets show some of the variations one can make just using the Fancy Pieced collection.

The one at the top right of this page is definitely on my list. I think I know the colours I want to play with for that already.

There’s an applique collection as well. I haven’t been able to do any applique for ages because tracing is just not something my wrists can handle at all. I can’t wait to play with all the applique blade variations. Dresden Plate, fan and Farmer’s Fancy blocks are definitely in my future!

I love stitching curves so for the first one I decided to use the curved blades. I checked the sizes I needed, cut the fabric and freezer paper to size, ironed them together and here they’re ready to print.

These are the fabrics I’m using for that first block:

These are the fabrics after I had fed them through the printer. Because I knew I would photograph them, I printed on the two darker prints with a much darker ink colour than I would normally choose, which I knew would be okay as the red doesn’t shadow through to the front and I know, from testing, that the ink washes out easily.