Preparing Patchwork of the Crosses Cream Frames

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Seeing the POTC blocks laid out renewed my determination to get my Patchwork of the Crosses top together before the year’s over. So I have been taking little stacks of these and …

… stitching together sets of 3 and then …

… creating the cream hexagon frames for the remaining blocks. Once the frames are made, it’s just lots and lots of lovely continuous stitching to add them to each block. Adding the purple squares after that takes next to no time.

This weekend is our Creativ Festival. We’re going today — yes, Mr. Q.O. enjoys going as well. Then we’re meeting friends for dinner. It will be a very nice day, even though the weather leaves much to be desired. Snow, they say?? Snow in October? I’ve definitely got to get started on that beach ball quilt and pretend it just isn’t happening!

Smudge doesn’t care. He’s curled up, nice and cozy and warm.

Lester, on the other hand, was on the windowsill today. Look how green everything still is! How on earth can it snow when it still looks like this? There are still flowers!

I’m pretty sure he was watching the squirrels. You can see how green everything still is in this photo and some of the flowers.

Pink Ice

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The design floor was put to good use again Wednesday night as I laid out the pink and white snow crystal blocks. Pink Ice is the name that I’ve decided on for this quilt. The blocks finish at 9″ and I want to use some sort of sashing but now, seeing it laid out, I’m really wondering what will work. I want to keep this as a two-colour quilt so the sashing would have to be some sort of pink. I have a plan for a border now too which will include half stars.

The fabric the blocks are lying on is a pink and white tiny print. It clearly doesn’t work for the sashing. Maybe a pink stripe of some form or a pink batik that has a lot of different shades of pink in it?

Lester sometimes looks, to me, as though he’s a very wise kitty. Then, of course, he does something totally goofy like chewing on his ruff.

Smudge showing just how well he knows how to relax. He was asleep like this, with the hind leg stretched up on the cushion.

Patchwork of the Crosses – Partial Layout

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Quiltobsession

I tried to lay out more of the blocks but limited floor space and the threat of furry paws with claws helping made me leave it at this.

When all the blocks are framed and I’m ready to arrange them to stitch together, I think I’ll use the bed as a design wall — with the door shut so no kitties come to help. But I think this picture gives a pretty good idea how the top will look. It will be a set of 30 blocks, 5 by 6. There will be a 2″ square at the intersection of each set of 4 blocks. That is the one element I still haven’t decided on, although I’m leaning towards finding a really bright batik to put in there. Maybe an orange or a brilliant yellow.

This is, without doubt, one of my favourite shots of Smudge. I love the look on his face!

This one of Lester just melts my heart! He is such a big lovey of a cat.

Blogger’s Quilt Festival

Posted on October 11, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Amy’s Quilt Festival has begun. There are an amazing variety of gorgeous quilts to look at. What a great way to see so many wonderful quilts!

My entry is a king-sized quilt made of elongated and regular 1″ hexagons which I hand pieced. I’ve called it my shabby chic stripe quilt. It contains 3,295 pieces. It’s almost impossible to get a good photo of it. This one seems to wash out the colours.

We tried this out on the roof garden where it’s draped over one of the benches.

I saw the pattern for the quilt in an old issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting and was immediately taken by it. But there was no way I was doing English paper piecing so I just passed it by. Then when Inklingo was introduced in May 2006, and the elongated hexagon and 1″ hexagon were in the first collection, I was off to the races. The minute I saw those two shapes were included, I immediately thought of this quilt. It had stayed in my mind for years! The very first thing I printed were some elongated hexagons, thinking I’d just make a lap quilt. Hah!! 3,295 pieces later, it was king-sized and finished.

This is a close-up of a small section that is a bit better as far as the colours are concerned.

I love the look of the quilt and enjoyed every minute of making it.

When it was finished and back from the long-arm quilter, I made the label. This picture was taken before I wrote on the cream 2″ hexagon. Making a label that somehow reflects the front of the quilt is something I try to do.

Now to spend lots of time looking at all the wonderful quilts that have been entered in the quilt festival. No admission prices, no driving for hours to go to a quilt show. All can be seen from the comfort of your own home! At the time of writing this there are over 350 quilts already entered.

Snow Crystal Block #14 and Inklingo Star

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Block 14 is done. The blocks finish at 9″. All the pink diamonds and the majority of the white squares and triangles are printed and cut for the remaining 16 blocks. The block really is fun to put together and, if I were to concentrate solely on these, I could have them done within a month. But we all know that won’t happen!!

The back:

Two of the star blocks made with shapes from the Inklingo tumbler collection. I have more done but they didn’t make it into this picture. Maybe after the weekend. This will be a teddy bear quilt. With any luck I’ll get the top together by weekend’s end. And a few more of the hexagon rosettes. Maybe a couple more of the Harpsichord Quilt blocks and at least one more POTC block. Hmm — sounds like a lot of stitching may be going on.

Why do I think I’ll get all this stitching done this weekend? It’s our Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend. Happy Thanksgiving! I’ll be posting a quilt for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, either later today or sometime on the weekend. It will be fun to see all the quilts that are entered this time. The spring quilt festival was wonderful.

Smudge getting in some practice on relaxing so he’s ready for a long weekend. Look at his front paws!!

And Lester looking rather pensive. Not much is happening out on the roof garden for him right now. But just wait till the leaves start falling and then flying in the air — then there will be great excitement!

World’s Biggest Hexagon Quilt

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Quiltobsession

When reading Linda’s blog on Wednesday, I found out about the Aussie Hexagon Challenge. Linda wrote: “I loved the idea but I wanted to make sure that the rosettes did not have to be whip-stitched (something I do NOT enjoy), so I wrote to Gail Chalker, the intrepid organizer of this ambitious challenge. Yes! They would welcome our Inklingo rosettes, sewn with a running stitch.” As soon as I read that, I knew I had to start making some. So while we watched some of the baseball playoffs Wednesday night, I stitched together these two rosettes. One thing I always seem to have printed and ready to stitch are hexagons!

They are hoping to make the World’s Biggest Hexagon Quilt with hexagon rosettes made using 1″ hexagons from all over the world. After the quilt is shown and, hopefully, gets into the Guinness Book of Records, it will be made into smaller quilts for nursing home residents.

I’m another one who just does not enjoy whip-stitching at all but knowing that they’ll welcome rosettes made with simple running stitches means I can make at least half a dozen and send them. Hopefully, I’ll make a dozen or more. I’ve picked out another 6 sets to stitch over the next couple of evenings.

The backs:

A close-up of Smudge sleeping.

And Lester in his normal spot on the windowsill. We still have mostly green leaves on the trees. For that I’m thankful. The longer they stay, the better.

Patchwork of the Crosses – Yet Another Framed

Posted on September 10, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The rotation seems to have gone out the window this week. Getting the cream hexagons added to the POTC blocks as well as the purple joining squares seems to be calling out, as do the Harpsichord blocks. The black music fabric I was waiting for arrived on Wednesday, so I’ll be printing as many octagons as I can this weekend.

But for now, the dark blue POTC block has been framed and a start made on joining the purple squares to it.

The back:

We are having the most glorious weather — probably better summer weather than we had for the majority of the summer! The nights are quite cool, but the days are gorgeous. Sunny and warm and lovely.

Lester is enjoying time by the window, although I’m not sure what he was looking at in this shot.

Smudge, on the other hand, is enjoying an afternoon snooze.

Two More Projects

Posted on August 20, 2009 by Quiltobsession

… are added to the rotation. I have so little left to do to put the basket blocks together that I don’t want to let them sit any longer. All that’s really left to do is wash some more of the white fabric I used in this, print some more shapes for and piece the sashing together.

This is the other project. Another fairly quick finish too. I have 2 of the 16 blocks I want to make done and this will be a teddy bear quilt. Again, just a few more shapes to print.

I have figured out, I think, what’s setting off my wrists and it’s related to work. Today will be a long day which will, I think, probably really set them off so Mr. Quilt Obsession will likely be pinch-hitting tomorrow.

Smudge held this pose for the longest time, waiting for the requisite pictures to be taken. It is so funny to see that his eyes are open just a bit while he watches to see if we’re finished taking photos of him. As soon as he sees that we are, he changes position. If you click on this photo to enlarge it, I think you may be able to see that his one front paw is seemingly suspended in space — he wasn’t resting it against the sofa cushion at all.

Lester spent most of the afternoon on the love seat, mostly snoozing but I was able to get one picture of him awake.

Harpsichord Patchwork

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Quiltobsession

My version of the Lucy Boston Keyboard Patchwork has been started! As soon as I saw the Patchworks of Lucy Boston book last weekend, I fell in love with the Keyboard Patchwork. When a new Inklingo collection came out with the shapes for it, I had to make at least one block. Each side of the octagons is 3/4 of an inch and the little squares are 3/4″. Because the seams are so short, it’s very quick to stitch.

This is quite a change in how I approach a quilt. I knew I wanted to make it in a very controlled set of fabrics, rather than my normal scrappy quilts. My quilt is inspired by both the original Lucy Boston patchwork and the amazing harpsichords we saw last summer with the incredible decorative artwork that is on them. I will be doing half the blocks like the one above, with black and white music fabric octagons and the other half with coloured octagons. All the blocks will be similar to the one above.

The back of my block. I wanted a brocade-type effect for the outer edge octagons, but didn’t want the darkness of the “right” side of the fabric, so decided on using the wrong side.

This fabric, which is a Kona Bay fabric, is the last of the pieces that I need to have fall into place to start in on this quilt in earnest. I’m feeling relatively confident I can find it somewhere and have e-mailed Kona Bay in an effort to find out the name of the line and/or number. If anyone has that information, please let me know as that will help me locate the extra yard of it that I need for this quilt.

I am taking a page out of Wanda‘s book and will start working on all these projects in a bit more controlled fashion. I haven’t quite decided which project gets worked on on which day of the week, but that’s something I want to figure out this week. I will be leaving two days a week open for play.

Mr. Quilt Obsession had fun last week guest blogging. I think he may pop in now and again. Thank you for all the fun comments — I will try to respond to them all over the course of this week. I really did have to give my hands as much of a break as I possibly could. And it helped.

We are finally getting real summer weather. The humidity is getting a bit oppressive, even for me. But I am not complaining. I’d far rather have this than wind chills of -20 in February!

The kitties were pretty laid back and lethargic this weekend. Even though our apartment is quite cool, I think they must feel the heat/humidity in some way or another.

For Quilt Hollow and all you other kitty lovers, here’s one of Smudge, awake on the windowsill.

And Lester, in his normal spot.

Exhausting Work!

Posted on August 14, 2009 by Quiltobsession

So what has Ms. Quilt Obsession been doing while I’ve been pinch-hitting, you might ask? Well, not only has she pressed me into service but Smudge got roped in too! Here he is trying to read the chart for the sampler she’s been working on!

And her progress on said sampler. I’m sure glad she can do this still with no pain — otherwise, who knows what other chores she’d find for us!

For example … she hostessed another one of the Inklingo swaps and, from that swap and from some of her own fabric she’d printed, has all these sheets of fabric that are printed with the bits for stars. There were rumblings about “perhaps you could cut those out?” but I wasn’t biting!

16 shapes on the back of each piece of fabric to be cut out?? A guy’s gotta draw the line somewhere, right? I mean, I’ll take a load of fabric and wash and dry it, cut some fabric and freezer paper for her, even try out ironing but …