Tag Archives: Inklingo

Little Red and White Blocks

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Remember these little 6″ blocks? They’ve been languishing on my sewing table, waiting to be turned into a small quilt. I was looking at them last night and thought I had decided on a setting that will require only two more blocks. That is, I thought I had until I noticed the secondary star pattern they create when put together this way when I looked at the photo. That may change my setting idea.

Here are the pieces for one of the two remaining blocks, ready to be stitched together. With any luck, I might get the remaining two blocks done this weekend and may even get a start at putting the little top together.

One of my goals is to do a series of two-colour quilts. So far, all those that I’ve done have been lap size or larger. The little red and white one will be the first small two-colour quilt, but I’m now thinking that a whole series of two-colour little quilts might be fun.

Baxter caught sight of the pieces for the little red and white block and this was his reaction. He really loves to get a piece of fabric and march around with it in his mouth so I could almost imagine him thinking, “Yum, fabric bits!”

Leaping For Joy

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Yesterday afternoon, the winners of the Inklingo Love the Lines contest were announced in this post on the All About Inklingo blog. Imagine how excited I was to find out I was one of the three runners-up! There are some beautiful designs shown on the announcement post, so I’m quite honoured. I already felt that I had won something as the contest had been the push I needed to finally learn my way around in EQ, at least to some extent.

Given my love of curved piecing, my design had to include curves. While I was playing with designs for the contest, Mr. Q.O. suggested a design inspired by a Persian carpet. Thus my design is named Persian Carpet. I am so glad I finally took the plunge and started to learn EQ and I’m very, very grateful to Inklingo, Electric Quilt and Northcott for providing such fabulous prizes!

Baxter’s markings are starting to really show up, although he had just been having a drink and his fur was still rather wet.

Feathered Star Beginning

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The second-to-last Feathered Star is almost done. Once all the HSTs, diamonds and squares are joined it takes almost no time to add the kites, the centre and the outer setting pieces. There are tons of opportunities for continuous stitching. I’m getting excited about seeing the centre of the quilt together. Two of the rows are already joined. Once the centre is together I’ll add the first small border and then will be working on the pieced border.

Yes, I know, looking at a piece of muslin isn’t exciting. I needed more of the muslin for the sailboat quilt and I’ve found a great way to iron muslin. After it’s washed, I roll it up, put it in a bag and then put it in the fridge while it’s still slightly damp, and then leave it there overnight or even a couple of days before ironing it. Wrinkle-free muslin with very little effort.

Mr. Q.O. captioned this one “Baxter and Buddy.” He’s rarely far from Cappy, his favourite toy, and almost always knows where to find it. That is, of course, if he hasn’t shoved it under a piece of furniture and needs us to find it for him.

Kaleidoscope Stars

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There was a little play time with fabric this weekend, although I have to admit to not getting back to the sewing machine. I will this week. But after seeing and thinking about the kaleidoscope stars on the All About Inklingo blog here, which contains a fabulous tutorial on how to place the freezer paper on the fabric to get identical diamonds, I couldn’t resist trying a few. I used the 2″ 60-degree diamonds. I’m so used to working with tinier pieces that those 2″ diamonds seem enormous!

These are irresistible to stitch. It’s such fun to see the effect as each star is put together.

The fabric I chose had a relatively small repeat and so was great for this technique, and I plan to print some more sets.

This is one of my favourites.

They press beautifully. I’m pressing each one the same way so that when I start putting them together, however I decide to do that, I won’t run into any difficulties.

Baxter was waiting for his nightly yogourt treat. Mr. Q.O. captioned this one, “Well, are you going to let me have that spoon soon?”

Sailing Away to the Sewing Machine!

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After looking through a few quilt books and thinking about it, I finally decided on a quilt block. Within a few minutes of making that decision, the fabrics were pulled and I had everything cut for the first block. Some muslin rectangles, a print rectangle, two large squares — one of muslin and one of the print — for the HSTs and I was ready to go.

In just a few seconds, the muslin square was printed, using Inklingo, with the 3″ HSTs for the block. The muslin was layered with the print. Using the machine, I stitched along the stitching lines. The fabrics were then cut along the cutting lines, the pieces were pressed and …

A few seconds later I had perfect 3″ HSTs. No dog-ears, no having to cut down to size. Just easy perfect HSTs.

A few minutes later the HSTs and rectangles were joined and the first of the sailboat blocks was done. The block finishes at 12″. I’m going to use a three or four-inch muslin sashing between blocks. My plan is to make 12 blocks and set them 3 by 4 as this is destined to be a lap quilt.

I didn’t time it, but I doubt the block took even half an hour to make. Once the HSTs were done, it took only a few more minutes. So I may just get all the blocks finished today. I’m curious to see if I can get the whole top done by the time the weekend is over. I may get distracted by a hand-piecing project .. in fact, I can almost be sure of that happening.

Baxter was practicing his lounge lizard look, I think. The crossed paws make me laugh every time.

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

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I played and played with EQ over the weekend. Hopefully I’ll get this out of my system soon and be back to playing more with fabric! But this design is one that I will make. How could I possibly resist all that curved piecing of Winding Ways and Drunkard’s Path blocks? This coloration of it I’m calling Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Some of you may remember Tiny Tim singing Tiptoe Through the Tulips. I was giggling the whole time I was working on this design thinking about that.

Playing with designs in EQ has quickly become addictive. Saturday night I had to have an MRI and, as I am claustrophobic, took a rather strong tranquilizer. So as the machine made its infernal racket, rather than feeling like the walls were closing in, I was dreaming up this design. As soon as we got home, I started playing with it in EQ.

I guess you could say I am now well and truly hooked on Electric Quilt. I love that I can try out my ideas and see how they’re going to look before I start printing shapes on my fabrics. It’s just another great tool to have available. What’s perfect about it for me is that I can design a quilt using Inklingo shapes and then play with colours.

Baxter was very intent on getting to the yogourt on the spoon. If we don’t hold the spoon close enough, he’ll reach out with a paw and hook it around the stem of the spoon to drag it closer.

Four Little Quilt Tops

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First up, the little tumbler star table runner that finishes at 12 x 48. I’m Not sure exactly how I’ll quilt this one, but it’s going to be pretty basic.

Second, the 24″ square tumbler star doll quilt. This one is going to be quilted, I think, to emphases the stars.

Third, China Plates. I think I’m going to do straight line quilting through the middle of the hexagons.

The fourth is the pink and red Winding Ways that finishes at 27″. I’m going to quilt to emphasize the circle effect. This one I should have done before now. It would be great  to have this one hanging around Valentine’s Day. Next year it will be!

All of them have the batting cut and ready and I’ll get the backings and bindings ready for them on Friday. I’m going to baste some temporary muslin borders on each of the four so that they’re large enough to put in the hoop and I can get right to the edges, although I may do the table runner without a hoop. I think that will work as long as I baste it well enough.

Why have I got all 4 of them out? Because I really want to get back to hand quilting the Ferris Wheel quilt, but would like to use these tops as my warm-up quilts.

Last night I designed yet another quilt in EQ but that’s it for a while. I need more stitching time! I’m almost three-quarters of the way through making one of the pieced borders for Scrappy Star. Once I get that done and added to the main body of the quilt, I’ll decide whether it needs the final pieced border I was thinking of adding.

Baxter is 10 months old today. He’s growing so fast now that we’re seeing changes in him almost daily and his silver markings are starting to show more and more.

Dreaming in Wedgwood, Part 2

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While precious little stitching has been going on around here the past few nights, after I finished playing in EQ last night I couldn’t resist stitching two more of the Dreaming in Wedgwood blocks.

I’m trying to decide on a layout, as I think I’m going to add something else to the mix even if it is just plain 12″ squares. That would lend itself to some wonderful quilting.

One more night of intense EQ play and then back to my normal stitching time. I’m glad I’ve taken the time to work with EQ as much as I have over the past week, as I think it will help in the future when I’m playing with ideas. That said, it also has the potential to take much too much time away from actual stitching.

Mr. Q.O.has been busy playing with photo effects. Baxter is definitely not opposed to having his photo taken.

Next Border on Scrappy Star

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There are three borders on Scrappy Star now. I’m working on the fourth border, which is a pieced border. For it, I need close to 200 QSTs. That’s the majority of them in the picture. In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, I had all of them printed, cut out and ready to stitch.

So what does this have to do with it? On the weekend, I was washing some fabric for various projects. I tend to wash a lot of fabric by hand for numerous reasons, including the fact the washing machines in our laundry room are front loading and lock once the wash cycle begins. So I can’t check the water to see if anything is bleeding.

But that’s not the main reason I wash my fabrics. I want to get rid of the sizing and other chemicals that are in the fabrics. Many of the fabrics we use now are printed offshore and come to North America in large shipping containers, sit in warehouses and then get shipped. And something I’ve noticed a lot lately is that when I wash fabrics, even though they don’t bleed, the water is … well, dirty. It’s the only word for it. There’s a real grey dirty look to the water. After a good wash and rinse, the water is rinsing clear.

I know it’s a never-ending debate in quilting, whether to pre-wash or not, and everyone has their own preference. My choice is to work with fabric that’s clean and as free of chemicals as possible. As a hand piecer, I prefer the softness of fabrics with the sizing washed out. The very few times I’ve worked with unwashed fabrics, I’ve found myself coughing every time I pressed whatever I was making with them. I think that’s the formaldehyde and other chemicals reacting with the heat of the iron that bothers me.

I know I’m opening up a big can of worms here, but what’s your preference and why?

Baxter has no opinion on the subject at all. He’s much too busy guarding the toy basket.

Dreaming in Wedgwood

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When I was growing up, my mother decorated our house in mostly Wedgwood blue and white/cream. Wedgwood blue is, to me, one of the most soothing colours imaginable. When I finally decided to take the leap and start a two-colour Rose Dream quilt, this time using the 6″ collection, I chose this Wedgwood blue that I’ve had in my stash for next to forever. I knew the right quilt idea would eventually come along and it has. The working name for this quilt is “Dreaming in Wedgwood.”

While I’m having fun with the scrappy Rose Dream blocks shown last week, I knew the minute the collections came out that I wanted to make a classic two-colour quilt. The big question for me was what colour. I had a wonderfully long and silly internal debate going on all last week about pink and white, yellow and white, blue and white, purple and pink and even went so far as to get some fabrics ready for each of those.

I have a pink and cream top waiting to be quilted, so pink and white? I’m sure another pink quilt is in my future, but not quite yet. Yellow and white? Still a possibility, I suppose, perhaps using the larger size Rose Dream block. Purple and pink? Definitely in my future. The Wedgwood blue and white? I couldn’t resist it. Yes, I’ve made a blue and white quilt before, as seen in my blog header, but that is a much deeper, richer blue.

One of the things I enjoy about hand piecing is choosing the thread(s) for each project. With a two-colour quilt, it’s so easy. Find one thread that works, and that’s all that’s needed. I had the perfect thread to match the blue fabric.

The entire quilt is planned in my mind. I know how many blocks are needed, the border is figured out and a possible quilting design for this one is already roughly sketched out.

The blocks press beautifully. As I don’t want to have to do all the grading of seams at the end, I’m doing these as I go.

At the end of last week, I fell quite behind in responding to blog comments. I will catch up this week.

Baxter adores his Cosmic Catnip Alpine Scratcher. Along with using it as a scratching post, he often will fall asleep on it. Mr. Q.O. captioned this shot “Photo Life – I’m Posing For It”.