Tag Archives: Inklingo

Scrappy Stars

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Definitely not my normal choice of fabrics, but I’m having fun playing with these scrappy little LeMoyne Stars. The weekend before we got Baxter, I spent a lot of time reorganizing my fabric (knowing that doing that with a kitten around would be a bit difficult) and found a small stash of reproduction prints. Not knowing how much I’d like working with them, I printed sets of 8 diamonds on 16 pieces and started making these little LeMoyne Stars. They’re destined to be a small quilt for a friend.

Pressing them takes only a second or two.

It has been really hot and humid here the past couple of days.  Perfect summer weather, especially out on the roof garden where it always seems cooler as there is usually a breeze.

The flowers are absolutely gorgeous this year.

Baxter is getting more and more adventurous and has so far clambered up on Mr. Q.O.’s keyboard and on the telephone.  He has discovered chasing his tail in the past couple of days, which I can’t resist watching. He plays hard and then, in the blink of an eye, he’s fast asleep. This pose as he was having a snooze absolutely cracked me up.

Red and White Stars

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There was a fair bit of printing and cutting going on here over the weekend. All the 1″ hexagons are printed, about one-fifth of the 2″ hexagons are ready and 88 of the star points printed and cut. There’s something about having all these pieces ready to stitch that I find irresistible.

The blue and white quilt that’s in my blog header has always been a favourite and one that I wanted to make again. I’ve started it in red and white and am contemplating making a third one with every star in a different colour, although the multi-coloured one will likely be made with smaller shapes.

It’s a fast stitch as the stars go together in just a couple of minutes. One of the things I love about this design is that when I finish adding the stars to one another, the top is done. No blocks to join into rows or rows into the top. And there are tons of continuous stitching opportunities.

Baxter is an absolute delight. He has two speeds; asleep and racing around. Getting a picture of him awake is going to be a challenge as, when he’s awake, he’s on the move and at lightning speed. I love this shot of him as it really shows the colour of his eyes.

Pink Ice Finish

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After way too many months to count, the Pink Ice lap quilt top is finished. I’m thrilled with how it turned out. Every stitch was done by hand, including joining the blocks into rows and the rows into the top.

There’s a bit of a story to Pink Ice. I fell in love with the Snow Crystal block when I first saw it in this little book called Quilts, A Beautiful History. When the free downloadable collection of Inklingo shapes came out that included all the shapes I needed to make Pink Ice I immediately knew I’d make this quilt. Luckily, another Inklingoist also wanted to make the blocks using pinks so we swapped a number of printed diamonds.

I’ve had the top together for a while and kept wondering about adding a border. I tried a few ideas and nothing seemed right. I often find that borders don’t appeal to me for the quilts I’ve made, although there are definitely exceptions to that. When I look at pictures of antique quilts, I’m always struck by how many of them don’t have borders.

Once I decided that no border was necessary I chose this dark pink with black dots fabric for the binding, as I think it will frame the quilt quite nicely.

A new pattern for Pink Ice has been added to my website here. It includes the printing and cutting instructions, as well as stitching and printing tips, for a scrappy two-colour quilt, a classic two-fabric quilt and a three-colour variation.

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Mr. Q.O. and I are very grateful for all the wonderful heart-felt comments we’ve received about Smudge since Monday’s post. It’s still a bit too emotional an issue for me to say much about it, but oh, how we miss him and find ourselves still looking for him. His drinking habits, his tiny little meow, that glorious tail and that adorable face are permanently etched in our minds and in our hearts. We feel Smudge knew it was time and had passed the baton to Baxter. He passed peacefully on my lap. For that I will be forever grateful.

Baxter’s personality and character is becoming more and more obvious. He likes watching baseball, loves to play with kitty toys and is very determined to get his way when he wants something. That said, he is the sweetest of cats with a non-stop purr. He has proven that he’s definitely going to be a quilter’s cat. I was stitching last night with him on my lap and he was having a great time batting at the fabric. Right now we think he may be teething as any paper he can find gets a few bite marks. We’re quickly learning that books and magazines have to be out of kitty reach.

He’s also not the least bit camera-shy. We’re really intrigued by his eyes, wondering whether they will be gold or green. I think they’re going to be gold, Mr. Q.O. says green. Whatever colour they end up, he is a wonderfully sweet kitty and we are enormously thankful that he has come to live with us.

Pickled Ladies

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It seems like a long time since I’ve worked on these pickled clamshells, but two more got finished last night. Thanks to a new little member of the household, stitching time seems to be at a premium right now. There were at least 2 hours last night when he was curled up in my arms, which meant absolutely no stitching.

Speaking of a new little member of the household, Baxter is fascinated by the kitty carrier. Since we brought him home, the carrier has been out as we were thinking he might like it as a “safe” place. Smudge had different ideas and has been cramming himself in there at every opportunity. It’s way too small for Smudge but that hasn’t stopped him. Baxter seems to like to get on top of it and peer in, whether Smudge is in there or not.

Baxter is clearly a quilter’s kitty in the making. The hoop has been collapsed and is down on the floor, so it can’t tip over while he’s exploring, but he seems to have decided it’s a good spot to relax.

Smudge was spending some time on the windowsill Wednesday afternoon.

Tomorrow is the Canada Day holiday, so that means a lovely long weekend.

Lots of Shabby

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Joseph’s coat is growing. It’s amazing just how quickly it’s growing. I can imagine having a lap quilt done within a few weeks — if I devoted all my stitching time to it, that is.

That said, I don’t want to leave out the Yin Yang blocks. Monday night I got this one put together, another one half done and the partial ring that can be seen in the top picture of the shabby coat.

Every time I make one of these Yin Yang blocks and press it, I’m thrilled with how easily it presses flat.

Smudge was posing on the top of the loveseat.  Mr. Q.O. calls this photo “Quilter’s Cat” because of the quilting paraphernalia visible in the background.

A Little More Shabby Coat

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I know, I know. I said I was going to stick with the little Dresden Plates but I couldn’t resist adding a bit more to the shabby Joseph’s Coat. I’m so thrilled with this new Inklingo collection that I really can’t leave it alone! It’s really quick to stitch and presses oh, so easily. Even with all those seams intersecting in the centres, it lies flat as can be. This could grow into a lap quilt rather quickly.

Quilts that go together as you stitch them, rather than having blocks to join at the end, always attract me. When I finish stitching the blocks, it’s done.

The back:

We had crazy weather Wednesday night. First fog, then rain, then thunder and lightning and heavy rain. Sounds like there’s more of the same in store for us today.

Smudge was enjoying himself, stretched out on the windowsill. That’s a definite sign that summer is here.

Stitching A Flying Swallows Block – Lots of Photos

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A bright summery block of flying swallows seemed right for this little tutorial. Mr. Q.O. calls them bats, but …

There are a number of pieces in the block, but it really is an eight-point star made up of pieced 90-degree diamonds. Each of the pieced 90-degree diamonds is made up of 3 diamonds and 4 triangles. First piece the 3 diamonds together.

Then take advantage of the continuous stitching opportunity offered when adding the 4 triangles to the diamond unit as shown in this photo. Following the arrows, it’s possible to stitch all the triangles to the diamonds without breaking the thread.

Make sure the top and bottom triangles are placed the right way so that you end up with a larger 90-degree diamond.


While I usually wait until a block is completed to press it, this block is an exception. Pressing the pieced diamonds before joining them to one another makes the final pressing easier.

Join the 90-degree diamonds to create the eight-point star, making sure all the swallows are flying in the same direction.

Add the setting squares and triangles and the block is done. This block finishes at about 15″ and is destined to be part of a stitching book cover. I made it using the 6″ LeMoyne Star Inklingo collection, which has all the shapes to make the block other than the outer setting triangle.

Smudge found this whole process so calming that he fell asleep with some soft stuffed toys to keep him company!

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It seems that our ISP is bouncing some e-mails from friends. If you have e-mailed me in the past day or two and haven’t heard back, please let me know in a comment.

Summer Plates

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Getting the Summer Plates done has moved up the list. Why? Because I really want to get this top done while we can still get good pictures outdoors. Somehow taking pictures of this one in summer seems right. So Monday night, although Joseph’s Coat was really calling to me, I got started and added the frames to two of the plates.

The blocks finish at 9″. I’m thinking this will be a small lap quilt that will look wonderful draped over a chair or the loveseat. Makes me think I want to find a wallpaper with huge cabbage roses in faded peaches and pinks for the living room and have a completely shabby chic look. Not sure what Mr. Q.O. would think of that.

The back:

Smudge, caught yet again just shortly after diving in his water bowl. If you enlarge the photo, you can see that his ruff is looking rather matted after getting so wet. Thankfully, his fur is so silky that it combs out in seconds.

Shabby Coat

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Did I get distracted this weekend? Oh, yes! Saturday a new Joseph’s Coat Inklingo Collection was released and I was immediately and totally captivated. Couldn’t resist. Thanks to the fact I hadn’t yet put away the shabby chic fabrics after cutting and printing Yin Yang shapes, I immediately grabbed a bunch of them, some background fabric and started printing. By late Saturday night the first ring was done.

Sunday evening, I added a bit more. The curves are so gentle that no clipping into the seam allowance is needed at all. More curved piecing. Irresistible to me. I know this will be a lap quilt so have printed 150 melons so far. Between this and the Yin Yang, I’m going to have a wonderfully shabby summer!

It presses like a dream. I followed the pressing suggestion in the Collection and pressed the seam allowances towards the melons.

Smudge was sitting in Mr. Q.O.’s computer chair after diving in his water bowl. He was just about dry when we got this shot.

Flying Swallows

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A friend asked me how I’d stitch the Flying Swallows block. I had to stitch one to figure out the best stitching sequence. It’s a rather fascinating block to put together by hand and actually went together quicker than I thought it would. I used shapes from the free Inklingo collection to make the block, which will finish at approximately 10.75″.

It’s easy to press.

Now that I’ve made one block and sorted out what I think is the best stitching sequence, I will make another and take lots of photos to do a mini tutorial.

Smudge was stretched out snoozing on the couch.