Tag Archives: Inklingo

Shabby Chic Cabin and HSTs

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Wednesday I decided to try machine stitching one of the little 5″ shabby chic log cabin blocks and was pleasantly surprised at just how well it turned out.  In fact, I think it looks better than the one I had previously hand-pieced.

The back looks wonderful too.  The one thing that I can’t get used to is the amount of pressing that machine piecing entails.  When I hand piece, I usually leave the pressing until the end but with this I found I was jumping up to press after each little log was added.

When I was cleaning up my stitching area I found these 2.5″ half-square triangles I had made quite a while ago using Inklingo.  For these, I had printed the triangles on the back of the cream fabric and then stitched on the lines.  When cut apart, I had perfect HSTs but that was as far as I went.  I decided to try joining them into a couple of rows using the machine and was again pleasantly surprised.  This time I decided to try stitching without all the pinning and, while a few of my joins aren’t perfect, it’s good enough for a small doll’s quilt — and a great learning tool for me.  I’ll keep making the rows and joining them until I’ve used up all the HSTs and then will decide what, if any, border to add.

One of the things I found at the Creativ Festival was the Grace Company TrueCut My Comfort Cutter.  I’m really impressed with this cutter — it’s very comfortable to hold and use and doesn’t set up any pain in my wrist or hand.  The ruler is interesting as it has a slight lip on which part of the cutter rests and rides along as you cut and makes it easy to get perfect cuts.  The best part to me is that the rotary cutter takes any blades on the market.  I hadn’t even heard of this cutter before seeing it at the Festival.

Smudge loves to lie at Mr. Q.O.’s feet.  Wednesday night he was having quite a dream and was growling in his sleep.  That’s the first time we’ve ever heard him growl while dreaming.  Normally he only growls if he sees a dog at the vet’s office.

A Red and White Beginning

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The beginning, that is, of the largest of the red and white quilts I’m planning.  At least, so far it’s the largest of the ones I’m planning.  I couldn’t resist adding a sunflower to a feathered star and have the entire quilt planned out, including sashing and borders.  Curved piecing and continuous piecing — what more could I want?  It’s completely hand pieced and took about 3 evenings of stitching, on and off, while working on a few other things as well.

It presses like a dream and lays flat as can be.

Would I have attempted this block without Inklingo?  Not a chance!  With Inklingo, it’s not daunting at all as perfect stitching lines and matching points make a block like this easily achievable.

This quilt is demanding to be made quickly, I think, so there may be a lot of red and white seen on my blog over the next few weeks.  I can’t wait to get the blocks done so I can start with the pieced sashing and border.

I had a migraine on Tuesday that pretty much kept me off the computer as I was finding it difficult to focus on anything.  Hopefully I’ll get caught up on comments and replies to comments over the next couple of days.  I’m working as a registrar today and tomorrow so my computer time will be limited.

It was a grey overcast day on Tuesday.  Smudge found a cozy spot to have a cat nap.

Shabby Chic Log Cabin

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The first of my little shabby chic log cabin blocks, which I made with the .50″ Inklingo log cabin collection.  The block finishes at 5″.  This one I stitched by hand.  The next one I will definitely stitch by machine.  While it didn’t take long to stitch by hand, I imagine I could get a lot of them done in the same amount of time if I machine stitched them.

The back, which pressed quite nicely.

One of the things I was looking for at the Creativ Festival on Saturday was Superior Threads’ MasterPiece thread.  I had read so many good things about it that I was dying to try it and had been hoping to find it at the festival.  I found one vendor who had it and bought 4 spools — red, black, white and cream.

It is every bit as great as I had read — and then some!  It’s lovely and silky 100% cotton that is wonderfully fine and just melts into seams.  I’ve been stitching with it since I got home Saturday and  am thrilled with it.  It’s easy to thread a #12 sharp with it, doesn’t knot or tangle, and just glides through fabric when stitching with it.

Smudge decided to show that he truly is a quilter’s cat — posing amongst fabric and quilts.  He has been eating lots and lots for the past 4 days, as we found a food he seems to really love.  We are so grateful to see him eating this well!

Small Log Cabin Blocks

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Last week, a new Inklingo collection for a log cabin using .50″ logs was released.  Up until recently, I have never been inclined to make a log cabin but I loved having the rectangles with all the matching points and stitching lines, as there are a lot of uses for rectangles.  On Thursday, though, I started playing with some ideas and printed 2 sets of the logs on 16 pink and 16 green fabrics.  As I’m contemplating stitching this by machine, I printed with a somewhat darker ink than I would use for hand piecing.

After cutting out a few of the logs, I started playing with laying them out using my design book.  I hope to spend some time on the weekend stitching at least a couple of these blocks.  It won’t be a large quilt, probably only a small table topper or teddy bear quilt, but I’m looking forward to seeing the blocks come together.

If I actually stitch these by machine, it’s possible I’ll have made 2 quilts by machine within a couple of weeks.  That’s rather hard to believe!  Today I’ll be working on the baby quilt all day and evening.  It has to be finished up to the point of getting the binding on by the time the night’s over as I’m heading off to the Creativ Festival Saturday afternoon.   I can tack the binding down Saturday night and then wash it on Sunday morning in time for the baby shower.  Then I get to play with the log cabin blocks.

Smudge was posing for the camera Thursday night.  We’re seeing quite a change in him.  He’s much more vocal and wants to have us within his range of vision at all times.

Red and White Again

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One more of the red and white blocks was finished late last week for a grand total of four so far.  I was going to set them with plain white 6″ squares in between, but now that I see them side by side I rather like the effect.  A lot more blocks need to be made before I make that decision.

I couldn’t resist making a red and white 6″ sunflower block.  This is definitely a favourite block to make for me.  Putting the ring of diamonds and triangles together takes no time thanks to continuous stitching.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll end up with sunflowers as the alternate block for the other blocks.

The back of the little sunflower.

A close-up of Smudge relaxing on the couch Wednesday evening.

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Rouenneries Drunkard’s Path

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Over the past week or so, I’ve been stitching the Drunkard’s Path units together into 4-unit blocks.  Last night I decided to lay out some of them.  There are more that are already put together and yet more to be stitched together so it will finish at a decent size for a lap quilt, exactly as I hoped.   An idea for a border for the quilt is starting to form in my mind but until I get all the blocks put together and laid out I’m not making a decision.

The baby quilt top is stitched together.  I didn’t get it basted on Tuesday, so am slightly behind but I do have a little wiggle room in that I can work on it all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday and, if need be, wash and dry it Sunday morning.

Smudge was just waking up from a nap on the couch when we got this photo of him.

Baby Quilt

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Late last week, Mr. Q.O. informed me that we had been invited to a baby shower this coming Sunday.  Of course, I immediately thought about making a quilt but in such a short time span?  It obviously wasn’t going to be hand pieced or involve small blocks. Only 4 of the blocks are visible as Smudge clearly is insistent on participating in showing quilt blocks if they’re on the floor.

Out came the books as I searched for an idea.  I finally settled on the 12″ star blocks shown. They’re even entirely machine pieced!   I used the 4″ HSTs and squares found in the 12″ Storm at Sea Inklingo collection collection as that way I knew I’d have no issues at all making the HSTs.  Just print, stitch on the stitching lines, cut apart and they’re done.  No cutting down to size, no dog ears, no paper to tear away.  Just perfect HSTs each time.  And, thanks to the stitching lines, I was able to consistently get a scant quarter-inch seam so that my blocks finish at 12″.

The little quilt will finish at 24 x 36 and will be machine quilted with 1″ cross-hatching.  I’ll have it sewn together and basted  and the binding made by tonight, will start the cross-hatching Wednesday and finish it Thursday, get the binding done on Friday, wash it on Saturday and it will be done in time for the baby shower on Sunday.

Making this baby quilt has been a learning experience of me on a couple of fronts. One, that I can manage to machine piece accurate blocks.  Second, and more importantly, that there really is nothing wrong with simple blocks for some quilts.  I had to battle with myself about making the blocks because, as they are so large and involve so few pieces, somehow it felt like I wasn’t making something appropriate to give.  Then I thought about it, talked to a friend about it and realized that it was just fine for a baby quilt.

Once this is done, however, I’m going right back to a Feathered Star or Sunflower block.  I need some hand piecing with small pieces to keep me happy.

Smudge is clearly missing his brother, as are we.  He has never been an only kitty, so I suppose this is a huge adjustment for him.  For now, we’re trying to make sure one of us is home with him most of the time.  Hopefully, he will adjust but, in the meantime, he’s making sure he can keep us within his sight.

Red and White Blocks

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After seeing so many pictures on various blogs of gorgeous red and white quilts from the exhibition in New York City over the past few days, the urge to start a red and white quilt proved irresistible.  I have a feeling I’ll be making more than one red and white quilt as I’ve identified a number of patterns that I’d love to make.  These blocks will be used in the quilt together with an alternate block.  They finish at 6″.  I was inspired by a photo of one of the quilts.  Using various Inklingo collections, I printed the HSTs and squares I needed for the block and was stitching in no time.  And yes, I’m hand piecing them.

The back of one of my blocks.

I saw this video on YouTube on Sunday and was absolutely entranced.  I cannot imagine what it must have been like to actually see all the beautiful quilts in person.

Pat Sloan has put together a list, which can be seen here, of blogs and Flickr pools with photos of the quilts from the exhibition.

Lester has taken a bit of a turn for the worse.  We’re trying syringe feeding for a couple of days to see if that helps.  We got this picture of him last Thursday.

Smudge is back to being super finicky about food.  We picked up a variety of different types from the vet’s office last week and so far he seems to like most of them.  This photo was taken after he polished off another bowl of food on Sunday and was settling in for a nap.

Spectacular Sunflower, Day 3

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My first sunflower block turned out as wonderfully as I had hoped.  I used shapes from both the 6-inch and 12-inch collections so that I could make the double sunflower.

While I was stitching, I was taking pictures of the continuous stitching sequence that I’m using but unfortunately none of them turned out well enough to post.   I’m going to make a second block and Mr. Q.O. will take over the photography duties so that the photos are clear.  I will post them either on the weekend or on Monday.

It presses like a dream and the block lies wonderfully flat.

The block finishes at 12″.  I’m going to make one more block using these fabrics and then play around with some border ideas using shapes from the collections.  And then?  Well, then I’m going to make a sunflower variation using perhaps some batiks or maybe I’ll make a red and white quilt.  The possibilities are endless.  I’m glad I decided to make these blocks first as it has made it easier to sort out think about the design I’ll use for a larger quilt.

Two kitty close-ups .  First Lester.

Then Smudge.

Spectacular Sunflower, Day 2

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While I had hoped to get the first sunflower completed Wednesday night, we were out for a while at a friend’s and there just wasn’t enough time.  Stitching these shapes is an absolute delight!  They go together quite easily, without any issues.  Normally, I’d join the two rounds of diamonds and triangles together before adding them to the fussy cut centre.  The second round of diamonds and triangles is started, as shown.  I can’t wait to see it finished.  The fabric I’m using for the background is going to, I think, really frame the sunflower rather fabulously.

This is how the centre looks with just the one row of diamonds and triangles added.  If I were going to make a 6″ block, all I’d be adding now would be background.  However, I’m adding the further round of triangles and diamonds and my block will finish at 12″.

The back, after pressing.

Lester was looking at something I was holding just above the camera while Mr. Q.O. took the photo.

Smudge had been at the water bowl shortly before this shot was taken.  As usual, he was putting his whole head into the water bowl and then catching the water as it dripped down his face. I think if you click on the picture to enlarge it you can still see some water droplets on his fur.