Tag Archives: Inklingo

Baby Quilt Almost Done

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The main piecing, other than the pieces around the edges, is done.  I’ve started adding the edge pieces along one side so know it won’t take long to finish adding them and then it will be complete.  I have a piece of flannel that’s perfect for the backing and there’s batting on hand, so this won’t take long now to finish and have ready.  The only thing I’ll be waiting for is what the baby’s name is once it’s born and I can add that to the label.

I’ve been contemplating what, if any, quilting goals I have for 2011.  I am not making resolutions because I know I’d break them.  But goals?  Goals is another matter.  I have a few.  I’d like to try making a small quilt in solids.  I’ve never worked with just solids and am not sure how much I’ll enjoy that, but I want to give it a try.

My second goal, and probably the biggest one, is to try to limit myself to making small quilts when I start anything new this year.  I have many UFOs that are going to be large quilts on the go as it is, all of which I want to spend time on, and hopefully complete, this year.  Summer Picnic Dish, the Harpsichord quilt, my POTC blocks, the Pickled Ladies, the clamshell diamonds in Kaffe fabrics, the Christmas Feathered Star quilt (and probably some others I’ve forgotten at the moment) are quilts I want to finish sooner rather than later.

I also know that when I get ideas, some of which are in the ideas book already, I want to be able to play with fabric.  Playing with designs on the computer, while it is a good way to get an idea about how something might work, just doesn’t seem to be the best way for me.  I want to see what it looks like in fabric. So small quilts is the answer.  Then, if something I’ve made as a small quilt top really appeals, I can set it aside to make as a larger quilt.

A third goal is to make sure I have one thing added to the Christmas box every month.  2010 taught me a very good lesson; that I can’t count on having all the time to do things for Christmas in the last 4 or 5 weeks of the year.

Saturday was an incredibly mild day.  We broke records and had temperatures in the 52 Fahrenheit range.  It was lovely to think it was that mild on January 1.  Only a dozen weeks or so and we’ll be starting to get spring weather.  I’m already counting the days until we go back to Daylight Savings Time. Along with the mild weather on Saturday, we had fog.

Smudge seemed to be looking at a quilt book as he reclined on the couch.

Lester posed for the camera Sunday night.

December Clamshell Club Report

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The months are flying by — I cannot believe it’s already time for another Clamshell Club report!  The Pickled Ladies had a few new additions in December, but nowhere near as many as I had hoped.  The count is now up to 56 Pickled Ladies made.  I’m going to keep going until I hit around 110 and then lay them out and decide how much, if at all, bigger I want to make it.  It’s hard to think of not making them as they are so much fun!  I’m clearly out of design floor room to lay these out now, so next month will probably only show the new additions.  Once the numbers are up to 110, I will then start working on fussy cutting and printing the setting pieces made up of vertical half and horizontal half clamshells.

To see what other members of the Clamshell Club have reported for this month, go to Cybele’s Patch blog post here.  I’m looking forward to seeing what the others have done.

It’s hard to believe that this is my last post for 2010.  The year seems to have flown by.  Thank you to all who have shared my quilting obsession this year and I hope to share more with you in 2011.  I wish you all a safe and healthy and Happy New Year.

Lester is going to ring out the old year in typical laid-back Lester fashion; having a snooze.

While Smudge is going to treat us to one more of his classic almost headless cat poses for 2010.

Progress on Baby Quilt

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It’s growing but not quite as quickly as I was thinking it would.  I’m still hoping to have the piecing finished by the time the weekend is over and, with any luck, have it ready to quilt by mid-week next week.  I got distracted from stitching as we were watching the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland last night. Normally, I watch/listen and stitch with no problems but that was so well done that there was much less stitching done than normal.

Smudge did eat a bit on his own on Wednesday, but not enough.  So the syringe feeding continues.  We are more and more convinced he has decided he likes being fed and have jokingly renamed him Pasha Puss. He doesn’t mind the syringe feeding at all, puts up no fuss about it and basically just lies or sits there while he’s being fed.  Next we think he’ll be expecting us to peel him grapes!  I’m not altogether sure what this look is saying other than perhaps, “I’m very comfortable here, so please bring my food in liquid form and feed me!”

Lester is quite interested in the syringe feeding and usually is right there supervising.

Five Pickled Ladies

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These are probably the last of the Pickled Ladies I’ll get done this year, as I’m trying to limit myself to working only on the baby quilt until it’s done.  But I couldn’t resist making a few more of these blocks.  I have another 15 or so of the arcs ready to stitch to clamshells as soon as the baby quilt is finished.

The baby quilt is growing rapidly.  I didn’t quite meet my goal of finishing the piecing on Tuesday as I spent some time starting to sort out the pieces I’ll use for the edges.

The vet called us on Tuesday and is pleased with Smudge’s progress, as are we. We’re to try not syringe feeding him in the morning today and see if he eats enough on his own.  Once he’s eating enough on his own, our big hurdle is going to be getting him back on better food than the Kitty McDonald’s. We’re convinced he’s decided that syringe feeding is quite all right and would probably be content were we to continue doing that indefinitely.  Here he is resting after one of his feedings.

Lester was curled up in a kitty bed.

Baby Quilt, Take 2

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I had already made a quilt for my cousin’s new addition to the family due in February, but realized it’s really too large for a newborn and is more of a lap quilt size.  I was playing with some ideas for another baby quilt, when I remembered this was partially done.  So on Boxing Day I got this out of the UFO pile and started adding to it.  It’s quick to stitch, so I’m hoping to have the top finished by the end of the week other than the final setting pieces around the edges. I have lots of diamonds and triangles of the right size already printed on ’30s prints, so will be able to use them for the edge pieces.

I’m very grateful I had started this and had put everything for it away together.  It was nice to be able to just pull out the box and have everything in one spot.  Within minutes of pulling the box out, I was stitching.  As much as I enjoyed making the blocks, I think because I didn’t have a recipient for it in mind it lost some of its appeal.  Now that I have a goal in mind, I’m excited about stitching it again.

Smudge continues to improve.  He’s starting to treat us to some of his crazy poses, like this one.

Lester is being a bit more dignified.

Feathered Star

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The block was finished Tuesday evening and I’m thrilled with it.  Now to decide if I try to rush and make it into a table topper for this year or make this the first of 9 blocks and a start on a Christmas quilt for us.  I’m leaning towards taking my time, making the remaining blocks and having a Christmas quilt.

Heirloom cotton thread is one of my favourites for hand piecing.  When putting the arcs together for the Pickled Ladies, I use black thread.  The black heirloom thread seems to break much more easily than any other colour, which leads me to wonder if the black dye somehow weakens the thread.  Have you ever run into a particular thread colour that tends to break more easily than others?

I’ve done no baking yet for Christmas.  Usually I make butter tarts and a lot of different cookies as they’re great gifts to give to neighbours and friends.  I don’t think anything will get made this year but the butter tarts.  They’re fast and easy and everyone loves them so a few dozen of those will be made over the next day or two.

We got an early Christmas present on Tuesday when we took Smudge to the vet.  The jaundice is barely evident now and he has put on more weight.  He’s now up to 16.8 pounds, so only a few more to go until he’s back at his normal weight.  They gave him another antibiotic shot and he’s still on the syringe feeding, but he’s definitely on the mend.  He was relaxing Tuesday night.

Lester was napping.

Feathered Star for Christmas

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This is what I worked on over the weekend.  For me it’s an enormous block as it will finish at 20″.  Feathered Star is a pattern I’ve been fascinated by and, over the years, I’ve thought about making one but the idea of the acrylic or mylar templates, specialty rulers, tracing and on and on made it less appealing.

On Friday night, three Inklingo collections for a 15″, 20″ and 30″ Feathered Star were released along with an absolutely fantastic Design Book.  Because the centres of these feathered stars are 4.5″, 6″ and 9″ respectively, one could use any number of blocks in the centre rather than the octagon.  Saturday morning, I had this stack of shapes printed and cut out, ready to make my first block.

The instructions in the Design Book are for both hand and machine piecing.  I read through the machine piecing section and felt like I could make one of these by machine.  That said, all the continuous stitching that putting the feathers together offers was irresistible to me and hand piecing was my choice.  Putting the HSTs together by machine would be so easy the Inklingo way; just stitch on the line and cut.  No paper to remove, no bias to handle.   The Design Book is free to download for a limited time.  If you’ve ever thought about making a Feathered Star, this is definitely a book you want to add to your library.

This could be the beginning of a Christmas quilt for next year or perhaps I’ll finish off this one block, add a border, quilt it and use it as a table topper this Christmas.  That may be a bit too optimistic to think I’ll finish it by Saturday, but I’m tempted to try.   I’m amazed at just how quickly it goes together.  It won’t take long now to finish the star and then add the setting squares and triangles.

Smudge is on a tablet that helps the liver.  He has a habit of spitting the pill out when I turn my back.  Saturday morning, he did that very thing and I didn’t notice it until we took this picture.  If you look closely, you can see the little pink pill on the towel.  He seems to be doing better.  Tomorrow we take him in for another antibiotic shot and his weigh-in and colour check.

Lester has been enjoying the variety of foods that have been showing up as we try to get Smudge to eat more on his own.

Stormy Seas Block 8

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The eighth block is finished.  It didn’t take long, as I had already put the units together and really had only 2 long seams to stitch.  My wrist felt much better on Wednesday, although I am going to try to not push it for another couple of days. While I’m dying to haul out the bin with the brights and other appropriate prints for the baby quilt idea I have, I’m resisting it as I don’t think it’s going to take much to set this off again.

All the pieces for the remaining Stormy Seas blocks are sorted and in individual glassine envelopes.  Something tells me I need to find a larger box for them or get half a dozen of these blocks made up rather quickly.  The box seems as though it’s rather overflowing at the moment.

I was looking for a two-fabric applique pattern last night that I’ve had tucked away for a while.  When I started reorganizing a few months ago, I put it and the other applique patterns like it somewhere.  But where that somewhere might be has become a puzzle.  I searched and searched and couldn’t find it.  I remember putting them all in one spot … somewhere.  It looks as though I’ll be through with work sometime early next week for the balance of the year.  Perhaps I’d better have another go at reorganizing, and when I put things in “safe spots” I’m thinking I need to keep a list in a notebook of just where those safe spots might be!

Smudge is much more active, playing with toys and having the odd mock battle with Lester.  And treating us to poses like this, showing off his paws.

Lester was also showing off his huge paws while he relaxed on the couch.

Seven Stormy Seas Blocks

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The first seven blocks are done and the eighth is close to being finished.  The circular effect that these blocks give is something I absolutely love.  I can’t wait till they’re all done and I can lay them out and decide on placement.

I got all the remaining fabrics printed.  In just slightly over 2 hours I had all the fabrics ironed to freezer paper, printed and cut out.  Then I started sorting them into glassine envelopes in sets for each block.  This box has all the pieces for each of 17 or 18 blocks, ready to stitch.

This box has the remaining pieces, all sorted in envelopes by fabric, ready to be pulled and put into block envelopes to join those in the first box.  I love having lots ready to stitch like this.

I wanted to get all the Storm at Sea shapes printed on the fabrics and ready to stitch before I somehow or another “borrowed” one of those fabrics for use in something else.  Two of the fabrics I’ve picked for this are batiks with a slight dusting of a gold metallic that I think are going to look rather like light reflecting on the water.  The best part of this is I know I won’t get bored making the blocks as each one will be slightly different.  There will be 41 blocks to go once I get the current one finished.

We’ve yet to do any decorating for Christmas.  But our door decoration is up.  A few years ago we decided to find something that was a bit different than a formal wreath.  I think we managed to definitely find that something different.

The weekend was relatively mild, but we’ve had a real drop in temperatures that started overnight.  While there was a lot of snow around us, the city once again didn’t seem to get any.  I have a feeling the roads and sidewalks are slippery, though, as it rained on and off throughout Sunday and then the temperature dropped suddenly.

Smudge definitely seems on the mend.  Trying to figure out what he’ll eat on his own is becoming an adventure.  What he likes today, he won’t like tomorrow.  We’re fortunate in that he is still being quite cooperative with the syringe feeding.  I can’t wait until tomorrow when we take him in to the vet.  We can’t see any signs of jaundice now and I think he may have put on another pound.  He was very lively on the weekend and even had one of his play fights with Lester.   He also found a few spots to sprawl out and snooze.

Lester was also in snooze mode a lot of the weekend.

More Stormy Seas

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Up until last night, I had only 3 of the 7 fabrics that will be in the Stormy Seas quilt ready and printed. Last night I got the fabric for the remaining 4 fabrics ready to print and will print all the shapes over the weekend.  Once that’s done, I’ll have everything ready to stitch the blocks.  I’ve found a stitching sequence that makes the blocks relatively quick to construct.

I’ve made blocks using the three fabrics that have been printed so far and am thrilled with how they’re turning out. These three were stitched over the course of the last 10 days or so.

While I had initially thought I’d use 11 fabrics in the Stormy Seas quilt, I’ve now decided to narrow it down to 7 fabrics and will make a slightly smaller quilt. It will be a lap quilt. Making that decision actually got me thinking about the size of quilts I want to make going forward.   Lap quilts seem like the best idea for me.  While I want to make a king-size quilt for us to use, I still haven’t decided on a specific pattern although it may end up being a large Chintz Circles, aka Alabama Beauty, quilt.  I have been slowly printing pieces to make another one of those for us and am debating whether I want to make it a lap or bed quilt.  It would be beautiful thrown over the back of the pink loveseat but would also go wonderfully with the toile wallpaper in the bedroom.

Do you have a favourite size of quilt to make?  Are they all large enough for a bed or lap quilts or wall hangings?  If you do have a favourite size to make, why did you choose that size of quilt?

Smudge continues to improve daily now.  Thursday he was eating more on his own and was livelier than he has been in a couple of weeks.  He and Lester were curled up together Thursday night.