Tag Archives: Inklingo

Wednesday Flowers

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Two flowers were made this week — one with 1″ hexagons and one with .50″ hexagons.  To see more flowers made this week, go to the page at Karen’s blog  here where there’s a list of all those making the flowers.

In my ongoing organization, I found these little stars — some of them made by me, some by a friend — made with .50″ diamonds.  That’s a penny on one of the little stars to give an idea of their size.  I have enough of the tiny diamonds printed and cut out to make about another 15 or 20 stars and am playing with the idea of a setting for them that will use 1″ hexagons.  That’s yet another idea that’s going in the ideas book as I’m trying to stay completely focused on the quilt for my aunt.

The back of the little stars.

At the moment, these are the only flowers to be seen on the roof garden.  Tuesday the gardener was busy out there adding soil to the flowerbeds, so I’m wondering if he’ll be doing some planting before the weekend.

There has been a lot of grackle and robin activity on the roof garden for Lester to keep his eye on.

Smudge seems to be not as interested but I have a feeling that if and when the woodpecker shows up, he’ll be on that windowsill in no time.

Spring Circles Update

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We got this shot of Spring Circles out on the roof garden on Monday.  Right now it’s 45″  square.  I’ve decided to finish it at 54 x 63, which means 3 more rows after the one on which I’m working.  Part of what I’ll do this weekend is print whatever I need in way of shapes for the remaining 3 rows.

Monday morning we woke up to a nice day but, shortly after awakening, I developed a horrible headache, sore throat and kept smelling something awful but couldn’t quite figure out what it was.  Lester also reacted rather dramatically to it.  His eyes were running, he was sneezing and seemed quite uncomfortable.  I finally heard noise at our door — turns out that they were touching up the exteriors of the suite doors on our floor with what has to be the most foul-smelling paint in the world.  The smell lingered all day.  We burned candles for a while, turned on the stove hood fan and then set out a big bowl of vinegar, all in an effort to combat the odour. What we learned?  Candles don’t do anywhere near as much good as a bowl of vinegar in helping to combat the odour.   What I can’t begin to understand is how the painters can work with that stuff day in and day out.

Before the painters started on our floor, Lester was on windowsill duty.  There were a lot of birds on the lawn and, at one point, his tail was swishing like mad.  For a minute, I thought he was going to start chattering at them.

Smudge wasn’t affected by the smell.  He was happily getting ready to snooze with a stuffed toy or two.  He will often move them around to just the right positions so that he can curl up with his head on a bear and/or a paw on another little soft toy.

Teddy Bear Quilts

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This is one of my favourite little quilts — a simple 9-patch quilt that I hand pieced and machine quilted a while ago.  Looking at it now makes me think that perhaps a simple 9-patch quilt is something to work on, bit by bit.  Putting together one of those blocks is perhaps something I’ll endeavour to do once a week until I have enough for a lap quilt for us.

That one was, however, made for a teddy bear.

As was this small LeMoyne Star quilt.  That was made using the 4.5″ LeMoyne Star collection from Inklingo, the first downloadable collection that was released a couple of years ago.

I got a start on the blocks for the next row of Spring Circles on Thursday night.  Hopefully it’s nice enough this weekend to get a photo of it outside to show next week.

Lester spent some time on the windowsill Thursday.

While Smudge was — well, being Smudge and relaxing on the couch.

Wednesday’s Flower

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While I’m working on my aunt’s quilt, I am going to try to restrict the amount I get distracted from it by other projects.   So One Flower Wednesdays will be, for me, truly One Flower Wednesdays!  This week I decided to make another of the large ones with the 1″ hexagons.  The back:

To see more flowers done by gardeners on One Flower Wednesday, go to Karen‘s post here where there’s a list of all the gardeners with links to their blogs.

This was taken a few days ago out on the roof garden:

Something must have told me I would end up making more than one of the Spring Circles quilts.  I have kept the fabrics I’ve used for it in a separate container, which I would not normally do.  It’s going to be quite simple to go through and cut the pieces for the beginning of the new Spring Circles quilt for us when I get the one for my aunt finished.

Tuesday was a very grey cool day here.  It was dark enough that we had to turn the lamps on almost as soon as we got up in the morning.  The cats found places to curl up and sleep.  Smudge with a teddy:

And Lester in the chair:

Choosing the Right Quilt

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My cousin responded to my question regarding my aunt’s favourite colours, saying that they are pinks, rose-coloured pinks rather than baby pinks, and greens.  Now I’m trying to decide what to do.  I did a rough calculation on the weekend and I think it will take approximately 7 or 8 weeks just to piece the Summer Picnic Dish top, which would only leave me 2 weeks to get it quilted and bound.  There is very little wiggle room in that timing.  Could the pansy floral be considered anything close to a pastel rose colour?

I’ve been thinking about it most of the weekend and, as I see it, I have 3 choices at this point although there’s a fourth idea that I will look at more later today.  The three choices?  The Summer Picnic Dish:

Second idea?  Adding a few more rows around this first quadrant of the Spring Circles and making that a lap quilt for my aunt.  Not all pinks and greens but I think the overall feel of it is along those lines:

The third choice is to add another 12 or 13 of the Pink Ice blocks and turn that into a lap quilt.  Not sure where the green would come in, although I suppose I could add two borders — one in a pretty green and then a pink.  These are very quick blocks to make, and I could easily have them done within a few weeks.

Or I could add a very thin mint green sashing around the blocks.

My fourth idea?  I’m playing with the idea of a Winding Ways top done in a  pink fabric that almost reads as a solid and a very pale small sprig green with tiny pink buds on a creamy white fabric.  I will get those fabrics out today and have a look at them to see if they work together or not.

It was a very cold and incredibly windy weekend.  There was damage done in areas of the city from the wind and we had wind chills of -3C.  It was warmer in March than it is now.

Lester spent a bit of time on the windowsill, but not much.  I think nice warm kitty beds were much more enticing this weekend.

Smudge was — well, being Smudge.

A Change in Plans

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Half the arcs for the next Summer Picnic Dish block have been done and the pieces are printed, cut out and ready to stitch for the rest of that block and for a few more.

The change in plans?  My aunt’s birthday is coming up in August, at which time she will be 90.  There will be a party for her and I’ve decided to make her a lap quilt.  She’s an amazing lady, sharp as can be and funny.  I have some absolutely marvelous memories of playing double solitaire with her in the summers at a cottage.  The two of us would end up in fits of laughter as we tried to be the first to go out and win those games.

Now the decision is whether to make the summer picnic dish into a lap quilt for her, which is Mr. Q.O.’s choice.  He thinks that something bright and cheerful is the best idea.

The other idea?  Doing something with Winding Ways blocks using fabrics like these:

I have to decide and get started on it this weekend as I want lots of time to make this the best lap quilt I possibly can.  She’s my only aunt and is someone who really does appreciate items made by hand.  I gave her a lace tablecloth which I had crocheted when I was in my early 20s.   She still talks about it.  The same with an afghan I knit for her when I was a teenager.  She’s a small lady, so it will not be a huge quilt.  I’m thinking something in the range of 48 by 54 inches or thereabouts.

The fabrics I’m thinking about for the winding ways idea in the picture above remind me, to a degree, of a chintz couch she has but they are more subdued than the floral and green in the pickle dish blocks.  Any thoughts on this are more than welcome.

We did a little shopping on Thursday, which included a stop at Staples.  Mr. Q.O. bought one of the Bamboo tablets for my computer.  Getting used to it as a mouse took no time at all.  I haven’t even scratched the surface of its capabilities which include, I think, the ability to add written captions to photos.   I’m looking forward to playing with it this weekend.

Watching Smudge the last couple of days has been an absolute joy.  I still can’t get over how lucky we were.  This was taken shortly after he had his nightly yogourt treat on Wednesday night.

Lester was incredibly lively Wednesday night.  One of the medications for his heart condition is only given every 3 days and on the days he gets that one, he acts like a kitten.  Wednesday night was one of those nights.  It’s wonderful to see him like that.

One Flower Wednesday … Again

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One tiny flower got done on Wednesday for the border of the small quilt, made with .50″ hexagons.  But only one. Hopefully next week I can actually make more than 1 or 2 of these little flowers.  The list of gardeners making flowers on Wednesdays is growing.  Karen’s post here has a list with links to all the gardeners.

On Wednesday, Mr. Q.O. went to a documentary film festival.  The screening to which he went was at a theatre that is part of the University of Toronto, which is within walking distance.  On his walk, he saw these little flowers.

Along with doing the one small hexagon flower, I finished the second Summer Picnic Dish.  As I have learned from doing Spring Circles that joining the blocks as I go makes a big difference for me, I  added the half centre edge piece to join the two blocks on point.  My plan is to use the green fabric that’s in the blocks for the binding.

I finally got caught up on replying to comments and hope to start reading and commenting on blogs over the next couple of days.  I should have been working on Wednesday, but I think the tension of the past few days really caught up with me as I just could not concentrate!  I finally gave up on working for the day and played with fabric, patted Smudge a lot and tried to relax.  Thank you to all who commented on yesterday’s post — it helped rather a lot!

It was a sunny, windy day at first on Wednesday and then it clouded over and we had our first thunderstorm of the season.  Not much of a thunderstorm, but a thunderstorm.  Earlier in the day, while it was still sunny, we got this shot of Lester.  It really shows his whiskers.

Smudge was relaxing on the chair.

Setting the Summer Picnic Dish

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Putting these blocks on point gives them a different look.  As I was making the second block, I decided that I’m going to use the on point setting for these.  I’ll use half centres along the outer edges of the top so that I have a straight edge.  The second block isn’t quite finished and will actually be the third block.  Placing the corner pieces is something I’ll need to be careful about for the second block so that I don’t have 2 green or 2 floral corner pieces joined.

On Friday we had some errands to run within walking distance.  Walking along one of the streets, we came across this crab apple tree.

There are many street planters in the area.

A close-up of some of the flowers in that planter:

Things are still a bit hectic for us but everything should be settled down after today.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s so and that I can get back to reading and leaving comments on blogs as well as replying to comments.

Lester seems to be contemplating something.

Smudge curled up with a teddy bear.

Summer Picnic Dish

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The Pickle Dish collections were released on the weekend and I couldn’t resist making this instead of the classic red and white pickle dish I had planned to do.  Something about a summer picnic dish wall hanging just seemed like the right idea for now.  I had cut and pressed fabric to freezer paper, printed my shapes and cut them out and was stitching within a few minutes of downloading the collection.  While I’m hand-piecing, I’m sure this could be easily machine pieced as the curves are very gentle.  To that end, Linda even included a template for paper piecers to print out and use for that method.  It is an amazingly simple block to stitch with the matching points and stitching lines that Inklingo prints.  I really can’t imagine making this block with any other method!

There’s an absolutely fabulous Design Book as well, which is free to download.  There are lots of great tips in it for stitching both Pickle Dish and Double Wedding Ring quilts.

More greenery from the roof garden.  After the weekend,  during which we did have some rain, I think it’s probably even greener out there now.  Maybe some flowers will start to show up soon too.

It was a rather hectic weekend and I haven’t really looked at blogs or even replied to some comments yet.  I hope to get back on track after Tuesday.  In the meantime, if I haven’t responded to a comment,  please know that I really do appreciate getting comments and always do respond — eventually.  This is one of those “eventually” times, it seems.

Lester loves to sleep in the pink chair.

While Smudge finds the couch more to his liking most of the time.

More Spring Circles

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The first quadrant has now grown to 20 blocks.  When 36 blocks are done, I’ll start on the second quadrant.  Watching a new group of circles appear has me fascinated every time I add a new row.  I’ve got the blocks for the next row started and am approaching this with a view to finishing a row every week, including adding it to the other rows.  It is still going to take quite some time to finish it, as each quadrant is going to take at least 2 months to make although I am finding them faster and faster to stitch.

We were lucky to get the shot out on the roof garden Monday afternoon.  By Monday evening it had become quite windy.  The wind continued on through the night.

We got some other nice pictures of the roof garden on Monday.  This is one of my favourites, looking from the west side of the roof garden over to the east.

This is the building in which we live.  While it’s very high, we live down quite close to the roof garden — in fact, only a couple of floors above it which means we get all the benefits of having a tree in front of the window and seeing lots of greenery.  The sky was wonderfully blue on Monday with just wispy clouds floating by.

Lester was sitting on my lap, staring up at the ceiling when Mr. Q.O. got this shot.  Usually, I completely fall for it and look up to see what he’s staring at.  This time I didn’t.

Smudge curled up with a teddy bear.