Patchwork of the Crosses, Block 6

Posted on May 26, 2009 by Quiltobsession

As each block is finished, I seem to find a new favourite. I hope no one’s getting bored with these, as I’m sure this is a project that will not be set aside for much, if any, time. Picking out fabrics for each block is great fun. Mr. Quilt Obsession picked out some fabrics for blocks Monday night. I’ve started making the first of those blocks.

The back. As I used mostly batiks in this, it was easy to press in seconds. I love working with batiks.

Smudge sleeping or guarding the toy basket?

Lester, in his favourite spot on the windowsill Monday afternoon. He was very busy watching the birds this afternoon.

Patchwork of the Crosses

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Quiltobsession

This block may end up as a stand-alone block and used as a cover for a stitching book as I’m not really happy with how it turned out. It was fun stitching it, of course, but I think it is a bit too pale to go with the rest of the blocks that I’ve done so far. I have an idea for a stitching book that I want to try and wanted a pieced block for the front cover of it, so perhaps that is what’s meant to be.

The back:
Lester with a little teddy bear:

Patchwork of the Crosses Block 4

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Another block done of the Patchwork of the Crosses. I spent a few hours today fussy cutting fabric for printing and will have a lot more of the shapes printed on directional prints by the time the weekend is out.

The back of the block. I don’t know why, but the camera is not picking up the blue and purples in this block properly at all. I tried playing with it in Photoshop but cannot get the colours right.

Thursday was lovely. We had a real blast of summer weather, with temps in the 30C range. We also had a sure sign of summer heat — the first smog alert of the year. Today will be back to more normal temps in the 20C range.

A bit soft focus, but I love this picture of Lester.

Smudge, relaxing as only Smudge can in his kitty bed.

Patchwork of the Crosses Block 3

Posted on May 21, 2009 by Quiltobsession

These blocks are completely and totally addictive. As soon as I finish one, I want to start playing with fabric placement for the next one. This is my third block:

From the back:

We’re finally getting some real summer heat, they say, today. We may even have a humidex reading of 31C. I can’t wait!! I think the kitties are tired from the changes in temperature — a frost alert Sunday night and then 31C on Thursday is pretty drastic! Smudge definitely knows how to relax.

As does Lester — with a little teddy bear friend.

Choosing Fabrics

Posted on May 20, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Half the fun of making the Patchwork of the Crosses blocks is picking out the fabrics to use. These are the ones I’ve printed so far but there’s a stack of fabrics that I plan to cut today and get ready to print.

The third block is almost done. While I’m printing fabrics later today, I’ll stitch and hopefully get block 3 done and block 4 started. These are just a few of the fabrics I’ll cut and print today. Some will be fussy cut, some not. I find myself purposely looking or stripes and checks and other fabrics that lend themselves to fussy printing/cutting.

I’ve been asked to write up a pattern for the Butterfly Stars baby quilt. I’ve started to slowly work on that. I hope we got enough pictures of the quilt for the pattern.

Lester having a snooze. Monday seemed to be not very interesting for him as far as roof garden entertainment went.

Smudge, sound asleep beside Mr. Quilt Obsession.

Second POTC Block

Posted on May 19, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The second Patchwork of the Crosses block is finished and I’m thrilled with it. I love playing with the various layouts and fabrics for these blocks. I think I could be happy making these blocks and variations of them forever!

This is the back of the block — they press perfectly every time. The fabrics for the third block are cut out and all that’s left is to pick out the layout for that block. Laying the pieces out for each block is almost as much fun as stitching them — seeing how the effect changes totally depending on the placement of the different fabrics and the various layouts is like playing with a kaleidoscope.

Smudge in one of his usual positions when I’m stitching at night. He drapes himself over my legs and rests his head on the arm of the sofa.

Hexagon Stripe Progress

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Quiltobsession

The fourth row was added Friday evening. I’m going to try to keep adding a row a week but now that the Patchwork of the Crosses collection has arrived, I have a feeling everything is going to take a back seat to those wonderful blocks.

My second POTC block is halfway done. I’m having a lot of fun with this one — playing with fabric placement, fabric types and colours. It’s definitely a lot wilder than my first POTC block!

What an absolutely great long weekend this is turning out to be, albeit rather chilly. We even had a frost warning for Sunday night. But the best part of it, for me, is playing with the POTC blocks.

Lester, in his usual spot — on the windowsill.

And Smudge, in yet another upside-down pose.

Patchwork of the Crosses

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Quiltobsession

I’ve been waiting for the new Inklingo collection, Lucy Boston’s Patchwork of the Crosses, and had fabrics picked out and ready. It was released yesterday afternoon. I barely wanted to take time out to eat dinner — I am so fascinated by that quilt. The effects one can get with border stripes and other directional fabrics with this simple hexagon shape are amazing! This is the front of my first block. Each block will be surrounded by a creamy white plain hexagon as well as squares, just like the original.

And the back. Sometimes I find the backs of blocks as much fun to look at as the front.

Reading about Lucy Boston’s patchworks is fascinating. Two of my favourite sites to read about her online are here and here.

Lester in his favourite spot.

Ideas

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Quiltobsession

This post by Kim with the picture of the kitties is too cute!! If you click on the “Animals” under the picture on Kim’s post, you will be taken to a site with many cute pictures, some with captions that are unbelievably funny. We were looking at them for a while and I was almost crying from laughing so hard.

I was the recipient of some fabrics, including the ones in this post, from a non-blogging friend. If you click on this photo to view the larger size, you will see that this fabric is textured — almost has an embossed feel to it. It’s cotton by Timeless Treasures but I’m at a bit of a loss as to what I can/should do with it. I’m thinking if I cut it it’s going to affect the cloth somehow. I think it would make a marvelous fabric for a plain alternate block in some quilt or another but am also wondering if this should just become a backing for a quilt and leave it at that.

Edited to add: After looking at this some more and reading some comments here and in e-mails, I have decided to not use this in any quilt, even as a backing.

Then there’s this which is definitely destined to be used for the Patchwork of the Crosses. There’s quite a bit of this so I’m thinking it may be my “neutral” for that quilt.

The baby quilt is getting very close to being ready to baste. Hopefully some pictures by the end of the week. I don’t think I’ve ever struggled so to finish something. It’s almost become a chore.

Smudge in one of his standard poses. With a bear, of course.

And Lester on the windowsill. Hopefully some birds and squirrels come back soon to the roof garden for him to watch.

Planning a New Quilt

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Quiltobsession

Lucy Boston’s Patchwork of the Crosses is a quilt that I have loved ever since I saw a picture ages ago in an issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting. There’s a wonderful article about Lucy Boston and her quilts here as well as some pictures. I’ve been setting aside fabrics for it for a while. So far, they include this grouping:

And this set of Seaside Rose fabrics. I know I’ll be adding some darker shabby chic fabrics when I start it, but I love these two groupings as a start.

There’s going to be an Inklingo collection just for the POTC sometime this year, I believe. Before it comes out, I want to get the fabrics I’ve picked out for the Jane Austen quilt all printed. I’m still debating whether to try stitching the centre of it by machine and hand piece the borders with all those wonderful little diamonds or to hand piece the whole thing. I’m tempted to hand piece it, as I enjoy that so much but I know there is no way I’ll machine piece the POTC and the goal is to finish both this year, so …

The baby quilt is slowly getting worked on. The ’30s prints in it are not prints I’m finding appealing at this point at all. It’s odd — I love them when I start something like this but they quickly lose their appeal altogether. I love the effect and this baby quilt will be exactly what I pictured, but I just wish it was finished!!

This picture is a classic Smudge pose. Had us laughing for sure. It’s a “find the kitty’s head” type of picture. 🙂