Tag Archives: machine piecing

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.

Half a Dozen Melons

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I’m hooked.  No question about it.  Stitching these little blocks is nothing but fun. They’re a quick stitch and those perfect curves make me smile every time.  I need around 40 of them for the border I’m planning but, at the rate they’re going together, it’s not going to take long.  But ideas for a quilt made with just these blocks keep floating through my mind.  It’s one of those blocks that I find irresistible.

Thursday was a great day.  The pink and cream quilt top is finished.  When I got up Thursday morning, I decided it was time.  Sashings were cut, sewn to cornerstones and added to the blocks and then the final border was added.  What I learned yesterday?  That machine piecing isn’t that difficult.  All the joining was done by machine, while the blocks themselves were hand pieced and I got it all put together without having to rip out any seams.  The top finishes at around 60 x 70, and I am thrilled with it.  Pictures when it’s quilted.  I’ve already got the quilting planned for it.

Charlsey posted some pictures on her blog post here from our two days of stitching, talking and planning as well as some interesting people watching.  There’s one shot of Charlsey’s Seven Sisters quilt and my X’s and O’s quilt that I love.  The hotel lobby is rather beige and I think our quilts added some needed colour!

For some reason we got no new photos of the cats on Thursday.  Things are definitely looking up — the two of them had one of their mock battles on Thursday evening, which they haven’t really done for a couple of months.  This is one of my favourite photos and a rather rare shot of the two of them together that was taken a few months ago.

A Barely Begun Unfinished Object

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I’ve been going through partially complete projects and trying to decide what I want to do with them. This?  This was started around three years ago.  Obviously I didn’t get too far with it.  I printed many, many 2.25″ equilateral triangles for this project and had started putting together one row when it got put away. To be honest, I didn’t even remember I had it until I opened a drawer and saw the bag full of the triangles.

This is one of the projects for which I used the sewing machine to stitch the triangles together into pairs.  I only printed the templates on the cream neutral fabric and then stitched along the stitching lines before cutting the triangles apart into pairs.  It certainly made that part quick.  Then I decided I wanted to hand piece the pairs into rows, it seems, so a little hybrid piecing.  I think I know why this got put away.  The colours are totally outside my normal comfort zone.  How much more of this I will put together is anyone’s guess as, at this point, I’m not enthused about it although Mr. Q.O. definitely likes the colours.  This may be one of those projects on which I will work for an evening or so every few weeks and slowly put together a lap quilt for Mr. Q.O.  But for now, it’s being put away again until I get a few other projects finished.

Smudge was very alert Tuesday night.  He is eating more on his own each day and we think he has put on a bit more weight.  I talked to our vet on Tuesday and for now we’re watching to see if there’s any return of the jaundice and continuing with the syringe feeding.  I’m a little concerned about the amount of tuna in the cat foods that he is eating in light of the recent warnings by Health Canada about the levels of mercury in tuna.  I asked our vet about it and he said that, while he hasn’t read any studies about the effects of the mercury in tuna in cat foods, it may be an issue if that’s the only type of food Smudge will eat.  So we’ll slowly start trying some foods with no tuna and see what happens.

I often wonder why cats are so likely to love cat food with seafood of some sort or another in it, as that is not their ancestral diet.  Smudge is so finicky about food but always seems to love anything with tuna.  Lester?  Lester likes every kind of cat food.  Here he was having a snooze after dinner.

A Little Machine Stitching & Teddy Bear Story

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That little bag?  I made it.  All by machine.  I still can’t believe it!  I was chortling away to myself as I was making it on Sunday, thrilled to bits that I could actually put this together.   I know it sounds ridiculous but for me to put anything together successfully by machine is a feat.  I didn’t have to rip out anything nor did I have any issues with my sewing machine.  So there’s hope!!

I stumbled across a tutorial for it at p.s. i quilt and was convinced, thanks to the tutorial’s great instructions, that I could do it.  An hour or so later, when the little bag was finished I was thrilled.  Now I think I want to make a few that are somewhat larger.

Three of the smallest teddy bears caught sight of the little bag and wanted to go for an outing to the roof garden.  So in they hopped, and off we went to the roof garden.

Once out there, they were happy to see that my other machine sewing adventure was there waiting for them.

This little quilt was made using a swatch pack and entirely by machine, other than tacking down the binding.  I am less than thrilled with how it turned out as there are places where seams didn’t exactly line up.  But overall, it gave me some confidence to try the little bag and the bears were quite happy to have a quilt to call their own.

While out on the roof garden, they admired some of the flowers in the flower beds.

There are a few quilts I want to make that really make much more sense to make by machine than by hand — ones with lots of HSTs or QSTs.  Getting more experience making small things and gaining some confidence in my ability to do so will help.  I think more sewing machine adventure posts will be showing up as soon as my aunt’s quilt is done.

While this picture of Lester is a bit blurry, I couldn’t resist posting it because it’s such a fabulous shot of his paw.

Once again, on Monday evening the two of them curled up together.  It’s unbelievably cool, probably around 50 after the sun has gone down, so I guess they are enjoying the warmth of being together.

Machine Piecing

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I wrote that title?? “Machine Piecing” — me?? I mentioned yesterday that I got ever so slightly off track on the weekend insofar as my stitching went. Well, this is one of the reasons.

I was the lucky recipient of some of Amy‘s fabric giveaway. One of the bags I received contained the makings of an entire quilt, all in batiks, and already cut. I knew this meant I had to make friends with the sewing machine and, to my absolute delight, I was able to put together about a dozen of the 9-patch blocks quite successfully!!


I have miles to go making 9-patch blocks to finish this but am so excited that I can make these successfully!! I know one of the reasons I don’t use the machine is that any amount of precision rotary cutting is absolutely out of the question for me. My hands and wrists ache for a couple of days after even minimal rotary cutting. So this is a huge treat — a quilt in a bag, so to speak, ready to stitch.

Thank you all for the comments on the quilting over stitchery issue! I learned a lot from every one of them. I’m still a bit undecided, although I’m leaning towards just in the ditch around the butterfly hexagons — mostly because my machine quilting skills are marginal and certainly don’t extend beyond straight-line quiltling. Stippling or meandering or curves are way beyond my level!!

Lester sometimes snores and we got this picture of him sound asleep, mouth open and ever so gently snoring.


Smudge, looking like — well, I’m not quite sure what that look is saying.

A Surprise in the Mail

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I received the most wonderful surprise yesterday. Tracy sent me a package that contained, among other things, the most glorious blocks! There are 48 of these beauties. She says she got sick of working with these and decided they needed a new home.


These aren’t colours I normally work with but wow! I absolutely love the effect. Now I’m fiddling around trying to figure out a setting that will work for them. There are 24 of each type of block and they finish at 8″ each. I’m wondering about sashing.

These are the extra fabrics that came with the blocks. There’s lots and lots there — but I am not sure if there’s enough of one for sashing. I’m playing with the idea of sashing that’s a different colour on each side. There’s definitely enough of this extra fabric that I think I’ll be able to do something interesting for a border as well as probably enough for a small quilt!

Look at this print!! It’s one of the fabrics and I absolutely love it. Those birds are marvelous. There’s also a blue print like this one.

I have the gold fabric I used for the setting diamonds in this that has almost the feel of a brocade to it — and have lots of it.


I’m playing with the idea of using it for the sashing. Or do these blocks even need sashing, I wonder. I love the effect of them side by side. I know I’ll be spending a lot of time this weekend staring at these blocks — they are just so incredible.

What about sashing with the gold brocade and a small cornerstone of one of the fabrics for each block?

What an amazing thing to be given! I feel very, very, very humbled to have been given these and love the fact that I’m going to be working with these gorgeous blocks!

Any ideas out there on settings?

An update on Sammy the Squirrel. He has been taken to a wildlife sanctuary where he will have a much safer environment than he had here. We noticed yesterday that a few slightly older squirrels were getting a bit aggressive with him — and worried that, as he has become so used to humans, he might run into trouble if someone who disliked squirrels was the object of his attention! We will miss him out there on the roof garden.