Piecing an Alabama Beauty Block

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Quiltobsession

Thursday night I printed some more shapes for the nameless quilt. I refuse to call it “The Thing” any longer. It needs a name! I got the fabrics picked out for the next set of 3 blocks and this block stitched. I’m finding it easier and easier to plan these blocks. I lay out the pieces for each block, make sure that the pieces that create the circles are in the right spot and then it’s really a quick block to stitch.

This is the back:

And this is a close-up of the centre of the back. I had promised someone (sorry, I forget who!) that I’d show a close-up of how I press this block, so here it is:

The batiks I had ordered from Sew Sisters last weekend arrived. I think a piece of one, if not two, of these is going to be used in the Alabama Beauty quilt. These were definitely my lucky fabrics! Tomorrow we’re off to Sew Sisters to pick up the frame. I can’t wait!

Along with the batiks was this cute FQ of Easter fabric. Wouldn’t this make a great back for a little doll’s quilt?

Thursday was another rainy, grey day. Lester spent some time on the windowsill, but there wasn’t much for him to see.

Smudge, on the other hand, decided it was a good day to curl up with a teddy bear.

More Alabama Beauty Circles

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Quiltobsession

Now there are four complete circles showing. This is really a fun top to put together as each row reveals another set of completed circles. It’s like watching a bit of a mystery unfold. Winning the quilt frame has absolutely decided it. This will be a king-size quilt. I was hesitating as the thought of basting it for quilting was rather daunting. But with the quilt frame meaning no basting, once I finish adding rows and rows of blocks it will be ready to quilt immediately. It will be solely a matter of getting the batt and a backing ready.

Mr. Q.O. keeps asking me if I’m making drapes with this one. He’s kidding, of course, but it makes me think of a picture in the book, The Patchworks of Lucy Boston, in which a hexagon patchwork is used as a window treatment. I’d love to find a fabric that looked something like this that could be used for drapes.

Finding a name for this quilt is already something I’m thinking about. At the moment, it’s known in this household as “The Thing”. Not very flattering. It really does deserve a nice name, I think.

It poured and poured and poured rain some more on Wednesday. But suddenly, the roof garden is looking greener and greener and the first daffodil has bloomed. I think we’re to have nothing but rain and perhaps even a thunderstorm or two today. Hopefully we see the sun again on Friday.

The cats know what to do on a rainy day. Curl up and snooze. Smudge, in one of his classic poses that always manage to make us laugh:

And Lester sound asleep.

Alabama Beauty – Second Circle

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Quiltobsession

It seems that getting that first group of blocks done so that the first circle appeared was the hardest part of making this quilt. Now it’s almost putting itself together. There’s a little planning to make sure each block is going to have the right fabrics on the outer edges to match up with their adjoining blocks, but once that’s done they’re amazingly fast to put together. As I’m pressing as I go, the top truly will be done when I finish the last block. I’m already wondering about how to quilt it. It’s a done deal now — this is going to be king-size quilt.

Monday evening I picked out some more shabby chic prints to add to the mix, cut them to the size needed to print my templates and now I’ve got enough prepped to keep going for a few weeks. While I was prepping them, I was thinking about favourite types of fabrics. I always seem to fall back to shabby chic for large scrappy quilts. Do you have a favourite type of fabric that you always seem to go back to?

Monday was another absolutely gorgeous day. Warm as an early summer day, clear blue skies, an absolutely marvelous treat for early April. There are more and more green shoots showing up in the roof garden flowerbeds and the vines on the trellis are starting to show green leaves as well.

Both cats spent time on the windowsill Monday. We have finches flitting about in the trees which I think they’re finding as fascinating as I am. In the evening, Smudge relaxed.

Lester was back in his favourite spot in the pink chair.

Planning the Alabama Beauty Blocks

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Quiltobsession

It’s a bit of a change for me to be planning a scrappy quilt but to get the circle effect, I have to lay the outer pieces out to make sure I’m going to have the right ones in the right spots and stitch the 3-piece units before adding them to the peel. Here I’ve laid out the four 3-piece units just to make sure that I’ve got everything stitched the way it needs to be and am now going to start stitching them to the peel for the fourth block. The grey that shows in the photo is not the fabric I’m using for the peels in this next block.

Curved piecing is something I cannot get enough of, it seems. With all the matching points that are printed on Inklingo shapes, it’s so easy to put these together and the curve in these is so gentle that I don’t even need to clip the seam allowance.

The gardener was back again on Wednesday. Our forecast is extraordinary. Friday and Saturday they’re saying we’ll have temperatures of 25C and a humidex reading of about 29C. I don’t think I can ever remember it being that warm at the beginning of April. I’d bet a lot of people go back to work on Monday with sunburns!

The weekend begins now for me. I finished work late Wednesday night and have plans — although with our weather forecast, they may get changed a bit. One of my plans is to once again try to organize my fabric into smaller containers that are easier for me to handle. I currently have most of it in Rubbermaid containers that are a bit too large and heavy for me to move easily. I found some great smaller ones at Staples last week so I plan to organize and move most of it into those. That should make it easier for me to handle things. I hope.

Lester spent a fair bit of time on the windowsill Wednesday watching the gardener.

Smudge loves to curl up on my computer chair.

Fabric Choices

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Quiltobsession

Once I knew my idea for the Alabama Beauty blocks was going to work out as well as I hoped, it was time to get out the box in which I have the fabrics left over from the shabby chic king-sized quilt and from some of my Quilted Diamonds blocks. This weekend I’ll spend some time picking out more fabrics and get the templates printed on to them. I have no set plan, but will print the templates on however many fabrics I end up picking out from the box. Then when I start to piece those blocks in earnest, I’ll have lots of pieces cut out and ready from which to choose.

My preferred method seems to be having lots of choices all ready to use, so that I can change my mind at the last minute regarding what fabrics are in a block. That way I do end up with pieces left over but those left-over pieces often become part of something new or get incorporated into a quilt label. Planning the whole quilt top out to the last fabric isn’t something I do very often, it seems.

We have had a quite a drop in temperature with an overnight low last night in the range of -7C, although that’s not going to last much past today. It was quite windy on Thursday and, while Lester spent a little bit of time on the windowsill, it appears relaxing on the couch was the more appropriate thing to do.

Yesterday morning, Smudge decided that he wanted to spend some time in my desk chair. I think this is one of the best shots of him we’ve got.

A Little Shabby Chic Curved Piecing

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Quiltobsession

These are some of the fabrics I picked out for shabby chic Alabama Beauty blocks. There are other fabrics I’ll add to the mix as I do more blocks, but these are a starting point.

Once the fabrics were selected, it took me only minutes to cut my fabric, press it to the freezer paper and print the templates on the backs of my fabrics. Then I was off to the races. While we watched Angels & Demons last night, I stitched this block.

The back, which didn’t press as well as I would have liked. I’m on the hunt for distilled water to use in the iron as we have extremely hard water and I’ve been told that using half distilled/half tap water will help lengthen the life of my iron. As soon as I find the distilled water, this is going to be pressed again.

All that rain on Tuesday made a difference. I looked out Wednesday morning and noticed, for the first time, some green shoots coming up in the flower beds on the roof garden. Unfortunately, they’re saying we’ll have a wind chill of -11 on Friday, which I don’t think will do those little plants much good, but then it looks like it’s going to warm up and stay warm. I hope they open the roof garden soon. It can be absolutely wonderful out there on a sunny day in a sheltered spot.

The cats have been busy the last couple of days. Almost every toy is now out of the basket. Last night Lester was very busy with either the catnip pillow, which he licks and licks, or the practice golf ball. Here is he relaxing after all that.