Tag Archives: Quilt

Drunkard’s Path Variation

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The blocks for this have been done for ages and were sitting, waiting to be put into a top. Part of the reason for the delay was that I wasn’t quite sure how I’d finish it. Now I know. Without the border, it’s 36 x 42. It’s completely hand pieced.

Last week, 6 new Inklingo collections were released with new sizes of the Drunkard’s Path shapes, ranging from 2″ to 7″, along with an absolutely fabulous Drunkard’s Path Free Design Book.  The book is wonderful and, for the moment, free to download. It’s full of tips and tricks for both hand and machine stitching Drunkard’s Path blocks as well as tons of layouts.

The new sizes gave me a completely different idea than I initially had for the border I’ll add to make it into a lap quilt. The top was made with shapes from the 3″ collection. I’ll be using shapes from the 6″ collection to make the pieced border. The fabrics for the border are ready and washed and now I just need to find one of them. I’ve obviously tucked it away too well, but I think I have an idea where it is.

Baxter is growing in leaps and bounds — and is leaping and bounding around here too as the kitten antics go on daily.  We were fortunate to get this shot of him awake and still.

Scrappy Star Is Growing

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It’s getting bigger with each round of squares and diamonds. And it’s taking longer to add each round. I’m still deciding whether to make it a one-block quilt or whether I’ll make 4 or 6 of these blocks. Once I get this first block to a larger size, I’ll make that decision.

Once again, it pressed easily.

Baxter was peering over the arm of the chair as I was stitching. Within a few seconds, he would be on my lap attacking the fabric pieces.

Small 9-Patch Blocks

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In one of the boxes, there are many, many squares just waiting to be stitched.  I started making some little 9-patch blocks that finish at 3″. There’s something about making 9-patch blocks that I find really appealing.

I keep thinking about making a red and white 9-patch lap quilt. That won’t happen until the red and white Feathered Star/Sunflower quilt is done, but it’s definitely a quilt I want to make.

Baxter seems to think these blocks are meant for him, so perhaps I’ll make a few more and he’ll have his first little quilt. I’m thinking of making a grey, white, black and pink quilt for him, but haven’t quite decided on what pattern. In the meantime, perhaps a little 9-patch quilt will suffice until he’s fully grown and I get the other quilt made.

Scrappy Little Stars

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These stars are the beginning of a quilt requested by Mr. Q.O.  He really likes the look of these reproduction fabrics, it seems. I’ve got a couple of ideas for setting these and once i get a dozen or so done I’ll start playing with that.

They press very easily. To ensure whatever layout I end up using will be easy to put together, I’m going to make sure that I press all the stars the same way.

There’s a stack of fabrics ready to print the diamonds from the free Inklingo collection and, once printed and cut, this will be yet another quilt in a box. The freezer paper is ready to iron on the fabric and I’ll print 10 or 12 sheets every day until they’re all done. Then the fun will begin as I want to try to ensure that no two stars are identical. And yes, there’s a lot of fabric there ready to be printed. There will likely be enough for a few little quilts as well.

Baxter is very nocturnal. He tends to wake up around midnight and is awake and wanting to play until just before dawn. So during the late afternoon/early evening he finds a comfy spot and snoozes.

Stormy Seas

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This is my current favourite of the Stormy Seas blocks that I’m making using one of the Inklingo Storm at Sea collections. It has been months since I’ve worked on these, but now that I’ve started again I don’t want to stop as I’ve found a stitching sequence that is relatively quick for me.

They are hand pieced, so far, but I’m contemplating trying a block by machine or at least parts of a block.  I think I might be tempted to put the units together by machine and then stitch them into the block by hand. I printed a few more a lot more shapes than I need for the quilt so I think I’ll give at least one block a try by machine and see how well I do with that. An idea for a second quilt using the extra shapes is already forming in my mind. I’m rather excited about this idea, so am hoping to get started on it as soon as I get the Stormy Seas blocks finished.

This block has one of my favourite fabrics in it, the green/blue batik.

One of the big benefits of using batiks is that they press so easily.

And yes, Stormy Seas is another quilt in a box. Every block is kitted in its own separate glassine envelope, ready to stitch. Even the various threads for piecing are in this box.

It’s either ragweed starting or I’m fighting a summer cold. Tuesday was one of the most unproductive days I’ve had in ages as doing much of anything seemed like a monumental task.

Baxter seems to think the camera is only for taking photos of him. The minute we’re setting up to take photos of anything, he is right there posing.

Black and White

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Stars, that is. They’re tiny star blocks, finishing at 2.25″ x 2.5″. The pieces are small, so the block is quick to stitch. I put these two blocks together in less than 45 minutes. Each seam is one needle load of stitches and it’s done. I think I may incorporate one red or gold star in the top at some point, just to have one splash of colour in the midst of the black and white.

They press like a dream. I finger press as I go, so it’s just a matter of one quick press and it’s done.

There are enough pieces in the envelopes in this box for quite a few of the black and white stars. On the weekend, I was talking to a friend about the number of boxes like this that I have with envelopes containing shapes ready to stitch. While there are a lot of them, each one contains the making of at least a small quilt and it’s great to have such choices, particularly when I’ve been working on a complex project and just want an easy stitch for an hour or so. I think of these as my quilt in a box projects. Over the next couple of posts I may be showing some of the other boxes.

A few years ago I really recognized the value of such quilt in a box projects when I had the flu. While I wasn’t too sick to stitch, cutting or printing my shapes would have been too much. Instead I was able to choose a project that was already kitted and just stitch.

Baxter has been spending more and more time on the windowsill. He is clearly enjoying Baxter TV. His tail is really starting to look like a classic Maine Coon plume of a tail and he has discovered that chasing it is fun.

Fabrics for Binding

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This is the striped fabric I want to use to bind Ferris Wheels, but I’m not sure I’ll have enough of it for a bias binding.  It’s a half-yard piece, so it may be rather close. The quilt is 45″ x 60″ and I plan to use a 2.25″ double-fold bias binding. I’ll work out the math as soon as I get the quilting finished and am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be enough.

This is my second choice.  Not as much fun as the striped fabric, but the colours do work with the fabrics used in the quilt.

Baxter had a very busy day on Wednesday. He has discovered “Baxter TV”, looking out on the roof garden from the window.  Wednesday he was sitting on the windowsill watching, we think, the robins’ nest. His tail was twitching and he was chattering as he watched.

Later on we caught him in mid-yawn.

He has favourite toys which always end up under furniture. So a new daily event is one of us down on the floor fishing toys out from under furniture. He seems to quite like helping us retrieve his toys.

Contented Kitty Quilt

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Eight of the blocks are now done and I’m thinking that this will be renamed and called “Memories of Smudge” when it’s finished. I can’t help but think of him when I work with these colours.

All the pieces for the quilt are printed, cut and ready to stitch. It’s not going to be a large quilt and, as I love piecing this block, the blocks may be finished before the fall.

Baxter was a very busy kitty Thursday. He was chasing his toys, our feet, and anything else that attracted his attention. When he stopped for a snooze, he crashed with a teddy bear and frog.

Stitching when Baxter is awake is … well, challenging. He seems to think fabric is a toy and/or edible. I’m hoping this phase passes quickly as it is making it difficult to get much done. My plan is to have the toy basket beside me so that when he decides to “help” I can distract him by throwing a toy on the floor. Maybe. I hope.

Scrappy Stars

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Definitely not my normal choice of fabrics, but I’m having fun playing with these scrappy little LeMoyne Stars. The weekend before we got Baxter, I spent a lot of time reorganizing my fabric (knowing that doing that with a kitten around would be a bit difficult) and found a small stash of reproduction prints. Not knowing how much I’d like working with them, I printed sets of 8 diamonds on 16 pieces and started making these little LeMoyne Stars. They’re destined to be a small quilt for a friend.

Pressing them takes only a second or two.

It has been really hot and humid here the past couple of days.  Perfect summer weather, especially out on the roof garden where it always seems cooler as there is usually a breeze.

The flowers are absolutely gorgeous this year.

Baxter is getting more and more adventurous and has so far clambered up on Mr. Q.O.’s keyboard and on the telephone.  He has discovered chasing his tail in the past couple of days, which I can’t resist watching. He plays hard and then, in the blink of an eye, he’s fast asleep. This pose as he was having a snooze absolutely cracked me up.

Pink Ice Finish

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After way too many months to count, the Pink Ice lap quilt top is finished. I’m thrilled with how it turned out. Every stitch was done by hand, including joining the blocks into rows and the rows into the top.

There’s a bit of a story to Pink Ice. I fell in love with the Snow Crystal block when I first saw it in this little book called Quilts, A Beautiful History. When the free downloadable collection of Inklingo shapes came out that included all the shapes I needed to make Pink Ice I immediately knew I’d make this quilt. Luckily, another Inklingoist also wanted to make the blocks using pinks so we swapped a number of printed diamonds.

I’ve had the top together for a while and kept wondering about adding a border. I tried a few ideas and nothing seemed right. I often find that borders don’t appeal to me for the quilts I’ve made, although there are definitely exceptions to that. When I look at pictures of antique quilts, I’m always struck by how many of them don’t have borders.

Once I decided that no border was necessary I chose this dark pink with black dots fabric for the binding, as I think it will frame the quilt quite nicely.

A new pattern for Pink Ice has been added to my website here. It includes the printing and cutting instructions, as well as stitching and printing tips, for a scrappy two-colour quilt, a classic two-fabric quilt and a three-colour variation.

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Mr. Q.O. and I are very grateful for all the wonderful heart-felt comments we’ve received about Smudge since Monday’s post. It’s still a bit too emotional an issue for me to say much about it, but oh, how we miss him and find ourselves still looking for him. His drinking habits, his tiny little meow, that glorious tail and that adorable face are permanently etched in our minds and in our hearts. We feel Smudge knew it was time and had passed the baton to Baxter. He passed peacefully on my lap. For that I will be forever grateful.

Baxter’s personality and character is becoming more and more obvious. He likes watching baseball, loves to play with kitty toys and is very determined to get his way when he wants something. That said, he is the sweetest of cats with a non-stop purr. He has proven that he’s definitely going to be a quilter’s cat. I was stitching last night with him on my lap and he was having a great time batting at the fabric. Right now we think he may be teething as any paper he can find gets a few bite marks. We’re quickly learning that books and magazines have to be out of kitty reach.

He’s also not the least bit camera-shy. We’re really intrigued by his eyes, wondering whether they will be gold or green. I think they’re going to be gold, Mr. Q.O. says green. Whatever colour they end up, he is a wonderfully sweet kitty and we are enormously thankful that he has come to live with us.