Tag Archives: Quilt

Farmer’s Delight Block 11

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Getting these blocks done has moved to the top of the list and, as I’m very close to being finished, they are all I plan to work on until they’re done.  One more block to go, then add the surrounding pieces to turn the last 4 blocks into squares and the piecing is done.  The final step will be figuring out how I want to set them.

Block 12 has been started.  The two triangle strips won’t take long to make and add to it and then it will be finished.

A few days ago I wrote about testing different markers for marking the quilting I want to do on the pink and cream quilt.  I made some marks on a scrap piece of the cream fabric with various markers and then let it sit for over a week.  Wednesday I decided to see if the marks would come out.  I was amazed at how easily they all rinsed right out of the fabric with just water.  No soap was necessary at all.  The pink and yellow Fineliner marks rinsed out without an issue.  The most surprising to me was that the General’s graphite pencil marks practically flew out of the fabric as soon as it got close to water.  After drying and ironing the scrap piece there isn’t a hint of any of the marks.  As I always wash my quilts as soon as they’re bound, I feel quite safe about using any of the markers I tested.

Now to find my quilt stencils.  Some of them are rather large so there aren’t too many spots I could have put them where they could lie flat.  It seems I found a really good spot for them — and one that I can’t remember.  I’d like to get that top ready to quilt this weekend, so hopefully they turn up today or tomorrow.

I spoke too soon about the weather.  Wednesday was quite cool again and extremely windy.  Our high was only -4.  Today’s high is supposed to be -3.  However, the difference in the light is becoming more obvious each day.  We got pictures of both the cats without having to turn on lights or use the flash.

Lester was lounging.

Smudge was posing.

Pickle Dish Addition

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Finally, some progress on my Summer Picnic Dish quilt.  I’m adding the setting pieces as I go so that when I’m finished adding blocks, I’ll be finished altogether.  It takes only a couple of minutes to add a setting piece as I go and is much nicer than having to add them all at the end.  The one thing I’ve not decided on yet is whether this will be a borderless quilt, which seems to be my normal preference, or if I’ll add some sort of pieced or appliqued border.  So for now, I’m leaving the corners curved.  If I decide on no border, then I’ll have lovely curved corners. If I decide to add borders, I can easily add the 4 setting pieces to the corners.  This is one project that is moving to the top of the list to be worked on.

The question of borders is one with which I constantly wrestle.  I love the look of antique quilts that have no borders and that seems to be what guides me.  Yet I also love the look of a pieced or appliqued border.

March came in like a lamb, although it was windy.  We had the windows open for a while and it was marvelous.  I noticed a difference in the light Tuesday as well. What a wonderful time of year this is — so full of promise that winter is almost over.

We did get photos of the kitties Tuesday.   Lester was looking rather elegant.

Smudge was curled up relaxing.

Another Farmer’s Delight

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Once this and two more blocks are finished, and the next one is already partially put together, the blocks for this quilt will be made.  Setting the blocks is something I’ve started thinking about and, while I have no firm ideas as of yet, I’m thinking about something that will involve some applique.  I’ll make that decision once all the blocks are done and I start playing with layouts.

An idea for another Dresden Plate variation is slowly working its way to the top of the list.  I may play with some fabric choices for it and perhaps make the first block this week.

Thanks to the rain early Monday, we have no snow left on the roof garden.  As it’s now March 1, I’m hoping that we get no more snow until next year.   Spring can’t arrive soon enough for me.  There’s something about it being March that always feels so promising.  We got through January and February and it’s all good from here.

We didn’t manage to get any photos of the kitties on Monday.  We just didn’t seem to have a camera at hand at the appropriate times, so I thought I’d dig up some photos from a year ago.

This was Lester just under a year ago.

And Smudge slightly over a year ago, giving a classic Smudge look.

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.

Melons

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I’ve started putting together one of the elements for the borders of the X’s and O’s quilt.  These little 4″ blocks go together so quickly that I don’t think it will take long at all to get this part of the border ready to put together.

The back of one of the little blocks.

We’re definitely going to have a couple of days of milder temperatures.  If the forecast is correct, we may hit 50 on Friday!  It looks like it will go back to the cold winter weather shortly after that, but what a treat to get a day that warm in February.

Lester continues to improve.  Mr. Q.O. was taking pictures of the boys, focusing on their paws.

Smudge was showing off his paws while he slept.

Farmer’s Delight in Stages

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Another Farmer’s Delight block completely finished.

One that just needs the frame around it to square it up.

And a third which is awaiting its two bands of triangles.  I’ve decided to make the remaining blocks all at once.  It’s faster, I think, if I make the blocks up to the point of completing the addition of the two rounds of triangles and then, once the remaining 3 or 4 blocks are at that stage, I’ll add the frames to square them up all at once.  That’s what I’ve been working on this week.

We ran down to the hospital for a bit on Wednesday afternoon to meet Cameron, who was born late Monday afternoon, and to deliver his little quilt.  His father, who is the son of a quilter, wasted no time in making sure Cameron was cozy and warm with the quilt wrapped around him.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and messages about Lester — they were greatly appreciated and helped enormously.  Lester has been slowly recovering.  This is his third stroke and the recovery time has been longer this time.  As of Thursday night he’s eating on his own, drinking and even playing a bit with kitty toys.  It has been a roller coaster of emotions watching him, wondering how well he’ll recover.   We took no pictures of him this week until last night, when he was acting more like Lester, our house lion — lounging in the kitty bed near the kitty toy basket. We were, once again, extremely lucky.

There has been good news with Smudge as well.  He finally seems to be eating enough on his own.  So much so that Thursday was the first day in close to three months that there was no syringe feeding at all. Tuesday and Wednesday were rather tough days with syringe feeding necessary for both of them and then Thursday was like magic — they were both eating on their own.  Smudge was having a snooze after eating on Thursday night.

X’s and O’s

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My Improved 9-Patch quilt top which I’ve named X’s and O’s, and which was hand pieced in a few weeks.  I started piecing it on August 9 and took the last stitch completing the main body of the top on September 1, 2010.  The picture was taken on September 2, when the lawn on the roof garden was still green and there was no snow.  Without borders it measures approximately 41 x 48″.  One of the two borders I have planned for X’s and O’s will be pieced.

I used the Inklingo Orange Peel Deluxe collection to print all the shapes for this. Perfect stitching lines and matching points printed on the back of my fabrics made putting this together a breeze.  Even though I knew it would go together easily as I had just finished the Chintz Circles quilt made with shapes from the same Inklingo collection, I was amazed at how quickly I finished stitching it.  Once I got the idea for this quilt, I worked out a plan for my quilt using the design sheets and Monkey’s Cheat Sheet which are part of the Inklingo collection and filled out a cheat sheet, chose the fabrics and printed my shapes.  All done in one evening.  By the time two days had passed, I had all the 9-patches pieced and then it was just a matter of lots and lots of continuous stitching as I joined the melons to the 9-patches.

The biggest challenge for me with this quilt was keeping things in order.  Once I had the 9-patch blocks pieced, I laid them out with the melons and rearranged until I was satisfied with the placement.  Not having a design wall, I laid it out on the bed and we took photos.  Although I kept the pieces for each row of the quilt in separate zip-lock bags, I printed one of the photos and that was my virtual design wall to which I referred constantly to ensure I hadn’t mixed anything up.

My plan is to print the shapes I need for the pieced border sometime within the next couple of weeks and hopefully have the pieced border ready within a week or so after that.  I’ve already decided on the quilting design for the quilt, so I’m hoping to have this one done within a relatively short period of time.

We were lucky and didn’t get anywhere near the kind of storm they were predicting. It snowed for hours, no question, but we didn’t get the amount they had forecast. The migraine finally lifted Wednesday evening so now I’m just left with the bruised head feeling that always comes after and will get caught up on blogs and responding to comments today.

The cats found spots to snooze on Wednesday.  Lester on the pink chair.

Smudge got his turn on the pink chair a bit later in the evening.

Pretty Fabrics

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While I know I’ll probably add to and subtract from this group of fabrics, I like the look of these for something.  What exactly, I’m not sure, but they’re staying together when they’re put away.  There’s a wonderful paisley fabric in that group that I know will be great for some fussy cutting.

What have I been doing?  Not much to show at the moment as I’ve been making more of the cream hexagon frames for the POTC blocks, spent a bit of time sorting out just how large I’ll make the Summer Picnic Dish and then figured out what I still need to print in order to make it the size I’ve decided upon, decided on two borders for a quilt top that I haven’t shown yet, and spent a bit of time working through another EQ lesson — on Tuesday, that is.  Wednesday was a bit of a write-off.

While I’m going to print all the pieces I need for the Summer Picnic Dish, I’m going to concentrate on making the arc/melon combinations and then, once those are done, start putting the top together.  I”m going to have to use a few different white on white fabrics as I don’t have anywhere near enough of the one I started with but I’m not stressed about that.

While we aren’t getting the snow that New York got, I had a migraine that just wouldn’t quit on Wednesday from that storm.  Didn’t stop me from stitching, but sure stopped me from dealing with anything on the computer.

I’m not sure what Lester was looking at when this picture was taken.  Probably a kitty toy on the floor.

Smudge has been playing more with toys over the past couple of days and his appetite is definitely on the increase.  We’re still syringe feeding, and likely will be for at least another month, but I think there’s progress.

More Stormy Seas

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A bit more contrast than the last one.   Putting these blocks together gets easier with each one.  Hopefully that means I’ll be able to keep to my goal of 2 blocks a week.  No guarantees on that as I found myself looking at the autumn colours fabrics I had pulled out for a Winding Ways idea.

There’s another design floating in my mind that’s made with Drunkard’s Path blocks.  That one is as irresistible as the Winding Ways.  So far I haven’t pulled any fabrics for it, but it’s getting awfully close. As soon as the baby quilt is quilted and bound, I have a feeling I’ll be starting one of those two.

My Patchwork of the Crosses blocks seem to have been put away a bit too well.  This may finally teach me to label the boxes in which I put blocks so that I don’t need to go through every one in order to find whatever it is I’m looking for.

Smudge was eating a bit more on his own on Thursday.  Still nowhere near the 250 calories he needs, so the syringe feeding continues.

Earlier in the day, Lester had been grooming Smudge.  Normally, Smudge would never let him do that but these days he seems to be quite enjoying the attention.

A Few Little Blocks

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The final few klosjes are done.  I think my total is somewhere around 120 of them finished.  Once I get a chance to lay them out and figure out the arrangement, it won’t take long to get the little teddy bear quilt put together.

Wednesday night I really couldn’t seem to focus on just one thing so, along with making the final few klosjes, I put together these LeMoyne Stars.  I have a total of 11 of them done, with the pieces for 19 more printed and ready to stitch.  Another baby quilt in the making — this one clearly for a girl as all the stars will be a pink of some sort or another.

The political ads are beginning — although no election has been called yet, it seems it may not be that far off.  I have a feeling we’ll be renting a lot of videos or watching things we’ve recorded so we can fast forward through the ads.   My tolerance for the self-serving or attack ads is zero.  I don’t usually say anything about politics on my blog, but the ad I saw Wednesday night made my skin crawl.  If this is what we have to look forward to, I’d rather ignore the whole thing altogether.

It was very cold on Wednesday and promises to be even colder today.  We are definitely back in the deep freeze for a few days.  Great timing to spend lots of time stitching.  Smudge found a spot to curl up.

While Lester decided to guard the toy basket.