Tag Archives: Quilt

And Then There Were Three

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Blocks stitched and shapes printed for three projects on Wednesday, that is.  Project one, the big pink and cream stars.  One more finished so there are now three completed.  Tuesday night I started thinking about different settings for the big pink stars and have decided on one that will include 6 of the large stars and some other elements.  Three more big stars to go and then the setting and it will be done.

The pieces printed and cut out for the remaining three big pink and cream stars.

Project two, two of the Pickled Ladies done.

Lots of clamshells printed and cut out for project two.

Lots of the shapes needed for the arcs also printed and ready to cut.

Project three, the Harpsichord Quilt.  One new block pieced and pressed.  Smudge was determined to be part of this photo — you can see his shadow.

Lots and lots of black and gold octagons and the little coloured squares printed for project three.

While my printer wasn’t going quite as quickly as in the video I showed yesterday, it was humming along for about half an hour last night.  I like working on projects in groups of three.  Getting the freezer paper sorted out made it all so easy.  In next to no time I had the fabric pressed to freezer paper and printed for all three of  this Wednesday’s projects.  Perhaps if I keep doing this for the next couple of weeks I can have all the pieces printed and ready to stitch for another 3 or 6 projects.  What other ones?  The Summer Picnic Dish, also known as pickle dish.  The Rouenneries Drunkard’s Path — I have another 3 sets of charms to print for that one.  The Storm at Sea is definitely on the list for next week.

For the most part, the cats had no interest in what was going on.  Lester had a nap.

Smudge was looking a bit bored, I think.

Fabric Play

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Usually when I print shapes for what will be a scrappy quilt, I print lots more than I need.  These are left over from when I was making my Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.  When I was making those blocks, I wanted to have lots of choices and the ability to change out colours when I was putting a block together. Then, when I had finished making the blocks, I had all these left-over pieces.  While some may think it’s wasteful, for me it’s like having a box full of ideas waiting to be discovered.  Over the past few days I’ve been playing with a design idea and last night I progressed from a rough sketch on paper to playing with the fabric shapes.  Once again, a digital camera is a great asset — I used it to take photos of the various layouts I’m playing with for future reference.

Tuesday was windy and rainy as a huge low pressure system came through.  I had a migraine from very early Tuesday morning but was still able to spend some time with fabric.  The tree in front of our living room window has now pretty well lost all its leaves thanks to the wind.

The vet called Tuesday and said he’ll call again on Saturday to see if Lester has had any symptoms reappear, in which case he’ll have another course of antibiotics.  So far, he seems like he’s over it but we’ll be watching him carefully over the next few days.  He was resting Tuesday evening.

Smudge was watching as I was laying out fabric pieces, although you can’t really tell that from this picture.  I kept waiting for him to decide to “help”, but he was interested in only watching this time.  I’m not altogether sure what the look on his face is saying — whether he was approving, bored or giving me one of those impossible to fathom kitty looks.

New Pressing Board

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Friday night, we went to the Creativ Festival and I was thrilled.  I managed to get exactly what I was looking for — a new Quilter’s Cut ‘n Press.  My old one had finally got to the point of no return and it was time.  I use the Cut ‘n Press constantly as it’s the perfect size for pressing a block or two or pressing fabric to freezer paper and doesn’t necessitate dragging out the ironing board and then putting it away.

I also stocked up on the heirloom cotton thread I love to use for hand piecing and found 2 more florals for the Pickled Ladies as well as a pink FQ that just had to come home with me because it was — well, pink!  I don’t think I could ever have too much pink.

There was a white on white fabric that also came home with me but didn’t get photographed, as it’s rather hard to show the design in a white on white.  It’s one I’ve used before that has a lovely soft feel to it and is not hard to needle.  All in all, I’m thrilled with what I found at the show although I wouldn’t have minded a few more florals.  There were lots of quilting booths with lots of fabrics and bundles but they seemed, for the most part, to be more of the earth tones and the like with very few florals to be seen.  I wonder if that’s a product of the time of year and if at the spring show there will be more light-coloured and floral fabrics.

Lester continues to do well.  Today is his last day on the antibiotics so I guess the next few days will tell the tale as to whether the infection is gone.

Smudge has been busy chasing leaves as they go by the window.

Twinkling Stars

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This isn’t a new project.  It’s something I’ve been playing with for ages using some of the shapes in the Tumbler collection.  Stitching arcs for the Pickled Ladies quilt didn’t really appeal last night as I was battling a migraine, so I started organizing some of the things I have in varying stages of progress.  That long skinny triangle from the Tumbler collection is something I love working with.  I’ve made about a dozen of these blocks that finish at 5″ and am now pondering some setting ideas.  I think I’ll probably make another dozen or so of them and then come up with a setting for a little quilt.

The back:

While I was going through some of the projects, I was able to identify a couple that require only another block or two or a setting plan in order to finish them.  I may spend a little time on one of them this weekend and see if I can come up with a plan and finish it off rather quickly.  Then again, I may just put it away and concentrate on more arcs for the Pickled Ladies.  I also want to get another of the clamshell diamonds done and have picked out the clamshells for that.

Lester is continuing to improve.  We’re thrilled with how quickly the antibiotics have started to do their job.  He was playing with toys today, up on the windowsill for a while and, of course, resting.

Smudge was sleeping on the couch with one paw on the little “Quilts, A Beautiful History” book I like to look through frequently.

The Making of Chintz Circles

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As Chintz Circles is entered in this week’s contest at Quilting Gallery (and you can go vote here), I thought it might be sort of fun to look back at the process of making it. The picture above was taken almost immediately after I finished stitching down the binding but before it was washed.

But this is where it began back in late March of this year.  I used the Inklingo Orange Peel Deluxe collection to print all the Alabama Beauty shapes on the back of my fabrics, which makes a quilt like this so achievable!  No tracing of templates or worrying about matching points on curved seams — they were all there for me. Once I had determined I wanted to get that circle effect, I did have to be careful about my fabric placement.  When I got the first four blocks hand pieced by early April and saw the partial circles beginning to appear, I was thrilled.

By April 7,  2 complete circles had appeared.

By April 12, a total of 6 circles had appeared.

By April 21, 2010, there were 9 complete circles.

By April 26, a total of 12 circles had shown up.

Adding rows took a bit longer the larger it got, but by May 18 there were a total of 16 circles:

By the time the middle of June rolled around, it was up to 24 circles:

By June 21 a total of 30 circles had appeared, the hand piecing was completed and the top was finished.

Then the backing was found, the quilt was basted and the machine quilting began. By July 19, I had started tacking down the binding and the next day the picture shown at the top of this post was taken.

Then came the best part.  On August 1, 2010 the quilt was presented to my aunt on her 90th birthday.

Making Chintz Circles was a true labour of love and I owe thanks to Karen Dianne whose post inspired me to make the circles the predominant feature and to Linda Franz, the inventor of Inklingo, which I think is the best thing to happen in quilting since the rotary cutter and without which I doubt very much that I would have ever made Chintz Circles.

If you’ve stayed with me to the end of this post, please go to Quilting Gallery and vote!  You can vote here.

Recap of Projects on List

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It has been so long since I’ve worked on a few of these projects that I thought it might be a good idea to have a look at them again.  First up are a few of the 30 Pink Ice blocks.

Than a few of the 30 Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.

Looking at these first two pictures makes me realize how nice it would be to have a design wall!  I could lay out all 30 blocks for each quilt and photograph them. Reorganizing the living room is on the horizon, so perhaps a design wall can get incorporated into that reorganization.

Next up are a few of the harpsichord blocks.  While I had started putting them into the first row, I have quite a few more done but not added to a row yet.  That will be something that I think I’ll start doing every 10 or 12 blocks or so.

While only one Storm at Sea block is done, as shown below, I have the fabrics for my Stormy Seas quilt ready to print and have worked out how many of each shape I’ll need.  Perhaps this weekend I can get some of the printing done.

The Pickled Ladies, which have clearly captured my interest almost exclusively for the past month and a half.

Then the sunshine star clams which are almost twice the size of the Pickled Ladies blocks:

The final item on the list is the baby quilt, which is ready to quilt as soon as I find the right backing.  Who knew finding a wider flannel would be such an adventure?  I may end up making a pieced backing with some ’30s FQs for it.  No picture of it yet but as soon as it’s quilted there will be.

Every one of these quilts has been/is being made with Inklingo templates printed on my fabric.  It has made even complex patterns like the clamshell pickles simple.

Smudge looking angelic in lace.

And Lester curled up beside Mr. Q.O.’s desk chair.

Pickled Ladies and the Cabin Quilt

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Two more Pickled Ladies blocks are done.  I have about 10 arcs ready now to add to clamshells, so should have a fair number of the blocks finished by week’s end. One of the things I want to do over the next week or so is figure out just how big I really do want to make this and then sort out the exact number of blocks I’ll need. Perhaps it will end up as a lap quilt, but I’m having so much fun making them that I don’t think I’ll want to stop there but may just end up turning this into a bed-sized quilt.

Over the past few days some stitches were taken on the Cabin Quilt as well and two more of the stitchery blocks are done.

Tuesday was a grey rainy fall day.  The kitties took full advantage of the snoozing opportunities.  Smudge got himself really tucked into the kitty bed into an almost headless cat pose.

While Lester curled up with a teddy bear for a nap.

Fabric Choices for More Pickled Lady Blocks

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Although I already have close to 30 of the clamshells printed for more of the Pickled Ladies, I decided to go through and pick out some other fabrics that are candidates for fussy cutting/printing.  Some of the ones I’ve picked out are shown above.  With any luck, I may be able to get 2 different clamshells from most of these fabrics which should take me up to 80 or so blocks.  My goal is to make approximately 120 of them and then either decide to continue and make it a bed quilt or stop there.

Work has suddenly become extremely busy, which meant that on Thursday I didn’t get a chance to visit many, if any, blogs and very few of the other clamshell club participants.  Hopefully I’ll get caught up on the weekend.

The cats are beginning to settle in for the fall.  Smudge was curled up on the sofa.

Lester was having a snooze in one of the cat beds, with one of his favourite toys nearby.

Cabin Quilt Block 1

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This is the first of 12 stitchery blocks for a lap quilt that is from the other kit that I had mentioned last week.  Once the stitchery blocks are done, then it’s a matter of some quick machine stitching.  I said quick machine stitching??  It involves cutting some flannel squares into triangles to surround the stitchery and pieced blocks and I’m a bit concerned about the flannel stretching.  Mr. Q.O. really likes this quilt, though, so I’m going to give it a try.

I managed to do the first stitchery block last night.  When we were at Sew Sisters on the weekend, I asked what they used behind fabric when doing stitcheries and they suggested either a fusible batt or fusible fleece.  I got a small fusible batting and I’m sold!  It makes it quite easy to travel thread for a bit when stitching without it shadowing through on the front.  As the back shows, I took advantage of that capability a few times.

I have always loved doing a little hand embroidery but the hoop has been my biggest issue for the past few years as tightening and loosening it was almost impossible.  So I found this hoop and tried using it.  What an amazing difference!  It’s easy and quick to use, holds the fabric perfectly for stitching and there’s no hardware on which to catch the thread.

This is what the quilt will look like when finished, although I’m not sure I’m going to do the tree appliques on the border.  I’ll decide that when I get that far.  The pattern calls for tea-dying the stitchery blocks when finished.  As I like the look of the stitchery blocks in the photo of the quilt, I think I may try that as well.

Monday, like Friday, was a migraine day.  While not quite as bad as Friday when I could barely move, yesterday was bad enough.  Today is the bruised head feeling that always seems to follow.  So once again I’m behind in replying to comments but hope to get caught up through the week.

Smudge curled up sound asleep.

I have to use an antique DOS program for work so, rather than cluttering up my Mac with any Windows software, I have an older laptop just for that purpose. Lester is constantly trying to “help” and I’m usually on guard for a paw on the laptop keys.  I think he watches the cursor moving on the screen.

Repurposing Fabric

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve been looking at a couple of BOMs I had put away.   One I will make as Mr. Q.O. really likes it, it will be quick to piece and, as it has flannel fabric, will be a perfect lap quilt for the winter.  The second one?  The more I looked at the patterns, the more I realized they just weren’t appealing to me.  So I had a long hard look at the fabrics contained in the kits for it and was pleasantly surprised when I realized there are some very pretty and quite useable fabrics, most in half yard or long quarter cuts.

There are some pretty pink and brown fabrics:

Some brown, gold, green and red fabrics:

Some lovely blue fabrics:

Some smaller rectangular pieces in a variety of colours:

All this fabric from kits to make 9 small doll quilts.  Lots and lots of ideas are swimming about in my mind regarding what I might make with these.  I’m really looking forward to playing with these now that they’re all washed, as they’re quite different from those which I normally use.

Wednesday was a rather overcast day but Lester was on the windowsill.  Here he was resting his eyes after watching to see just what the gardener was doing on the roof garden:

Smudge  was busy with the toy basket.