Tag Archives: quilting

New Year, New Computer, Big Storm

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Happy New Year, everyone!

I’m just getting used to my new iMac — what a difference from a PC! A few things remain to be done so I can use a few PC-only programs, but I’m just amazed at how user friendly the Mac is. The screen is unbelievable!!! Now to learn how to do photos — until I get that done, no photos to post!

We had a snowstorm that started at about midnight last night and went on throughout today. I think the snow is over now, but it’s bitterly cold and quite windy.

Today I got back two quilts that had been sent to the long-arm quilter for basting. One is a queen-sized whole cloth quilt, the other my Quilted Diamonds 2 quilt. Now all I need to get is some Saral paper so I can transfer my quilting designs and I’ll be doing a lot of hand quilting this year.

Merry Christmas!

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The last of the table runners are finished. I was up until close to 3:00 a.m. finishing the binding on the very last one. The labels went on this morning.

Gifts are all wrapped and delivered. The sewing area is tidied up — and I have all sorts of ideas for projects I want to start.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Blue & White Table Runner and the Cat and Canary

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This is, by far, my favourite of the table runners I’ve made so far for Christmas. The stars were made with .75″ diamonds and related bits from Inklingo collection 3. I was really surprised when I realized that there are 748 pieces in this small runner! It went together really quickly and the fabric was heaven to work with. There’s something about blue and white that is so soothing!

A friend sent us a new cat toy for the boys. It has been hysterical watching the antics of the two of them with the “Canary Toy”. First they played:
Then they played some more:

Lester seems to be taking possession of it for now and the other night was even sleeping with it under his paw!

Christmas Gifts

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Two friends who are dedicated machine piecers are getting a block like this plus Inklingo 2 for Christmas. I’m using the blocks I made as wrapping. 😉 I am so impressed with how easy it is to make HST, QST and flying geese using the Inklingo method that I want to share the excitement. This was another block I made totally by machine and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I can’t believe how fast it was to put together, but I’m still uncomfortable with those bulky seam intersections in the corners. Possibly I need a better iron to really “tame” them.

One table runner leaves here today. No pictures till the recipient has received and opened it. I’m thrilled with how it turned out. One more is now quilted, just needs the binding put on. The third is ready to baste and the fourth is still being stitched!! I still need to make 13 little 6-point stars for the fourth one and then finish putting the rows together. It’s getting awfully close. I have a feeling there will be a few really late nights this week and weekend in order to get this done. There is a fifth runner I would really like to get done before Christmas as an extra gift, but time is becoming a real issue.

Hybrid Blocks

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The points on these two blocks match much better than the one I did totally by machine — and no more bulky intersections! I printed more of the HST’s and QST’s and it was a snap to put together the flying geese, QST and HST units by machine and then put the blocks together by hand. Thanks to Inklingo we really do have the best of both worlds. One can do things like flying geese, HST’s and QST’s with the machine and get those units put together really quickly and accurately. Then, to get intersections that one can fan out and get rid of those incredibly bulky areas, one can piece the rest by hand using the stitching lines that Inklingo prints on your fabric. Of course, for those who are much more comfortable with their machines than I am, I’m sure this would go together in a snap all by machine.

For me, the idea of a hybrid block — done partially by hand and partially by machine — is the perfect solution. I’m really quite excited by this and am even looking at other blocks that I can do in this hybrid fashion.

Who knows, maybe I’ll actually get comfortable using the sewing machine. 🙂

Seven Sisters Table Runner Progress and A LIght Bulb Moment

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It’s halfway done now and is going together so easily, thanks to Inklingo. I’m using 1.5″ diamonds and triangles from Collection 3. At this point, it’s almost 26 inches long. The next two blocks will be more shades of green/turquoise that all go together quite nicely. I actually have the third block almost finished and ready to attach to this so hopefully by the end of next week that will be the third of the four Christmas gifts finished as far as piecing goes.

The light bulb moment? Well, I’ve been studying my Christmas Star block and realized that I could — and I’m going to — use the sewing machine to piece the units such as the HST’s, QST’s and flying geese and then put the units together into rows and rows together into the block by hand. This will, I’m sure, make a block that I’m much happier with. I just can’t get over the bulky intersections one gets when using the machine!! But I’m thrilled with how fast I can make the units by machine.

I will definitely get the best of both worlds. Thanks to Inklingo, I have the seam lines already printed on my patches so don’t have to worry about that. I’m really quite excited about this as I can see having these blocks done relatively quickly. My plan is to do 30 blocks, 15 with green centres and 15 with the red centres. While the quilt may not be done for this Christmas, I will be working on it over the Christmas season — and that’s fun! This weekend I plan to get at least one block done with the green centre and one with the red centre. I can’t wait to see how they go together!

Christmas Star Adventure

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No pictures to post — yet. Picked up Vol. 16, No. 2 of Australian Patchwork & Quilting yesterday and fell in love with a few quilts — particularly the Christmas Star one. So I have decided to try making the Christmas Star quilt before Christmas. Using my sewing machine. This is unheard of for me as I do 99.99% of my piecing and appliqueing by hand.

However, I really want to try out Inklingo 2 using the machine. I’ve used it for blocks I’ve made by hand and love how easy it makes HST’s, QST’s and flying geese. But for this Christmas Star quilt, I want to try to make it by Christmas and, no matter how fast I might be at hand piecing, that is definitely not going to happen unless I haul out the machine.

Now to sort out which fabrics I want to use and get them printed with the shapes I need. I’d like to have at least one block of this done by mid-week and will be taking pictures of my progress as I go.

Tiny Stars

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I made this the other day with the 3/4-inch diamonds and other bits using collection 3 of Inklingo. It was a test piece for me — I wanted to see just how much fun it was to put these little stars together. It was fabulous. They go together so perfectly and quickly. Uh oh — now I’m thinking that I’ll use a bunch of hand dyes and batiks and make a lap quilt using them set in these little rectangles with plain rectangles for the alternate blocks! The finished little star rectangles will each measure 2.5″ by 2.25″. Guess it’s going to take a lot of blocks to make a lap quilt, but they go together so fast that I think I can have the top done by spring.

Tomorrow I’m off to our Creativ Festival. I can’t wait! My shopping list is ready — although I think it should be called more properly a wish list. However, there are a few items that I am determined to find!