Tag Archives: quilts

I’ve Got The Blues

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Blue fabrics, that is. All I think I need to add to this group is some white and I may have the beginnings of a new project in mind.

What will it be? Perhaps a Dresden Plate variation? Something using some of the shapes in one of the Storm at Sea collections? Winding Ways? A two-tone Jane Austen quilt? The possibilities seem endless, but I know that doing something with these blues is definitely on the top of the list for a new project.

A grouping of blues or pinks always seems to motivate me to start something new and I do love two-tone quilts.

Baxter was very interested in something on the quilt rack. Mr. Q.O.’s caption?  “Let me just straighten out this seam here.”

One More Star Done

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This star almost put itself together. It has been months since I made one of these, but this seemed to stitch up much faster than I remember. I started it Friday evening and finished it last night.

Since there are 201 pieces in each block, I decided to grade the seams as I go this time. I will have to go back and grade the seams on the blocks that are already done but at least I’ll have the new ones done, rather than having to do all of them at once.

The pieces for the next block are cut and ready to stitch.

Mr. Q.O. has captioned this one, “Studying Art Can Be Tiring.” It doesn’t look very comfortable for Baxter with his head on a hard book, but it must have been all right as he slept like that for quite a while.

The Red & White Quilt is Back!

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Remember these blocks? They’ve been sitting for a long time.

Why? Because earlier this year I decided I wanted to make the quilt I had started with these blocks bigger. Of course, I was out of both the white and the red fabrics. I was able to get more of the red, which is from an old Laurel Burch line, fairly quickly. But the white? That proved to be harder to find. Thanks to Judy at Sew Sisters, who scoured the distributors for it, more of the white was finally found and we picked it up at the end of last week.

So over the past couple of days, between doctors’ appointments and tests, I figured out what I needed to print and got my fabrics ready and ironed to freezer paper.

Last night, in under 2 hours, I had the fabrics all printed and now have everything I need to finish my red and white Sunflower/Feathered Star quilt, including the pieced border treatment I’ve got planned for it.

In this close-up, if you click on it to enlarge it, you can see the lines on a couple of the pieces I printed. Because I’m hand piecing the blocks, I’ve printed all the HSTs. If I were going to machine piece, I’d have only printed on the white fabric. I wouldn’t even think of making this quilt without Inklingo. With Inklingo’s precision cutting and stitching lines and matching points, a quilt like the one I have planned is easy as can be.

Baxter has had lots of squirrel activity to watch out on the roof garden over the past few days. Mr. Q.O. calls this photo “Sheer Kitty”.  I call it “Kitty Under Lace”.

And then there were 46

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46 of the Pickled Ladies, that is, joined together. Now that I’ve started grading the seams, the difference in the weight of the top is very obvious. It will also make the quilting of this easier, as I am definitely planning on hand quilting it.

There aren’t too many more rows to go. Then it will be time to start adding the partial pickled ladies around the edges and then find the perfect border fabric.

Baxter patrols the windowsill even at night, particularly on windy and rainy nights.

Lots of Trimmings

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Trimming of seams, that is. Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time grading the seams on the Pickled Ladies.  It makes an enormous difference in the weight of the top as well as how it drapes. I’m cutting less than an eighth of an inch off the black triangles in all the arcs. I put one trimming on a ruler to show how little I’m actually cutting off the seam allowance.

This little vase is now almost full of the trimmings.

In this close-up of the back of one of the blocks, you can see how it looks after trimming. While I don’t always grade the seams on quilts, for the Pickled Ladies quilt it makes a big difference and is worth the time and effort.

Baxter was lounging on top of a couch.

Stars of Different Points

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Among the stars I have ready to stitch are a number of LeMoyne Stars in different fabric combinations. They’re from a swap of Inklingo pieces that was done a couple of years ago. While I’m not sure just how many stars I’ll end up with, I don’t plan to add to them unless it’s necessary to get an appropriate number for a small quilt setting.

They take only a second to press.

Another one of the 6-point stars made with 1.5″ diamonds. When they’re all made, I’ll decide how I want to set them.

It rained all day Tuesday and, by the sounds of our forecast, is going to rain all day today. At one point Tuesday it looked like perhaps there was some freezing rain mixed in, but thankfully no snow.

Another photo of Baxter helping as I was putting the binding on the flannel quilt.

Flannel Quilt Finish

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On the weekend, I got the flannel top quilted and bound. The label went on and it was washed and dried yesterday afternoon. Now it’s on its way to its intended recipient. It finished at 56″ x 64″.

Machine quilting it was definitely a case of fabric wrestling. I am so spoiled now using the silk batts that I really noticed how much heavier and more difficult to manoeuvre the cotton batt was. That’s the trade-off, I suppose, for the ease of basting a fusible batt. It ended up as a totally machine-made quilt, other than tacking down the binding, which is totally unusual for me. However, it also made me more confident about my  machine piecing skills.

Putting the binding on was fun. It was lovely and warm and was a true cat magnet. Baxter landed on my lap almost the minute I started tacking the binding down and stayed put for much longer than he usually does. Clearly a little flannel quilt is a must just for him.

Stars of Two Sizes

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This seems to be my week of working on stars and more stars. The larger purple star is made with 1.5″ diamonds and seems enormous in comparison to the little pink star made with 1″ diamonds.

Finger-pressing as they’re stitched means it only takes one quick press with the iron and they’re done.

There’s a box full of the larger diamonds in varying shades. While I’m not 100 per cent sure yet, I’m pretty sure I’m going to set these with large hexagons.

Baxter spent a lot of time on the windowsill on Wednesday. There were a lot of grackles on the roof garden lawn keeping him entertained.

Still Seeing Stars

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Along with the 8-point pink stars, a bevy of colourful 6-point stars are being made. I have some ideas for setting these, but will wait to decide until I have all of them made. Perhaps a multi-colour Seven Sisters quilt?  Or perhaps hexagons and stars? Or perhaps something altogether different. In the meantime, I’m having fun putting these together. They’re very quick to stitch and it’s really satisfying to see the stack of stars grow.

These are all 1″ diamonds ready to be stitched into stars. I have no idea how many stars I’ll end up with or how many quilts might be made using them. While some are ones I printed, the vast majority came from various swaps of fabrics printed with the 1″ diamonds using Inklingo.

Baxter was very interested in the diamonds. Shortly after this picture was taken, a few of the bags containing the diamonds were on the floor.

He’s looking less and less like a little kitten now, although he’s definitely still acting like one.

I’m Seeing Stars

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Pink stars, that is. Not sure what these are going to turn into, but making these stars just seemed to have to happen. So far there are 16 of them. They will be 6″ if finished as LeMoyne Star blocks but that’s completely undecided at this point.

They may end up as the centres of a different block altogether.  Or perhaps they’re going to be a border on something else. I’m really just having fun making stars.

Baxter has been very busy the past week, chasing leaves as they fly by the window and watching as the gardeners prepared the flowerbeds on the roof garden for the winter. Here he was relaxing on the couch.

Last week I was dealing with fatigue from a treatment. I can feel my energy level increasing and am looking forward to getting back to blogging this week.