Tag Archives: quilts

Saving My First Quilt

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When I began quilting I clearly jumped in at the deep end, making a top like this. Some of the stars have holes in the middle through which a truck could be driven. Well, okay — that might be an exaggeration, but there are definite holes that I cannot close.  Over the years, I’ve tried.  I’ve had the top tucked away now for years, trying to decide how I could save it.  Buttons in the centres was one idea, but not one that I was crazy about.  Appliqueing on some shape was clearly the best idea, but what shape?  Now I think I finally have a solution.

On Thursday, a new Inklingo collection of circles was released.  The combination of Karen Kay Buckley’s Perfect Circles ® and Inklingo Circles means perfect circles with virtually no fabric waste at all.  This way I can pick my circle size to applique over the centres of the stars and finally finish that first quilt.

It’s not a perfect quilt by any stretch, but it’s one I want to see finished and in use. The other goal I have in mind for this quilt?  I’m going to mark some quilting designs on it and see how well I do quilting by machine.

Thursday we woke up to a new dusting of snow.  But there was also a sign that spring isn’t too far off.  For the first time in months, we saw grackles out on the roof garden.  Soon Lester will have lots to watch out the window.

Thursday evening Lester decided it was his turn to curl up by the heating pad.

Smudge gets into one of the round kitty beds and immediately sets to kneading it into the oval shape he prefers.

How to Mark a Quilt Top?

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Along with planning how I’ll quilt the pink and cream top, I’m pondering how to mark the quilting lines.  There will be cables and probably some feathers, the stencils are handy.  But, as the background is a solid cream, the Pounce white powder obviously won’t show up and I’ve read that the blue powder sometimes doesn’t come out.

Pencils are out — too many times I’ve read about pencil marks not coming out without practically rubbing a hole in the fabric.  The vanishing pens or wash-out pens?  Again, I’ve read some not-great reviews about those.

I’ve used the chalk pencils in the past and will probably use these again but, as it has been a while since I’ve thought about this,  I’m wondering what do you use?  Is there some new tool for marking that absolutely comes out easily without affecting the fabric?  What do you use?

Baby Windmills Quilt

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Friday evening the last stitch was taken to tack down the binding and the baby windmills quilt was finished. Nothing like a last-minute finish — the baby is going to be delivered sometime today.   I had decided how I was going to quilt it and, with a little advance planning, was able to get the machine quilting done within a couple of hours and had only 4 thread ends to work in.  All straight line quilting, of course, as that’s my skill level when quilting by machine.

When I found this flannel a couple of years ago, I bought enough yardage of it for the backing for 3 baby quilts.

The label is ready to be written and stitched on to the back.  As soon as we know the baby’s name, I’ll write out and attach the label, give the quilt a quick wash and dry and we’ll be off to deliver it to the hospital.   I’ve found that a 2″ hexagon is perfect for a label as it gives me lots of room to write.  I’ve got the turn-under allowance basted down as that will make the appliqueing on to the back go very quickly.  Right now it’s ironed to a piece of freezer paper to stabilize it when I’m writing on it and the fabric pen is ready and waiting.  I can’t wait to hear if it’s a boy or girl!

The quilt was made with “other” half 1″ hexagons which I printed using Inklingo. This was a UFO that had been sitting for a couple of years.  I love tessellating designs and had started this quite a while ago but then it sat.  However, when I learned my cousin’s son and his wife were going to have another baby I knew what this particular UFO was meant to be.  Once I made that decision, it only took a couple of weeks to finish piecing it.  With a tessellating design like this, there are tons of opportunities for continuous stitching which makes the piecing go very quickly.

Lester looking rather majestic — one of his house lion looks.

Smudge has definitely turned a corner, we think.  He’s more playful and is eating more every day.  Sunday night he was playing with the favourite toy, Cappy, and then decided to rest while lying on top of Cappy.  I think he wanted to make sure it didn’t get away from him.

Farmer’s Delight … Again

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Along with finishing the quilting of the baby quilt, I started piecing another Farmer’s Delight block on Thursday.  The photo above was taken back in April, and there are a couple more blocks that have been done since but this is another of the UFOs that has made its way up the list.  It will only take 3 or 4 more blocks to finish it.

Tonight I’ll add the binding to the baby quilt and make the label.  Pictures of the finished baby quilt and the newest Farmer’s Delight block will be taken for Monday’s post.

A surprise package arrived from a non-blogging friend that included the book EQ6 Simplified.  I was thrilled and can tell already, from just looking through it, that it’s going to make a huge difference.  I’ve already picked up a couple of things.

We were absolutely delighted when Smudge decided he wanted his yogourt treat again.  He hasn’t evidenced any interest in it for what seems like forever, so watching him go for the yogourt Thursday night made us both feel fabulous!  He has been eating a bit more each day on his own, and we’re still struggling to find a food that he likes and that is good for both him and Lester.

Lester seemingly will eat almost every  food we offer.  There have been a few he’s not liked, but he’s nowhere near as finicky as Smudge.

Rainbow Flower & January Clamshell Report

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The Cranes Circling Flowers at Dusk, aka rainbow flower, is something I can’t resist stitching!  So much so that, when I couldn’t sleep because of a migraine, I was fussy cutting six more flowers and cranes from another fabric at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday.  I have everything cut and printed now for the rest of this piece and hope to have the main piecing finished by mid-week.  When it’s finished, we’re going to have to find a way to photograph it.  The light at this time of year makes for not great photographs.  I can’t wait until spring comes and the roof garden reopens!

When I pulled out the storage container with the Oriental prints and batiks to choose the fabrics in this, I also hauled out the container with striped and directional fabrics. I have a feeling fussy cutting some stripes for this block will be the next thing I play with, although I’m also very tempted to do something with shabby chic fabrics.

I don’t have much to show for the January clamshell report.  While I’ve made lots of the black and white arcs for the Pickled Ladies, I only put together two of the pickled clamshells.  To see the list of and links to participants in the Clamshell Club, go to Cybele’s Patch.

On the weekend, I got a lot of the cream hexagons for the POTC blocks stitched.  At this point, I only need to stitch together the ones needed for two more blocks and that part will be done.  So I feel like progress is being made.  We were taking trying to take a picture of a finished POTC block when Smudge decided he needed to help. You can just see a bit of the block that he’s lying on.

Lester was having a snooze.

Rainbow Flower

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(Click on photo to enlarge)

In the February/March 2011 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine, there’s an article on Mosaic Patchwork blocks and Rainbow Flower is one of the blocks featured.  With all the fabulous curves in this block, I think it’s irresistible — particularly as a new Inklingo collection for the Rainbow Flower was released on Thursday.

I’m calling this “Cranes Circling Flower at Dusk”.  It’s not quite finished as one more round will be added to it, if not more.  This one won’t be a large piece, but rather a smaller one with a pretty border which I’m already planning.

Within minutes of downloading the collection, I had prepared my window templates so I could fussy cut the two larger shapes.  Within a few minutes after that, I had the fabric cut and ready to print.  A few hours later, my block was done.

I was tempted to start another shabby chic quilt with this collection, and may well do that yet but the Oriental prints were what first grabbed my imagination.  Imagine this with novelty prints fussy cut for a child’s quilt!  Maybe some stripes for the connecting shapes.   Or a wonderful polka dot print or — the ideas just are flying through my mind!

The back:

When we take photos of quilt-related things, we generally put a board on the pink chair with a piece of grey fabric over it.  As I was getting things ready to take the photo of the Rainbow Flower, Smudge decided he wanted to lay down and have a snooze.  I literally turned my back for a second to get the block, turned around and there he was, already asleep.  We gently moved him and carried on.

Lester found himself a comfortable spot on the loveseat.

Arcs for Pickle Dish Block

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Seeing Karen Dianne’s beautiful Pickle Dish block done in Kaffe Fassett fabrics inspired me to get back to work on my Summer Picnic Dish.  Another dish actually got added to those already joined but we didn’t get a photo of that yet.

Putting together the arc/melon combination is something I really enjoy so I think I’ll concentrate on making the arcs for a bit and hopefully get the quilt top finished fairly quickly.  I’m not planning to make the Summer Picnic Dish larger than a lap quilt, so it shouldn’t take too long.

The back of an arc/melon combo.  I prefer to press the arc towards the melon as it ensures that the points of the triangles in the arcs stay as sharp as possible.

Over the past few days I’ve been trying to decide exactly what my goals for this year are as far as quilting goes.  While I have a number of projects on the go that I want to finish, I also want to start concentrating more on designing.  Sometimes I feel like I want to do it all, and I know that’s rather unrealistic.  I’ve flirted with these ideas:

  • make a series of two-colour quilts
  • make a series of heirloom baby quilts
  • concentrate on designing and learning EQ or some other drawing program
  • make a series of shabby chic quilts
  • make a series of batik quilts

It seems like a daunting list, and I’m sure I’ve left off some items.

The baby quilt was basted on Monday and the quilting of it will begin today.  It won’t take long as it’s not a big quilt, but I’d like to have it done and bound by the weekend.  Then I’ll just be waiting to hear what the baby’s name is to finish the label.  Other than the baby quilt and some hand piecing in the evenings, the balance of my quilting time this week is going to be spent on learning EQ.

It was incredibly cold again on Monday and the cats found cozy spots to curl up. Lester on the couch.

And Smudge was in a kitty bed.

Piecing a Seven Sisters block — lots of photos

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There were a couple of questions last week about how I pieced a Seven Sisters block so, rather than try to explain it in words, I thought I’d do this mini tutorial.  Lester is hoping this is relaxing and easy to follow.

The first step is to make the seven 6-pointed stars that will be in the block.  For each block, I need 18 white diamonds, 6 half elongated hexagons and 42 blue diamonds for the seven stars.

Once that’s done, the next most important step is to press them making sure that the seam allowances of each star are pressed the same way.  This photo is of a star in a different fabric, which shows the seam allowances a bit better.

My next step is to surround one star, which will be the centre star in the block, with white diamonds.

Because I hand piece, the inset seams are something I look for as it offers the opportunity to continuously stitch around the star.  To add the six white diamonds around the blue star, I used one length of thread.

In this photo you can see, on the white diamonds and half elongated hexagons, that each has the stitching line and crosshairs at the end of each seam.  The lines are printed on my blue fabrics as well, but they don’t photograph as well.  Because of the perfect  stitching lines and crosshairs one gets when printing templates on to the fabric using Inklingo, it makes stitching a block like this a breeze.  I simply match up my crosshairs, pin and stitch.

My next step is to join the six remaining stars with white diamonds so that they’re ready to stitch to the centre star.

Then I pin the first of the strip of six stars to one of the white diamonds surrounding the centre star and start to stitch.  Again, lots and lots of continuous stitching.

A couple of threads are all it takes and the centre star is completely surrounded.

All that’s left to do now is add the six remaining white diamonds and six half elongated hexagons around the outside edge and the block will be done.  Once again, lots and lots of continuous stitching.

The block is finished.  While I didn’t really keep track of the time it took to make the block, I think that it took somewhere around 3 hours in total from making the seven stars to adding the final white diamonds around the outside of the block.

A quick press and it’s ready to be added to the stack of the blue and white Seven Sisters blocks that I am making.

Smudge hopes you found this as relaxing as he did.  He had to go curl up with some softies and have a nap!   He had lost a pound again when we went to the vet.  So we’re continuing the syringe feeding for now and have gone back to the vet-suggested foods.  Sunday night he finally started to eat hard food again for the first time in two months.   We were really encouraged to see that.

Pink and Cream Stars

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All the hand piecing is done and everything is ready to put this top together.  As I’m planning on doing that by machine, I have some hope that it will be a finished top by the time the weekend is over.  As I so rarely use my sewing machine, the sewing table ends up as a collection spot for fabrics I’ve been auditioning for blocks, stacks of blocks for yet unfinished tops, notes that haven’t quite made it into my ideas book and who knows what else is lurking there.  It’s going to be a small treasure hunt organizing and putting everything away.

Every time I need to use the sewing machine I seem to go through this.  Maybe this time I’ll learn my lesson and keep the table clear so that it’s not such a production getting to the point of being able to sew by machine.

Thursday Smudge showed a little interest in food, but nowhere near what he was showing earlier in the week so the syringe feeding continued.  I’m starting to wonder if he has lost his sense of smell which would affect his appetite.  We’re off to the vet with him this afternoon.

Lester has definitely been enjoying all the various foods we’ve had on offer trying to get Smudge to eat.  I know he has put weight on, which isn’t necessarily a good thing for a kitty with a heart condition.  So that’s another thing we’ll be asking the vet about.  Somehow we’ve got to balance the two issues.

Seven Sisters

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The third of the blue and white Seven Sisters blocks is done.  This is a very long-term project, as I’ve only made 3 or 4 of them over the past year.  The little stars are amazingly quick to put together and I’ve finally found a stitching sequence when putting the blocks together that involves lots of continuous stitching and seems much faster.

The back:

The baby quilt didn’t get basted on Tuesday, but will this week.  I’m getting very close to putting the pink and cream star top together.  There are only two more blocks left to which I need to add the setting triangles and squares, which I can probably get finished today.  Then it will be time to add the sashing and borders which I plan to do by machine.  At this rate, I’ll be ready to baste it at the same time as the baby quilt — and a couple of other tops that will be wallhangings.

Our vet called on Tuesday and we’re taking Smudge in on Friday for a weigh-in and colour check.  He’s definitely eating more on his own, so it will be interesting to see what his weight is now.

A close-up of Lester.