Tag Archives: sky quilt

Rainbow Progress

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The rainbow now has the yellows added. Next up are the oranges and reds. I’m rather hoping to finish the rainbow over the weekend and then I can start playing with the setting of this.

This is a photo of Smudge shortly after he had been drinking water. If you click to enlarge it, you can still see small water droplets on his face.

Lester by the window.

And because we so rarely see them together, I couldn’t resist this. This is usually a prelude to a chase and mock battle, but I always hope they’ll curl up together.


Rainbow Beginnings

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The rainbow for the Sky Quilt is starting with greens. The first 3 greens are together now. Next come the yellows. This is wonderful fun– lots and lots of lovely continuous stitching. I’m using the diamonds from the Inklingo 6″ LeMoyne Star collection and have a feeling my rainbow is going to end up rather large. It will be the centre of the quilt with the 4 corners taken up by the various sun blocks (see below).

The other fabrics that will be added to the rainbow are shown in the order they will appear.

These are the four blocks that will be in the corners of the Sky Quilt. Some of the fabrics in the various sun blocks will also be in the rainbow.


While I was printing all sorts of shapes, I decided to print about 600 more of the .25″ hexagons. There are approximately 180 of the little hexagons in this tin now. To give you an idea of size, the tin measures around 3.75″ by 2.25″. I will be making hexagon diamonds with these and when there are enough will put together a doll’s quilt.


This is one of my favourite photos of Lester, perched on the loveseat.

I’ve told the story before about Smudge’s rather odd drinking habits. This picture tells the story. It was snapped just seconds after he had lifted his face out of the water bowl. If you click on it to see the large size photo, you will see he’s soaking wet. This is Smudge’s preferred way to drink water. Makes for rather a lot of paper towel mop-ups, but is endlessly entertaining.

One more day of rather cool temperatures and then we hit the warmth. The forecast is for temperatures in the mid 20’s Celsius on Friday and Saturday. I can’t wait!!

One Almost Finish, One Beginning

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The Double Wedding Ring runner was finished over the weekend but not pressed until Monday. I’m thrilled with how it turned out. Now to baste and quilt it. I’m playing with the idea of quilting around the flowers in the floral print in the centres. It’s only 12″ wide so I think this will be hoop-less quilting as my hoop is too large. Guess that means some serious basting.

Now that I know just how amazingly easy it is to do a DWR using Inklingo templates, I’m going to plan a larger one. I go back and forth between using a pretty floral or maybe even a toile print for the centres and then doing something interesting with the arcs or perhaps something more traditional with a plain centre and some very pretty quilting in the centres. I won’t be starting that for a while so I have lots of time to decide.

This is the beginning of the mini quilt using Drunkard’s Path blocks that I’m going to be working on over the next while. I love these curves!! Stitching these is, to me, like candy — I cannot do just one little block. Even though I want to get the rainbow block done for the sky quilt and started cutting the diamonds out last night, I couldn’t resist piecing a few of these little blocks!

I’m very undecided on the setting of Tropical Punch. I have the pieces cut to connect the 4 blocks but they’re not sewn quite yet.

It poured rain all day Monday and it was chilly. By the weekend they’re saying we may be in the low 20’s. I can’t wait!

As there was absolutely nothing to watch on the roof garden other than rain, the kitties snoozed most of the day.

This picture makes me laugh — we caught Lester cleaning his paw.


Lots Accomplished

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It may not look like much, but there is everything in this picture:
a) for the rainbow for the sky quilt and some of the setting diamonds;
b) to make 4 blocks for the Drunkard’s Path idea I have; and
c) another few hundred .50″ green hexagons for the little hexagon project.

I had everything printed within a couple of hours and will now start stitching on … hmm, don’t know. This feels like such a wealth of options!

The weekend was wonderful. Today we’re supposed to be having torrential rain all day with rather chilly temperatures. Good day to stay in and catch up on some work, I suppose. If I can get it done quickly enough, I’ll get some more stitching time.

We have two pairs of woodpeckers this year, it seems. I was really amused watching them Sunday afternoon. One pair appears to claim a tree as their own and seemingly scold the other pair if they land on the same tree. The kitties aren’t anywhere near as fascinated by this as I am.

Smudge sleeping.

Lester sleeping. I wonder if they’re getting well rested so they can spend hours on the windowsill when the squirrels reappear.


A True Hint of Spring

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The past two days have been wonderful with temperatures in the 60s and even low 70s. We have another drop coming, but this is a sure sign to me that winter is over.

I’ve made a little progress on my piece with the .50″ Inklingo hexagons. These go together so easily that the centre is growing relatively quickly. I’m still not sure how large this will be but it’s a lot of fun making the little 4-unit flowers and then adding them in a haphazard way to the centre.

Having learned the hard way, I now press after every few flowers. I finger press as I add each unit so when I do press it with the iron, it’s a very quick process.

So far, I’ve got a lot accomplished that was on my list of quilt-related items I wanted to get ready for stitching. All that’s left now to do is decide on the setting for Tropical Punch and get the diamonds for the rainbow of the sky quilt printed. The fabric is all cut and ready to iron to freezer paper.

Every year we have a pair of woodpeckers arrive in the spring. I thought I heard them the other day but couldn’t see them. Today I saw both of them. I’m always amazed at the amount of noise these little birds can make. I was fascinated watching them. Although the picture’s not great, the woodpecker has a red head.

It seems the woodpeckers aren’t what Lester is waiting for. He wasn’t the least bit interested in watching them.


Sky Quilt Corners

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The blocks for the 4 corners of the sky quilt are now done. I finished the final two over the weekend. Now to get the rainbow started. That may have to wait a few days. My hands are really acting up so trying to get out the box with the reds is not going to happen till they calm down a bit.

My plan is to have a rainbow made of approximately 20 different fabrics, all varying tones of classic rainbow colours, as the middle of the quilt with these 4 smaller blocks in the corners. However, I may do these four blocks each as a separate little quilt but to be hung together. That way I can use different fabrics for the background and could then change where the twilight, sunset, sunrise and blazing sun blocks are around the rainbow whenever I want. Perhaps I’ll even keep them basically circular although I suppose that may present challenges when it comes to hanging them.

The Tropical Punch blocks are still in need of the right background, but I think I know what I want — an almost fluorescent lime green.

As I haven’t got the diamonds printed yet for the rainbow and can’t really get at the fabric I want for part of it, I’m going to do another few Giddy at the Thought of Spring blocks. I’m very grateful that piecing doesn’t seem to aggravate my hands even at the worst of times.


This, to me, is one of the benefits of Inklingo. I tend to print and cut a lot of shapes at once and have them tucked away. When my hands are bad, I can pick a project on which to work without having to do any cutting or pressing or anything. I think of those little packets full of shapes as my Quilter’s Emergency Kits!

Lester’s still waiting to see kitty entertainment on the roof garden. So far we have seen no squirrels and very few birds. On Sunday afternoon a few pigeons swooped in and he watched them quite intently. The tail was swishing and his eyes were enormous! Afterwards, he needed to rest his eyes for a minute, it seems, before watching for more entertainment.


Twilight Block Fabric Picks

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Now that the baby quilt is ready to quilt (and hopefully will be finished by the end of the weekend), I’m dreaming about getting back to the sky quilt. I think these fabrics will be the choice for my twilight block.

I started another Tropical Punch block last night. Four 12″ blocks should make a good-sized table runner, I think. I’m having some thoughts about how I’m going to join them to add a little more interest.

Lester, keeping warm on the heat. We’re to have a wind chill of -15C again this morning! The gardeners may have been working out in the garden, but it’s sure not time for planting anything yet!


Smudge, very alert. If you click on this and look you can see how wet his face is. He has the oddest drinking habits of any kitty I’ve ever witnessed. He sticks his whole head in the water bowl, then lifts his head right up, sticks out his tongue and catches the water as it runs down his face.


Sky Quilt Ideas

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As I work on adding the setting pieces to the baby quilt, I keep thinking about the sky quilt. I think this block will become my “blazing sun” block rather than the sunset one.

These fabrics will be the ones I’ll use for the sunset block. There’s sometimes that glorious shade of mauve/purple to a sunset and I really wanted to incorporate that into the block.


So now that’s three corners of the sky quilt taken care of — sunrise, sunset and blazing sun. Any ideas for the fourth corner?

Smudge really does like to get close to a camera. I think he’d like to learn how to use it to take pictures of himself!

Lester is more aloof. Sometimes. He was very interested today watching the gardeners on the roof garden. They were working on the flower beds and he was glued to the window. When a huge pigeon came along and was strutting about on the grass, Lester’s tail was switching and he was chattering. First real entertainment of the year for him.


An Almost Finished Baby Quilt Top

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Almost half the setting pieces are now in place. I’m starting to like this little quilt again. As it’s for a baby, the bunny (who’s getting ready for Easter) had to get in on the photo.

Now I’m thinking I may do a blazing sun block for one of the remaining corners of the sky quilt. Which would leave one corner. As soon as the baby quilt is done and the Four Seasons quilt is on its way, I will be working on that blazing sun block — I think.

Spring is definitely on the way. The gardeners were here on Monday cutting down bushes and clearing away the debris from winter. What a wonderful sight to see!! And the little leaf buds on the trees are definitely starting to swell a bit.

Smudge in his kitty sleeping bag again.

And Lester with another teddy bear.


Sunrise and Sunset

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Being completely unable to resist working with these fabrics, the sunrise block was stitched together this weekend.

The sunrise and sunset blocks side by side. They will be in corners of the quilt when it’s done.

The sky quilt, as I’m now thinking of it, will have the rainbow in the centre, and then a different block in each of the 4 corners. Sunrise and sunset are done. I’m playing with ideas for the other 2 corners — maybe a moon done in a deep blue with a silvery white for one of them. And then maybe a silvery white star on a dark blue background for the other? I’m still very undecided, but it’s fun to think over while I’m doing other things.

The setting pieces for the baby quilt are all printed and the first side is now finished. This is just lots of continuous stitching, so it won’t take long. Well, it won’t take long if I stop playing with the sky quilt!

This week I will finish and mail off the Four Seasons quilt. I was somewhat confused about the mailing date but checked the Four Seasons blog and the date to mail is March 30. Mine will be mailed before then for sure.

We had a glorious weekend. Temperatures of almost 12C and sun. Lots and lots of glorious sun. We even saw some little green shoots in a garden when we were out for a walk. I think spring may finally be on the way.

Smudge is catching up on that lost hour of sleep.

Lester is hanging out with the teddy bear.