Yes, it has been a very long time since I’ve worked on these. But two more were finished on the weekend. They are made with the 6.75″ Inklingo Storm at Sea collection. Because I’m doing the double diamond block, the … Continue reading
Another Stormy Seas block did get done last night. This one makes me think of big frothy waves. When I started working with the extra pieces, I said I’d get at least two blocks of the Stormy Seas top done this week so I’m at least halfway there. I had forgotten just how much fun these blocks are to put together.
That one will join these 17 blocks as last seen on my makeshift design wall. I’m starting to have some different ideas about setting these blocks and may stop making blocks that use only 2 fabrics after the next two are completed and instead start using 3 or 4 batiks in each block. Once I have 20 of them done, I’ll make that decision.
Yesterday was yet another incredibly mild day for January. No matter what winter may throw at us now, it can’t possibly last long.
While Baxter doesn’t seem to mind having his photo taken, he doesn’t pose. Mr. Q.O. grabs a shot quickly, what he calls “shots from the hip”.
While the temporary design wall was up, I put up the 17 Storm at Sea blocks that are done so far. When I put them up, I was trying to put blocks that used the same 2 fabrics beside one another to see if I liked the effect. This has given me a slightly different idea about block placement in the top when all the blocks are done.
When will that be? After Twinkling Stars is finished (hopefully that will be when the baseball season is finished), the Pickled Ladies top is together and I hopefully find enough of the white on white I’m using for the Feathered Star/Sunflower to complete it. Then Stormy Seas moves to the top of the list.
There were some fabulous tips on removing quilting in the comments to yesterday’s post. After reading them and thinking about it some more, I’m now not sure if I will take out the machine quilting. I’ll spread the quilt out over the weekend and have a good look again.
Baxter in Pink Chair. That’s what we’ve titled this photo after Mr. Q.O. played with some photo effects.
This one we’re calling “Kitty in the Hall”.
What’s that? It’s the stack of fabrics I printed over the weekend for the Scrappy Star, Twinkling Stars, Summer Picnic Dish, Harpsichord and Joseph’s Coat quilts. The last couple of weeks I’ve been identifying the size I want certain projects to finish at. WIth the size of each determined, it took only a few minutes to figure out what I needed to print to reach that goal. Sometimes I print only a few of each shape for a couple of blocks until I’m sure I want to make it into a quilt. Once that decision is made, I prefer to get everything printed at once and get the shapes cut and into a box ready to stitch such as I’ve done for the Stormy Seas quilt.
This gives you a glimpse of the some of the shapes I printed for the Harpsichord, Joseph’s Coat and Summer Picnic Dish quilts. Using the various Inklingo collections to prepare my templates makes it so easy to print on any number of fabrics, even black fabrics as most are markedly lighter on the back than the front and the templates will show up perfectly with one of the many choices of ink colours.
Almost all the shapes are now cut and ready to be put in a box, along with the matching threads, for the Twinkling Stars quilt, which I plan on trying to finish between now and the end of the World Series.
Because it was such a beautiful day on Monday, we took Scrappy Star out to the roof garden to photograph. It’s growing and is now 24″ across. It will be at least twice that width before I’ll stop adding rounds. I needed more of the squares, which was another reason for all the printing that was done on the weekend.
The back after pressing.
Baxter is starting to look like a grown-up kitty in some photos, although his antics are still pure kitten antics. I think he was trying out his hypnotic kitty look in this photo.
Two more of the Stormy Seas blocks are done and added to the group. Only 26 more blocks to go. That in itself is enough to encourage me to stitch at least parts of the blocks by machine.
This second block is one of my favourites.
Over the past week I have been doing a lot of hand quilting on the whole cloth quilt. So much so that the finger on the hand beneath the quilt is getting really sore. I’m going to try wearing a very thin, flexible leather thimble on my finger underneath the quilt to see if that helps when quilting. Now that I’m back in the habit of hand quilting, I don’t want to stop because of a sore finger.
Baxter hanging out on the quilt on the couch with some teddy bear friends.
This is my current favourite of the Stormy Seas blocks that I’m making using one of the Inklingo Storm at Sea collections. It has been months since I’ve worked on these, but now that I’ve started again I don’t want to stop as I’ve found a stitching sequence that is relatively quick for me.
They are hand pieced, so far, but I’m contemplating trying a block by machine or at least parts of a block. I think I might be tempted to put the units together by machine and then stitch them into the block by hand. I printed a few more a lot more shapes than I need for the quilt so I think I’ll give at least one block a try by machine and see how well I do with that. An idea for a second quilt using the extra shapes is already forming in my mind. I’m rather excited about this idea, so am hoping to get started on it as soon as I get the Stormy Seas blocks finished.
This block has one of my favourite fabrics in it, the green/blue batik.
One of the big benefits of using batiks is that they press so easily.
And yes, Stormy Seas is another quilt in a box. Every block is kitted in its own separate glassine envelope, ready to stitch. Even the various threads for piecing are in this box.
It’s either ragweed starting or I’m fighting a summer cold. Tuesday was one of the most unproductive days I’ve had in ages as doing much of anything seemed like a monumental task.
Baxter seems to think the camera is only for taking photos of him. The minute we’re setting up to take photos of anything, he is right there posing.
One more Storm at Sea block has been completed. For fun, I put the completed ones up on my temporary design wall. Obviously I’m going to have to do a lot of arranging of the blocks, when they’re all completed, to get the effect I’m after. So far, though, I love the look of all those lovely luscious batiks!
Along with completing that one more Storm at Sea block, I made a few more of the Harpsichord blocks. The row on the far left has been joined, but the other blocks are not. There are still many blocks to be made for this top, but it feels good to be adding a few more to it weekly again.
One thing I’ve realized about the temporary design wall is that the spot it is in is probably an area of the apartment that has the worst possible lighting. Some rearranging may have to be done so that the design wall is in an area where there is better lighting available. Perhaps by a window?
Smudge was playing more with his favourite toy on Thursday, although in this picture he was reclining on the couch.
Finally, another Stormy Seas block. Tuesday night the box containing the pieces for these blocks came out and one more block has now been added to the group. That said, there’s a very long way to go until I have them all done.
Hopefully by the time this week ends I’ll have the Farmer’s Delight blocks finished. That’s my goal as I’d like to start playing with a setting idea. Whether that plan is going to work depends on how much of the background fabric I have left. I don’t think there’s much, so I’m going to have to get creative.
For some inexplicable reason, the program in which Mr. Q.O. keeps kitty photos crashed Tuesday night. So I’ve gone back in the archives to find some good pictures of the boys. This one of Smudge was taken back in September.
Lester , also back in September.
A bit more contrast than the last one. Putting these blocks together gets easier with each one. Hopefully that means I’ll be able to keep to my goal of 2 blocks a week. No guarantees on that as I found myself looking at the autumn colours fabrics I had pulled out for a Winding Ways idea.
There’s another design floating in my mind that’s made with Drunkard’s Path blocks. That one is as irresistible as the Winding Ways. So far I haven’t pulled any fabrics for it, but it’s getting awfully close. As soon as the baby quilt is quilted and bound, I have a feeling I’ll be starting one of those two.
My Patchwork of the Crosses blocks seem to have been put away a bit too well. This may finally teach me to label the boxes in which I put blocks so that I don’t need to go through every one in order to find whatever it is I’m looking for.
Smudge was eating a bit more on his own on Thursday. Still nowhere near the 250 calories he needs, so the syringe feeding continues.
Earlier in the day, Lester had been grooming Smudge. Normally, Smudge would never let him do that but these days he seems to be quite enjoying the attention.
A low-contrast Stormy Seas block. I’d like to get this top completed relatively quickly, so am going to try to complete two of the blocks each week.
I’m still trying to resist starting something with the Winding Ways shapes. There’s something so magical about putting that block together that I find it almost impossible to resist. I’m trying to bribe myself with the promise I can start a Winding Ways project when I get something finished — the baby quilt, the pink and cream or another toddler quilt that has been waiting to be quilted for ages.
My wrists were hurting Monday, so I decided to stay away from doing anything that would aggravate them and it worked. By late Monday evening, the pain had pretty well gone completely. So today I will catch up with responding to comments.
It was a cold day on Monday and both cats found places to snooze. Lester sprawled out on the loveseat.
Smudge in one of those poses that always makes me laugh.
Quilt Obsession 
