One more sunflower to add to the little stack of finished blocks. A purple one this time. Seams graded and pressed. Putting together the diamond/triangles band that goes around the centre circle takes the longest but is also a lot … Continue reading
The last two centres for the red and white Feathered Star/Sunflower blocks are done. Now it’s a matter of finishing the Feathered Star blocks themselves, adding them to those already done and starting on the borders.
I’m grading the seams as I go and have learned it’s a lot easier to grade the centre sunflower before it’s in the centre of a 20″ block. I wait until after pressing before grading the seams. Then it’s a quick press again and they’re done.
It snowed a fair bit last night but today it’s supposed to be quite mild again, so I suppose it will all be melted by noon. Last night was the first time this winter I would have possibly gone looking for boots had I been going out.
Baxter in what seems to be a chair meant for kitties. The cat I had as a little girl loved this chair, and so has every cat I’ve had since then. It seems to be just the right shape for them. It’s actually a very comfortable chair in which to sit but, as it’s usually occupied by a cat, we don’t seem to get the chance!
I didn’t quite make my goal of having two of the sunflower centres for the Feathered Stars done, but at least one is complete and the second is mostly done. Part of the reason I didn’t get the second one completed is that a fair amount of time was spent cutting the shapes for the spring Winding Ways. There’s still a lot of cutting left to do, but I hope to have that finished by the time the weekend is over. I think I may have to get a larger box for that project.
A couple of times I’ve left the grading of seams until the entire Feathered Star block was done. It is so much easier to do it in increments, so now I grade the seams of the centre sunflower right away.
The ring of diamonds and triangles that go around the centre of the second sunflower are done. Once that ring is made, the rest of the piecing of a sunflower block takes no time. I may get the second one finished tonight and the third started.
One of Baxter’s Christmas presents was this feather toy. I think it’s a toss-up between this and Cappy as to which toy he prefers sometimes. Last night he was playing with it, managed to get it under the couch too far for him to reach, then meowed pathetically for help retrieving it.
While I’m still waiting for the white on white fabric to finish the Feathered Star/Sunflower blocks, I have enough to get the last two blocks done other than the outside large triangles and squares. So out came the pieces, and I got the sunflower for the second-last block done.
It presses beautifully.
When he looked at the finished sunflower block, Mr. Q.O. suggested an abstract sunflower quilt. If he picks out the fabrics for the blocks, I’ll make them.
Baxter is growing. We’re seeing changes almost daily. We were lucky to get a shot of him awake as it seems he’s either sleeping or tearing around investigating everything and playing.
Three red and white Feathered Star/Sunflower blocks, that is. The more I stitch these, the more I’m enjoying them. I’ve established a stitching sequence that is making them relatively quick to stitch by hand. First I put together the “snake” of HSTs, squares and diamonds that form the feathers surrounding the kites. That’s just lots and lots of continuous stitching, which makes the process a very quick one. Then I add the kites to the feathers, add the large QSTs to the sunflower centre and then stitch the kite/feathers around the sunflower block and all that’s then left is to add the outer squares and triangles and the block is done.
Three more blocks to go and I’ll have the six needed for the quilt top I’m making. I’ve started the next one and hope to finish it, except for the outer setting pieces, either tonight or Thursday night.
Don’t these shapes look intriguing? They’re left over from cutting out Yin Yang shapes and the blades for the Dresden Plate I’m working on. I can’t bring myself to throw them out as I keep thinking there has to be some use for them, particularly the sort of teardrop shape. The smaller ones may just end up being glued to a blank greeting card to make some very original cards.
Tuesday night we think we discovered why Smudge pulled the toy basket over close to his kitty bed. It was so he could use it as a pillow of sorts.
Thursday I spent some time prepping all the pieces I need for the remaining Feathered Star blocks for my red and white Sunflower/Feathered Star quilt. This photo shows the pieces I need for one block. By the time I finished stitching Thursday night, I had half of the HSTs, diamonds and squares put together that border the kites in the block. That takes the longest stitching time of any of the elements of the block. Once that is put together, adding it to the kites and then surrounding the centre Sunflower goes very quickly and then all that’s left is to add the outer setting squares and triangles. By the time the weekend is over, I hope to have at least one more block completed and a third one started.
Finally, after days of rainy and/or windy and chilly days, Thursday was sunny and Hugo had an adventure on the roof garden. Here he is walking down the pathway to the garden.
Then he thought the shrubs surrounding the walkway needed investigating.
Inspecting the few lonely flowers that are blooming seemed like a good idea.
The daffodils looked rather interesting, so Hugo decided to get a bit closer.
The tour of the roof garden continued, but suddenly we couldn’t see Hugo. We looked up to see he had decided to climb a tree.
Why on earth would a hippopotamus climb a tree? To see the CN Tower, it seems. It’s hard to see in this photo, but Hugo could see it.
We have a couple of other little adventures planned for Hugo and then it will be time for him to travel on to his next destination.
I pretty much avoided the computer Thursday as my back was still a bit sore. It’s better as I write this late Thursday night so hopefully I can finally get caught up on replies to comments and blog visiting today.
A close-up of Smudge, which Mr. Q.O. took Thursday night.
Quilt Obsession 