Passacaglia # 12

... and here is block # 12


... and what all 12 blocks looks like on the design-wall.


Question now is : Do I stop here, or make another 12, or - indeed - 23 blocks .... decisions, decisions ...
(12 more blocks will give a layout of 4 x 6 blocks, 23 more blocks will give a layout of 5 x 7 blocks)

Passacaglia # 11

No comments needed, I think :-)

Passacaglia # 10

And this is what it can look like when you use a quite ugly stripe and fussy-print it. Linda Franz has a video at her blog about how to fussy-print with Inklingo, right here.

On to # 11.

Passacaglia # 9

Nothing like a sermon to get me stitching.
No. Truly ! I need to think, to ponder specific points, to mull it all through in my head, and what better company than some stitching.
SO, the ninth block in the series is now finished. Another 3 and it could become a small lap-quilt. But I doubt that I'll end it there.
Time will tell.

Passacaglia # 8

It is still growing.
Not one block a day, but at least a few every week :-) And they are still looking good to my eyes.

Passacaglia # 7

Well ... took me a few days to get this one finished. Life sort-of happened.
In a good way ! but still.
It is slightly soiled and messy-looking (most visible on the soft-pink centre row), because our eldest cat decided to nap on the partially finished block, and she is a black cat, who sheds a lot of hair, AND she drools when she sleeps.
Never mind. Once this quilt is finished, it will be washed thoroughly, and now that the block is finished, it will be soaked in lukewarm water, just to get the worst of it out.
I particularly like the way the soft-pink looks as if it has been superimposed on the green, and that there is a complete green square under the pink.

... and then it's on to # 8 :-)
I'll be back !

Inklingo KISS

... and in this case, KISS means Keep It Simple, Stitchers.
I'm taking a leaf out of Cathi's book, and sat me down this morning to stitch something with one of the new Inklingo Collections. I have resisted the Octagons that both she and Martha are already making, but since I "ordered" the 2" diamonds, I felt I had better start using them.
SO, I give you a Texas Star with 4" sides. Made with the 2" diamonds in the Inklingo KISS 102 Collection, and the Starpoints and 1" hexagon from the Inklingo Collection # 1.

I think I'll print another handful of starpoints and diamonds and hexagons, and make a nice set of coasters to have around as a white elephant :-)

The Rabbit-plant

We have pots on our deck, and in one of them, the green foliage went and died. However, the rare, but beloved, rabbit-plant turned up this morning :-)

Passacaglia # 6

Well, here's block # 6. Six blocks in 8 days isn't bad :-)


And the blocks finished so far, on my design-wall :

Passacaglia # 5

Well ... I am having a ball, aren't I :-)

I must say, that this one does not please me very well. Actually, I think I quite dislike it. BUT, it is done, and will probably end up in the quilt anyway. The fabric for the centre-squares was not placed completely correctly, so they only fit really well two and two, and this little bit of being off sort-of messes it all up ... plus, the pink of the outer diamonds does not blend well with the pink of the centre motiv.
Oh, well. Live and learn. Block # 5 is finished. On to block # 6 :-D

Austentatious - 2 - Pride and Prejudice

OK, so I've been doing patchwork, as can be seen from the past couple of posts. I do the blocks in a combination of hand- and machine-piecing, and when hand-piecing, I like to either have the telly running with something, or listen to an audio-book. Nice "me"-time

And this is my second "response" to Stephanies Jane Austen-challenge. Actually, it is item 5 in my original post : Acquiring and watching the old (1980) BBC adaptation of P&P.
It's the one where Fay Weldon wrote the script.
And I have acquired, and have been sewing, and watching ...
And what do I think.

Well, it does not age well. Elizabeth Garvie is as delightful an Elizabeth Bennet as anyone could wish for (and she does remind me of my good freind Linda), and David Rintoul is as wonderfully horribly proud and disapproving, and lovesick a Darcy as anyone could wish for, but ...
It is theatrical. Done in a style completely different from the way the more recent adaptations (the 1995 series and the 2005 movie), and thus comes across as slightly stilted at times. People waiting for other people to speak, actors wanting to stand in the right place, before commencing to speak. That sort of thing. And - as seems quite usual - the sisters are generally too old.

So, is it a waste of money to get it ? No. Not if you are an avid Austen-fan. It has its moments :-)
AND, it has the most true-to-Austen dialogue of the lot. When not being direct quotes from the book itself, it draws heavily on Austens letters and her juvenalia. Fay Weldon must have sat herself down and read everything, before writing the script.
And - of course - she wrote the wonderful little "Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen" at the same time, which has now moved to my bed-table, to be perused at leisure. Fay Weldon is a wicked, and very clear-headed reader.

What I don't like about this version ?
What I dislike about most versions : The sisters are too, too old ! The only version that got them right, agewise, is the 2005 movie ... and that - incidentally - is also the only one, which doesn't try to make Mary ugly, just clueless.
Wickham. He is just not a believeable bad guy. Same problem as with the Henry Crawfords and the Willoughby's of the various versions. Hard to find someone young, charming, sexy and bad-news'y enough for me.
Mrs Bennet. I cannot for the life of me fathom what Mr Bennet ever saw in her. That is easier to understand in the other versions.

And this fulfills the second item on my Austen-challenge list :-)

Passacaglia # 4

Well ... here it is.
And this one looks almost like it is a cross between a LeMoyne star and a block from Patchwork of the Crosses.
... and I've got # 5 printed :-)
Maybe I should print # 6 too, just to have it at hand, when I finish the next one ?
Sounds like a plan to me :-)

Passacaglia # 3

And now the third block is finished.
This really is an exiting quilt for me to make. And as each block is made, the fabric-choices - and placement thereof - churns in my head.
They are tremendously fun to make, and it is exiting to see how different the same block can look, just by manipulating the colours.
In this one, however, there is a variation. The 4 centre squares are made out of triangles. BUT they still end up squares, and the general layout of the block remains the same :-)

Obsession

Well ... what else would you call it. Up before anything to print the shapes, and then rush home from work, and do nothing but the most cursory of stuff in the house, all in order to be able to sit down and make the next block.
When you look closely at it, you can see that it is exactly the same block with regard to shapes used and their position, compared to the one in the previous post, but it almost defies belief, seeing that they are so very different. And all due to choice of fabrics and their placement relative to each other.

I am in love !

What a header, eh ?

Read on, and you will know more.

It was my b'day yesterday, and a very dear freind sent me a book as a present. It got here two days early, and I *had* to open it. It contained Diana Boston's book about Lucy Boston's quilts (and in spite of what it says on the website, it is no longer out of print).

Now, I know that many, MANY Inklingoists love Lucy Boston's Patchwork Of The Crosses (POTC), and I think it a fine quilt too, but I can resist that.

Even in spite of Linda Franz's book and printable Inklingo collection for it.

What I could not resist, was the Passacaglia-quilt in that book, and I'm sorry, I am unable to find any pictures on-line of that quilt, so you will just have to grin and bear it, and wait for my showing pictures of the individual blocks here, as I progress.

ANYway, I fell in love.

Hard.

Really, really hard ...

Like a ton of bricks :-)

It is quite a while since I fell this hard for a quilt, and felt that I had to make it. Now !!! Oh, I have lots of quilts I want to make, and quite a few that are being made, but I think the last time I wanted this desperately to make a quilt, was when I started my Dear Jane quilt 10 years ago.

Anyway. All this conspires to the fact, that the first block is finished, and that I got up early this morning to prepare the second one before leaving for work. That way, I can dream about getting home and sitting down to stitch immediately.

I think it is called "obsession" :-)

The picture here, is my version of the simplest and most boring of the blocks in the Passacaglia-quilt. The next one will be slightly more fun. HOWever, you can see - on this one - that the basic unit is the LeMoyne star. I'm using the 6" Inklingo collection, but you can make the blocks with the Free Collection too :-)