Red and shirting

Since I have too much that I 'ought' to be doing, nothing of that gets done. I need to make another 5 Passacaglia-blocks (at least) to replace the ones that got taken out of the equation, but ... instead of those, hexagons happen.

Made with Inklingo (naturally), with 3" sides. Mostly reds and shirtings, but a wee bit of yellow is in there when a visible third colour is necessary.

And you can find directions on how to make all the stars on the right on the Inklingo Sampler blog ... stars and a few other hexagon-blocks with 3" sides.

Mother's little helper

Sometimes, just sometimes, it is pretty hard to get to the cutting-board.
Particularly when kitty Josephine (called "Feeneh") takes an interest.

She has become very sticky these past days, which is understandable, since our black cat was put down on the 2nd (unavoidable), and the rabbit moved out of here and in with another family yesterday. So ... from 3 critters to just one in less than a week ... makes for an extremely confused and sticky fur-baby.
To an extent where even my sewing becomes interesting. Usually, she only takes an interest when she can lie down in peace on the project, but now, even the component parts have appeal.

Good thing that no rotary-cutter was in action.

The block on the cutting-board is one of the upcoming blocks on the Inklingo Sampler.

Northumberland Star, Barbara Brackmann's Encyclopedia of Pieced Blocks # 2901b

No Sewing Progress - but some Tiny Totes

I'm sorry to say so, but there it is.

No Sewing.

Teaching has started, full gale, and what with holding about 3 jobs this month, and having a house and a family to say "hi" to, just occasionally, sewing suffers.

I have two Passacaglia Blocks printed, but haven't even cut the bits apart !

HOWever. This weekend, no work outside the house takes place, so the plan is, to finish preparing those two, and - hopefully - get some more Sampler blocks ready to publish.

BUT, just so that you won't get a post, completely without pictures, here are some pics of the Tiny Totes I furiously made in May, preparing the Free Pattern for Inklingo.


Tote on top is made with the Inklingo Double Wedding Ring collection, totes below are made with the LeMoyne Collections. The 4.5" free collection and the 6" pay-for-it collection.

Finished size of these are anything from 6 to 10" square, plus handles.

Passacaglia # 11

No comments needed, I think :-)

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.

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 :-)

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 # 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 :-)

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 :-)

What's wrong with this picture ?

Well, I was making an Ohio Star block. Very simple thing. Make some QST (Quarter Square Triangles) with Inklingo, and hey presto, no guesswork, no errors ... so ... what's wrong with this picture ?
Can't you see it ?

I place the fabric with the wrong (wrong) side towards the right (right) side of the light fabric, rather than right sides together.

Result ? Mr. Seam Ripper got an outing, and frog-stitching happened.
Then they were placed the right way, with right sides together.

Piecing happened, and the star was finished.

Very simple ... if you know what you're doing and bring your brains to the sewing-room. Not always that simple :-)

Boxed Stars

This is originally a Jinny Beyer pattern from her "Quiltmaking by Hand", however, I adapted it to suit my own purposes. The original pattern uses 2.5" diamonds, I used Inklingo and the 2.25" diamond in Collection 3. I also used a "same background colour" fabric to tie the stars together and frame the boxes.
Jinny Beyer doesn't call it Boxed Stars, but I do. I love the way the boxes and the stars interplay, and the way the graphic of the piece shifts as you shift your focus just a tiny bit.
The ... funny thing about this is, that I started it by picking out all the most boring and drab browns and darks I could find in my stash, then I added a few soft rose fabrics, and a very small handful of golden-hued scraps. The intention was to make a "neutral" and mostly harmless / boring quilt. My DH tells me I failed :-)

It is about 96" and we had to stand on the low stone-wall to hold up the top.
Not yet quilted ... I (still !) need to remove a lot of cat-hairs before I can send it to a pro for quilting. I started doing it myself, on the machine, and the effort was pathetic.
ANYway, the top is finished, only the cat-hairs to remove now.

Lone Star

Lone Star, or Star of Bethlehem, or Mathematical Star, or Morning Star or whatever-you-want-to-call-it Star ... Well, it's one of those patterns I've wanted to do "forever", but frankly, the thought of doing it by hand was too daunting, and the thought of doing it by machine-piecing strips and then sub-cutting into the 45-degree angles, hoping to place your ruler the same way on every strip-set ...
Too, too intimidating.
BUT, then came Inklingo, and then came the 6" LeMoyne Star collection. Now, those of you who knows me, also know that I'm not particularly good freinds with my sewing-machine. I don't enjoy it very much, and it usually ends up in tears ... or at least in un-pointy points and less than happy intersections.
Well ... I decided that now was the time to put my theories about making a Lone Star with the Inklingo 6" LeMoyne Star collection to the test, so ... Thursday May 21st, 2009, I started picking out fabric, and printed the first strips.
Yesterday, I was rather miffed, because the centre would not lie flat.
Today, I added the 4 corner-squares and 4 centre triangles that are the background-fabric, and after that, I pressed well with a good iron, and ... now it lies flat :-)
So, just under 2 weeks to make an 84" finished top, all machine-pieced ... that's rather good, won't you agree ?