Hello again - Cinderella'ing

Well. That was a very long silence, but ... life has been happening. Life and not much (any) stitching.
Excuses out of the way now :-)
I hope I'm back on the block now.
And I'm ready to get back to some stitching.
Problem is, before I can stitch, I need a place to work, and - as always - when things backslide, they backslide, and one of the first places to suffer, and last places to be rescued, is my sewing-room, and ... the table.

SO, nothing for it. Cinderella needs to go on duty (hence the 'Cinderella'ing of the title of this post). You know, Cinderella went to the ball, but before that, she had to clear and clean and scrub and sort and .... So ... yesterday was Cinderella-duty, i.e. Cinderella outside of the ballroom. And just so that you'll know I'm not pulling your leg, here are the pictures to prove, that I actually did something :

Table before I started
After 15 minutes of Cinderella'ing
After another 15 minutes of Cinderella'ing
This morning (and yes, I moved the 'puter in here, since DS is writing his end-of-term thesis in 'the office' and cannot for the life of him keep is mouth shut, and I need peace and quiet to work, so ...)
The remaining problem identified : Piles of neatly folded and lovely, lovely fabric that has no place to go. As you can see, I seriously need to get some stitching going ;-)

An old project is finished

I don't think I have shown you this project before ?
It is (as is now my wont) made with Inklingo, in this case, the Drunkard's Path Collection, AND the 1.5" circle that is in several Inklingo collections (if you want to see which, go to the Inklingo Index of Shapes)

It's two placemats, and I'm frankly amazed at how much visual change the applique'ed circles gives ... and how much the colour of the circles means to the 'expression' of the thing.


ANYway, they are finished and will now to into the box I have of white elephants, ready to move out into the world as a gift at some point.

Another one bites the dust

This one is a remake ! This one, in fact. The green of the centre 'leaves' was just too ... green, SO, when (yet another) yard of the fabric arrived, I decided to re-do the block completely. And here it is :

Three more Passacaglia-blocks to make ... and hopefully, only three more !

Passacaglia # ???

Yes I really don't know which number of Passacaglia-block this is ! I haven't counted them recently, and I still need to make (at least) 4 more to have the full 35 ... and be crossing my fingers that the 5+ I'm (re-)making will fit in with the ones I've 'kept' ... if not, I fear that I will just have to make what I have work !

Never mind : here is the most recent Passacaglia-block. Fussy-cut from the same fabric as that used in the post on Passacaglia below.

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.

Award ???

Berit at Mit Lille Rosa Syrom has given me an award ... and I haven't got the foggiest idea who to pass it on to, because 7 is both too many and too few.
I follow, and check in on, quite a few blogs, and I really don't know which ones I enjoy the most.

SO, if you have a quilty blog, and want an award, please copy the picture on Berit's blog ('cause I can't seem to be able to do it), and put it on your own blog, and then ... tell us all 7 things about yourself, and here comes the worst part : They are to be INTERESTING things !!!

And in order to be able to pass the award on to you, I now need to tell you 7 interesting things about me ... and there really isn't all that much to tell. SO I've decided to tell you ,who read this blog, something you might not know about me already.

1. In 11 grade, I knitted a full-lenght skirt in bold cotton colours and with oodles of primitive patterns ( the style is called Hønsestrik in this country, and you can find pictures of the general style here). That was the beginning of a hitherto constant joy : Knitting.
   
2. I am allergic to most scents.
3. I started quilting in 1998, because I had a STUNNING stash of probably 10 F/4s that I bought, just because I loved the fabric. Yes, I know, TEN fat-quarters !!!
   
4. I love pink. Any shade of pink, really. Probably a rather pathetic attempt to overcome the total lack of pink from my childhood; my mother didn't approve of 'gendered' colours, so pink was a no-no, and I was continually dressed in 'blue is always nice'.
5. I love Jane Austen, and re-read the novels frequently. Not because of the plots, but because of the elegance and economy of language, and because she has such a sharp eye for human foibles, and is able to dress them up in a way that makes you forgive not only the rest of the world, but yourself as well.
6. I speak 2 modern languages fluently, can handle myself adequately in 3 more, and read yet another 3, for a total of 8 modern languages.
7. I can also read 8 dead languages (with the aid of a dictionary and a grammar)

... I hope there was something in there that you find interesting and/or at least one thing that you didn't know about me before :-)

Passacaglia again

After a long hiatus, I'm back with the Passacaglia blocks, and a new one has been made.
And I think I might have figured out why it has been stalled for so long. Not only have I been working too much, but I had 35 blocks finished ! Alas, quite a few of them do not work well with the rest, so I need to make 5-7 new ones ... if I do not run out of Background-fabric !
ANYway. Today I will be printing for the border, to ensure that I have enough background-fabric for that at least, and then see how many new blocks can be eked out from the rest.
And here's the first of the re-done Passacaglia blocks

Klosjes / Spools

This post seems to be a bit of a sales-pitch, and it might well be. But that is only because I really, seriously consider the below to be the best possible advice I can give anyone. And no, I don't have any kind of economic interest in Inklingo ... unfortunately :-)

Spools seem to be all the rage on the net at the moment, and I've seen quite a few people who have bought the Cindy Blackberg stamp-set ... which seems very nice, but will cost you 32 US $ + postage.

I, on the other hand, am doing spools with Inklingo. All the necessary bits are in the Lucy Boston POTC collection, and that is only 30 $, and no postage, since it is downloadable. Once you have registered and bought it, you can download it and be stitching in about 30 minutes.

... and no, you don't need any special equipment. A normal (cheap) inkjet printer, an internet connection, Adobe Reader (which is free), fabric, freezer-paper, iron, needle and thread.
If you're a bit iffy about printing with Inklingo on fabric, I suggest that you go to Linda Franz's Quick Start guide, order some of the free stuff (you need to register to get it, but Linda is one of the good guys)

And no, Inklingo will not ruin your printer. I've been printing with Inklingo for many years now, and have had the same printer all the time, and it still works ! so ...
IF you are doing Klosjes / Spools blocks, consider the cheaper solution .... and get the templates for a truly amazing quilt as well.

... oh, and there are directions on how to make the block/s over at the Inklingo Sampler blog.

The most beautiful book ...

I bought this book a while ago; Annete Gero 'The Fabric of Society', and it frankly cost a fortune ! but I also think that it is just possibly the most beautiful quilt-book I own.

There is Australian history, and quilt history. Pictures of some absolutely wonderful quilts (and some that are just plain weird), and then there are 27 patterns on a CD and on a pull-out pattern-sheet.
Inspiration for years to come.

... and naturally, the one quilt that I absolutely love, is one there is no pattern for. No matter. It can be adapted to be made with the Inklingo Orange Peel collection, Collection #2, one of the collections that has a circle on it, and a seriously big (applique ?) block.

... Maybe even the Baltimore Medallion block that has now been languishing on the shelves for some years ???
(well, I can see on this blog, that it was finished about the time I started the blog, and that was December 2006)

My mind is spinning with how to make it, and it might even happen some day :-)

Back on the blog ?

I hope I am ... back on the blog, that is. After a(nother) long silence, I'm slowly edging my way back into where I was before 2 full-time jobs ate all the time I had.
And I'm back getting some needle-and-thread therapy (or vitamin Q if you like).
Right now, my quilt-life is the hand-quilting of Boxed Stars that take up my quilting-time ... which is nice :-) It will be a finished quilt, in the fullness of time, even though there is still an extremely long way to go.
BUT, One Thread every day will see it done.

Dresden Plate ????

As this is written, I have beaten Cathi !!!
She is always (and I do mean ALways) the first person to publish a block when a new Inklingo-collection out, but this time, I seem to be the first person to publish a picture of a block made with Linda Franz's new so-called Dresden Plate Collection !

Let me be frank, just between you and me and the internet :-) Had I not known Linda well enough to check out anything new she publishes, this one would have gone by unnoticed by yours truly.
I don't like Dresden Plates.
Sorry, but there it is. I know that many people love them, but ... that's why they have both chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice-cream
ANYway. Dresden Plates leaves me pretty cold, but this one ! I couldn't resist it. And even though I am not good freinds with my sewing-machine, and I don't do curves, it is completely (!) machine-pieced. I haven't got a clue what the block is called, and I know I could have done it far more precisely with hand-piecing, but I love it. Karen K. Stone has a quilt with blocks like this (tho' more colourful) called Missisippi Wheel of Fortune.

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

And the winner is ...

Remember the give-away ? That started on December 24th ?
The Passacaglia-giveaway
The winner is found ! And is Deanna.

I have contacted her privately :-)

... and just so you won't get a post, completely without pictures, here is one of my Drunkard's Path flowers. Just the ones I could fit in on the design-board before Passacaglia took over completely :-)

Passacaglia # 34 and 35 ... and the full mock-up

And here are the most recent Passacaglia-blocks, the last ones made in 2009 :
First one made with the same striped fabric found in Block # 30


Next one made with the same fabric as # 32, 28, 27, 26, and 25. And, accidentaly, one of the two fabrics that Linda and I are giving away :-)

Finally, a mock-up of the 35 blocks sewn so far, on the design-wall.

I will be taking four out and making new ones.
They might look ok to you on the screen, but they stand out too much in the wrong way when seen in real life, so ... I'm there, but not there. BUT that's ok.

Happy 2010 !

So, we're out of the noughts and into the teens of the century and the millenium.
Strange ... but nice.

And today is the day, where I try to take stock of my needle-work projects.
I started fighting UFOs as far back as 2002. Then, I had "about 50" projects that were started, but not yet finished. The "impossible goal" was to get down to 10 or less.
When I reached that milestone - and what a happy day that was - I decided to reduce my number of PIGs (Projects In Grocerybags, aka : kits) and to try an bring down my number of started projects down to 5 or less.
... now that one is giving me some trouble ... and 2009 has not been good for my confidence. For the first time since 2002, I end the year with more projects than I started !
I'm still below 10, but ....

And what are they :

Boxed Stars (being hand-quilted)

Lone Star (top finished, to be sent out for quilting)

Drunkard's Path : a mostly machine-piecing project of which I have taken no pictures ... yet. Passacaglia takes up the design-wall completely, so the DP project won't go up there until that one is ... finished.

Rectangular hexagons. Sees occasional work when travelling or staying with freinds

Passacaglia. The only one that I'm seriously working on right now. I have made the 35 blocks necessary for a (roughly) 60 x 84" quilt (plus borders), but four of them are ... wrong, so I need to make another 4, and the wrong ones can then go on the back :-)

Give Thanks. Which I started preparing in 2008, put away during preparation in October of that year, and has not taken it up again ... might be time to evaluate, eh ? Either continue preparation, and actually do it, or give it up and re-distribute the fabric.

The Inklingo Sampler. One block pr. week

... and two knitting projects.

And 2009 did not give me any big quilty finishes. However, 2009 was the year where I started writing patterns, two of which are available for free from Inklingo, and 3 more that are available for free to the members of the Inklingo Yahoo-group. The making of patterns is a frustrating experience, because most of the time, I know how I would like it to look, but am unable to do it, due to lack of proficiency and software.
Oh, well.

Passacaglia - Pattern and Give-Away

I've been collaborating with Linda Franz on making a free pattern for Passacaglia. It is for a table-runner, but if you have fallen in love with the project and want to make a full-blown quilt, the clues are in the pattern. All that is completely off are the fabric-requirements.
The pattern is FREE ! And you can download it right here.

To celebrate the new pattern, and the season, both Linda and I are having a give-away.
Each of us are giving away 3/4 yards of the two fabrics used to make all of the blocks shown in this post. That is more than enough to fussy-cut the 4 blocks needed for the Table-runner.
Yes. They are fussy-cut from just two fabrics. Both from the Mezzanine collection from Michael Miller (Stained Glass and Gothic Arch).

The give-away goes through all of the Christmas gift-giving season as I know it :-) starting today, the 24th of December, because that is when gifts are given in my country, Denmark.

The give-away ends on January 6th, where gifts are given in - among other places - Russia and Spain, to celebrate the Three Kings.

This is what you do :

• To get one chance to win the fabric, leave a comment on this post on this blog.
• To get a second chance to win the fabric, go to Linda Franz's blog "All about Inklingo" and leave a comment there.
• To get a third chance to win the fabric, put the Inklingo button (on the right side of the page of the Inklingo Projects blog, a bit down) on your own blog, and write about the give-away.

So, leave a comment and run over to Linda's blog and leave another comment.

Then, if you're a blogger, write a post on your own blog about the give-away and the FREE Passacaglia-pattern. And please : leave contact-information in your comment/s.
You cannot win if we cannot contact you !

Passacaglia # 33

Well, strictly speaking it isn't # 33. It was made a good while ago, and I knew there was a block in there that I hadn't photographed and posted. I just couldn't bother to find out which.
BUT, today, I realized which one it was, so here it is.
Same fabric for the stars as in # 16, 29 and 31.

Passacaglia # 31 and 32

I continue to be a bad blogger, with all too infrequent posts, but frankly, I have been working, and I have preferred to stitch, rather than blog, in the few moments I've had lately.
ANYway, here are the two most recent Passacaglia blocks.
Same fabrics as # 28 and 29.

Passacaglia # 30

Well, even Christmas madness in the home of a pastor can quite stop the production of Passacaglia blocks.
Stripes and soft pinks and reds and a really green green :-)

Passacaglia # 28 AND 29

I'm sorry it's been so long ! I really, truly apologize, but ... life happened, and then the camera decided to play hide-and-seek, and ... BUT there they are. Two blocks have been finished since my last post, both fussy-cut (and cut, not printed, unfortunately, but the repeat was not Inklingo-freindly)

Number 28, made from the same fabric as the 3 previous


Number 29 is made with the same fabric as # 16 which seems easier to understand, than the fact that the above and the 3 previous were made from the same print ... in the same colourway :-)

Passacaglia # 27

I'm seeing a tendency here !
Every other week, I work too much (paid work). Full gale from 10 in the morning and until I drop into bed, while I constantly feel that I'm behind. The other week, however, things are fairly smooth, and I can do what is needed at work, within an ordinary 8-hour day. Those weeks more stitching happens, and blocks gets finished :-)
This is one of the easy weeks :-) So a block is finished and can be presented this Monday evening.

This is the third block from the fabric that the two previous has been cut from. The common ground does not seem obvious to me, except in the coloring, which is very nice. It also teaches one, that with judicious cutting, one fabric can go a long way.

Passacaglia # 26

Well ... it has taken me 10 days to get this one done.

Fussy-cutting had to take place, and the repeat in the fabric did not lend itself well to printing with Inklingo, so the stars / flowers had to be hand-prepared, and then, when I started joining them, I actually had 3 "misfires" with the internal squares.

Well, it is finished, and is looking pretty good ... even if I say so myself .... and it is not all that easy to tell, that this is the same fabric that was used in the previous Passacaglia-block (# 25), but it is :-)

Passacaglia # 25

Yes ! And with fussy-cut fabrics too :-)
I had to hand-prepare the flower on this one, because the repeat on the fabric was not compatible with the size of the bits I used. Oh, well. Could have been much worse :-) I printed some sheets of freezer-paper, cut them out, and set to it.
The next one is fussy-cut too ... and hand-prepared. Stay tuned :-)

Passacaglia # 24

Another one bites the dust :-)

This one is an attempt to copy one of Lucy Boston's original blocks. She used a pink-and-yellow irregular stripe, and the closest I have come to that is the batik used in this one.

She also used 4-patches for the internal squares of the block, which - naturally - made me do the same.

Passacaglia # 22 AND 23

Well, what do you know. Two finished in this past week.
Both are versions of the blocks in Lucy Boston's original.
On this first one, she uses a striped fabric where I use green. I think I should have done the same, rather than have a timid little grey stripe (that doesn't even match properly), BUT, it is done, and it will work well enough in the quilt.

The other one is a pink-and-green version of Lucy Boston's red-and-white original.
MAN that woman had an eye for what colour can do for a block. Even if it is me doing them, I still get exited about how each block turns out. And even when I think I can predict what it will end up looking like, many (most) of them still manage to surprise. This is a *very* satisfying quilt to make, even if it is just "one block" and "all" that differs from one block to the next is colour-placement.

Passacaglia # 21

Oh dear :-)
After a slight hiatus, another Passacaglia-block within less than a week from the former :-)
This one is - in general style - copied from one of Lucy Boston's original blocks. Her checkered fabric, however, is blue, not pink :-)
BUT, I like it

... and 20 blocks on the design-wall.
It will be (at least) 4 x 6 blocks, since I have 2 fully prepped and 2 partially prepped blocks.

Passacaglia # 20

And another Passacaglia-block.
This brings the total to 20, and I have another 5 prepped, so ... it should be at least a 60" square quilt ... and with borders, it will be larger :-)
This one is a "Devils Claw" version, and having finished it, I will confess, that should I do another one of the same kind, the centre would be the same fabric as the squares between the stars, in this case, the brown with pink dots. I will not remake it tough. I am a firm believer in burying your mistakes within the quilt. Once it is all joined, it usually works, and if there is one or two blocks that don't work within the mix, I just take it out and make a new one. Not necessarily the same as the one taken out, just another one that I think will fit better.
... and this is the reason you're not getting a picture of the 20 blocks on the design-wall. There is one in the mix that stands out too uncomfortably (this one), and that will probably become a pillow or go on the back of the quilt. It just doesn't work with the rest. SO, a picture from the design-wall will have to wait until I have # 21 pieced :-)

Passacaglia # 19

FI-nally another Passacaglia-block finished.
I'm not so sure about this one.
The start of it was the fussy-cutting of the striped circles, and now I have a block, where every element seems to be in competition with every other element, clamoring for attention.
... And, as it turned out, this is the only block with no green anywhere on it.

Oh, well. It will probably go into the mix all the same. That is the beauty of making a scrappy-style quilt, even when each block is as controlled as these are. As I've heard Kaffe Fasset say "When in doubt, use 20 more colours". So ... 20 more pinks should just about do the trick :-)

Another week

Uh, oh. It's already October 9th, and I have not been a good blogger, since my last was September 30th. I blame it on work. Paid work. I thought I was going to have less work in October than I had in September, but these first 8 days have been more, so ... no Passacaglia blocks to show, since none have been finished.
And the "other stuff" I'm working on, is practically classified, so I can't show you that ....
What I can show you, are some pictures of some "kidlet bags" I made for the two teen-agers and our "lodger" neither of whom have any "real" space downstairs.
This does not prevent any or all of them from dumping "stuff" everywhere, so ... to keep at least some surfaces relatively cleared, I made these, so that I can put their "stuff" in there, and get it off my surfaces.

The pattern is out there on the web, actually right here, and is made by blogger jcasa

I made mine, using Japanese fabrics for the shell. The main shell is made with a rather hefty half-and-half linen and cotton, two with hedgehogs, one with squirrels, and I actually enjoy seeing them there on the wall.

Besides, the 3 bag-owners, are becoming used to finding their "stuff" in the bags ... to the extent, where they have started putting things like id-cards, keys and wallets in there, so they can find them again.
All in all, a very useful addition to our household.