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.

Passacaglia # 18

Well, on this one, I started with the centre.
I like those circles :-)
And then the striped fabric for the stars.
It does have a bit of an impact, this one :-)

Passacaglia # 17

Finally. Another Passacaglia-block.
Being sick and trying to go to work is not conducive to doing other things, so, it's taken a little while, but here it is. And I've got the next ones prepped.
However, I am running out (have run out, more or less) of fabrics that looks interesting when being fussy-cut / printed. I have ordered two fabrics, but
Oh, well. Here it is. Not one of the most interesting ones, but it will work well in the finished project.
And here are the first 16 on the Design-wall.
I think it will end up on a 4 x 6 block setting after all :-)

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 # 16

And so # 16 is finished.
I like this one, even if the fussy-cutting isn't perfect. I just tell myself it lends character to the block :-)

Unfortunately I have not yet prepped # 17. I do have the main-fabric chosen, though, so I hope to prep it later today ... if time allows :-)

Passacaglia # 15

In this one, the diamonds that form the stars, are made from the same fabric as the previous one. A Kaffe Fasset stripe ... and this one has enough pink to satisfy even my little heart.

Passacaglia # 14

Fussy-printed Kaffe Fasset spiky stripe. It looked pinker in my mind's eye when I planned and printed it, on this picture it looks more blue and orange.
Oh, well. I like it :-) and it will end up in the quilt.

Passacaglia # 13

Finally, block # 13 is finished.
Took its time, but then, I had another one prepped that looked simply awful when I laid it out before piecing, so it was trashed, and this one was made instead. As you can see, there's recycling of diamonds and squares from two other blocks, and the white seems slightly excessively bright, BUT, this is the way it turned out, and it will go into the quilt.
Blocks 14-16 are prepped and ready to roll ... which is good, because I don't really have time to sew the next couple of weeks, but this way, I will at least be able to sneak in a thread every now and then.

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.