I’ve been quilting on the go a lot lately.  Doctor and physical therapy appointments with my Mom have given me lots of waiting room time.  I’m really not sure why it took me a whole year to finally really work on my quilting in those waiting rooms.  But now I’m motivated.  Which translates to….. look out!  I’ve started 28 brand new projects.

OK maybe not 28.  But a few of my friends recently called me crazy for this new addition to my stack of things to do.

This old quilt top belongs to a friend of my Mom’s.  This friend is not a quilter.  She told me about it a few weeks ago.  And I gave her some suggestions for getting it quilted.  None of my suggestions included me actually doing it.  And yet this top is now in my possession.  How does that happen?  Does it happen to you too?  Or is it just me?

As you can see, this top is not ready to just hand off to a quilter to quilt.  It has some issues.  And I had a feeling I’d be binding it.  And I do not want to do binding around all those uneven edges.  Two of the blocks need to be sewn in (top left and the yellow one on the lower right.)

Miss Kitty is being her helpful self and pulled the top corner away from the rest so you could see it better.  You absolutely, positively cannot lay a quilt on the floor at my house and not have a cat on it.  Quilts are cat magnets around here.

I decided I wanted to add some hexagons to the edges to even things up.  Notice how quickly I’ve taken ownership of getting this quilt completed for Mom’s friend.  Funny how that happens.  This top is totally hand pieced.  So the perfect solution is a product called:

Ever heard of it?  Probably a good number of you have not.  It seems to be a well-kept secret.  Unintentionally, I’m sure.  So I’m getting the word out to everyone I know.  It’s a wonderful invention by a dear friend of mine.  And once you find out about it, you will wonder how you lived without it.  You are definitely going to see more quilts on this blog using Inklingo.

You iron your fabric pieces to ordinary freezer paper to stabilize it so you can feed the fabric right through your inkjet printer.

See?  Any inkjet printer will do.  You print directly onto the wrong side of your fabric.

See the lines?  Perfect little hexagons printed right onto the fabric.  Fast.  Simple.  Precise.  I love Inklingo.

There are cutting lines and stitching lines.  With perfect little crosshairs for precise perfection with inset seams.  You know those pesky Y-seams that we think are so difficult?  Easy as pie with Inklingo.  Whether you do them by hand or by machine.  You have precise starting and stopping points marked.  Awesome.

Here are my little muslin hexagons to add and make all the edges straight on this quilt top.  Notice the two different “half hexagon” shapes for the bottom and sides.  Those shapes come in the hexagon collection too.  Linda thought of everything when she designed Inklingo.

See how I’ve pieced together little sections to fill in on the edges?

And the right side is filled in too (compare to first picture above.)  Boo got in on the action this time.  Remember.  Quilt on floor = cat magnet.

All the hand piecing around here has given Boo a new toy.  An empty spool!

Miss Kitty came flying through and stole the spool right away from Boo.  Guess I’m gonna have to get busy and empty another spool.  Besides, I think this one has already disappeared under a piece of furniture.

And remember the little half inch hexagons stitched into a diamond shape I showed you yesterday?

I finished another one last night.  And I already know that I love, love, love, love, love, love stitching these little pieces by hand.  It’s a good thing.

Because this is the project I’m making them for.  It could take awhile.

Notice the name of this quilt.  Says a lot, doesn’t it?  Of course, my little diamonds may or may not actually become a big quilt like this.  It remains to be seen if they become a placemat or table runner.

Did I mention that I loved piecing these?  Of course I say that after making two.  And I haven’t counted how many I need for this big quilt, but from the looks of the picture I’d say it’s about 4,538.  That’s not even counting the thousands of hexagons in that last scrappy border.

So I imagine you’ll be seeing more of this quilt.  Unless you give me a deadline, this one could take a long, long time.

If you need a bit more Inklingo inspiration, check out this gal’s blog:

Quilt Obsession

Be sure to look for the fabulous red feathered stars.  This gal is amazing.  I wanna be her when I grow up.  Fabulous quilts.  And you’ll really be able to tell that she loves Inklingo.  A search for “pickled ladies” is worthwhile to see on her site too.  Amazing.

So check out Inklingo.  When you do, be sure to tell Linda that “Driveway Barb” sent you.  And remind me to tell you the story of how I got that name.

I’m off to print more hexagons.
Hugs,
Barb