Finished Klosjes

Here are my finished klosjes. This wall hanging measures approx. 24" x 24" and my spool blocks are 4" square. A close-up of the hand quilting in the borders.

I just had to take these photos with tulips from my garden. After all, klosjes does mean spools in Dutch.

So there, my third finish for 2010. Am I on a roll???

Pattern Source: Block #3571 from EQ Block Base.

If you want to see how I did these using English Paper Piecing method and how to draft your klosjes (spool) block, just go to the side bar on the left side of my blog and scroll down to LABELS and scroll down again to tutorials and all will be explained.

Have a great day, eh!

Klosjes quilting

My klosjes wall hanging is being hand quilted, but I first did a bit of machine stipple quilting in the white circle. The hand quilting is going a lot faster than I thought and this hanging should be done soon.

Have a great day!

Another top

I've been rummaging through my UFO's and found this one. It got shelved a few years ago and has been there long enough. Time to finish it. It is now at this stage and will be quilted soon.

Have a great day!

Special Gift

Late last week, DH went out and bought me a special gift. I got the subtle hint.

The girls had a major fight on my ironing board and my iron got knocked onto the floor. DH was concerned that sparks would ignite the scraps that were laying around and he just wanted to protect my precious fabric from going up in flames. Such a thoughtful guy! :o)

Now that all the background fabric has been found and cut out for my klosjes, it is time to put away the rejected fabrics. Guess what I'll be doing today!

Have a great day!

BTW .... we do have a smoke alarm installed just outside my studio. I have been trained now on how to use this extinguisher. Seriously, though, this was a good gift to receive.

It's a good day ....

..... harmony is back in our home ..... Robyn has been found! The hanging that was shown in my last post will soon be winging its' way to Australia. A big 'thank you' to Kathryn (in Australia) for taking time to search for me. Kathryn even called another person living on the same street (last known address) with the same last name hoping that they were related and could tell us where Robyn is. The man didn't know her but Kathryn said he was a nice chap to talk to. Quilters are just so kind and willing to help at any time. Ashes just doesn't care what is going on in the household ... she just needs her daily pinch of cat nip and all is well in her little world.

Debra (on the right) from Patchwork Sanity came over Tuesday afternoon and said that I was just too hard on myself and reminded me that when something is promised from a quilter, there is at least a 2 yr. waiting period. Enough said. We had a lovely visit and ended up at a quilt store that is on the other side of the city and rush hour starting in just a few hours. We tore out of our house leaving DH sputtering 'when will you be back'.

Before leaving for the quilt store, we had a show and tell. Debra showed a gorgeous Lone Star king size top and I was so amazed at the beauty of the pattern and the fabrics she used that a photo was not taken. Debra will just have to show it off on her blog.

I showed her my klosjes (spools). Five more rows on the bottom have to be cut out. Between my stash and the new FQ fabric that was purchased, I should have enough. Debra has invited me over this coming Sunday to go through her stash to find anything that is missing. My plan for this quilt is not to use the same background fabric twice.

I don't know about you, but I sure am having a good day!

A finish ...

I have hemmed and hawed over this little hanging for well over a year and am hanging my head in shame. Why??

This is to go Robyn in Australia as a thank you for sourcing out more wool to match the scraf that she made for me as part of the SSCS swap (Dec. 2008). Yes, I am over a year late in sending this and that is something that I am not proud of. Robyn so graciously fulfilled her part of the bargain and after much procrastination and pure laziness on my part, the hanging is done and ready to be sent to her. Problem is, she is not responding to my email so that I can get her current address for mailing out this quilt and quite frankly, I don't blame her. I'm hoping that she will read this post and contact me.

Have I learned a lesson from this? YES, yes, yes.

So, Robyn, please let me know where you now live ........ For this post, please do not leave a comment (except for Robyn) as I am not finding any joy with this finish.

Klosjes templates

As promised, today I'm going to show you how to make the templates for my style of klosjes (Dutch word for little spools) for those of you who don't have EQ and Block Base software computer programs. It really is very simple.

A - Since my klosjes finish at 6" square, draw a 6-1/2" x 6-1/2" square on a sheet of paper. Draw your 1/4" seam allowance all the way around just so that you can see what your finished size will look like. Draw diagonal lines from corner to corner as shown. B - Make a mark 2" from the top and bottom. Using your ruler, (line up the diagonal line on your ruler to the diagonal line on the paper) continue making your line going from one diagonal line to the other diagonal line. Do the same for the bottom.

C - Again, using the diagonal line on your ruler, line up your ruler and make a 3/4" mark as shown by the arrows.

D - Repeat the same process for the other half of the square block.

E - Make a mark 1" in from any side, take your compass and put the point in the very middle (see arrow) and extend the other arm of the compass with the lead pencil part to the mark and draw a circle all around. At this time, you can make any changes to the shape that you want.

F - Your template is made. I traced the template roughly by hand so that you can see what your klosjes will look like.

G - Cut out your paper templates.

H - Staple your templates onto scrap pieces of paper. Usually, I cut out 4 pieces of scrap paper at a time (any more paper and your templates will get wonky). The edges of the original templates got a coating of orange marker so that I can see where to cut.

i - Cut your templates out and remove staples. I keep the original templates and cut out additional templates whenever more are needed using these originals. My templates get used often but at some point, they just get too many holes from basting and eventually they get tossed out.

You are now ready to start basting away. Just be sure to keep your fabric and templates on the straight of the grain. Have fun!

This is what my klosjes are looking like today. I'm just raiding my stash and auditioning fabrics to make sure that I get a nice colour wash look. I'm making a queen size quilt and need 196 blocks. So, there are lots more to go. At some point, these blocks will have to be transferred to my larger design wall as I need 2 more rows on one side and 5 more rows on the bottom and I just simply ran out of room with this design wall. I can do 3 to 5 klosjes a day, but my fingers are getting a bit sore from the needle, so it is time to slow and work on something different for a few days.

For those of your who celebrate Easter ..... Happy Easter! Stay safe.