For one thing, the Shop on the website has been completely overhauled—over 100 pages have new text and images. It is re-organized, and the text is darker and larger. There is still some tweaking to do, but it should make it easier to find what you want.

Whew! It was a lot of work! (We do the work, so you can sew!)

I have also been working on a few BIG  things, but by popular request, there are two small new shape collections for setting any 4.5 and 6 inch block “on-point.”

Set any 4.5 or 6 inch blocks on point!

This arrangement is easy to sew in diagonal rows. The effect can be amazing compared to setting the blocks in horizontal rows.

No math! No measuring!

Traditionally, the only tricky thing about on-point settings has been the math and measuring for accurate triangles for the edges. Some quilters avoid multiplying and dividing by 1.414 and measuring in 32nd of an inch. (No wonder!) Inklingo makes it easy.

The goal is to have straight grain on the edges. That means

• the Corners are Half Square Triangles (HST), which have straight grain on the two short sides
• the Edges are Quarter Square Triangles (QST), which have straight grain on the long side.

Inklingo does the math and measuring. You sew!

In addition to the triangles for the edges, each collection also includes a plain square and a square with an appliqué design and generous seam allowances—perfect for back-basting.

4.5 inch Square with Hearts

Back-basting makes symmetrical designs a breeze.

6 inch Square with Flower

The flower design is positioned perfectly when the square is turned on point.

I have been in love with on-point settings ever since I made my variation of the Jane Stickle Quilt using Brenda Papadakis’ book Dear Jane™. You can see In Time of Friendship online.

With these Shape Collections, you can use any 4.5 or 6 inch squares, like Dear Jane™ blocks, Winding Ways, Yin Yang, Log Cabin, LeMoyne Star, Sunflower, and many others!

• for 4 inch squares click
• for 6 inch squares click

As usual, we love to hear what you want to see next, and we do our best to respond.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are having a glorious streak of weather with blue skies and lots of sunshine—perfect for a long weekend. Today is our Thanksgiving Holiday in Canada. I am counting my blessings and feeling thankful for my online quilting friends!

Now check out the info on the website. The special sale prices end soon!

Linda & Monkey, in Burlington Ontario

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes.Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

Inklingo for Beginners

Tilde’s 15 Minute Challenge

Several Inklingo quilters asked for an Inklingo Shape Collection for Joseph’s Coat, and I can understand why!

• It is beautiful
• It is unusual.
• It is great for using up scraps and “shopping your stash.”
• It is easier with the cutting and stitching lines printed on the fabric with Inklingo.
• It can be machine pieced with Inklingo.
• It can be hand pieced with Inklingo.
• It can be back-basted with Inklingo (needleturn appliqué).
• It can be appliquéed with freezer paper templates (aka “the hard way”) with Inklingo.

JELLY ROLLS!

SCRAPS!

FUSSY CUTTING!

The new shape collection makes 12 inch blocks, so the melons can be printed on Jelly Rolls and small scraps. How cool is that?! I think I know someone who might fussy cut the background or the melons, or both! (You know who you are.)

My first choice is hand piecing on the front porch (no surprise), but these curves are so gentle they are almost like straight seams. You don’t even need to clip! Anyone can sew these curves by machine. They are easy.

JOSEPH’S HAT COAT  (Monkey may have misunderstood.)

This  is traditionally a scrappy quilt, inspired by the Bible story about Joseph’s “coat of many colors.”

In the Bible, Joseph’s Coat was a source of envy. If you make this quilt for yourself with Inklingo, you won’t have to envy anyone.

Joseph’s Coat is an old design. It is 421-2 in Jinny Beyer’s Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns (my quilting bible). This design was published with several different names in the 1930s. You might see similar designs called Ace of Diamonds, Banana, Orange Ring, Peeled Orange, Tea Leaves, or Queen’s Choice.

When circles are added, Joseph’s Coat is called Morning Glory (Beyer 421-3). There are several sizes of circles available in other Inklingo Shape Collections.

HAND. . . OR . . .  MACHINE . . .  OR . . .  APPLIQUÉ

You can sew these gentle curves by hand or by machine. I prefer to piece this design. . .

. . . but some quilters prefer appliqué, so this shape collection also includes a back-basting layout to print on fabric, and shapes without seam allowances to print on freezer paper for appliqué templates.

Whichever method you choose, it is easy when you print with Inklingo.

In addition to the shapes to print, this download includes:

• tips for selecting fabric
• how to sew the curves by hand or by machine
• how to press for perfect results (surprising method!)
• yardage estimates
• worksheets and design ideas

If you piece this design with Inklingo—hand OR machine—you will LOVE the way it presses. It’s like a miracle from heaven, especially considering how many seams converge in the middle. I think you will be surprised by my recommendation this time.

I love this design and I hope you will too. Enjoy!

Linda & Monkey

PS Don’t forget to enter Tilde’s 15 Minute Challenge . You could win in the next draw on June 30!

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares  in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

Monkey and I try very hard to keep up with requests for new Inklingo shapes. We are happy to announce two new collections!

Log Cabin 0.5 inch

When the Log Cabin Shape Collection with 1.0 inch Logs was announced, there were requests immediately for the same thing with 0.5 inch logs.

One of the beautiful advantages of Inklingo is that I was able to prepare these slim logs with slightly narrower seam allowances to reduce the bulk and make it easier to press them neatly.

Some of the requests for this shape collection came from Dear Jane™ quilters who want the 0.5 inch squares and 0.5 x 4.5 inch logs for sashing and cornerstones in their quilts. Perfect! 

Of course, the rectangles and squares in this shape collection are useful in many other quilt blocks too.

(Remember that all Inklingo shapes are named with the finished size.)

Bigger Circles

When the Inklingo Circles Shape Collection to use with Karen Kay Buckley’s Perfect Circles® was announced, there were requests for the same thing to match her Bigger Perfect Circles® too—of course!

There is more info about both of the new collections on the web site
• Log Cabin 0.5 inch
• Bigger Circles
and both are at special sale prices for a limited time.

We will never really catch up, but we are listening. What shapes are you looking for next?

We’ll be back.

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start  (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares  in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

This post is also presented in Dutch on her wonderful Stof Genoeg blog.

(Click on the quilt images for larger versions.)

  Lollipop Flowers 01

Linda asked us Inklingoists what we would do with the new Inklingo Circles collection. Well, I don’t know about everybody else, but I just want to design new quilts with them in EQ7!

Circles are so versatile, and to me they always look cheerful, happy, vibrant and…round. They make flowers, suns, pearls, berries, balloons, dots and yoyos.

So I was inspired to design a quilt with this collection, using almost nothing but 5 sizes of circles. I call it Lollipop Flowers, and there is a version with blocks on point and one with horizontal blocks.

All blocks are 6 inches square. The circles used are:

• 2 inch for the flower head
• 0.875 inch (7/8”) for the flower heart inside
• 1 inch for the flower petals
• 1.375 inch (1 3/8”) for the larger leaf
• 1.125 inch (1 1/8”) for the smaller leaf

The stems are 0.5 inch wide and 3 inches long (finished size)

  Lollipop Flowers 02

The horizontal quilt measures 63 inches square, the on point quilt is 54 inches square. Of course you could make smaller versions. I think this type of appliqué, without any pointy bits showing (at least not in the horizontal version) would be relatively easy to do, especially when you use Karen Kay Buckleys Perfect Circles®.

You can download my EQ7 file here: http://www.box.net/shared/idi39harql. Anyone is free to use it for personal use, as long as you respect my copyright.

  Blueberry Pie 13

Not only circles make me happy, so do Pie & Tarts! It combines two of my three very favorite things in the world: Eating and Quilting (My absolute favorite thing is spending time with the Man About The House). And so I was inspired to design a second type of quilt, based on Sue Daley’s Pie & Tarts quilt, with berries (appliquéd 2 inch Inklingo Circles) on top.

With only two blocks, you can make several different designs by flipping the blocks, so the trails of berries form different patterns on top of the quilt. I only used one coloring for the Pie & Tart blocks to show that the blocks are the same in each quilt.

  Blueberry Pie 10

Slideshow!

Only two are shown here, but there is a slideshow with 14 variations on Stof Genoeg.  Sue Daley kindly gave me permission to share this EQ7 file with members of the Inklingo Yahoo Group, so if you are a member, you can download this file from the files section.

The Blueberry Pie & Tarts quilt was designed to celebrate a very special occasion, two new Inklingo collections in just two days! Congratulations, Linda & Monkey, you have done an excellent job once again!

XXX Anneke

_______________________________________

Anneke of  Stof Genoeg  is a talented designer in Holland. I love visiting her blog because she is smart and funny and a genius with Electric Quilt software (EQ7). I feel lucky to be her friend.

Guess who translated the important first chapter of  The Inklingo Handbook—all 48 pges—into Dutch? Yes! Anneke also translated the  Download Instructions and the Quick Start Guide into Dutch for the Inklingo web site.

Be sure to visit Stof Genoeg to see the slideshow!

Sue Daley of Busy Fingers Patchwork and I have cooked up a treat for you! The recipe was prepared in Australia and the shapes were cooked in Canada. You can have fresh, hot Inklingo Pies and Tarts anywhere in the world, instantly!

Sue and I both received requests from quilters who wanted to make her Pie & Tarts quilt with Inklingo, so we worked together on this Shape Collection. Sue is an expert paper piecer and specializes in patterns for English Paper Piecing (EPP).

It’s such a fabulous scrappy design. Sue agreed that it should be available to quilters who love machine piecing or hand piecing with a running stitch, not just paper piecers.

With Inklingo, the curves are easy to sew by machine or by hand. There is also a layout to print on background fabric for back-basting, if you prefer appliqué instead of piecing.

Whether you choose English Paper Piecing or Inklingo, you can fussy cut the shapes and use up your scraps.

As usual, this Inklingo Shape Collection includes the test page, notes about printing on fabric, and the Catalogue of Shapes.

Sue’s pattern includes her directions for English Paper Piecing and for appliquéing the circles to background squares.

I have summarized some tips for machine piecing—chain piecing, stitching curves, and pressing, in a small PDF file which is available on the Inklingo Pie & Tarts page (scroll down to the bottom).

Russ is famous for his flaky pastry in apple pie (with cheddar cheese in the crust), butter tarts (a Canadian specialty), and tiny savory quiches, but thanks to Sue, I was able to do Pie & Tarts.

Thank you, Sue, for helping me with this wonderful design. I hope we will work together with more shapes in the future!

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start  (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares  in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

Inklingo quilters asked for circles to print on fabric.

Why trace, when it is simpler and more accurate to print? Makes sense to us!

Circles are very useful to quilters. When an appliqué quilt has cherries or grapes or blossoms, it can mean tracing a lot of circles. We use fabric circles for other crafts too.

Print circles on fabric with Inklingo  instead!

Inklingo ink colors are designed to wash out when printed with your ordinary Inkjet printer and your ink!

The Inklingo Circle Shape Collection also includes instructions for one of my favorite quilting tools, the finger pincushion. I wear one whenever I am sewing, even at the sewing machine.

Perfect Circles® by Karen Kay Buckley are well loved by quilters who appliqué, and it’s no wonder. They really are perfect compared to homemade circle templates, and they are economical and reusable. You can use Inklingo Circles without them, but Monkey says Why Would You? Karen helped me prepare Inklingo Circles, but I am just one of her many happy customers. (I do not benefit from her sales. I just think she has a great product.)

The smallest circle is a little less than 0.5 inches across and the largest is 2.0 inches. The 15 Inklingo sizes were chosen to match up with the thin, heat resistant Perfect Circles®.

The Inklingo Circle Shape Collection includes

• 15 sizes of circles with seam allowances to print on fabric
• 15 sizes of circles without seam allowances to print on paper or freezer paper for templates
• instructions for a finger pincushion
• three simple needle case designs to print on photo paper
• instructions for using the circles with Karen Kay Buckley’s Perfect Circles® (recommended, but optional)

Perfect Circles® are available in quilt shops and on Karen’s web site.

Once again, Inklingo is the quilting tool we’ve always wanted, especially with Perfect Circles®.

A new logo for Circles is available for Inklingo Affiliates.

I wonder what you will do with Inklingo Circles! Appliqué? Pincushions? Other crafts? And if you love someone, put their name in a circle; because hearts can be broken, but circles never end.

Let us know how you use them, okay? 

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start  (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares  in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.