Christine’s Quilt

Posted in Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

Some how, in between meetings, deadlines, dr’s appointments and the usual day to day chaos I managed to finish the top for my sister in law’s quilt. I was of course hoping to finish the whole quilting process by today but life had other plans. This is as far as I have got…

I made the blocks for this quilt using the Trip Around the World process and then instead of sewing the strips in order I mixed things up a little. My blocks ended up looking random and pixellated and a little cool. You can find my original post about the block here.

So now I have a quilt top made up of 2 inch squares of solid blues with a hint of blue purple thrown in. My stash of solid blues is now almost depleted but I am so thrilled with the result.

Now I just have to quilt this cascading waterfall up, bind it and get it to SoCal. Not a problem!

15Jan2014

Trying to quilt by my own advice…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week I discovered that there is a down side to giving advice on the internet – because it is there in black and white you need to make sure you are taking your own advice. My “Quilting Bee Etiquette” has come back to haunt me this week as I struggled to get my December Bee blocks out on time. You see blocks are generally considered late if they arrive past the 15th of the following month, and I could not, should not, would not be late. So this last week has been about getting Bee blocks done.

First up was the last block for my Scrapbeelicious December run. I had done one Christmas themed block for Nicole at Modern Handcraft but needed another block. My original plan was to do a 12/2 inch Dresden plate. I cut the fabric, sewed it all together and discovered it was 20 1/2 inches big. Whoops. Some quick re-calculations, more cutting, more sewing and voila, the b%$#y block was 14 inches square. My solution was this…

Scrapbeelicious December Block –

An “adjusted” Dresden Plate block that is exactly 12 1/2 inches square. Seeing this is a sampler quilt my adjustments will work well. This block, along with my Snowflake block should be winging their way to Nicole today (as per the Bee Etiquette rules my Queen knows they will be late).

I did make the deadline for my other December blocks by the skin of my teeth. The Do.good.stitches Hope Circle blocks for December were easy, I cut the fabric out and then promptly forgot to sew it all together. A polite reminder from the Queen had me sewing them up and posting them the same morning…

That same day I decided to tackle the January Do.good blocks to avoid the embarrassment of another reminder email (I like to be on time or early wherever possible)…

Wonky log cabins in blue with a grey border… easy peasy..

My final WIP for this week is not a really a Bee block, but is the start of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild’s 2014 Medallion Quilt. This year, instead of doing a BOM our guild is doing a Medallion quilt, starting with a center 16 1/2 inch center block.

Yep I have become a little Dresden obsessed. I blame my EZ Dresden ruler… it is all its fault, plus I see it as a challenge to improve my really bad math skills!

13Jan2014

Paper Piecing Monday… better late than never

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Paper Piecing Monday was delayed a little this week by a stonking cold that took me out of action for a few days. I am feeling a little more human today and managed to get this simple little star block made, thru the Dayquil/Lemsip haze…

This block is 6 inches by 6 inches and was again designed in response to my search for smaller star blocks for my Starry Night Quilt. This is a much simpler block than last week, I got a ribbing for calling last week’s block “simple” at 40 pieces. This week’s 20 pieces is definitely simple…right! You can find the pattern here…Starry Night WQ block 2.

I like the 4 triangle piece pattern of this block and may fiddle some more with it to get some different kind of stars. Next week I am going to scale up and aim to get a 10 inch block designed and made… stay tuned.

10Jan2014

My To Do list for 2014…

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

This week I have been thinking about New Years Resolutions a bit – my personal resolutions like “visit hospital less this year”, our family resolutions like “get our kitchen in shape” and finally my quilting resolutions.

This last resolution list is a long long long long one. I seem to have put more thought into it than any other and the highlights include:

1. Finish up the stack of quilts I have started including….

Briar Rose quilt top from October

Lost Geese quilt top from September

Star String quilt from August

1930’s Star quilt… circa 2000

2. Tackle making a curved block or quilt no matter how terrified I am.

3. Finish making the blocks for a number of quilts I started and then put aside including…

My Jacaranda inspired blocks from April 2013

My Princess bubble gum quilt

My Tula Pink City Sampler qult

4. Make more charity quilts… make them simple, easy and fun. I want to commit to delivering at least 2 a month in 2014.

5. Finish up projects where the blocks are done but for some reason I have not put the top together…

Work in progress granny quilt blocks. Simple bright quilt block

My Granny Square quilt

My red & aqua star quilt

My Denyse Schmidt Zakka Flower quilt

6. Design more paper piecing patterns.

7. Improve my free motion quilting. Practice and practice and practice.

8. Finally make a quilt for my husband.

I am excited by the promise of what 2014 can bring… and all the quilting yet to come. This year I am Programs Coordinator for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild which is going to be a hoot and means even more quilting in my already quilt stuffed life. I look forward to sharing my quilting journey with you and seeing what amazing things you also create.

8Jan2014

Going with the flow…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Last Friday I became determined to make my sister in-law a quilt. I had spent months procrastinating, putting idea after idea up on the design wall and pulling it all down again. All I really had to go on was that she loves blue and is a no-nonsense, straight talking, fabulous woman. Finally I decided to do a blue trip around the world quilt. I delved into my stash and pulled out all my blue solids, which I was surprised to discover was a substantial wad and set to work.

I spent Saturday merrily cutting 2 1/2 x 16 1/2 inch strips from my pile of solids. I loved the colours together but I was becoming less and less sure about the quilt design. As my darling husband commented on Saturday evening “don’t those trip around quilts tend to have patterns in them”. Yes my nervousness at the lack of pattern in my fabric was getting to me. I had made a solid trip along before which turned out nicely…

but I was still nervous about it. With no other viable options at this point, I continued the process – sewing the strips in groups of 6, then sewing it into a tube, then cutting the tube into 2 1/2 strips. If you have done a Trip Around the World you know the process… if you do not know what I am talking about Quiltsville is where it all started. So now I had a stack of strips of squares…

Usually you pull your tube’s apart and put them back together in just a way to get this block…

but it was at this point in the process I threw out the instructions and went a little wild. I started sewing random strips together so my blocks look more like this…

I was not sure if it would work, but the idea of doing another Trip Around quilt all of a sudden was not at all appealing. So now I have a wild, pixelated, modern quilt that is coming together like this…

And I love it. I am so thrilled with how my deviation from the plan is working out. I am embracing the random and the crazy and just going with it. So far I have 8 blocks done and have 22 more to go. My design wall currently looks like this…