Liberty Love…

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

I have to admit I have become a little obsessed with Liberty of London fabric. I have been getting a monthly bundle of Liberty from Ava & Neve and every time I get a new package I get excited all over again to use them to make something beautiful. (I extra love that though Ava & Neve are based in my home town of Brisbane but they ship to the US for no extra cost).

Liberty fabric

I have become bundle addicted and I stalk the post box at the end of each month waiting for the next hit… it is such a great way to get a good stash of Liberty lawn without to much expenditure… and I have also become obsessed with using as much of the fabric as I can, resorting to saving little tiny pieces that with quilting cotton I would usually throw out.

This week my Liberty obsession manifested itself in the form of a hexi pillow…

This lovely pillow used 75 different one inch hexagons of Liberty on a background of Essex Linen…

pillow detail 2

I used Nicole at Modern Handcrafts modern hexagon tutorial to make the pillow. This tutorial is fabulous and I love the easy at which the hexagons are attached… there is no hand sewing the suckers together, just glue.. lots and lots of glue.

The pattern also allows you to play with how you layout the hexagons. I choose to taper my hexies off at the edges of the pillow…

I so loved this pillow that I have started another Liberty pillow… so stay tuned for next weeks installment of “Cath’s Liberty Obsession”.

3Jun2016

More curves…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

It seemed fitting to finish this week by sharing my most recent finish…which was also my first curved quilt EVER…

finished circle quilt

I started this quilt 2014 after being challenged to do some curved blocks for a quilting bee (thanks Michelle for the challenge!). For this top I used the EZ Circle ruler and the blocks are decidedly bigger than Monday’s adventure. If you want to learn more about the making of this quilt you can check out my original post here…

quilt detail 3

For this top I used a huge stack of solid scraps that I had in my stash…including Konas, Couture Cottons, Bella cottons and some American Made cottons. I do not make a lot of solid only quilts but solids seemed like the perfect way learn to curve piece (no pattern distractions!)….

quilt detail 2

I am thrilled with how it all turned out. I had Kazumi do some fabulous all over quilting on this baby…and I love the circles upon circles. I was worried at first that the quilting may compete with the piecing but I think they work well together…

quilting detail 2

And there is no way I could have done anything this cool with the quilting by myself. The quilt is backed with some fabulous IKEA fabric which seemed to compliment the crazy of the front of the quilt…

quilt back

A little scrappy binding and I have another quilt off my WIP list. I am really rocking them this quarter… of course with some help from a very talented long arm quilter… it feels a little like cheating but I so love what Kazumi brings to my quilts.

1Jun2016

Playing with small curves….

Posted in Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

On a whim yesterday, I decided to play with a fabric die cut machine a friend has lent me. I have never used one of these machines before but it seemed like a fun thing to use scraps on… so I grabbed some of my Cotton and Steel scraps and started cutting…

I decided to play with the Drunkards Path die that came with the machine, because it seemed like a great way to make these blocks, as the die cuts both pieces the perfect size….as opposed to the ruler method I have used in the past which leaves you with scrap pieces that are either to small or two big to use.

cut pieces

Anyway some ironing and cutting and an episode of Game of Thrones later I had a pile of curved block pieces….

cutting Now these pieces make a 3 1/2 inch curved block for a 7 inch finished circle… in other words they are small. The first thing I have learned with this project is that the smaller the curve you are trying to piece the harder it is to be accurate. After some struggles aligning the pieces accurately I finally came up with a solution… glue basting.

glue baste 2

Using my Sewline glue pen I glued around the seam line of one of the pieces of the block…

pieces

Placed the pieces together, using the notch to align and then carefully finger pressed the pieces together…

press together

It worked like a charm and another episode of Game of Thrones later (we are just finishing up Season 5 so are a little behind)… I had a nice pile of glue basted…

glue baste Now all I have to do sew them… the glue basting will make chain piecing a breeze…