On a roll….

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

Another Friday finish for you…and this week is a darling little baby quilt I made using some small wonky star blocks I had floating around…

Usually when I make wonky star quilts I use 5 inch squares to make the stars , but for this quilt I used my stash of 3 inch squares and a pile of scrap pieces to make 8 inch (unfinished) stars.

Actually these stars had been sitting in my WIP pile for a while when I dug them up and started playing… I did not want to make any more stars so instead I used a pile of low volume scraps to play with the star layout.

I tried to lay the stars out randomly and used filler pieces – mainly 3 inch squares, 3 x 5 1/2 inch and 3 x 8 inch strips to fill in the gaps. I wanted the background to be just as scrappy as the stars so I did not use any really big low volume pieces.

The scrappy background also gave me more opportunities for fussy cutting, allowing me to cram in even more novelty prints (have you spotted the squirrels yet!).

My binding choice was a little different from usual with this quilt too… I went with low volume soft colours to frame the quilt instead of my usual wonky star binding – navy blue or scrappy brights. I liked how this choice lets the stars jump off the quilt instead of containing them inside a frame.

The wonderful free motion quilting on this piece was done by my friend Michelle of Mariposa Quilting. I was so pleased this quilt was not ruined by my clumsy straight line quilting.

Once washed this quilt will head off to the our local Pediatric Intensive Care unit where it will hopefully be used for a couple of good games of I Spy….

21Apr2017

An emotional finish…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

One of the quilts that I recently finished up was one that had been languishing in the WIP pile not because I was bored with it but because I was not emotional ready to deal with finishing it.

The quilt was started in 2015 while I was recovering from surgery after an ectopic pregnancy. For the last year or so I was not ready to deal with finishing the quilt up… then one day I looked at the quilt top and decided it was time. I bundled it up and sent it to my friend Kazumi to finish up…

The quilt top was made using a paper piecing pattern that I designed…and making the top was a slow and deliberate process for me as I healed. If you are interested in reading more or using the pattern you can follow the links to my earlier posts.

This quilt is our new couch quilt and my new comfort quilt. I have not kept many of my quilts but this one will be treasured. I look at it and see all the pain but also all the strength it took to keep going.

I also see lots of little treasured bits of my stash, including some fabrics which were bought decades ago when I started quilting.

I am really proud of this quilt… it is not my most creative masterpiece -my most creative quilt to date is my Michael Miller challenge quilt I think – but as I made this quilt piece by tiny piece I stitched myself back together. I am proud of that.

And I could not have done any of it without the support of my wonderful quilt holder and partner in crime. Thank you Mr Wombat.

14Apr2017

The struggle is real…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

For some unknown reason I have been struggling to get motivated to blog… I mean I have got procrastinating and deflecting down to a fine art by now. I have been quilting away the last month or so, creating and having fun, but I have struggled to get back into the habit of photographing what I am doing.

The weather here in Portland has been unhelpful… I am sick of sticking my quilts on the back fence and photographing them… I have found no end of excuses to NOT post. Finally last weekend my husband gave me a stern talking too and dragged me out to photograph some of my finished quilts. Have I mentioned how much I love him!

Anyway here is the first quilt from the selection we photographed last weekend…

drunkard path quilt

This is one of my projects from 2014 (wow has it been that long!)… I am trying to get some old WIPS finished up. I love this quilt… the solids play so nicely against the black and white prints. You can see my original post for this quilt here…

quilt details

For the quilting I used my domestic machine and walking foot to quilt round and round and round and round. I picked one of the circles that was a little of center as the start for my quilting which means the finished radiating result is not dead center.

quilt detail 2

I still struggle to get a neat start to the circle quilting…it definitely gets easier and neater as you move outwards.

quilt detail 3

The back of the quilt was pieced using bits and pieces I had floating about my stash… including a nice chunk of old Ikea fabric (the black and white illustrations).

quilt back

The finishing touch was a scrappy binding using some of my left over solid scraps. I am really thrilled with how this quilt finished up… and I am feeling motivated to try some more curves… they really are fun and easy.