Paper Piecing Monday

Welcome to part 12 of paper piecing Monday. My husband asked me how many stars I am going to make for this quilt, he was a little scared I was not going to stop!. I decided that 20 was the number to aim for. It will make a 4 block x 5 block quilt which will be a nice size for some kid.

This week I have one of the last compass squares from Quilting on the Square.

The paper piecing pattern can be found here Block_9_Compass_of_Many_colors.

I changed the pattern a little, choosing to use the stripped fabric instead of using another lot of background fabric. I wanted to try and get a star that was a little different from some of the others I had done.

The pattern involves 80 pieces of fabric made into 8 triangles. The finished block is 12 inches (like all the blocks I have posted so far). I threw the stars together to show you a very rough work in progress shot. I am not sure that it all works together yet, but hope as more blocks are added it will start to look more cohesive.

15Feb2013

Green & Grey finished

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I finally finished the binding on my green and grey quilt yesterday.

The quilt did not quite turn out like I envisioned it but I am pleased with the results none the less. When I started making the blocks I thought there might be more stronger contrast between the grey and green so you could clearly see the pattern of the star, but alas it was not meant to be. Instead I think I have a quilt that you have to search harder to find the repeating pattern, making the whole thing more interesting. The finished quilt is 48 inches by 48 inches, just the right size for a kids quilt if you ask me!

If you are interested in the start of the process for me, and links to the pattern you can find my older post here.

At the end of the process I had an extra block (my maths is not what it used to be) so I decided to use it on the back.

I played with a couple of different bindings (scrappy, grey and green) and settled on using a Kona solid I had in my stash. I continue to be amazed at how something as simple as a binding choice can radically change how your finished quilt looks. The solid bright green just gave the quilt an extra pop.

It would be interesting to hear what you think of the finished quilt. Does it work for you or is it too muddy? I really value the opinion of my fellow quilters/artists out there.

13Feb2013

Wonky Stars – wip Wednesday

Posted in Finished Quilts, Project Linus, Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Today’s work in progress is all about the wonky stars. When the call went out last week for more quilts to replenish the Project Linus stocks, I turned to the old faithful wonky star. It is a fast, fun way to make simple kids quilts.

I have managed to finish one quilt….

I love how the quilt turned out and in particular the scrappy nature of it. I used different white and cream blocks for the background and blues for the star. I know it should, in theory, be the other way round – blue background with white stars, but I had a stack of white/cream scraps I wanted to use up. The quilting is simple as I want to get as many of these done as I can before next weeks monthly Project Linus meeting.

The quick and easy nature of the wonky star is why I choose to focus on them for this drive. I have managed to get another top done this weekend which I will try and get quilted this week. I “borrowed” the idea from another quilter I came across on the “wip Wednesday” hop. They had used a wonderful Eric Carlyle print as the center of their wonky star to great effect. I went with a Jone Hallmark kids print that had been sitting in my stash for a while.

My final wonky star is currently sitting on my design floor waiting to be sewn. It is the left over star bits from a quilt I finished a couple of weeks ago.

I hope to have it sewn and ready for quilting by the end of tonight, so I am going to stop blogging and go sew!

11Feb2013

Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

For this week’s paper piecing Monday I have branched out and tried something a little different.

My darling husband bought me a fabulous book by Carol Doak – 50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars, which is full of amazing star patterns. So for this week I choose the Ohio Star pattern from the book and decided to use the little bits of scraps that had been accumulating from my previous blocks. This is a truly scrappy block.

The block uses two different triangle patterns to make up a quarter of the finished piece.

The back of the block looks like this…. please ignore the loose threads.

8Feb2013

Postage Stamp quilt finished

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I finally finished the postage stamp quilt…

In the end I think it was worth the madness…. though I did not make the quilt as big as I originally planned. I love the brightness and variety in this quilt. Some kid is hopefully going to love exploring all the different fabric. If you are interested in my process and a pattern link you can check out my previous post here.

Because the quilt was so busy I went with simple straight line quilting and a backing of just one fabric piece.

I am busily trying to get some more of my quilts finished, as our chapter of Project Linus has had a huge call on blankets in the last week. A local school, Crestline Elementary in Vancouver WA, burned to the ground and Project Linus is delivering 500 blankets/quilts to the kids this week. The kids affected are aged between 5 to 10 years old so the call is out to replenish our kids blanket/quilt stocks. The sewing machine will be going full pelt this weekend.

Happy quilting.