Paper Piecing Monday

As part of my quilting adventure I have decided to do a sampler quilt of sorts, doing a new block every Monday. I have been wanting to do a red and aqua quilt for a while now and this seemed like a great opportunity to use those little bits and pieces of fabric I have been collecting – a 1/4 yard at a time!

I love paper piecing because it frees me from the trauma of measuring and cutting exactly. As a beginner quilter most of my quilts were paper pieced. I am not a precise person and paper piecing allows me to do intricate blocks quickly and easily. It feels a little like cheating!

I decided to focus on stars for the first round of Paper Piecing Monday and after some surfing, found a great site, Quilting on the Square, which has given me my first lot of paper piecing patterns for this challenge.

The pattern is relatively simple, with nice easy instructions. This is the PDF of the pattern block2spinningpoints or you can visit the Quilting on the Square site at http://www.quiltingonthesquare.com/compass-collection.aspx.

The basic block pieces

It takes eight of these pattern pieces to make the completed block. I went with the little more traditional tone on tone fabrics for this block, but I am looking forward to making it again with a little more adventurous fabric choices.

The am thrilled with the finished block…it is a great start to this project.

30Nov2012

Misadventures in quilting….

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

It has been a few weeks since I last posted but I promise I have a good excuse. I hurt my shoulder about 6 weeks ago and have struggled to do simple things with limited use of my right hand. It really made quilting a slow and painful process. I desperately wanted to sew but could only stand short stints. So it took me a few weeks to finish the piecing and quilting on my latest creation.

My inspiration for this quilt was a fun floral fabric I had found at Joann’s and I built the quilt around the colours from that fabric, using mainly scraps from my collection. I made a collection of different square blocks, just doing what ever took my fancy.

Then for some reason I decided that it would be a good idea, with a sore neck and shoulder, to stipple quilt the finished quilt top. Madness I know. I have only stipple quilted twice before, and I believe both times I swore never to do it again. For those that do not know, stipple quilting is process of free hand quilting a random, rambling pattern onto the quilt like this…

So over the course of the last couple of nights I have battled with my machine and my disobedient arm, to finish the quilting. A couple of times I thought about unpicking it all but that just seemed crazy. As I look at the finished top I am not thrilled with it at all. If I could do it all again I would do something different but as my husband pointed out to me, some kid is going to get this quilt and love it.

So now I just have to do the binding and it will be ready for delivery to Project Linus. Hopefully it’s new owner will not see all the quilting mistakes I do.

18Nov2012

Project Linus

Posted in Project Linus by wombatquilts

Thursday was the monthly meeting of the Portland chapter of Project Linus. Project Linus is a volunteer non-profit organization whose mission is to provide a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized or otherwise in need through the gift of new handmade blankets, afghans and quilts. If you would like know more visit the official site at www.projectlinus.org.

Once a month we gather to process the quilts that have come in… usually between 250 and 350. We sort, check, label and fold.

Some finished blankets ready for delivery.

This month I delivered 8 quilts to the chapter, then spent time at the folding table. These are the quilts I dropped off……

There is always lots of laughter and fun at these meetings. It is an amazing group of women and men that give up their time to help this cause. We hear about where the quilts are going, are read thank you notes that have come in, we share patterns, swap fabric and generally have a jolly time.

At the end of this afternoon we had processed 375 quilts and blankets. Over a hundred of them are heading to the East Coast to kids affected by the recent Sandy Storm. A number of quilts are heading to a local women’s shelter and we had a collection of Christmas quilts that are going to the local children’s hospital for the holiday season. The rest will go out to a variety of organizations around Portland.

I am now off to start my next quilt, which will no doubt end up being processed at the December meeting.

8Nov2012

Wonky Star Addicted

Posted in Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I have become addicted to making wonky star quilts. I find them easy and fun, and it is a great pattern when I have to make quilts in a hurry. I have made at least 10 of these quilts so far, all of them different in some way.

I have just started another one. I was inspired to make the quilt by a charm pack of 5 inch squares of Pat Bravo’s colorful Oval Elements fabric (www.liveartgalleryfabrics.com/oval.html) and Elizabeth Hartman’s Sparkle Punch pattern as the inspiration for the star layout (www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2012/01/sparkle-punch-quilt-along.html).
Like most of my star quilts, it is completely scrappy. I raided my scrap bins for brights to compliment my selected Oval Elements squares, as well as tone on tone whites. I am hoping to have the top finished this week some time… but here is a sneak peek.

6Nov2012

Low Volume Part 2

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

My first low volume quilt is now finished. I started this quilt a couple of weeks ago and blogged about my struggle working without bright colours here.

I opted for a simple straight line quilting, it was all that seemed to be needed for this quiet quilt.

I backed the quilt with a wonderful Alexander Henry fabric I had in my stash. I must admit I back a lot of my quilts with either Alexander Henry or Michael Miller or IKEA fabrics.

I love how the quilt ended up. I was not sure at first but it grew on me as it came together. I was so pleased I have started a new low volume quilt – this time using a log cabin pattern. There was something fun about using such a structured pattern in an unstructured way. Here are some of the blocks I have done so far….