A little quilt showcase

I thought I would take the opportunity to share with the wider world some of the amazing Charity Quilts that the Portland Modern Quilting Guild has produced this month. For those of you who follow me, you know that I am a pretty active charity quilter and I organize our guild’s charity sewing. I am constantly amazed at the generosity and talent of our guild when it comes to our program….

Some Guild members donate orphan blocks that we make up into quilts. Our wonderful Guild president this year, Elsa, donated the blocks that made this beauty….

Elsa donated ten blocks which were sewn into a top by me, and then quilted by Coleen of The Quilted Thistle. Photos do not do Coleen’s quilting justice, it is beautiful.

Oh and did I mention the little hedgehog?

I used the tenth donated block in the back of the quilt…

Other guild members donate fully completed quilt tops to us… Sam Hunter of Hunter Design Studio donated the top and back for this beautiful quilt….

and another guild member Gail Weiss free motioned quilted all over it, to great effect…

One or two of the quilts we donate each month start life at our Charity Sew Day, which are held at our local quilt store Modern Domestic. Once a month we invade MD’s class room space and whip up blocks which in turn are made into quilts…

I love this improv rainbow quilt top. All the blocks were made at the Charity Sew Day in January by guild members including Mary Ann, Kim, Debbie, Dawn, Michelle, and Elsa. The top was then quilted by the fabulous Dawn Graf-Thiessen, another one of the Guild’s talented long armers.

The fabric for these blocks is from scraps that were also donated to the Charity Sew program. When I receive a donation of scraps I sort them into colours (each colour has its own shoe box). What is left over is put into a catch-all box of multi coloured scraps…

..and some of those scraps were used to make blocks for this bright improv quilt. In November last year I asked Guild members to make a 12 inch square bright improv block, if they wanted, which would then be used in a Charity quilt. This top was the end result…

Bright loud and fun this quilt is definitely going to make some kid very happy… The top was quilted by last years Guild president, MaryAnn. She did a great job free motion quilting on her home machine.

The last quilt I want to share is a simple quiet baby quilt…

This top was made during a Charity Sew Day by guild member Anne. She took some precut squares that had been donated to the program and made a disappearing nine patch block. On Sew days I always pack some precut or orphan blocks so that people who do not necessarily want to make the block of the month can play.

Another guild member, Emily, free motioned this darling pattern all over the quilt using her home machine. The sweet pattern works so well on this low volume quilt.

I would like the thank all the PMQG guild members who every month help our charity program in ways big and small…either by donating fabric or blocks or their time and talent. We could not do it without you. Thank you.

20Feb2015

Cushion addicton…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts by wombatquilts

I have recently become slightly obsessed with quilted cushions. It all began when I started making class sample for Modern Domestic (my local quilt shop)…and it has not stopped yet.

After making my tiny Economy block mini quilt I wanted to do a bigger version of the block, just for fun. Using a 5 inch block I made this easy cushion in no time…

I used more of my Cotton and Steel stash and just loved fussy cutting the little bunnies in particular…they are so darling. What I love about the Economy block is it is so easy to pick three colours – with this pillow it was pink, navy and yellow… and just go.

Your colourway guides your fabric choices as you rummage through your scraps and stash. As I was pulling fabric I made sure I had a variety of tones – lights and darks in the three colours. The rest is as easy…make the blocks and sew them together. Because you have a coherent colour scheme you can lay out the blocks randomly and get beautiful results.

The cushion top took twenty 5 inch blocks or if you are more adventurous you can do a baby quilt with just sixty three (63) blocks..

This cushion gave me my first opportunity to test out the walking foot on the Bernina 550… and oh what fun it was…

It was so easy to attach the foot (unlike my old machine which involved screw drivers and painters tape!) and the sewing was a breeze. I can not wait to try a bigger quilt with this foot. Hopefully next week I will have quilt done and dusted!

13Feb2015

Scrap busting quilt…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This morning I managed to finish up the improv baby quilt I started last week.

I started making blocks last week as a way to take a break from doing old WIP’s (see my original post about the process) and found myself making blocks here and there as I worked on other things.

The blocks are all random improv and used up quite a nice selection of my low volume and pastel scrap stash.

There are lots of novelty prints with enough bits and pieces to play a good game of I spy (aka eye spy). But for me the most fun of this whole process was the quilting. If you follow this blog you know I am determined this year to get better at free motion quilting and this week I got some help.

Last Friday I took delivery of a wonderful Bernina 550, which I have on loan to play with and oh what a difference a good machine makes. When it came to quilting this baby up, I was excited to attach the free motion foot and stitch regulator and really play.

Now the quilting is far from perfect but it is okay and so much better than anything I have free motioned before…. and most importantly it was great fun to do. I just free motioned squares and I am now chomping at the bit to try some new things. I have dusted off my Angela Waters books and bought Christina Cameli’s new book “Step by Step Free Motion Quilting” and I am ready to get serious about this quilting thing.

9Feb2015

A little miniature fun

Posted in Finished Quilts, Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Any one who is active on Instragram will be aware of the flurry of miniature quilt swaps going on at the moment and last week I finally succumbed signed up for one … now if I am honest I would say that I did not always get what was so cool about miniatures but I finally worked it out…

(a) It is a quilt you can complete quickly and easy and have the satisfaction of a finish

(b) You can try new techniques quickly and easily (I keep thinking they are going to be a great way to practice my free motion quilting).

So with this in mind I had some fun this weekend making 3 inch Economy blocks…

What I love about the Economy block is that it allows for really great fussy cutting and what I love about paper piecing is that it allows for accuracy when working on such a small scale.

I must admit I got a little carried away and finished a whole mini quilt this weekend…

You can find a pattern sheet for these blocks here….Miniature Economy Block and these mini blocks will join my mini log cabin and my mini flying geese patterns in the “Free paper piecing pattern” tab.

I must tell you I am not done yet with miniature patterns…but it is back to green stars next week…promise.

6Feb2015

Wee Wanders finish

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I managed to get a proper finish on one of my old wip quilt tops…finally.

This darling quilt has been made for a friend’s daughter who lives on a horse ranch. When I saw the fabulous fabric I knew I had to make her a quilt with these horses on it..

The block I used is a modern interpretation of a classic block. You can see my original post about starting this project from July last year, which includes a link to the block pattern HERE.

Most of the fabric is from the Michael Miller Fabric’s Wee Wanders by designer Sarah Jane with a number of different blenders thrown in. I love the warm colour palette floating on the crisp white background.

I must admit it was pouring rain this morning when I photographed this quilt, which means I did not get as many shots as I wanted. The quilt and the photographer were getting way to wet!

I did manage to get a quick shot of the quilt back which uses some of the left over pieces of Wee Wanders and Kona Snow. To finish up I used Kona Flame, a wonderful tomato red, for the binding.