Another quilt top done…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

If you follow me on Pintrest you will know that I have been obsessed this past week with finishing my orange and brown quilt top. I got a bee in my bonnet and could not let it go, even though I had other pressing quilts with deadlines.

The quilt started life some months ago as this simple block – you can find the free paper piecing pattern link on my original post. So over the last week I have feverishly been making blocks….sew, iron, trim repeat.

With scrap quilting there is not a lot of opportunities to chain piece usually but with this project I found myself chain piecing a bit. First I chain pieced an orange block to a brown block and then I match up those units and chain pieced the blocks together. It worked wonderfully well and I used so much less thread. Eventually it all came together to make this…

I love the meta pattern this block creates…and I extra love the scrappy feel to the quilt. The splashes of white and the variation in the tones of both the orange and brown make the top really sing.

The paper pattern makes for pretty accurate piecing so that there is a lovely crispness to the points and joins.

Now all I have to do is rip the paper off, baste, quilt and bind it. I already have a backing fabric chosen and have a name picked out. This is my Jaffa quilt.. .named after a fabulous Aussie chocolate orange lolly/sweet/candy.

6Jun2014

Group effort quilts

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

First up I wanted to thank everyone for the wonderful, supportive comments that were left on my last post. After being so nervous about sharing my story, you made me so glad I opened up. Thank you.

Now back to the regularly scheduled programming….today I am thrilled to share two finished quilts that were made as part of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild Charity Sew days….

A fabulous group of ladies helped make blocks, piece and quilt these beauties which were made for local charity Camp Erin. If you are interested in making your own simple quilt like this check out my post about the block we choose for directions.

Finished PMQG chairty quilt 2

The block was so simple but really effective – we managed to get two large tops made in one day. At the same time we also managed to make sure that each top had its own unique flair.

For both these quilts we used the Guild’s left over Riley Blake Challenge fabric. We had quite a few of our Guild members share their left over pieces with us with some added touches – Rachel supplied the coolest airplane fabric, Michelle supplied the navy umbrellas and I raided my stash for some Pearl Bracelets in navy, yellow and grey.

Our two completed tops were then handed over to two of the Guild’s fabulous longarmers, Dawn and Jolene, who set to work weaving their magic.

For the backing we used some of the bigger pieces from the Riley Blake stash and I then add some scrappy binding for the finishing touch.

We now have two fabulous teen boys quilts done and ready to add to our growing collection of quilts for Camp Erin.

16May2014

A quick and simple finish for Friday

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

Yesterday I dropped off some quilts to Project Linus, including my finish for the week, a simple patchwork quilt…

A few weeks ago our local chapter put a call out for baby quilts the same day I bought a half yard of the most darling print from Michael Miller’s “Wee Wanders” range.

Using this print as inspiration, I pulled some supporting fabrics in blue, green and aqua, cut some 5 inch squares and went to work.

I of course thru in some of my trusty favorites – can you spot the Mirrorball and the Pearl Bracelets?

I went with simple straight line quilting in a diagonal grid. Nothing fancy but I like the detail it brings to the simple squares.

The backing is a single piece of fabric from my stash… that is one of the joys of a baby quilt, you can usually just pull a yard or so from your stash and you are good – no extra piecing needed. The final touch was simple electric blue binding.

The quilt was delivered yesterday to Project Linus for processing. It will then be sent out into the world to do some good.

9May2014

Some low volume fun…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts by wombatquilts

I have just manage to finish up one of two low volume quilts I have been commissioned to make… despite the universe conspiring against me getting a finish for Friday.

Recently I was asked to make two low volume quilts for some adorable twin toddlers… with the instructions to make sure there was lots of pink, green and purple and only a small hint of yellow or orange, if necessary.

Okay I found it necessary to use a hint of orange just to include these adorable Heather Ross mice but other than that I stuck to the instructions.

Pulling the fabric stack was fun – the first round was only fabrics with a white/cream background and then I went back and pulled out a couple of soft pastels. I find low volume quilts some of the easiest to pull fabric for, because you are using fabric that reads as light but are not worrying too much about scale or style.

And when in doubt there is always the quick trick of photographing your fabric and turning the photo black and white to see how the fabric reads. I usually do this step when I have the blocks up on the design wall and always end up rearranging the blocks and sometimes removing a fabric or two altogether.

I of course had a fun time putting in as many novelty prints as I could…. because what kid quilt is completely without the ability to play “I Spy”.

For the back of the quilts I fully embraced pink… choosing some of my favorite fabrics to highlight, namely some Lizzy House “Catnap”.

I kept the quilting simple and went with a soft pink binding, in a shade just a little different from the backing solid and chose to attach the binding by hand. I love the hand-made touch that hand binding gives to a quilt… those little stitches let the recipient know that the quilt was made with love.

Now all I have to do is finish up the binding on the second quilt and they will be ready to send to their new owners.

25Apr2014

Metallic Mini Finished

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I managed to get my Modern Metallic mini quilt finished, just in time to get it entered in PNW Metallic Challenge competition.

This quilt is made up of 3 inch log cabin blocks, you can find the paper piecing pattern I used in my original post. As it was a metallic challenge I choose my most favorite metallic fabric, Michael Miller’s Mirror Ball Dot in Rice, Silver, Platinum, Onyx and a splash of Citron.

I knew I really wanted to quilt with metallic thread though I had never done it before. First up I tried hand quilting but that was an unmitigated disaster. Metallic thread is so fine that I was just making a hash of everything. After several attempts to get hand quilting to work, I finally resorted to machine quilting, which has its own issues.

This time I was smart enough to do some online research… resulting in a tips list:

1. Use a new, sharp needle.
2. Load a lighter weight neutral thread in your bobbin
3. Loosen the upper tension on your machine and make sure the metallic thread is not catching on any particular point.
4. Stitch really really slowly to avoid breakage.
5. Try not to get too upset when the thread breaks.

I can not imagine trying to quilt a normal size quilt with metallic thread. I do not have the patience to even attempt such a feat but I will be forever in awe of anyone who is crazy enough to do it!

As for the last step, binding, I was ridiculously indecisive and actually bound this quilt twice! My first biding was a citron solid – which I was not thrilled with and so unpicked. I finally settled on a solid black binding, something neutral and not too fussy. I have never unpicked a binding before but when you are dealing with something so small you can make these rash decisions and change your mind without too much hassle.