My first finish for 2015

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

Okay I have a quilt finished…and it is was on my wip list for this year so yeah me!

I started this quilt last year but it took me while to finish…and if I am honest I had some help. My fabulous friend Lisa did the quilting on this baby using her wonderful Bernina (I have such sewing machine envy it is ridiculous).

The loud, bright colours of this quilt were inspired by my local Shell Service station (aka. gas station). You can find my original post, with the paper piecing pattern I used, here.

And if you look closely you can see some of the handful of blocks that I reversed…that is they have yellow geese with a red background. I used this reverse colour scheme on the back of the quilt too…

I must admit I love how the back turned out and it was so easy to do. I used a couple of sheets of my husbands extra large graph paper (I am hoping he does not notice they are missed!) to make a paper pieced pattern and just sewed away.I may be a little addicted now to putting big versions on the block on the back…we will see how long it lasts!

This baby is now headed to Project Linus to be loved on….

8Jan2015

Looking forward and looking back…

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

This week, as I was reading peoples posts of their quilting goals for 2015, I was reminded that I had made a list for 2014 and that I really should revisit it….

I was a little hesitant but I am please to say that 2014 was not a complete bust and I did accomplish some of my 2014 goals including finishing my Briar Rose Quilt, my Granny Square quilt, my Red star quilt and my Tula Pink quilt. I am also very pleased that I managed to conquer my fear of curves this year.

2014 also saw some great firsts for me including being a finalist in this years MQG Michael Miller Challenge with this quilt…

and I was published in a magazine…

and I was thrilled to be selected as part of Sew Mama Sew’s “31 Inspiring Quilters” series.

Unfortunately the 2014 list also contained some things that now have to carry over into my 2015 list so to those projects I need to add…..

1. Quilt up my UFO quilt tops including my Jaffa quilt …

My Altlantic Sea quilt…

and my PMQG Medallion Quilt

2. Finish some of the projects that are currently sitting in boxes in my craft room including..

and

I actually have 11 shoe boxes with WIP blocks in them and 9 quilt tops which need quilting. I may have a commitment problem, I admit it!

So I have decided that in January I am not allowed to start any more projects at all and I am going to spend January and February trying to clear the backlog. I am not sure if I am strong enough not to start anything new but some of the projects are so old it will feel like they are new…right…right… oh please say they will!

19Dec2014

Finishing the catch ups…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

To finish up my catch up posts I have the last quilt I made to take to Australia. The finish was so last minute (binding the day before we flew out!!!) I did not get a chance to post about this quilt before I left…

This granny square quilt has been a pile of blocks for nearly two years but finally became a quilt for my darling friend Vicki. The day before we left I managed to get it bound and washed ready for the quilt suitcase…

There is something wonderfully vintage feeling about this quilt. I think the post wash crinkle helps…

There are not a lot of photos of this top because (1) I did not finish it in time to do a proper photo shoot and (2) the wind was blowing a gale making photos hard…

I did manage to get the husband to help and it is his fingers and feet you can see sticking out from under this quilt. He did remind me to take a photo of the back of the quilt too… probably because the back was his idea…

The conversation went Nick: “it would be cool to do just one big block for the back” Me: “why not”. And now I will now tell you why not…. the big block was all bias and stretch and a right royal pain the butt. I now listen to my husbands quilting advice, say “thanks dear” and promptly ignore it…it is easier that way!

The quilt was finished off with some Kona solid scrappy binding and delivered to its owner a couple of weeks ago… on a 95 degree day which was a little weird seeing it had been finished off a week earlier on a 38 degree day!

12Dec2014

Catch Up #2 – a quilty finish

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

Continuing my catch up mode, today I want to share a quilt that I made for last Quiltmarket…yes I am that behind in my blogging!

Maywood Studio’s approached me to make a quilt top for them for their new range of fabric, Catalina. They had a pattern that they wanted to use, but did need someone who paper pieced.

Yep I made that….using Sam Hunter’s fabulous “Bloomin” pattern.

This top was the first time I had worked with a fabric company to make a project just using one line. I was initially worried that I would not be able to get enough variety in the flowers to make them feel scrappy but as I started cutting I soon realised that it would not be an issue.

The Catalina line has some great border prints and large colourful florals and I found cutting them up into smaller strips, I had a lot of variety. I was thrilled with how it all turned out. The quilt was finished off with some amazing quilting by Nancy Stovall of Just Quilting.

Oh and did you notice how tidy my work is. I was so crazy obsessed with making sure this top had NONE of my usual stray cottons and messy edges. In the end I was more impressed with my ability to be neat than anything else with this project!

10Dec2014

Catch Up #1… Teaching paper piecing

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

The first lot of news I wanted to share was that just before I left for Australia my fabulous local quilt store – Modern Domestic – asked me to teach introductory classes on paper piecing. My immediate response was YES… of course…I want to corrupt/bring to the darkside as many quilters as I can.

I love paper piecing and love the amazing results you can get from the process. It initially surprised me that so many people had not tried this technique (I wrongly thought that everyone started with paper piecing and went from there!).

So for this class I designed a 16 inch star block, which can easily be turned into a pillow.

It really is a pretty easy pattern but very effective. This sample uses some of my Liberty bits and pieces, a splash of Kona cotton and Essex linen for the background. I loved how this sample turned out… but I did not stop there. I also made…

A Pearl Bracelet version…of course.

If you are interested in the class you can find all the details on Modern Domestic’s website…JUST CLICK HERE. My first class is next week, and we plan to offer this class throughout next year.