Paper Piecing Monday

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.

6Feb2013

Symphony of colour – WIP Wednesday

Posted in Quilt patterns, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

My work in progress Wednesday is just full of colour. I have started a new quilt this week – another classic pattern with bright colours.

The pattern is called a double pinwheel and the components of the block are really simple. McCalls has a great link to making the block the traditional way – though I only used one half of their pattern. The link to their site can be found here. I once again raided my scrap box to start this project, as well as cutting into my stash a little – I was woefully short on purple scraps in particular! Because of the high contrast in the colours seams are everything and I must admit they are not as aligned as I would like with this block. Practice makes perfect, so onto the next block!

I have also finished the top for my pink and gold quilt. My niece quickly claimed this quilt as her own so there is a impetuous to finish it. We are now at the fun stage of pulling paper off the back. I do find this part of the process therapeutic but very very messy,

And last but not least, I have just finished basting the grey and green quilt I started a couple of weeks ago.

Now I just have to quilt it!

4Feb2013

Paper Piecing Monday Part 10

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

Wow I can not believe I am already ten posts into paper piecing Monday, and I am coming to the end of the wonderful patterns by Quilting on the Square. I have found some more patterns that I love and will be sharing in the coming weeks but for now we have another compass star.

As mentioned it is another Quilting on the Square pattern which you can download here block3wheeloffortune. If I was to do this block again I would make some different fabric choices. I love the background fabric but I think the two fabrics in the red border are not different enough (more contrast is needed). I must admit at times I have trouble envisioning how the block will come together and there have been quite a few stars that I would like to redo.

Happy quilting!

30Jan2013

Finally back in the Pink…WIP Wednesday

Posted in Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

It has been a couple of quilts since I raided my pink fabric stash and I was having withdrawal symptoms. This was the cure…..

I am using an old pattern called “stick something in the middle” which I first used many many years ago, mainly to highlight fussy/novelty prints. When I dusted the pattern off, I saw it a little differently. I can no longer find the original link to this pattern or Mary Ann’s site unfortunately. So hopefully you can just pull the pattern off this blog directly and use it, if you want.

So this week my work space (our living room) is full of pink and yellow fabric, and gold thread is replacing grey on my husbands shirt! The space may look at little messy but there is method in the chaos.

So I am slowly adding blocks to my pile. As I have been progressing with this quilt I have been adding a few more fabrics – mainly some darker pinks and a few oranges. I felt the quilt needed a little more punch.

I will post photos of the finished quilt in the coming weeks.

25Jan2013

Low volume Log cabin finished

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt patterns, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

Late last night, while watching fabulously trashy TV, I finally finished up my low volume log cabin quilt. I am thrilled with the end result, even though I doubted myself a few times during the process.

This is my second low volume quilt. My first one was made up of simple square blocks, this one I decided to do a log cabin block. My previous post can be found here and here. I love the log cabin block and was inspired to use this traditional pattern by Susan Beal’s wonderful book Modern Log Cabin Quilting. This pattern allowed me to really (a) raid my scraps and (b) include an amazing number of fabrics.

For this quilt I did use a paper piecing pattern and you can find a similar one here thanks to quilterscache.com. For non paper piercers Connecting Threads has a great log cabin tutorial (with videos and all) which can be found here.

My two low volume quilts have been a challenge for me. As you can tell from my other quilts I love colour and contrast and with low volume I was well and truly out of my comfort zone. What was not a challenge, this time, was the quilting. I decided to just run vertical lines down the quilt, using the block’s lines as a guide for my walking foot. It was a lot quilting/stitching (more tthan I usually do), but the end result is what makes me really love this quilt. I can not wait to see how it puckers after washing!

I used a single fabric print for the backing – a charming Kaffe Fassett floral which worked nicely withe the gentle tone of the front of the quilt. I finished the quilt with some scrappy grey binding, just the right colour to bring the whole thing together.