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.

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….

31Oct2012

Scrappy four patch

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

I have just finished this quilt…..

It did not turn out quite like I wanted, but it was a fun using a new pattern to make the blocks. The center piece of the quilt was made using a quick four block pattern that was demonstrated to us at Project Linus. I have attached a version of the pattern here.

As I was finishing the quilt it was fun to see how the colour border size and shape affected the look of hte quilt. I ended up trimming the quilt a couple of times to get a balance I was happy with.

26Oct2012

Black White and Blue quilt

Posted in Finished Quilts, Other fun stuff, Quilts by wombatquilts

I have had a wonderful time getting back into colour this week.

This is actually a quilt I started a couple of years ago. I had put it away in a cupboard and forgot about it, until now. In the spirit of challenging myself I decided to finish it.

It started with a pile of fabric and a paper piecing pattern I made myself.

I have not done a paper pieced quilt in a long time, and it was a nice reminder for me how messy and fiddly they are. These days I could have easily done this quilt without a foundation pattern, but back when I started making this, I was not confident enough to do anything without a pattern.