Sun & Sea quilt finished

I have just finished my sunshine and sea quilt that I started just after I came back from Australia… and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I keep looking at it and smiling. It reminds me so much of the fun time we spent at the beach, when the sun was shining and the water was warm. On this cold and over cast Portland day it reminds me that sun does shine, somewhere! Summer is not going to come quick enough for me.

The overcast day does have one advantage – it is great for taking photos (as long as it is not raining!). Okay, enough about the weather… moving on.

With this quilt I have been struck by how a quilt pattern can change when you sew the whole quilt together. I rarely map or sketch out the finished quilt. I really like to just see where it all takes me, for better or for worse. So I started the process with an easy block that looked like this.

The pattern in the block is like a simple star with four points. I mirrored the block pieces to give it a more interesting effect. When I look at the quilt now I struggle to find the stars, all I see is a pin wheel. The original pattern is in there, I just have to search a little harder for it.

This quilt was really quick and simple to make but the interesting part came when I was sewing it all together. There are sections of the quilt where 12 block pieces meet which causes a little bit of bulking, even with sewing seams flat.

To help with the bulking I chose quilting that would go through and around the center of this join. In having so much quilting through the bulk it helped flatten and strengthen this area. It also made for a lovely pattern of quilting.

A pieced back and scrappy orange binding finishes the whole thing off.

I must admit it had been a month or so since I had hand stitched the binding on a quilt and in that time I seem to have forgotten how to do it. The stitches at the start are a little big and a little rough, but by half way through the process I was back to invisible stitches. I was tempted to unpick it all but decided to leave it be. Looking at the small section where the hand stitching is visible reminds me that the quilt is hand-made and that a lot of effort has gone into the finished product.

27Mar2013

Wordless WIP Wednesday

Posted in Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

22Mar2013

Loud, bright and fun… the quilt

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

.. and the nephew. When I was back in Australia I took the opportunity to photograph the quilt I made my nephew last year. I finished the quilt just before I started blogging and forgot to photograph it before I sent it on its way. Better late than never right….

This pattern was an out-and-out steal/borrow from a “do good stitches” quilt posted on Blue Elephant’s site. I fell in love with the pattern immediately and thought it would be great for my nephew. The block is simple and the directions are easy and clear – its foundation is a 16 piece block of rainbow colours. If you are interested in the pattern check out the above link for all the great instruction straight from the source.

For the back of the quilt I used some of the extra blocks I had. I usually have blocks left over because I make more than I need so that I have choices when I am putting the finished quilt together.

This quilt replaced a baby quilt I made for my sister about 12 years ago. I actually made the quilt without knowing that my sister was pregnant or what sex the baby would be. All I knew was I was heading out on an adventure and I did not know when I would be able to quilt again. This is the much-loved, much washed old quilt.

Photographing these quilts involved more time and effort than usual as there was much misbehaving, silliness and photo-bombing going on.

In amongst the crazy I did manage to get a photo of Miss Banana and her new quilt.

What I did not manage to photograph was the hilarious sight of my 6ft tall husband walking around Portland Airport with a pink and yellow quilt sticking out of his backpack. It is a sight I will not forget in a hurry.

20Mar2013

Sun and Sea Quilt – WIP Wednesday

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

We have returned from Australia to a wet and cold Portland. Last week we were on the beach enjoying the weather and now we have freezing rain. It is meant to be spring but definitely feels like winter. To get myself out of my weather rut I decided to make a sunshine and beach inspired quilt this week.

Too start I raided my stash and pulled all the golden yellow/orange and sea blue fabric I could find.

This bright a cheery collection was then cut to make block pieces for a simplified Iowa star block (Block Central has an Iowa star paper piecing pattern that can be used) . I am not sure what the official term for this block is, so if you know please enlighten me.

In my jet lagged haze this block was about all I could handle. It is made up of four 5 inch blocks and all I had to do was sew down the two sides of the central triangle. Easy peasy. I managed to make quite a few block pieces before the sleepy haze took over. Going back to Oz is fun but the time difference is a killer.

There was, however, one advantage to the 14 hour flight back to the USA – I had some time to do some hexies. I had never done English paper piecing before but I had been drooling over other people’s hexies for months. Then, just before I flew out the Portland Modern Quilt Guild did a tutorial and I was hooked. To prepare for the flight I:

1. printed a pile of 1 inch hexagon blocks (I used the Hexagon creator at http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/) ,

2. cut a stack of fabric squares – lots of fussy cut bits a pieces; and

3. found a pair of small travel scissors that would not freak out the airline security guys.

So in between sleeping I managed to make this wonderful collection of hexies…. 51 down, 549 too go.

I am not sure what I am going to do with them. My husband is encouraging me to work out what I want to achieve before I get to far into making hexies (he is concerned by my lack of a plan!). I have been toying with the idea of doing the classic hexie flower and I may try to a couple to see how they look.

Now it is back to sunshine and the beach…..

18Mar2013

Paper Piecing Monday part….

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

Okay I am loosing count of how many Paper Piecing Monday’s I have done (could be jet lag!). It does not seem to matter too much…. the more the merrier right. So this week I mixed up the patterns again from Carol Doak’s 50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars to make this.

I went back to scrappy this week, using part of the Oklahoma block and part of the Ohio block from the book. The block took 92 pieces, some of them very small. It was a great way to use up more bits and pieces I had collected.