Playing with small curves….

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

On a whim yesterday, I decided to play with a fabric die cut machine a friend has lent me. I have never used one of these machines before but it seemed like a fun thing to use scraps on… so I grabbed some of my Cotton and Steel scraps and started cutting…

I decided to play with the Drunkards Path die that came with the machine, because it seemed like a great way to make these blocks, as the die cuts both pieces the perfect size….as opposed to the ruler method I have used in the past which leaves you with scrap pieces that are either to small or two big to use.

cut pieces

Anyway some ironing and cutting and an episode of Game of Thrones later I had a pile of curved block pieces….

cutting Now these pieces make a 3 1/2 inch curved block for a 7 inch finished circle… in other words they are small. The first thing I have learned with this project is that the smaller the curve you are trying to piece the harder it is to be accurate. After some struggles aligning the pieces accurately I finally came up with a solution… glue basting.

glue baste 2

Using my Sewline glue pen I glued around the seam line of one of the pieces of the block…

pieces

Placed the pieces together, using the notch to align and then carefully finger pressed the pieces together…

press together

It worked like a charm and another episode of Game of Thrones later (we are just finishing up Season 5 so are a little behind)… I had a nice pile of glue basted…

glue baste Now all I have to do sew them… the glue basting will make chain piecing a breeze…

sewing

And I will have my block pieces done and ready for me to play with layout….

block layout

I am glad I decided to try the die cut curves… I have learned a lot including the fact that I like my curves big….much bigger than 4 inches….

27May2016

Some bad habits…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

Some bad habits have formed over here at Wombat Quilts. I seem to have got out of the routine of documenting what I am up to, and in turn out of the habit of blogging. After a stern talking too from my darling husband I am trying to get back into the swing of writing more regularly…

The good news is that I have a plenty of finished quilts to share.. because I have not blogging does not mean I have not been making….

So turning over this new/old leaf I am starting this Friday with a lovely work in progress I have just finished…

Yep my Paper Piecing Monday green star quilt is now done… thanks in part to the wonderful long arm services of Kazumi Peterson.

Last week I did a talk at a local Traditional quilt guild and while preparing my talk I realised that I had given away most of my quilts…. I have kept a handful but I wanted more to show. So there was a couple of weeks of feverish activity to get some quilts done, as well as a trip or two to my local long armer.

I really love how the quilt to turned out with all those lovely 8 inch stars floating about on a sea of scrappy low volume prints…

There is a lot of work in this quilt, but doing a star a week really makes the process less daunting…

If you are crazy enough to want to make your own version the patterns for all these stars are on the blog… you can find them under the “Free Paper Piecing Patterns” tab.

I love the movement that quilting gives the stars… it is just a simple all over pattern but it is really effective…

I must admit I also love the little flying geese blocks I scattered around the border of the quilt… I am not usually one for adding borders but this quilt needed some space around it, and the three little triangles on all sides made everything all right…

To finish everything off I hand bound the quilt using a variety of scrappy solid and marbled greens….

This quilt also marks another finish for this quarters Finish-Along. After a very slack first quarter I have taken a decent bite out of my WIP list, while adding only a handful of new projects to my slate! If you want more information on the Finish-Along check out Debbie at A Quilter’s Table post… this quarter’s fun is already underway but you can always join in next quarter. It really has been a wonderful way to keep myself focused on finishing stuff and not just making new WIPs!!!

13May2016

A special quilt show…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I have been a little AWOL from the blog for the last couple of weeks because I have been feverishly finishing up quilts….

The first lot of finishes involved putting the finishing touches on some of the Guild’s charity quilts in time for this month’s display at Modern Domestic.

quilts on display 8

Usually when we finish up a charity quilt it is bundled up and sent off to the appropriate charity but for the last couple of months I have been collecting them so that they could be put on display at our local quilt store…

quilts on display 5

I can not explain how excited I was to see all our recent quilts hanging together. It was just so wonderful…and bright…and affirming. There are so many people who have had a hand in these quilts and there is so much love stitched into every one.

quilts on display 7

I also wanted to spotlight the newest PMQG quilt finish, so that you can see it in more detail…just in case you can not make it into the store to see it in person…..

quilts on display 4

For most of the charities we give quilts to there is a pressing need for boy quilts, and this quilt was made to as a gender neutral option…

quilting detail

Our colour scheme for the day was grey with a splash of aqua/turquoise. For a couple of months I had been putting all my grey scraps into a large bin, knowing that they would be perfect for an improv sew day.

improv quilt detail2 I love the improv days because everyone gets to do their own thing… and anything goes.

improv quilt detail There was a flurry of wonky stars made, spear headed by one of our charity sew day regulars Betty.

quilt block detail

Other people took the scraps and trimmings from other peoples blocks and made something fun.

We of course embraced novelty prints, because this is a kids quilt after all.

quilt detail

The fabulous quilting was done by another charity sew day regular, Kazumi. Kazumi is a professional long armer and you will see more of her work in the coming weeks as she has done some quilting for me recently!

A pretty little finish…

This week I finally finished up my hexagon flower baby quilt. This quilt came about after a small mistake with my hexi pelt… but it is definitely lemonade and not lemons…

hexagon baby quilt

For this quilt I took the hexagon flowers I had hand pieced and attached them to a low volume back ground… if you want to know more about my process for this you can check out my original post…

When it came time to put this quilt together I decided to use a high loft wool batting… which gives the quilt a plush softness that I think is great for a baby quilt.

hexi quilt detail

I did not want to over quilt so I echo stiched the block lines, leaving a puff flower center. Because the flowers were stitched onto the blocks before the quilt was quilted the flower has a raised feel to it.

hexi flower detail

Plus there is enough fussy cut goodness in it to make for a good game or two of eye spy….

hexis

Since I made my hexie mistake I have been avoiding my hexie pelt. I have over 100+ flowers made but I have not been brave enough to attach them to my pelt. I am hoping finishing this project up will get me over my hexagon hump… but the pelt at the moment looks like this…

hexagon quilt wip 2

25Apr2016

Adventure block number 2…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Paper piecing Monday is proud to present block two in my new quilt adventure…

I originally designed this block for my green star quilt, but did not end up using the block… but not one to waste a good pattern, I enlarged it to 12 inches for this quilt…