Resuming the regular Paper Piecing Monday schedule…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

After a crazy few months Paper Piecing Monday is back on track. To help myself slowly get back on track I made a green version of one of my Starry Night blocks.

A twenty-four piece cute little thing. The free paper piecing pattern can be found here… Starry Night WQ block 2 and if you want to see my original version you can find it here.

This block uses four triangle pieces to make the completed 8 inch block. Last time I posted this pattern I had a couple of questions about how I put the block together… It is an easy process of sewing two of the triangle together along one side so you get a joined piece…

I then do the same thing with the other two pieces of the blocks…and then sew the two halves together. I find this makes aligning the center piece very easy.

Paper piecing Monday will be back next week with some newly designed blocks….

29Dec2014

A flurry of paper piecing…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

So how was your holiday/Christmas break? I hope it was fun and constructive and full of family and friends. Mine was definitely constructive on the paper piecing front… this is what I got finished in December….

This is a stack of 84 hexagon flowers… does not look like much so maybe this photo will help…

I became a hexagon demon this Christmas…it is the only quilting I have done for over a month which is a little unusual for me but there is a reason why. You see in October my husband casually told me that his doctor had found a “fullness” in his neck. Fast forward a week and CT showed a 8 1/2 cm tumor in his neck. Those of you that have met my husband know he does not do anything in halves and his tumor was no exception…it was twice the size of what they considered large!

So after specialist appointment and some more tests we were given a date for surgery – 22nd of December. We were allowed to go to Australia which put me into full hexagon production mode. In preparation for the month or so we had ahead of us, I bought a Fiskar hexagon punch, one of the best investments I ever made.

The punch does perfect 1 inch hexagons, so for a couple of nights I sat watching TV and punching out hexagons from scrapbooking paper I no longer use! Hundreds of them. Then scraps were then gathered from my stash and acquired from friends and I was set.

Our Aussie trip allowed me to make lots and lots and lots of hexagons… 16+ hours of flying each way allowed for a lot of sewing. I used my trusty hexagon travel kit..

and filled my hexagon storage to over flowing…

Medical appointments, surgery and recovery allowed me to turn my little hexagon collection into these…

My colour scheme is bright and consists of grey, green, aqua, blue, purple, magenta, pink, apricot, red, orange and yellow. I have a few repeats on the fabric but not too many.

I am pleased to say that the surgery went well. My darling husband has a wicked scar across his neck but the tumor was not cancerous. So now as he sits on the couch recuperating (playing computer games and listening to the cricket!) I am slowly sewing the hexagon flowers onto the main quilt.

I am trying to fill the gaps and get a straight edge happening, instead of the willy nilly placement I had going earlier. My husband declared that he wanted this quilt earlier in the year so it seemed fitting that I threw myself into its production during his medical hi jinks.

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!

17Dec2014

Continuing the catch up with curves

Posted in Quilt patterns, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

I am still playing catch up… and today’s work in progress is another project that was on my design wall before we headed to Australia… to give you a hint it all started with this…

Yep I have been making more curved blocks! It is not my fault really…you see after cutting out this quilt (you can read about the original crazy here..) I realised I had a whole collection of pink/purple quarter circles… what is a girl to do but make more blocks out of the scraps.

So I made some Drunkard paths like this…

Which became blocks like this…

So my design wall was looking like this…

I played a little with proportions on this block, making the black and white background blocks larger than the background blocks of the previous quilt. I think the solid circles hold their own well against the scrappy.

I also discovered that the smaller the circles get the harder the curved sewing becomes. This curved block is 11 inches finished, with the full circle being 8 inches in diameter.

Now of course I have a pile of black and white quarter circles, which are going to become there own quilt… yes it is a rabbit hole of curves but I already have a cunning plan for the latest scraps… I just need the time to implement it!

As it is Wednesday I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced…

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!