My blue period continues…

Posted in Other fun stuff, Quilt patterns, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

This week I got a little side tracked by a pile of scraps sitting around my sewing space. Most of the time I do a good job of keeping my creative urges under control – I usually jot the idea down in my note-book and go back to what I should be doing. This week the “should be doing” was quilting my sister in laws quilt... instead I took the scraps from that quilt and made some of these…

Yes the scraps from the project I SHOULD have been finishing tempted me into making log cabin blocks. In my defense I had a whole pile of 2 1/2 inch strips of fabric already cut and lots and lots of scrappy little ends of fabric. They cried out to be made into a log cabin, and I could not ignore it. The end result of this diversion is this lovely little top…

This 40 x 40 inch quilt top took me about 4 episodes of “Top of the Lake” to make and came together really easily. I already knew the colours worked together and all the cutting was done I just had to make log cabins.

I am really beginning to love what you can do with solids. I struggled with the first quilt with the lack of pattern, but now can not wait to make my next solids quilt. I have a cunning plan already.

This fun little exercise not only distracted me from my quilting to do list, but also added another UFO to my pile, but it was worth it. The only hard thing about this quilt so far has been photographing it in the howling wind this morning…

20Jan2014

The drama of Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Oh it has been a fun morning of paper piecing this Monday (please note this statement is to be read with an Aussie accent and a hefty amount of sarcasm). This week I designed my first 12 inch star block. I was pleased with what I had come up with and that I was finally getting a hang of the design software. I printed out the pattern, sewed up the blocks till I had four square blocks…

I had colour coded my pattern because I wanted to play with the lights and darks of this block and was thrilled with how things were working out. Then I went to sew the squares together and discovered a tiny design fault – one of the seams does not line up exactly… insert appropriate swear words.

Frustrated I decided to sew the whole star together anyway just to check out the design… this is how it looks.

I was planning on attaching the pattern for this block, but I now have to go and amend it. I will make sure a correct and proper pattern is attached to this Star in my “Free Paper Piecing Patterns” section as soon as possible.

I am now debating whether to unpick it, start again or just call it good and move on.

17Jan2014

Christine’s Quilt

Posted in Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

Some how, in between meetings, deadlines, dr’s appointments and the usual day to day chaos I managed to finish the top for my sister in law’s quilt. I was of course hoping to finish the whole quilting process by today but life had other plans. This is as far as I have got…

I made the blocks for this quilt using the Trip Around the World process and then instead of sewing the strips in order I mixed things up a little. My blocks ended up looking random and pixellated and a little cool. You can find my original post about the block here.

So now I have a quilt top made up of 2 inch squares of solid blues with a hint of blue purple thrown in. My stash of solid blues is now almost depleted but I am so thrilled with the result.

Now I just have to quilt this cascading waterfall up, bind it and get it to SoCal. Not a problem!

15Jan2014

Trying to quilt by my own advice…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week I discovered that there is a down side to giving advice on the internet – because it is there in black and white you need to make sure you are taking your own advice. My “Quilting Bee Etiquette” has come back to haunt me this week as I struggled to get my December Bee blocks out on time. You see blocks are generally considered late if they arrive past the 15th of the following month, and I could not, should not, would not be late. So this last week has been about getting Bee blocks done.

First up was the last block for my Scrapbeelicious December run. I had done one Christmas themed block for Nicole at Modern Handcraft but needed another block. My original plan was to do a 12/2 inch Dresden plate. I cut the fabric, sewed it all together and discovered it was 20 1/2 inches big. Whoops. Some quick re-calculations, more cutting, more sewing and voila, the b%$#y block was 14 inches square. My solution was this…

Scrapbeelicious December Block –

An “adjusted” Dresden Plate block that is exactly 12 1/2 inches square. Seeing this is a sampler quilt my adjustments will work well. This block, along with my Snowflake block should be winging their way to Nicole today (as per the Bee Etiquette rules my Queen knows they will be late).

I did make the deadline for my other December blocks by the skin of my teeth. The Do.good.stitches Hope Circle blocks for December were easy, I cut the fabric out and then promptly forgot to sew it all together. A polite reminder from the Queen had me sewing them up and posting them the same morning…

That same day I decided to tackle the January Do.good blocks to avoid the embarrassment of another reminder email (I like to be on time or early wherever possible)…

Wonky log cabins in blue with a grey border… easy peasy..

My final WIP for this week is not a really a Bee block, but is the start of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild’s 2014 Medallion Quilt. This year, instead of doing a BOM our guild is doing a Medallion quilt, starting with a center 16 1/2 inch center block.

Yep I have become a little Dresden obsessed. I blame my EZ Dresden ruler… it is all its fault, plus I see it as a challenge to improve my really bad math skills!

13Jan2014

Paper Piecing Monday… better late than never

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Paper Piecing Monday was delayed a little this week by a stonking cold that took me out of action for a few days. I am feeling a little more human today and managed to get this simple little star block made, thru the Dayquil/Lemsip haze…

This block is 6 inches by 6 inches and was again designed in response to my search for smaller star blocks for my Starry Night Quilt. This is a much simpler block than last week, I got a ribbing for calling last week’s block “simple” at 40 pieces. This week’s 20 pieces is definitely simple…right! You can find the pattern here…Starry Night WQ block 2.

I like the 4 triangle piece pattern of this block and may fiddle some more with it to get some different kind of stars. Next week I am going to scale up and aim to get a 10 inch block designed and made… stay tuned.