My To Do list for 2014…

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

This week I have been thinking about New Years Resolutions a bit – my personal resolutions like “visit hospital less this year”, our family resolutions like “get our kitchen in shape” and finally my quilting resolutions.

This last resolution list is a long long long long one. I seem to have put more thought into it than any other and the highlights include:

1. Finish up the stack of quilts I have started including….

Briar Rose quilt top from October

Lost Geese quilt top from September

Star String quilt from August

1930’s Star quilt… circa 2000

2. Tackle making a curved block or quilt no matter how terrified I am.

3. Finish making the blocks for a number of quilts I started and then put aside including…

My Jacaranda inspired blocks from April 2013

My Princess bubble gum quilt

My Tula Pink City Sampler qult

4. Make more charity quilts… make them simple, easy and fun. I want to commit to delivering at least 2 a month in 2014.

5. Finish up projects where the blocks are done but for some reason I have not put the top together…

Work in progress granny quilt blocks. Simple bright quilt block

My Granny Square quilt

My red & aqua star quilt

My Denyse Schmidt Zakka Flower quilt

6. Design more paper piecing patterns.

7. Improve my free motion quilting. Practice and practice and practice.

8. Finally make a quilt for my husband.

I am excited by the promise of what 2014 can bring… and all the quilting yet to come. This year I am Programs Coordinator for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild which is going to be a hoot and means even more quilting in my already quilt stuffed life. I look forward to sharing my quilting journey with you and seeing what amazing things you also create.

8Jan2014

Going with the flow…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Last Friday I became determined to make my sister in-law a quilt. I had spent months procrastinating, putting idea after idea up on the design wall and pulling it all down again. All I really had to go on was that she loves blue and is a no-nonsense, straight talking, fabulous woman. Finally I decided to do a blue trip around the world quilt. I delved into my stash and pulled out all my blue solids, which I was surprised to discover was a substantial wad and set to work.

I spent Saturday merrily cutting 2 1/2 x 16 1/2 inch strips from my pile of solids. I loved the colours together but I was becoming less and less sure about the quilt design. As my darling husband commented on Saturday evening “don’t those trip around quilts tend to have patterns in them”. Yes my nervousness at the lack of pattern in my fabric was getting to me. I had made a solid trip along before which turned out nicely…

but I was still nervous about it. With no other viable options at this point, I continued the process – sewing the strips in groups of 6, then sewing it into a tube, then cutting the tube into 2 1/2 strips. If you have done a Trip Around the World you know the process… if you do not know what I am talking about Quiltsville is where it all started. So now I had a stack of strips of squares…

Usually you pull your tube’s apart and put them back together in just a way to get this block…

but it was at this point in the process I threw out the instructions and went a little wild. I started sewing random strips together so my blocks look more like this…

I was not sure if it would work, but the idea of doing another Trip Around quilt all of a sudden was not at all appealing. So now I have a wild, pixelated, modern quilt that is coming together like this…

And I love it. I am so thrilled with how my deviation from the plan is working out. I am embracing the random and the crazy and just going with it. So far I have 8 blocks done and have 22 more to go. My design wall currently looks like this…

and I am so thrilled. It was not how I planned things, it is so much more cooler.

6Jan2014

Yep more Starry Nights

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had struggled to find some smaller blocks for my Starry Night quilt, so I have been working on designing some smaller blocks for my quilt. This week’s block is a simple 8 inch block…

You can find the pattern I made here…WQ Starry Night Block 1. It is a simple 40 piece block with no really small pieces (which is the problem I found with shrinking a lot of the more complex patterns).

As a side…when I ran my test block I did not number the pattern, but I promise the attached pattern sheet has numbered pieces…promise.

3Jan2014

A special little quilt

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

Last night I managed to finish one of two little quilts I have been wanting to make for a while now. These quilts are special not just because of their lack of colour, but because of the thinking behind them.

This simple little quilt is made up of a variety of 3 inch squares of white and cream tone on tone fabrics. I was inspired to make this quilt after seeing the fabulous Molli Sparkle’s “No Value quilt“. It was a challenge to work with just white but it was great fun. I ended up using off white and cream to get some variation in the quilt, so the eye had something to follow.

So why tiny little white quilts… Christmas last year some friends of our suffered the heartache of having their son be still born. It is a heart ache I can not imagine, but one that a few people I know have suffered. There was nothing I could do at the time but cry, support and pray. Recently I was talking to some members in our Project Linus group who told me about the little white blankets that a group had been knitting and crocheting for some local hospitals. These tiny blankets are used to wrap a child in when it is presented to its parents to say goodbye. The parents can then take the blanket home as a remembrance of their child.

I do not knit but I thought that a tiny quilt would be just as useful. So I set about making two little quilts in remembrance of my friends and their son. As with all my quilts there is a splash of Mirror Ball and a splash of Pearl Bracelet fabric… and a huge dash of love.

I backed this quilt with a scrap of white fabric I had and a splash Mirror Ball and bound the quilt with Michael Miller’s Couture Cotton in Cream.

I have one more of these quilts to bind and then they are off to do their job of bringing comfort and support. There are a number of wonderful charities that delivery blankets/quilts to hospitals for this need, including Forever Warm in the USA, Sands in Australia, Sands in the UK and of course your local Project Linus chapter or Neonatal hospital.

On a much happier note, our friends who suffered such heartbreak last year have just had a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Life really is a wonderful roller coaster of a ride.

30Dec2013

Another Starry Night wonder

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

After a relaxing week off I am slowly getting back into the swing of quilting again…very slowly. For this week’s paper piecing Monday I decided to do another Carol Doak star.

I do love how this blocks look all fractured and broken but really beautiful at the same time. For this star I used the Washington Star pattern from my trusty copy of “50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars”.

This block, and it’s 64 pieces was a real scrap buster. I did not cut one piece of fabric to make this block and just used bits and pieces from my scrap bin. This process made me realise I have way to many little bits of fabric….sorting thru my scrap bins is now on my “Things to Do in 2014” list.