More Tula Pink fun

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

I am still a little in holiday mode this week and have been taking things easier – which means no marathon sewing sessions or fabric cutting frenzies. What better to do in this relaxed state, than make a few more blocks for my City Sampler quilt.

Back in May I started making blocks from Tula Pink’s “100 Modern Quilt Blocks“. I loved the slow easy pace of making one block at a time – leisurely cutting the block pieces, then making the block, then moving onto the next. I made a dozen or so blocks in my first run and then put them aside. This week I added a few more blocks to the collection…

Block No 5….

My favorite No. 14..

No. 28…

And the fabulously obnoxious, the “I probably should have thrown in a solid”, No. 18….

Every time I add another block to this sampler it changes. I was playing with some of the blocks on the design wall, just to see how it was coming together and this is what I came up with….

For the finished quilt I think I will be sashing around the blocks as it is the best way to let each blocks breath and shine. So 16 blocks down…only 84 to go!

9Dec2013

Snowflakes paper piecing Monday style

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I have taken a break from my Starry Nights to make a quilt block for Nicole at Modern Handcraft. As part of the ScrapBeelicious Bee, Nicole asked for Christmas inspired blocks which put me into an absolute blind panic.

You see the truth is I do not understand Christmas quilts. It may be because where I am from it tends to be about 90 degrees + on Christmas day and a quilt is the last thing on earth you want anywhere near you. It may be because I do not understand making a quilt that you use, at most, one month of the year. Do not get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas, I just do not get Christmas quilts.

So with that in mind I pondered what to do for this month’s blocks…. and this is what I came up with.

A scrappy snowflake star. Nicole did say her colours where white, grey and red. Okay it does not scream Christmas but it is very pretty. I mashed up two of Carol Doak’s patterns again from her “50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Star” book – this time Oklahoma and Ohio. My pieces count on this one is 100 – the Oklahoma block is a little fiddly.

My next block for Nicole will be a more festive… which means I will throw in some red and maybe some green for good measure.

6Dec2013

Baby it’s cold outside…

Posted in Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I woke up this morning to find that Portland is covered in a lovely layer of snow. This does not happen often, and as an Aussie it still absolutely delights me. I was jumping round the house opening all the curtains and gleefully claiming “ohhh it is so pretty”. Then I realised I needed to photograph my quilt this morning. Glee gone.

As much as I love snow I am not a huge fan of being cold. But I rugged up, 4 layers deep, put on some gloves and bravely ventured out to photography my just finished quilt top.

This was the perfect quilt to photograph in the snow, and I have decided to call the quilt “Icicles”…it seemed like a fitting title.

This quilt is a Do.good.stitches project. I recently joined the “Hope Circle” and when it was my turn to set the block I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

We used Julie at 627Handworks “Icky Thump” block – one of the easiest and most effective paper piecing patterns EVER. You can find the free pattern here and my original post here.I love how much variety there is in this quilt. If I had made all the blocks myself the quilt top would not be this interesting – I would have stuck with light greys and turquoises. The wonderful ladies of my quilt circle instead provided me with such wonderful blocks, such variation in greys that the quilt really sings. I can not wait to get the back made and the quilt finished.

4Dec2013

Off Galavanting…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

For the last four days or so I have been off gallivanting with my husband in Canada. We took the Thanksgiving break to drive up to Vancouver Island and spend some quality off line time together. November has been a crazy month with my husband deciding to write a novel in November (nanowrmo) as well as grow a mustache. This has meant I have not seen much of my him this month and when I have I have not always recognized him!

As we left Portland on our adventure a friend commented that it is great that Nick will not be distracted by writing and I would not be distracted by quilting… my husband just laughed, he knew I had packed this…

My trusty hexagon kit. Yes I somehow managed to quilt while on vacation in the middle of nowhere. I industriously made a stack of hexagons…

and also some more flowers…

which will all be added to the ongoing crazy which is my hexagon quilt.

It has grown a little bit since I last photographed it.

There is no rhyme or reason to how I am adding the flowers… I just add randomly. It is kind of fun.

I am loving making this quilt…though it is slow going. There is something about hand stitching I find very therapeutic.

I will get back to the sewing machine this week but I am not in a hurry… and if you were curious as to just how dodgy my husband looks with a mustache…..

The answer is very dodgy!

2Dec2013

Starry night mash up…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

After putting my blocks up on the design wall last week I really wanted to try to do a different kind of star and this is what I came up with…

I threw together two different patterns from Carol Doak’s book “50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars“. I seriously love how you can mix and match the star patterns and come up with your own concoction.

For this 64 piece star I used one piece of the Montana star and one piece of Ohio. It is a unusual combination but I kind of like the fractured look the star has. I think it will go nicely with the other stars made so far.