A year of Bear Paws….

2020 was definitely the year of Bear Paw blocks for me. I taught a color class for Modern Domestic, a local quilt store, which was all about color in quilting. We used a fabulous book by Rachel Hauser of Stitched in Color called a Quilters Field Guide to Color as a resource… and like Rachel does in the book we workshopped color using Bear Paw blocks. What this means is I made enough bear paw blocks to finish up 8 quilts… you are going to see a lot of bear paws over the coming months.

But before I started my over zealous production of bear paws for class, I set the block as my Do Good Stitches block. Actually in May 2019 I posted about making two blocks at a time in various sizes… the result of the tutuorial and my Bee mates work is this stunning quilt…

This quilt uses blocks that are 3, 6, 9 and 12 inches big… a whole rainbow of colors…. and tons and tons of scraps.

Each body of the bear paw is made up of four squares which allows for maximum fussy cutting potential and scrap usage. I know with the blocks I made I had a blast finding different novelty prints to cut up.

Now laying out this quilt was not to hard because there was a logic to the size blocks I chose – using a 3 inch grid…. but being a perfectionist I did um and ah about it a lot. It sat on my design wall for a bit before I was happy with it.

It was slightly tedious to sew together…. I grouped blocks together where I could and only had a few partial seams to deal with. I could have made it easier on myself and just gridded the layout so there were no difficult seams but in the end I loved the layout I had put up… it does not feel regular or predictable.

So this post I am giving you half the Nick pinkies photos to end… as well as the a full body shot. Mr Wombat is usually pretty camera shy but I snuck this picture of him. His identity is safe as he is fully masked LOL.

This quilt headed into the wild last year via the Portland Modern Quilt Guilds charity quilt program… which we somehow managed to keep going despite a world wide pandemic… actually we managed to get 15 to 20 quilts a month to our local Pediatric Intensive Care Unit which was quite a feat.

4Dec2021

Lets play catch up…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

First I want to say thank you to everyone for the well wishes and kind comments on my last post. I read them all… and will slowly work through responding but know I was really touched by the reaction to my news. It was not an easy post to write but now that it is done I can start with the quilt catch up…

And first up is one of my favorite finishes over the last year or so… an improv cool tree quilt…

I started this top in 2019 when I was teaching Improv quilting at Modern Domestic…. I had a pile of light blue fabrics and wanted to use them…

I have definitely made improv trees before usually with green follage of varying shapes and brown trunks… but with this quilt I limited myself to triangle trees in navy blue with dark grey for the trunks.

I used up a bit of my navy/blue scrap pile but really busted through my light blue/light grey stash and scraps. There is a fun “anything goes” with improv and it all seems to work… as long as you define some rules to begin.

For this quilt my parameters were for the background either light blue or light grey or low volume with blue print. I wanted the background to read overall cold. You can see from the pictures the cream based fabrics have a little warmth to them but they are not over powering.

The trees were navy or a dark blue. The touches of different shades of blue, like the royal blue add interest to the tree tops, so that they are not just a solid navy.

For the back of the quilt I used a piece of Tula Pink wide back that I was gifted by a friend. In the last couple of years I have been piecing a lot of my quilt backs….using up bigger cuts of fabric and scraps of wide back. I am not sure the long armers who help with the charity program as thrilled by my backs, but they make the quilts fun.

I have to finish with the obligatory photo of Nick’s pinkies. Mr Wombat has been such a support the last year…. not just holding up quilts but holding me up through some not so fun times.

9Feb2018

Cotton & Steel is my new obsession…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I have a confession to make… I am obsessed with Cotton and Steel fabrics. I have been hoarding (and using) them a lot lately. Today I am sharing one of the many C&S quilts I have made lately…

cotton steel cross quilt

This quilt used tons and tons of different Cotton & Steel Prints – actually there is a print from every fabric line they have released… all cut into 3 1/2 inch squares. I must admit I cheated a bit and used my Accuquilt cutter to cut all the fabric which made things much quicker.

cotton steel cross quilt 2

Because so many of the C&S fabric lines have the same or similar color stories it makes it easy to mix and match all the fabric…

cs quilt detail 2

And oh the fussy cut potential. I had so much fun. All the blocks have a navy blue center and there is a plethora of low volume goodness as well…

cs cross detail

I quilted this quilt myself on my Bernina and using my walking foot. I just followed my seam lines… simple but serviceable for this simple patchwork quilt.

cs cross quilt detail

Again I raided my stash for a backing fabric and found some fun IKEA fabric to play with…

quilt back

…and no matter how much I try I can not get Mr Wombat to put his pinkies down. No amount of pleading or bribery is working…

Quilt details:

Fabric: Cotton & Steel various lines
Block: Simple nine patch cross
Quilt Size: 54 x 54 inches

19Aug2016

Yipee a finish…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This summer has been a little crazy, but in amongst it all I have managed to finish up some quilts including this fun one…

postage stamp quilt

This is my second postage stamp quilt using Rita from Red Pepper Quilts technique. It is really an easy way to get all these little 1 1/2 inch squares sewn together. To make it easier on myself, every time I cut out a quilt or have some scraps I will cut a 2 x 7 inch strip and put it in a shoe box. Over the course of a couple of months that shoe box fills up.

postage stamp quilt detail

When you are working this small I do not worry about fussy cutting but focus mainly on colour….making sure I have some darks and lights as well as lots of white in my prints… That said you can still play a great game of I Spy with this quilt…

quilt detail

I did have some fun with the quilting on this piece. For the first time I used one a quilting template…

I have picked up a couple of these things over the years but never ever used them before… for this quilt I picked a waved pattern and using my trust Frixon bravely drew all over the quilt top.

quilt detail 2

Now my quilting is not perfect but it was a fun exercise. More than anything it was good for practicing this circular technique which is used a bit in free motion. It is going to take a bit more practice before I am even remotely proficient but it was a fun exercise. I even got to bust out my Bernina stitch regulator…

quilting detail

Do not look to closely because even with a drawn line my quilting is very wonky… but from a distance it all looks fine…

quilt

For the back of the quilt I found a lovely Alexander Henry print in my stash that worked perfectly…

quilt back detail

Some solid Kona navy binding and a label and this beauty is ready to head off into the world… hopefully it will bring a smile to some kids face.

My scrap shoe box is already half full (after a busy scrap cutting session last week) so there will be another one of these in my future I am sure.

15Apr2016

Cotton & Steel Economy Blocks

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I managed to finish up my Cotton and Steel Economy block quilt…and I am very pleased with myself.

cotton steel economy block quilt

You see I signed this week for the 2nd Quarter of the 2016 Finish Along and I am determined to get more done than I did last quarter. I am finding having a bit of accountability in my quilting a good thing… it really is making me conscious of finishing things up instead of just adding them to the large pile of works in progress.

cs quilt detail

This quilt is such a fun one to start with. I really had a blast fussy cutting up my Cotton and Steel stash. I had been collecting bits and pieces of the C&S since the line first came out but it was not until I started this project that I realized how well it all works together.

economy block detail

I have used prints from just about every Cotton & Steel line (including some of their new Garland line which has just come out).

quilt detail 2

And definitely have a piece of fabric for all the Cotton & Steel designers. I must admit for a brief little bit I was thinking that I might hold onto the blocks and wait till the next line comes out and add more to the quilt, but in the spirit of getting things finished, I just put what I had together and called it good.

quilt detail

I kept the quilting simple… lots of straightish lines using the lines in the block as the guide for my walking foot.

cotton steel quilt detail

For the back of the quilt I used some larger pieces of my stash…

quilt back

And to finish it all off I used a navy blue scrappy binding…

binding

So my first finish of quarter two is done and dusted…. now to get another quilt out of my WIP pile and finish it up. I am highly motivated at the moment…I just hope it lasts.

Quilt Details:

Name: A Cotton and Steel Economy
Pattern: 7 1/2 inch Economy blocks
Fabric: Cotton & Steel collections
Finished size: 45 x 60 inches