2013 Pantone Quilt Challenge

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

I have just entered my Grey & Green quilt into the 2013 Pantone Quilt Challenge. This is a first for me.

For the contest the quilt had to be started in 2013 to be eligible; the green fabric should be bright and as emerald as possible; and the quilt can be a mini, a full quilt or just the top. If you want more information you can find it here

I am excited to see what other quilters come up with. I do not use green that much as I find it hard to work with as the main focus colour, but this year I have challenged myself to try and use it more.

23Jan2013

Postage stamp quilt madness

Posted in Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This weeks work in progress actually started in April last year when Red Pepper Quilts posted their instructions on how to make a Postage stamp quilt. I had always wanted to make one and so, inspired I spent a couple of months just gradually cutting out 2 x 7 inch strips of fabric. Every time I made a quilt I would cut some extra strips for my postage stamp quilt.

Fast forward to January 2013. My pile of cut strips have been staring at me for months, daring me to start the process, so this week I dusted them off and bravely started.

Very quickly I realised that there was a special kind of madness in making a quilt with 1 1/2 inch squares. MADNESS. I started by chain piecing two strips of fabric together , sewing piece after piece. Then I chain pieced two of my sections together to form a block of 4 strips which were then ironed and cut into 2 inch strips. Feel free to head here for Red Peppers more detailed/coherent instructions.

Then the crazy really kicks in… as you now have piles and piles of 2 x 6.5 inch strips which have to be sewn into blocks of 4 strips. At this point seam allowance becomes crucial and you also give up worrying about colour placement and surrender to the process.

I am currently putting together my blocks, slowly but surely – the direction of your seams is important to make sure that the blocks sit right, which slows the sewing for me. I have made some progress – 17 blocks done 30+ more to go!!!! I have been fascinated by how the look of a fabric changes when it is cut into such a small piece. Patterns are out of context and colours appear that you did not know were there.

I just keep reminding myself (a) that it will be worth it in the end and (b) I never have to do this again. To keep myself motivated I did sew a couple of blocks together so I could see the effect. This quilt is going to make for one crazy game of eye spy.

30Nov2012

Misadventures in quilting….

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

It has been a few weeks since I last posted but I promise I have a good excuse. I hurt my shoulder about 6 weeks ago and have struggled to do simple things with limited use of my right hand. It really made quilting a slow and painful process. I desperately wanted to sew but could only stand short stints. So it took me a few weeks to finish the piecing and quilting on my latest creation.

My inspiration for this quilt was a fun floral fabric I had found at Joann’s and I built the quilt around the colours from that fabric, using mainly scraps from my collection. I made a collection of different square blocks, just doing what ever took my fancy.

Then for some reason I decided that it would be a good idea, with a sore neck and shoulder, to stipple quilt the finished quilt top. Madness I know. I have only stipple quilted twice before, and I believe both times I swore never to do it again. For those that do not know, stipple quilting is process of free hand quilting a random, rambling pattern onto the quilt like this…

So over the course of the last couple of nights I have battled with my machine and my disobedient arm, to finish the quilting. A couple of times I thought about unpicking it all but that just seemed crazy. As I look at the finished top I am not thrilled with it at all. If I could do it all again I would do something different but as my husband pointed out to me, some kid is going to get this quilt and love it.

So now I just have to do the binding and it will be ready for delivery to Project Linus. Hopefully it’s new owner will not see all the quilting mistakes I do.

26Oct2012

Black White and Blue quilt

Posted in Finished Quilts, Other fun stuff, Quilts by wombatquilts

I have had a wonderful time getting back into colour this week.

This is actually a quilt I started a couple of years ago. I had put it away in a cupboard and forgot about it, until now. In the spirit of challenging myself I decided to finish it.

It started with a pile of fabric and a paper piecing pattern I made myself.

I have not done a paper pieced quilt in a long time, and it was a nice reminder for me how messy and fiddly they are. These days I could have easily done this quilt without a foundation pattern, but back when I started making this, I was not confident enough to do anything without a pattern.

Whatever way I got there, I like this quilt.

22Oct2012

Low Volume Quilt Challenge

Posted in Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

This weekend I decided to challenge myself to do a quiet quilt. I predominantly use bright colours and fabrics in my quilts so this would be an interesting creative step for me. I was inspired by a great quilt I saw at Red Pepper Quilts (another Aussie).

http://www.redpepperquilts.com/2012/10/a-modern-i-spy-low-volume-quilt.html

First step was to see what white/cream based fabrics I had in my stash. I surprisingly had a lot to choose from, including some fabulous Heather Ross and wonderful Aneela Hoey.

I decided on 4 inch squares for my quilt, and to focus on giving the quilt a scrappy “eye spy” feel… so lots of fun objects in amongst the dots etc.

I must admit I struggled a little with laying out the blocks. I found it hard to focus on the flow of the quilt with everything being so low intensity. This is what I ended up with.