Everybody loves a wonky star…right….

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

My final finishes for 2015 and first finish of 2016 has been putting the binding on a couple of wonky star quilts. If you follow this blog you know how much I love a wonky star, and I found during my recent health issues that I could make wonky stars without too much effort or thought (I seem to have good muscle memory for this quilt block!)….

What made these quilts so easy for me to make was that I used some of my huge stash of 5 inch squares and lots of scraps. For this first quilt I grabbed a pile of blue squares and my bag of white/cream scraps and got to work.

What you can not see too well in the photos is that each center of the star is made up of improv scraps. This is my favorite bit of the process… sewing all the little scraps together to make my own fabric.

For all my wonky star quilts I did simple straight line quilting, but with this quilt I used a variegated thread I found in my thread box. I kind of love how it turned out…

For my next two wonky star quilts I took some scraps of Hoffman batiks that I had been given and had some fun…

This is my favorite of the quilts… I love how the soft pink and blue play together….

Plus I got to play with novelty prints which makes me so happy. The background for the stars uses 4 different Batiks and with all these quilts the colour variation in the background adds a nice texture to the overall quilt I think.

I got to back my pink stars with some of my favorite fabric from Michael Miller. I love the mermaids so much…and this fabric was so perfect for the quilt it had to be used.

For the background of this quilt I used creams/beige batiks from a Hoffman layer cake or two. I do not use batiks much in my quilting but I love how they work as a support to the modern quilting fabrics. For this quilt I played with batting loft and used a wool batting.

The batting gives the quilt a lovely warmth and softness… it is nicely puffy. I can see why long arm quilters would choose to use a higher loft batting, as it really does make the quilting stand out.

So there are my last and first finishes. Very simple, very easy and kind of fun. Each quilt finishes at 41 inches square, a perfect size for our local Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

20Nov2015

On a mission…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Project Linus by wombatquilts

Now that I am getting back to full health I feel like I have so much to catch up on…and first thing on my To Do list is to clear some of my WIPs out of the house. The main impetuous for the clear out is the fact that you can not currently access our spare bedroom because of the pile of batting, quilts and fabric…our spare bedroom is Charity Quilt central! I have a wonderfully patient and understanding husband who is somewhat blind to fabric piles and quilting mess, but even he has started commenting.

So as we head to Thanksgiving I will be sharing mine and PMQG’s most recent quilt finishes before they head out to their respective charities. To start proceedings I give you this wonderful little quilt…

This quilt was made, along with a larger version, at one of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild Charity Sew days. This was a fun day where I bought a huge box of blue scraps, a smattering of white and grey scraps and we all made log cabins.

Somewhere in the process a touch of orange was added, at the insistence of one of our amazing Guild Members Juline, and viola you have magic.

The orange really makes the quilt sing. All the improv log cabin blocks are trimmed to 12 inches finished and this four by four version of the quilt is headed to Project Linus. The larger version of this quilt (six by seven blocks) is currently out with one of our talented long-armers.

When pulling blocks for this smaller version of the quilt I made sure to get some great novelty prints in the mix.

This was such a fun and easy project to do with the group, as once again there is no right or wrong, just playing with colour. The quilt is backed with a darling Laura Ashley fabric that seemed appropriate and bound with some navy batik fabric which was kindly donated to the Guild by Hoffman fabrics.

quilt back

Thanksgiving does seem like the perfect time to share some of the amazing quilts that our Guild has made to help our community. I am so very thankful to everyone who helps out with this program.

13Nov2015

Crossword Complete

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I will start this week with a moment of honesty…. this is the first and possible only Crossword I have ever completed. I have started many a crossword but never, ever completed one. My mum does the crossword daily, and does a stellar job of getting them complete, but not me. So without further ado, here is my one and only completed crossword….

I started this Crossword last year, when I was asked to review Cheryl Arkison’s book, A Month of Sundays. While flipping through the book I saw this pattern and fell in love.

The top came together easily using a collection of white/cream/light grey low volume prints and black and white prints. The pattern is gentle but very effective.

The black and white prints give you the squares of the crossword, with the creams giving the background a real newspaper feel.

I dug deep into my stash, as well as the stash of a couple of helpful friends to get enough black and white text prints…. and then tried to keep the supporting black and white prints very graphic.

You may have noticed the fabulous quilting on this project… I can safely say that it was not my doing. This quilt top is huge and I could not drag it through my home machine, let alone create such a wonderful pattern. The Crossword was quilted by the talented Jolene Knight, on of our Guild long-armers.

I love the rhythm of the undulating curves of this quilt. It is soft and gentle and really perfect for this quilt. Jolene kindly quilted this baby up for me as the finished quilt will be donated as part of the PMQG’s Charity program.

For the back of the quilt I used a slab of text print, which seemed a perfect fit…

And the finishing touch was a scrappy grey binding that I machine attached.

This is just one of the quilts I decided to get finished and donate. Earlier this year I took stock of my rather large collection of UFO’s and decided I needed to get most of them finished and donated. Unfinished blocks and tops do not do anyone any good…while a completed quilt can do so much…

QUILT DETAILS:

Pattern: Crossword by Cheryl Arkison
Fabric: Low volume scraps and B/W prints
Finished Size: 68 x 72 inches

2Oct2015

The Weekender Quilt

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I am finally getting the chance to share with you a quilt I finished last month. This quilt started as a small bundle of fat quarters that were donated to the Portland Modern Quilt Guild Charity program…. I added some fabric from my stash, a couple of solids and made this beauty…

The fabric line that kicked this all off was Weekends by Erin McMorris, an old line from 2012. I had some of the line, as well as some of Erin’s Wildwood line in my stash so I was able to get enough fabric to make a decent sized quilt.

I love the colour palette of this quilt, olive green, apricot, soft purple, dusty pink and cream. It is a gentle but vibrant colour scheme.

And in amongst the florals of the fabric are a smattering of these darling bicycle…

You probably recognize the pattern I used, it is one of my favorite go to patterns, the Trip Around quilt. I have made a few Trip Around quilts now and love how easy it is to make and how every quilt is so different…

This quilt top finished up big, particularly for me, and there was no way I was going to be able to quilt it on my home machine…my busted back just will not let me. So my local quilt store, Modern Domestic, kindly allowed me to throw the quilt up on the Bernina long arm.

It was so much fun to quilt loopy flowers into this quilt using the Q24 longarm. I am slowly getting more confident with free motion….very slowly….and love the adjustable handles on this baby…. it makes it so easy to find a comfortable position to work the machine in.

As a label for the quilt I got creative, inspired by one of our Guild long armers, Dawn… and quilted PMQG into the bottom of the quilt.

The finishing touches were a scrappy solid binding of beige… not a colour I use often in binding but it worked wonderfully.

This quilt is destined for NW Impact’s program that looks after Seniors at risk… it is fun to be charity quilting this quarter for an older set, as it has forced me out of my usual bright novelty kids centered world.

Quilt Details

Name: The Weekender
Pattern: Scrappy Trip Around The World
Fabric: Weekends and Wildwood by Erin McMorris and select Kona solids
Finished Size: 60 x 72 inches

11Sep2015

Dinosaurs for everyone…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I finished up my Lizzy House Dinosaur quilt….

Over the summer I taught a wonderful group of young ladies (aged 10 – 14) how to make a quilt. Blocks from my test run of that class are what made up this wonderfully fun quilt…

The pattern is a simple rail fence variation….

all you do is cut strips 3 inches wide by the length of the fabric (usually 42 inches long)… then you sew four of these strips together… then you cut out 10 1/2 inch blocks… easy peasy.

The highlight of this quilt is of course the dinosaurs…. oh how I love those dinosaurs….