Zakka Flower top…

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

…is done. It took a lot of unpicking and sewing but it is finally finished.

This is one of the biggest quilt tops I have made, finishing at 70 inches x 85 inches. I was struggling a little to wrangle it through the sewing machine at the end.

I actually struggled quite a bit with finishing this top because in the cold and flu haze of a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take the paper off the blocks BEFORE I sashed them. Silly silly silly move.

It meant I had to unpick the sashing a couple of times to get the blocks to align properly. But half a ton of Best Press, a trip to the store to pick up more Kona Snow and lots and lots of pinning later I got it all done.

Zakka flower detail That just leaves making the back, basting and quilting to do… but I think I am going to take a break before I attempt the next steps. I need to get my head around dealing with a quilt this big… any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

22Nov2013

Tricky Triangles finally finished

Posted in Finished Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I am very very very pleased to say that my pink and green triangle quilt is finally all done. I have procrastinated with this quilt in new and exciting ways over the last 6+ months… but she is now completed and I can move on with the rest of my life.

I must admit, in the spirit of full disclosure, that I had planned for this quilt to be bigger than what she ended up as, but I got to the point where I had had enough and just went with the blocks I had made. Her finished dimensions are 45 inches x 50 inches which is a smallish kids quilt.

I first posted this block way back in April… I had been given a small scrap pile of olive green fabric and wanted to do something with it. Hot pink fabric was chosen to go with the olive and a triangle paper pieced pattern from the “Modern Blocks” book was chosen. I was so optimistic with that first post I titled it “Triangle Love”.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, when I decided to bite the bullet and finish this sucker… but now I was referring to it as “Triangle Trauma“. Oh what a difference time makes….

Now all is said and done I am really happy with how this quilt turned out…but will not be jumping into another triangle quilt for a while! For the backing of the quilt I used a piece of Densye Schmidt which worked perfectly with the quilt top.

For the quilting I selected a random triangle, quilted around it and then radiated the quilting out from there. It is straight line quilting but with a twist. I went with pink thread of course, because you can never get enough pink in my opinion!

I nearly went with pink binding but opted for a Kona olive green instead – I think it made the pink pop a little more.

So now that I have finished a quilt, I am now, under Ashley’s mum’s rules, allowed to start another one. I have a pattern picked out and fabric pulled… stay tuned.

Quilt Details:

Technique: Modern scrap

Block: Paper pieced triangle pattern from “Modern Blocks”

Finished size: 45″ x 50″

25Sep2013

Bee Block fun… wip Wednesday

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week has been all about Bee Blocks… finishing up my September blocks and making decisions about the October blocks. First up is do.Good.Stitches Hope blocks…

After last month’s crazy mini flying geese block it was refreshing to do a nice easy fun block. The request was for two 12 inch log modern log cabin blocks… right up my alley.

The other Bee request was for some Trip Along blocks. We were given a bit of range when doing these blocks, so I stepped outside my colour comfort zone and ended up with a woodland inspired block…

And this one…

In between the Bee blocks I have been adding more blocks to my Zakka Flower quilt. This weeks new blocks include these two lovelies.

These flowers are decidedly addictive. I am currently at 18 flowers and have more cut ready to go. It does not help my addiction that Denyse Schmidt has designed so much great fabric!

The final project of the week has been getting some photographs taken of ME. Any of you who have explored my block in-depth or follow me will know that:

(1) I hate having my photo taken; and

(2) there is only one photo of me up on the site and it is ancient.

I finally had to give in and get some head shots done, so without further ado here is an out take from the shoot…

My darling BFF’s helped me out which meant the whole experience was not too traumatic… and there was lots and lots of laughter.

18Sep2013

Zakka Flowers wip

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Last week, while I was cleaning up our very messy office/quilt fabric storage room I came across my large stash of Denyse Schmidt fabric. I have been hording Denyse’s fabric for a while, including the DS Quilts lines. I have not really used the fabric other than in bits and pieces in scrap quilts, but this week all that has changed.

All this week I have been making Denyse Schmidt Zakka flowers. I found this fabulous pattern in the book “Patchwork Please” and it just screamed to be made in my DS stash. So I have been making flowers all week… lots and lots of flowers.

During this process I have discovered:

1. I did not buy enough Flea Market Fancy – it is such a great line.

2. I did not start building my stash soon enough because some of the earlier lines are FABULOUS and missing from my collection – early Flea Market, Katie Jump Rope and Hope Valley in particular.

3. You must concentrate when paper piecing and not be distracted by your husband or you end up doing this…

So here is what a weeks worth of of Zakka flowers looks like…

And there are more to do. I have become a little obsessed with these beauties and have at least 5 more cut and ready to go. This pattern is proving to be the perfect showcase for my DS fabric stash.