A smattering of quilt blocks…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

I can not believe that June is nearly over…. this year is slipping away way to fast. It was with a small amount of panic that I realised this week that I was running out of time to finish up some of my Bee blocks, so armed with a pile of fabric, my iPad and a caffeine enriched beverage I set to work.

First up was the June blocks for my Do.good.Stitches bee…

The block is a great log cabin variation…Though one block does not look that exciting, put four of them together and you get a fabulous orb pattern…

While we are on the subject of Do.good.Stitches Bee blocks, here is May’s blocks which were a blast to make…

I have not done a cross block before and loved how easy it was to do. I got a little carried away with this block and made a few extra. I used Rachel from Wooden Spoons easy dimensions to make the block…plus lots of starch!

The final lot of Bee blocks I got done this week is a repeat of a block I did last year….

Yep the mini flying geese crazy is back. This month it was Stephanie from Quarter Incher’s turn to be Queen of our ScrapBeeLicous Bee, and she choose the Liesl Made’s Flying Geese Block. Yipee….

So I retooled my paper piecing pattern and set to work raiding my scrap stash. I actually think the only way to make this kind of quilt is to do it as part of a Bee (and to paper piece ti!). There is no way you want to be making more than a few of these blocks… okay there is no way I could make more than a few of these blocks and remain sane!

As it is Wednesday there is only one thing left to do….link up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

30Apr2014

Some Random block fun…

Posted in Quilt patterns, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

I am desperately playing catch up on my Bee blocks and other projects that have been sitting around too long.

First up I have caught up on my Do.good.stitches blocks which included this fun ditty…

A wonderful wonky pin wheel. The pattern is from Greenleaf Goods who have a great tutorial on their site. It was a fabulous scrap buster and I am looking forward to doing my own version.

The other do.Good.stitches block that I have just finished up is the fabulous Granny Square block by Blue Elephant Stitches.

I have made this block a couple of times but love the instructions that my fellow Bee member added… Heather told us to make the white squares extra long… we added 3/4 of an inch to the pattern. This extra wiggle room makes trimming the block so much easier than the original pattern.

We also used 3 inch blocks instead of 2 1/2 inch squares and I am now fired up to use some of my 3 inch square scraps to make more of these blocks. But first I have to finish my original Granny Square quilt.

My Granny Square quilt is still on my 2014 To Do list but this week I did make some progress on the list … I am determined to finish my Denyse Schmidt Zakka flower quilt. I have made the last of the blocks…

And now I am onto sashing. I am hoping to have the top done for a Finish Friday… really hoping.

And of course because it is Wednesday I am linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced..

11Apr2014

A do.Good finish…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

Okay it took me a while but I finally got the do.Good.Stitches Icicle quilt done…. so without further ado here she is….

This quilt started life when I was doing Julie @ 627Handworks “Block Rockin” paper pieced blocks. I loved how the Icky Thump block looked and decided it needed to be a quilt all its own.

With the help of the Hope Circle of do.Good.Stitches a Icky Thump quilt was made. It was a fun process seeing how different quilters took on the paper piecing challenge and what lovely fabrics they had in their stash. I infatuated with these tiny mice in particular…

It took me a while to decide how I wanted to quilt this top up. I ummed and ahhed for weeks about what to do and finally decided to quilt to enhance the star pattern.

I was not completely sold on this quilting until I turned the quilt around and looked at the back…

..the quilting really works on the back. Now I know I am not noted for my quilting prowess, as my darling friend Lisa confirmed yesterday (I piece like a champion but quilt like a beginner)… but I am chuffed with how this looks.

For the backing I used one of the blocks I was sent that was a little small and made it the focal point. This way everyone who contributed a block is represented in this quilt.

Finally I hand bound the quilt using some solid scraps I had. It was a lovely exercise to put the finishing touches on this quilt by hand. Another do.Good quilt ready to head off to do good!

Quilt Stats
Pattern: Icky Thump paper pieced pattern
Finished quilt size: 48 x 60 inches
Fabrics: various
Backing: Kona Medium Grey and various others.

12Mar2014

Tackling some challenging blocks

Posted in Quilt patterns, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Things came to a crunch this week with some very over due Bee blocks that could no longer be ignored, no matter how hard I tried.

One of the things I love about doing quilting Bees is that you are challenged, every month, to make different blocks and for me it is a good way to try new, non paper piecing stuff. This month’s challenges included…

This block is 12 1/2 inches square and was requested as part of the ScrapBeelicious Bee. When I first looked at the pattern I was a little overwhelmed, but I cut the squares as I was cutting fabric for another quilt and chain piecing made the process less daunting.

The pattern, Star Value by Happy Quilting, is perfect for a Bee, because you do not want to be making a whole quilt of these suckers. The free tutorial also has the calculations to make the block in different sizes from 12 inches up to 28 inches.

Surprisingly, I had a much more harrowing experience making these Bee blocks…

The ScrapBeelicious January block (yes yes I am very very late with this one) challenged us to make the Ann Marie Horner’s Feather Blocks…

For some reason these were the blocks I had to unpick the most. The center grey spine of the feather was too short and I struggled with getting the pattern pieces to align. In the end I just wanted to make a paper piecing pattern to make this sucker… it would have been so much easier!

The last lot of Bee blocks for this week were a simple and fun….

My February do.Good.Stitches Block was the Starflower block by Ellison Lane. This block was so easy and the pattern makes two blocks at a time… genius!

So I have now done my quota of half square triangles (HST) for the month. For the rest of the month I am only tackling those suckers via paper piecing.

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.