A special quilt show…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I have been a little AWOL from the blog for the last couple of weeks because I have been feverishly finishing up quilts….

The first lot of finishes involved putting the finishing touches on some of the Guild’s charity quilts in time for this month’s display at Modern Domestic.

quilts on display 8

Usually when we finish up a charity quilt it is bundled up and sent off to the appropriate charity but for the last couple of months I have been collecting them so that they could be put on display at our local quilt store…

quilts on display 5

I can not explain how excited I was to see all our recent quilts hanging together. It was just so wonderful…and bright…and affirming. There are so many people who have had a hand in these quilts and there is so much love stitched into every one.

quilts on display 7

I also wanted to spotlight the newest PMQG quilt finish, so that you can see it in more detail…just in case you can not make it into the store to see it in person…..

quilts on display 4

For most of the charities we give quilts to there is a pressing need for boy quilts, and this quilt was made to as a gender neutral option…

quilting detail

Our colour scheme for the day was grey with a splash of aqua/turquoise. For a couple of months I had been putting all my grey scraps into a large bin, knowing that they would be perfect for an improv sew day.

improv quilt detail2 I love the improv days because everyone gets to do their own thing… and anything goes.

improv quilt detail There was a flurry of wonky stars made, spear headed by one of our charity sew day regulars Betty.

quilt block detail

Other people took the scraps and trimmings from other peoples blocks and made something fun.

We of course embraced novelty prints, because this is a kids quilt after all.

quilt detail

The fabulous quilting was done by another charity sew day regular, Kazumi. Kazumi is a professional long armer and you will see more of her work in the coming weeks as she has done some quilting for me recently!

18Mar2016

A special selection…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

It has been quite a while since I have posted photos of some of the charity quilts that members of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild have made, so I hope you will indulge me as I share some of the recent projects…

trip around quilt

First up is a scrappy trip along top… the blocks and extra fabric was donated to the Guild by the wonderful Elsa and all I had to do sew the blocks together and make the back….

trip around quilt detail 3

We put this top on the long arm at one of our Charity Sew Days and a number of people had a blast quilting flowers all over it….

quilt back

And for the back of the quilt I pieced together the left over fabric and a few extra fat quarters and viola…

Bernstein bears quilt

Another donation to the Charity program was a couple of charm packs of fun Bernstein Bear fabric, which were easily turned into disappearing nine patch blocks…

Bernstein bears quilt detail

This fabric is so fun and bright not to much was need too make a fabulous kid friendly quilt…

orphan block quilt

And it would not be a Charity quilt showcase without some orphan block quilts starting with this fun number.

orphan block quilt detail

I love all the quilting on this quilt….each block has a different pattern but all the pattern use straight lines.

And last but not least is this orphan block quilt that one of our wonderful members, Juline, put together. I love Juline’s use of negative space with this quilt… she made a handful of similar blocks into a wonderful modern quilt.

I will try and get some photos of our group quilts up in the next couple of days as well, if the Portland weather permits.

12Feb2016

Juggling Dresden Plates…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week, despite a cold, I managed to finish up another of my outstanding WIP… this one had been sitting in a plastic bag for a couple of years. It started in December 2013 as a Bee block for the amazing Nicole at Modern Handcraft.

I ended up making a couple of these Dresdens, I loved the first one so much, but they then sat unused for years, until now…

dresden quilt

This was a pretty quick project to finish up…. First I took my four finished Dresdens and a couple of yards of red pin dots by Lake House….

quilt detail

Because I could free float the Dresdens anywhere on the quilt it was fun to play with an off kilter lay out.

quilting detail 2

When I was happy with the placement of each plate, I spray basted them to the backing fabric, and then sewed around each Dresden.

dresden plate

I then went in and cut out as much of the backing fabric as I could out of the center of the each Dresden, just to cut some of the bulk out of the top…

dresden back detail

All that was left was to quilt it – I went with a off center grid pattern and my trusty cream Aurifil thread ….

dresden detail

And bind it – I used scrappy solids and machine binding to finish her up…

binding

The finished quilt ended up measuring 44″ x 65″ which is an unusual size for me, but I think it will be the perfect size for someone’s bed….

29Jan2016

Finish Along 2016

Posted in Finished Quilts, Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

A week or so ago I signed up for the first quarter of the 2016 Finish Along. This is a online project that is run every 3 months… basically you sign up at the beginning of a quarter and say what you want to finish over the next couple of months. I am using the program to keep myself on track to finish up things before I start anything new.

If you are interested you can check out what people are doing there is an Instagram account – @finishalong and She Can Quilt is hosting the link up at http://www.shecanquilt.ca.

Anyway the goals I set myself for the next four months are…

Now I understand I may have over committed but I thought I might as well shot for the stars. But so far I have one of my Do Good Stitches quilts done…

This was such a fun quilt to finish up… I originally set this block for the Hope Circle of Do Good Stitches to do back in June last year. The block pattern is from Clover and Violet and you can find the directions here scrappy christmas star.

I was a little nervous about setting a Bee block that needed to be pretty accurately pieced to align, but it all worked out fabulously. I was able to coerce all the seams into alignment without too much effort…

One of the things I love about doing these scrappy blocks is seeing everyone’s fabric choices and extra love the wonderful selection of low volume novelty prints that were used…

There is so much happening in the quilt as far as print variation but the overall quilt is so quiet and gentle.

For the quilting I went of course with straight lines, which was perfect for this pattern. I used a cream Aurifil for the quilting (No 2309), which blended nicely between the teal, yellow and white/cream background.

For the backing I found the perfect Suzy Ultman for Robert Kaufman piece in my stash – and I had enough to do the whole back!

For the binding I used two different teal Kona Solids I had in my stash and of course hand bound it while watching the Australian Open Tennis. I am going to make the most of the last couple of matches to get another Do Good finish bound…..

So one finish down… at least 5 more to go….

4Dec2015

More finishes for 2015…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I am really really obsessed with getting some of my quilts finished this year… and I am running out of year. So the push is on… I have recently finished up a quilt top I made for the 100 Quilts for Kids drive, but my health hindered me finishing it on time.

This was a fun and easy quilt to make. I used some of the thousands of 3 inch squares I have cut over the last year or so from my scraps. The background fabric is a grey/blue hatch fabric by Timeless Treasures. I love how it plays against the solids.

Came together so easily using chain piecing. I just sat at the machine sewing a background fabric to a solid, one after another. I had an impressive string of fabric pieces by the end of the first stage.

I kept the quilting simple, just straight lines through the background fabric. For some reason I did not want to run stitches through the solid fabric… and I love the plaid feel this quilting added.

For the back of the quilt I found the perfect piece of Ikea fabric…

Somehow those bathing beauties just seemed to work. I have been hoarding this fabric for a little while and was waiting for the perfect quilt to use it with. To finish it all off I used a selection of Kona solid greys to bind the quilt.

I spent yesterday morning at Project Linus Portland processing quilts… including this quilt.

Quilt Details:

Pattern: Simple four patch using 3 inch squares
Fabric: Solid scraps and Hatch in Steel by Timeless Treasures
Size: 40″ x 50″