A special QuiltCon reject

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I finally got the opportunity this week to photograph the beautiful wonky star quilt that was made last year at my first PMQG Charity Sew Day.

I originally posted about making these blocks back in February last year and you can find the original post HERE. I really loved the quilt top but extra love it now that Rachel at 2nd Avenue Studios wove her quilting magic.

Rachel free motion quilted these wonderful wandering lines that fill the scrappy white space fabulous while also highlighting parts of all the blocks.

All over the quilt there are these little moments where the lines move around the fussy cutting…

…and around and through the stars. The quilting perfectly compliments the scrappy wonky offset stars.

This quilt is now in our Charity pool and will be used this year…and I am in the process of preparing for the January Charity Sew Day. Every month PMQG members meet at the wonderful Modern Domestic and make blocks and chat and hang out. Every month we make a quilt top together, all of them bright and fun and all of them destined to do good in the community. It is such a good thing.

19Dec2014

Finishing the catch ups…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

To finish up my catch up posts I have the last quilt I made to take to Australia. The finish was so last minute (binding the day before we flew out!!!) I did not get a chance to post about this quilt before I left…

This granny square quilt has been a pile of blocks for nearly two years but finally became a quilt for my darling friend Vicki. The day before we left I managed to get it bound and washed ready for the quilt suitcase…

There is something wonderfully vintage feeling about this quilt. I think the post wash crinkle helps…

There are not a lot of photos of this top because (1) I did not finish it in time to do a proper photo shoot and (2) the wind was blowing a gale making photos hard…

I did manage to get the husband to help and it is his fingers and feet you can see sticking out from under this quilt. He did remind me to take a photo of the back of the quilt too… probably because the back was his idea…

The conversation went Nick: “it would be cool to do just one big block for the back” Me: “why not”. And now I will now tell you why not…. the big block was all bias and stretch and a right royal pain the butt. I now listen to my husbands quilting advice, say “thanks dear” and promptly ignore it…it is easier that way!

The quilt was finished off with some Kona solid scrappy binding and delivered to its owner a couple of weeks ago… on a 95 degree day which was a little weird seeing it had been finished off a week earlier on a 38 degree day!

31Oct2014

A special finish….

Posted in Finished Quilts, Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I managed to finish up the second quilt I am taking home to Australia…this one is for my mum.
So my Mum knows that this quilt is heading her way as a birthday present (yes she knows it is coming to her, because I am hopeless with surprises!)… her favorite colours are red and aqua so it is perfect for her…plus this quilt, with its beautiful stars and hours of work needed to go to someone special.

20 paper pieced stars, a couple of yards of Robert Kaufman Quilters Linen, spools and spools of thread and countless yards of red and aqua fabric and we are done.

I was smart enough to send this quilt out to be quilted and the fabulous Nancy Stovall did an amazing job. I actually left the quilting pattern decision up to Nancy and she choose a wonderful swirl that gives great movement to the stars. I love it.

For the back of the quilt I used a bunch of yard and half yard red and aqua prints from my stash. I also embraced the scrappy with the binding, using a variety of red prints to tie the quilt together.

As I was binding the quilt I got a chance to look at every star more closely, and reflect on what I have learnt.

My first couple of stars were a little rough….I did not use small enough stitch setting on some of them which means that some stitches at the seams are visible. I also was not as careful with the bulky joins in the some of the stars – I did not iron the seams open properly leaving a bulbous lump in the center of one or two stars. But 20+ stars in I was a pro – I had embraced scrappy, had finessed my process and was making kick butt stars.

This quilt really does represent a wonderful journey for me… and I am thrilled that my mum will get to keep it.

Quilt Details:

Technique: Paper piecing
Pattern: various stars by Carol Doak and Quilting on the Square
Quilting: Nancy Stovall of Just Quilting
Finish size: 65 x 80 inches

26Sep2014

A Briar Rose finish

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I finished the first of the quilts that I am dragging back to Australia in November. I know I am cutting it close, but I am a girl who works well with a looming deadline…

This darling quilt, made using just Heather Ross’s Briar Rose and Kona white, is for my cousin’s daughter, Annabel. I started it in October last year (I really am slow to finish stuff without a deadline), and you can find out more about the pattern on my original post.

A few years ago I made Annabel a baby quilt, but never got it to her (I am also slow to post things!). After she was no longer a baby, I gave her quilt to Project Linus and started making this quilt… which is much more young lady appropriate.

I used about 1/4 yard of each of the fabrics in the line, which means I still have enough of the fabric in my stash to make something else. I love these prints, but am particularly smitten by the bees…

For the quilting I used some of the lines of the block as a guide and ended up with a really cool pattern of stitches, some straight and some diagonal.

I pieced together a back using a large cut of one of the floral prints and some little bits of my favorite strawberry prints…. and finished it all off with some scrappy pink binding…

So one Aussie bound quilt done, two to go!

Quilt Details:
Pattern: Labyrinth by Red Pepper Quilts
Fabric: Briar Rose by Windham Fabrics
Size: 52 x 52 inches

4Apr2014

Whoo we have a finish…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

It has been over a month since I posted my last finished quilt and I am feeling a little slack for not finishing something up sooner… life really just kept getting in the way. But after some quilting and binding I am pleased to present…

…my baby blue log cabin quilt. This quilt was made using scraps left over from the quilt I made my sister-in-law and the top was put together in record time… and then just sat with my other UFO’s until I took pity on it last week.

I loaded some electric blue thread into my machine, attached my walking foot and started quilting.

Lots of straightish lines later the top was quilted. For the back of the quilt I used a piece of IKEA fabric I had in my stash that seemed to work well.

The finishing touch was some solid navy binding… nothing too fancy but I think it was what was called for.

So I have my first finished quilt for April. “Baby Blue” will be heading to Project Linus this month, as our chapter has a shortage of baby quilts at the moment… and I am off to sew more little bits of fabric together.