Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Another week another pattern. This one drove me a little crazy, possibly because I was trying to finish it last night while also battling a cold. Not a good combination. Needless to say I was convinced that the block would not work and that paper piecing Monday was a stupid idea and that my sewing machine was out to get me. I was of course wrong on all fronts.

The pattern for this block can be found here block12celebration or at the Quilting on the Square site. It is another block that can be used to make a variety of very of different blocks, depending on how you interpret the pattern. Have some fun with it.

I must admit I could not have done this block, with all the drama of last night, without my newest quilting tool. My wonderful friend Lisa bought me an amazing surgical unpicker. It is one of those tools you do not realise you need until you have used it. Now I can not imagine life without out it.

It is a lethal wonder that is particularly great for paper piecing. Where standard tools struggle to deal with the close stitches you use when sewing a paper pattern, this little beauty just glides through them. The only thing you have to be careful of is accidentally cutting your fabric – I have not done this yet but imagine it will happen!

I am now off to cut some more fabric. I have decided the best way to deal with the fabric overflow is to make more quilts (and to shop less!).

25Jan2013

Low volume Log cabin finished

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt patterns, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

Late last night, while watching fabulously trashy TV, I finally finished up my low volume log cabin quilt. I am thrilled with the end result, even though I doubted myself a few times during the process.

This is my second low volume quilt. My first one was made up of simple square blocks, this one I decided to do a log cabin block. My previous post can be found here and here. I love the log cabin block and was inspired to use this traditional pattern by Susan Beal’s wonderful book Modern Log Cabin Quilting. This pattern allowed me to really (a) raid my scraps and (b) include an amazing number of fabrics.

For this quilt I did use a paper piecing pattern and you can find a similar one here thanks to quilterscache.com. For non paper piercers Connecting Threads has a great log cabin tutorial (with videos and all) which can be found here.

My two low volume quilts have been a challenge for me. As you can tell from my other quilts I love colour and contrast and with low volume I was well and truly out of my comfort zone. What was not a challenge, this time, was the quilting. I decided to just run vertical lines down the quilt, using the block’s lines as a guide for my walking foot. It was a lot quilting/stitching (more tthan I usually do), but the end result is what makes me really love this quilt. I can not wait to see how it puckers after washing!

I used a single fabric print for the backing – a charming Kaffe Fassett floral which worked nicely withe the gentle tone of the front of the quilt. I finished the quilt with some scrappy grey binding, just the right colour to bring the whole thing together.

21Jan2013

Paper Piecing Monday Part 8

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

Welcome to another Monday of paper piecing stars. Another week another red and aqua block for my star sampler.

This block is of course from Quilting on the Square’s collection. You can also download this pattern here block5kaleidoscope.

This is a really pretty block and I think it would be fun to play with the block pieces. What else can you do with this part of the block? I am definitely going to have to play with deconstructing this block, just for fun.

16Jan2013

Night & Day quilt – Work in Progress Wednesday

Posted in Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Having just finished my gretchen block quilt top I decided that I wanted to do another modern take on a traditional quilt block. I settled on making the night & day quilt block using a grey and green color palette.

I am doing another paper piecing scrap quilt. I am really enjoying paper piecing again after 4 years of not doing even one foundation block/paper pattern. You can find quiltcache’s version of the Night and Day pattern here

I am only a day into this quilt and have already made a few blocks and a lot of mess. My work station is awash with grey and green fabric and my husband is now pulling grey thread off his shirts rather than the white he usually has to contend with.

I am really excited about how this quilt looks, even at this early stage. I am going to work hard to get it finished in the next week or so and promise to post the final quilt when it is done.

14Jan2013

Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Today’s pattern is a fun one I think, and the one that looks most like a compass.

For the regulars you know the drill… the Quilting on the Sqaure pattern can be found here block10holidaycompass This block is a great one to add to your collection I think.

The block was easy to make, as again each piece is the same. I must admit I have a couple of blocks that I have started only to realise I have sewn the wrong colour in the wrong place, despite my expert colour coding system! A few of them I have unpicked and fixed and a few of them I had made such a mess I have abandoned them.