Paper Piecing Monday is back on schedule

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I ventured deep into the world wide web searching for a star pattern to make for this week’s Paper Piecing Monday… and ended up with this little ditty.

The block is called ET Phone Home by Lilly’s Quilts and you can find the free paper piecing pattern here. Note the pattern is 12 inches for a 11 1/2 inch finished block not a 12 inch finish.

To get the pieces to align was a bit of a challenge for me. I am use to patterns being designed so that you can easily match points so that things align perfectly. With this pattern there was lots of using pins to make things work (and for me lots and lots and lots of unpicking).

So do not look to closely as the points are not all exactly, perfectly match up… but it is pretty close!

14May2014

Paper piecing Wednesday!!!!

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week’s paper piecing adventure was delayed a few days due to the SMS Giveaway… my apologies. But I think it was worth the wait… okay I am a little biased…what do you think?

A little bit about this particular pattern… it is a free paper pieced pattern from Craftsy called Compass Flower by Quilt Art Designs. The pattern is for a 25 cm (9 inch) compass star, has 80 pieces and is definitely not a “simple” pattern in my classification system as it has 16 paper pieced parts.

It is more a medium level pattern. What made it a little more interesting is that there is no instructions on how to put the pieces together and a small hiccup with the numbering system – there is no “G” on the pattern. Luckily it is not rocket science and goes together pretty easily (A is attached to B, C is attached to D and then you attach AB to CD etc).

As with all my paper piecing blocks this month this block is headed to Sarah @nohatsinthehouse.com for her charity quilts #opgivewarmth. I am having so much fun with these charity blocks… who knew doing good could be so much fun!

25Apr2014

Metallic Mini Finished

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I managed to get my Modern Metallic mini quilt finished, just in time to get it entered in PNW Metallic Challenge competition.

This quilt is made up of 3 inch log cabin blocks, you can find the paper piecing pattern I used in my original post. As it was a metallic challenge I choose my most favorite metallic fabric, Michael Miller’s Mirror Ball Dot in Rice, Silver, Platinum, Onyx and a splash of Citron.

I knew I really wanted to quilt with metallic thread though I had never done it before. First up I tried hand quilting but that was an unmitigated disaster. Metallic thread is so fine that I was just making a hash of everything. After several attempts to get hand quilting to work, I finally resorted to machine quilting, which has its own issues.

This time I was smart enough to do some online research… resulting in a tips list:

1. Use a new, sharp needle.
2. Load a lighter weight neutral thread in your bobbin
3. Loosen the upper tension on your machine and make sure the metallic thread is not catching on any particular point.
4. Stitch really really slowly to avoid breakage.
5. Try not to get too upset when the thread breaks.

I can not imagine trying to quilt a normal size quilt with metallic thread. I do not have the patience to even attempt such a feat but I will be forever in awe of anyone who is crazy enough to do it!

As for the last step, binding, I was ridiculously indecisive and actually bound this quilt twice! My first biding was a citron solid – which I was not thrilled with and so unpicked. I finally settled on a solid black binding, something neutral and not too fussy. I have never unpicked a binding before but when you are dealing with something so small you can make these rash decisions and change your mind without too much hassle.

Quilt Details:

Block: 3 inch paper pieced log cabin
Fabric: Mirror Ball Dot
Finished size: 15 x 15 inches

10Mar2014

Miniture Quilts Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

I am back… sorry about the radio silence last week… I was kind of forced to take a little break but we are now back on-line and ready to go… starting with Paper Piecing Monday miniature style.

The Portland Modern Quilt Guild is currently taking part in some miniature quilt challenges, so I just had to give it a try. Because of the size of the quilt blocks usually used in these quilts, precision is incredibly important. Even the slimmest of miscalculations can cause big issues when you are working at such a small scale, unless of course, you work with a paper piecing pattern.

So I decided to use a simple 3 inch log cabin block for my Metallic Challenge mini quilt…

Of course I had to use one of my fave fabrics, Michael Miller’s Mirror Ball. It was just perfect for this challenge and worked well with the small scale block.

You can find the paper piecing pattern I used here…. miniature log cabin pattern. The blocks came together really quickly and my final quilt is 15 inches by 15 inches square and now all I have to do is work out how I want to back and quilt it.

26Feb2014

Colour Play – Grey

Posted in Colour Play, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

The last week or so I have been playing with a different kind of colour combination…one that really has not got a lot of “colour” in it. My inspiration was a very old photo that hangs on our living room wall…

(Please note..I can neither confirm or deny that I am in this photo).

Anyway I have always loved black and white photographs, which really are more grey and white than black and white, and thought why not play with greys in a quilt. The end result was this block…

I used another fabulous free paper piecing pattern from Quilters Cache called Atlantic Sea. The block pieces look rather strange and a pattern is not immediately obvious.