Some Quilt Talk and a giveaway…

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

I have been waiting for this day for what seems like ages…. today, this day, when I get to take part in the Blog Hop for my friend Sam Hunter’s new book, Quilt Talk.

I first heard of Sam through her “We Are Sew Worth It” campaign, which was eye opening for me. Sam started a serious conversation about the value of our work, a quilter’s work, as artists, which continues to resonate with me.

About 6 months later I was thrilled to hear that Sam had moved to Portland and joined the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. The first time I met her I knew I had found a kindred spirit- she was straight talking, feisty, talented and hilarious (if you want to know what Sam’s sense of humor is like take a closer look at the buckets on the cover of her new book!)

You can imagine my excitement when I found out Sam was doing a paper piecing book… Quilt Talk is designed around a paper pieced font, which includes a full alphabet with letters, numbers, special characters and accents There is also a dozen lovely projects that you can customize with your own words… my fave is this Star Wars inspired beauty (yes I am a geek)…

As part of the Blog Hop Sam has given each Hop host the paper pieced pattern for a particular word and a link on how to use them to make the buckets on the cover of her book. My word is appropriately…

DOWNLOAD THE HEXIES PATTERN HERE….

You can collect the full set of patterns by visiting the other Blog Hop hosts…

Thursday, October 2 – PURPLE – Megan Dougherty, The Bitchy Stitcher
Friday, October 3 – BROWN – Carrie Bloomston, Such Designs
Monday, October 6 – RED – Kim Niedzwiecki, My GoGo Life
Tuesday, October 7 – TEAL – Flaun Cline, I Plead Quilty
Wednesday, October 8 – WHITE – Molli Sparkles
Thursdays, October 9 – HEXIES – Cath Hall, Wombat Quilts
Friday, October 10 – PINK – Ebony Love, LoveBug Studios
Monday, October 13 – GREEN – Rose Hughes
Tuesday, October 14 – BLUE – Sarah Fielke
Wednesday, October 15 – GRAY – Maddie Kertay, The BadAss Quilter’s Society
Thursday, October 16 – BLACK – Cheryl Sleboda
Friday, October 17 – YELLOW – Victoria Findlay Wolfe
Monday, October 20 – ORANGE (but of course!) – Sam Hunter, Hunter’s Design Studio

Sam has also kindly given me a copy of the book to give away to one lucky reader… so if you would like to win a hard copy of this fabulous book just leave a comment, telling me what your favorite colour is… a random winner will be drawn on Sunday night (12th October) and announced during Paper Piecing Monday’s post.

6Oct2014

Rolling Chocolate block…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Today’s paper piecing Monday block has the best name EVER… yep today I present to you the Rolling Chocolate block…

This is one of my favorite blocks and not just because it has the word chocolate in the title (though that really does help). I love how the block double frames the fussy cut print.

So here is what you need:

Four WQ Simple square block and four chocolate block components. Then a center block, fussy cutting is, of course, optional!

The blocks layout with your 4 1/2 inch square in the middle. For this block you can easily remove the paper from the block components before you sew everything together, if you are so inclined.

And again there are so many variations that you can do with this block. I have an extra large version of this block underway, and will share the pattern and results when it is done.

29Sep2014

Starflower Quilt block

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

For today’s Paper Piecing Monday block I did something a little different. The block still uses the simple square block, but only one…

..and yes kitties are still involved. It follows the rules of the other vintage blocks – 9 patch of four-inch blocks blah blah blah…

The components of the block are…one (1) WQ Simple square block, four (4) Triangle blocks and four (4) Starpoint component blocks. Just click on the links to get the PDF of the patterns.

So what did I do different…. I blew this block up to make a 21 inch block.

As the local hospital was now requesting 42 inch square quilts, I thought this would be a great way to make a quick and easy baby quilt… and I was right.

My quilt is unbound, but you get the idea. Simple pattern, bright solids and you have an easy quilt. The pattern components are the same but just 7 inches instead of 4…XL Triangle component and XL Star component and of course XL Simple Square component.

22Sep2014

Kitty Corner Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

For today’s paper piecing Monday I present the kitty corner block….

And yes that is a kitty in the center of the Kitty Corner… I could not resist. The pattern is another simple square nine patch block, have I mentioned I am obsessed?

To make this block all you need is the 4 1/2 inch simple square pattern (WQ Simple square block) and the Kitty corner component.

I was a little stuck on putting a kitty in the block, so my alternative block layout is not too much different…

But I think there are more exciting possibilities if you are not cat or fussy cut focused. I would love to see a block with no white space – with a pattern fabric as the background. Maybe if I get time….

15Sep2014

Joy Bell Block paper piecing style…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Last week saw the start of my new obsession… 12 inch classic blocks that use a simple square block. This week I have been playing with another block which I have seen called Joy Bell, Salem and St Gregory’s Cross to name just a few….

This block is another easy one to put together. You will need…

All these components are 4 1/2 inches unfinished and you can find the pattern for the arrow blocks here….arrow block. And of course the wonderful simple square, which will be in all the blocks here..WQ Simple square block.

When you have made the components the block is easy to put together, row by row.

When I was researching I found so many variations on this pattern… the simple layout above was usually called Joy Bell, and I also made a block using the layout referred to as a Salem block…

There are so many possibilities with this block, so to help with the “playing” process I made a colouring sheet (joy bells color sheet), so that you can come up with your own combinations. Download the sheet, grab some colour pencils and go to work…