Paper Piecing Monday #opgivewarmth

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Welcome to a special Paper Piecing Monday. Recently the fabulous Sarah @ nohatsinthehouse set up a wonderful Bee like charity drive called #opgivewarmth. The general idea is that each month Sarah will set a colour palette and each month you can send in a block or blocks to her using any of the colours on the palette.

April is the first month for this endeavor and Sarah set this palette for the challenge

I love all these colours separately and there are some fabulous colour combinations in this palette (pink, red and tan is a personal favorite). In a moment of insanity I thought I would do some paper piecing blocks with ALL these colours included. The result was…

This fabulously trippy star block is a free pattern from Piece by Numbers called Indian Summer. There are two different layouts for this pattern and you can find it at Craftsy. This block is so weird but it is growing on me!

Sarah requested blocks in increments of 3 inches. My trippy star is 12 x 12 inch and just for a bit of variety I made up a couple of 3 x 6 inch blocks…

I was going to sew these blocks together to make 6 x 6 blocks but after making a couple of sampler quilts myself I know it is important to have some flexibility with blocks. So I am going to send the flying geese as is, and Sarah can use them as she needs.

You can find the pattern for this block at Quilers Cache in a variety of different sizes. I think the next time I may choose just to use a selection of the colours… but then again I do love a challenge!

And if you are a paper piecing fan you should check out Sarah’s work…her quilts regularly make my jaw drop.

11Apr2014

A do.Good finish…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

Okay it took me a while but I finally got the do.Good.Stitches Icicle quilt done…. so without further ado here she is….

This quilt started life when I was doing Julie @ 627Handworks “Block Rockin” paper pieced blocks. I loved how the Icky Thump block looked and decided it needed to be a quilt all its own.

With the help of the Hope Circle of do.Good.Stitches a Icky Thump quilt was made. It was a fun process seeing how different quilters took on the paper piecing challenge and what lovely fabrics they had in their stash. I infatuated with these tiny mice in particular…

It took me a while to decide how I wanted to quilt this top up. I ummed and ahhed for weeks about what to do and finally decided to quilt to enhance the star pattern.

I was not completely sold on this quilting until I turned the quilt around and looked at the back…

..the quilting really works on the back. Now I know I am not noted for my quilting prowess, as my darling friend Lisa confirmed yesterday (I piece like a champion but quilt like a beginner)… but I am chuffed with how this looks.

For the backing I used one of the blocks I was sent that was a little small and made it the focal point. This way everyone who contributed a block is represented in this quilt.

Finally I hand bound the quilt using some solid scraps I had. It was a lovely exercise to put the finishing touches on this quilt by hand. Another do.Good quilt ready to head off to do good!

Quilt Stats
Pattern: Icky Thump paper pieced pattern
Finished quilt size: 48 x 60 inches
Fabrics: various
Backing: Kona Medium Grey and various others.

26Mar2014

An interesting Colour Play challenge

Posted in Colour Play, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

First up a little bit of background before I show you what I am playing with this week…. Last week I gave a presentation on Playing with Color in quilting to the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. I talked a little about color theory and a lot about the colour schemes that quilters can borrow from the art based theory, as well as ones we have come up with on our own (like Low Volume). During the presentation I also talked about ‘neutrals’, those fun, versatile colours that play nice with nearly every colour they meet. It was during this part of the presentation that this weeks challenge presented itself…

So I was talking about the standard neutrals – white, cream, grey, brown and of course navy blue, which is my favorite neutral…though it is not really an official neutral. I rambled on about how navy is my response to my personal aversion to black as a neutral. I find black harsh and though it gives great contrast, I do not tend to use it unless I absolutely have to and always opt for navy or dark grey instead. I will, on occasion, condescend to use black and white prints but never straight black.

As I was making these statements I realised that I should not be making such a harsh judgement on black without at least giving it a go.

So I choose a pattern and went to work…

I went with the traditional Hunters Star block and used the paper piecing pattern by Quilters Cache. It seemed like the perfect pattern to make use of the high contrast of my colour choices.

The block pieces join together to make these wonderful stars… and we all know how I feel about stars! When you add a number of blocks together you get to see the bigger pattern which is stunning.

I have to admit I am thrilled with how this “experiment” turned out. I think because I am using scraps and different blacks, the colour is not quite as harsh as a solid black, and the blue just seems to pop off the quilt.

So going forward I am not saying I will be abandoning navy blue any time soon but I may give black more than a fleeting glance next time I am pulling fabric. So is this aversion to black just me or do others share my feelings? Have you used it in any of your quilts?

As it is Wednesday I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday…

24Mar2014

Finally Neoned out… for now

Posted in neon quilt blocks, Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

I am proud to present the last block of my Neon Pink quilt…

This pattern was fun to make and I think reflects a couple of the other blocks already in the quilt. You can find a free copy of the pattern I designed here…WQ Atomic Star block.

So now all of the neon blocks are done and all that is left to do is the maths for the sashing – made a little complex because the blocks finished up at 12 1/2 inches and 11 inches. In the beginning when I decided to make some friends for the two 11 inch PMQG orphan blocks I found, I did not realise I was making the maths harder. Augh….

I am sure it will be worth it in the end but for now I have my calculator and some graph paper out to see how to make this sucker work. Wish me luck!

19Mar2014

Lots of X’s

Posted in Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

This week my quilting life has been full of just one block – a paper pieced X block of varying sizes.

I made the original block pattern, a 4 inch x 4 inch block, for the next border on the PMQG medallion quilt.

I used the PMQG Me dallion Border paper piecing pattern to make the border for the group medallion which is taking full advantage of the fabulous Botanics range by Carolyn Friedlander.

Don’t you just love the center Dresden flower – my clever fellow PMQG officer, Kelly of Blue Bird Sews made it.

After finishing the first 24 X blocks for the Guild Medallion I turned around and did another 48 X blocks to make the border on my Medallion….

Yep you read right… I had to make two lots of cross blocks to get my border done, because I did not measure my paper piecing pattern before I started sewing. My printer had “scaled to fit” my first set of block so they were just slightly smaller than 4 inches. Lesson for the day: always measure your printed pattern before you start work.

For some unknown reason I then thought “wow wouldn’t be fun to try a larger cross with some Lizzy House fabrics” and in a moment of insanity started making these blocks…

I was at least smart enough to blow the pattern up to 6 x 6 inches and I am liking how this quilt is starting to look. You can find the pattern for the larger crosses here… Cross block pattern.

Believe it or not I am contemplating adding some smaller 4 x 4 blocks to my Constellation quilt to bring a nice variety to the top. If I do not get too sick of these blocks, I will have a wip update in a couple of weeks.