Liberty Love…

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

I have to admit I have become a little obsessed with Liberty of London fabric. I have been getting a monthly bundle of Liberty from Ava & Neve and every time I get a new package I get excited all over again to use them to make something beautiful. (I extra love that though Ava & Neve are based in my home town of Brisbane but they ship to the US for no extra cost).

Liberty fabric

I have become bundle addicted and I stalk the post box at the end of each month waiting for the next hit… it is such a great way to get a good stash of Liberty lawn without to much expenditure… and I have also become obsessed with using as much of the fabric as I can, resorting to saving little tiny pieces that with quilting cotton I would usually throw out.

This week my Liberty obsession manifested itself in the form of a hexi pillow…

This lovely pillow used 75 different one inch hexagons of Liberty on a background of Essex Linen…

pillow detail 2

I used Nicole at Modern Handcrafts modern hexagon tutorial to make the pillow. This tutorial is fabulous and I love the easy at which the hexagons are attached… there is no hand sewing the suckers together, just glue.. lots and lots of glue.

The pattern also allows you to play with how you layout the hexagons. I choose to taper my hexies off at the edges of the pillow…

I so loved this pillow that I have started another Liberty pillow… so stay tuned for next weeks installment of “Cath’s Liberty Obsession”.

18Aug2014

Excuses, excuses and some paper piecing…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Okay I had another slack posting week last week, but I have some good excuses really. Excuse One….camping.

Yep I spent four days camping last week….Four whole days without a sewing machine, a computer, cell phone connection or a shower! Despite the limitations I did manage to get some quilting done….

I hexied up a storm… four days of hand work produced this lovely collection finished and ready to go….

I love the flexibility and ease of English paper piecing. Whenever I am heading out the door to an appointment or event where I think I may have some spare time I just grab my hexie kit, just in case.

So here is a much overdue shot of my quilt top so far… it is growing slowly.

I am adding flowers willy nilly, I am sure there is an easier way to put the top together but I kind of like the “stick and flower here, stick a flower there” approach.

My husband declared a month or so ago that this quilt was going to be his, because (1) this would ensure that he got a quilt eventually and (2) it would also ensure that I did not give this quilt away, as I am prone to do!

The fact that the quilt will be pretty and loud and contains flowers does not seem to bother him at all!

It does not seem to bother the cat either…

Excuse number two for my slack posting will be part of Wednesday’s post….

4Dec2013

Off Galavanting…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

For the last four days or so I have been off gallivanting with my husband in Canada. We took the Thanksgiving break to drive up to Vancouver Island and spend some quality off line time together. November has been a crazy month with my husband deciding to write a novel in November (nanowrmo) as well as grow a mustache. This has meant I have not seen much of my him this month and when I have I have not always recognized him!

As we left Portland on our adventure a friend commented that it is great that Nick will not be distracted by writing and I would not be distracted by quilting… my husband just laughed, he knew I had packed this…

My trusty hexagon kit. Yes I somehow managed to quilt while on vacation in the middle of nowhere. I industriously made a stack of hexagons…

and also some more flowers…

which will all be added to the ongoing crazy which is my hexagon quilt.

It has grown a little bit since I last photographed it.

There is no rhyme or reason to how I am adding the flowers… I just add randomly. It is kind of fun.

I am loving making this quilt…though it is slow going. There is something about hand stitching I find very therapeutic.

I will get back to the sewing machine this week but I am not in a hurry… and if you were curious as to just how dodgy my husband looks with a mustache…..

The answer is very dodgy!

15Jul2013

Paper Piecing Monday presents Garfunkel

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

Another Monday, another paper pieced block. Yipee. Today’s block is a little more complex than my last few, but is sooooo fabulous. May I present Garfunkel…

When Julie at 627Handworks.com posted this block a couple of weeks ago I fell in love. It took me a week or so to work out how I wanted to approach the block and what colours I wanted to use. I ended up choosing red/pink combinations, but wanted to use so many more colours. For the first time I was really really frustrated by this sampler quilt’s limited palette. The FREE paper piecing pattern can be found here.

66 fabulous pieces to make this hexagon wonder. I have already started planning how I am going to use this pattern again – it is so effective and I am a little hexagon obsessed at the moment!

Have a great Monday.

14Jun2013

Going slowly insane…

Posted in Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

First up thanks to everyone for the kind thoughts and comments. I was really touched.

I am doing good but was not warned how boring it is to recover from surgery. The first 4 to 5 days you are so tired and sore and doped up that you do not care. It is the days that follow that are really annoying me. Obviously patience is not my strong suit.

I am on day 9 of re-corporation and I am driving myself and my husband crazy. I am well enough that I am alert and functioning but not well enough to be able to bend down or sit at a sewing machine or do anything for more than an hour without dozing off. My life has become a cycle of watching old episodes of Deadliest Catch, making hexies and sleeping. Yipee!

I have been mainly sewing my hexagon flowers together. My placement is rather random – my husband keeps wanting to add a pattern to the placement but I like to just go with the flow. Here is what I have so far….

It may not look like much but I also had to do some running repairs. Some of my earlier stitches were not as small as they needed to be. I had to go back into about 4 flowers and re-stitch.

The back side of this quilt shows just how much work goes into these suckers. Lots of tiny hand stitches…

I am a little burnt out on hexagons, but they are really the only quilting I can handle at the moment. My hope is that by Sunday I will be back behind the sewing machine. Come hell or high water there will be a Paper Piecing Monday. Promise.