Colour Play Girly Style

Posted in Colour Play by wombatquilts

This week I went totally girly with my colour play. I love pink and love using pink…

Example One…

Example Two…

Example Three…

Example Four…

I could go on but I think you get the picture… so this weeks challenge was to try a new pink combination, one that I was a little different from my norm. The end result was this totally girly fabric pull…

Which when combined with a simple spiderweb pattern from Quilters Cache became this 12 inch block…

Which, when joined with other spiderweb blocks begins to look like this…

Totally deliciously pretty I think, but I am a little biased!

29Jan2014

A colour dilema…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

A couple of days ago I realized that January was slowly slipping away and I had not managed to tick any projects off my 2014 To Do List. Drastic action was needed so I pulled out my Tula Pink blocks and got to work. I made the final couple of blocks, put them up on the design wall and stared at them for a day (very constructive use of time I hear you say).

I blame my husband for the delay, actually I blame him for a lot of things, but this was really his fault. You see last year when I started this project he did this…

It made me laugh at the time but when it came time to put the top together using just pink blocks something seemed to be missing. The layout with the Tardis was fun but it took away from the Tula Pink feel of the quilt. I then made this…

I thought a blue Tula Block would work but it just did not seem to have the same impact as a Tardis. In the end I have chosen to go with all pink blocks. I have added 1 1/2 inch sashing around the blocks and I am slowly sewing it together.

I have two more rows to go and before the top is all pieced…

As I add each row I keep thinking “should I add the blue”. I am constantly second guessing my decision.

I am loving the pink blocks together but there is something missing. AUGH… this is driving me crazy. What would you do?

25Nov2013

Starry Nights grow – Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I decided to play a little with my Starry Night blocks, that is put them up on the design wall and see how it was all coming together. But before I started “playing” I made this block….

Yes, another pattern from Quilting on the Square’s free Bonus Compass blocks… this time I went with their twinkle pattern. A lovely little pattern taking just 32 pieces.

As I started pinning the blocks up on my design wall I quickly realised I needed some more variety in sizes for my stars… so just for fun I made this “little” variation on my twinkle block.

This mini twinkle star uses Quilters Cache’s free eight pointed star pattern. I printed this pattern out at a smaller size than the pattern dictates and as I am not worried about being too accurate with the star sizes I let my printer do the re-sizing calculations.

When I was finished with both these blocks, I tacked them up on my wall…. now this is really just a very very rough work in progress, just so I could see how the blocks looked together and so I could work out what I needed to be doing with my patterns going forward.

I have a way to go… but I think it is coming together nicely. I have worked out that I want more variety in my stars and more variety in my sizes.

8Nov2013

Urban Chicken Fun

Posted in Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

This week I manged to finish my first Urban Chicken quilt top…. I am so excited. I love this modern easy fun pattern.

The Urban Chicken block was designed for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meetup by Michelle Freedman. You can find my original post and tutorial on making the block here.

When laying the quilt top out I had great fun making the chickens run all around… there really is a sense of silly to this quilt block that I love.

It is also a very forgiving block – wonky triangles, lots of scraps and bold bright colours. You can get away with a few squiffy seams if need be.

This is Urban Chicken number 1 for me. I have another one following close behind in warmer colours, as I set this pattern for my Do.good.stitches bee this month. You have been warned!

1Nov2013

Briar Rose Quilt Top finished

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

I managed to finish up my Briar Rose Quilt top this week… and I am loving how it came together.

It really helps that I am using Heather Ross’s marvelous fabric line, Briar Rose and a great block pattern, Labyrinth by Red Pepper Quilts. If you want to read more about the block and the start of this quilt you can check out my original post.

The block is traditionally pieced, there was not a piece of paper in sight. My seams are a little squiffy in places but the pattern is so easy to follow and so forgiving it did not take me long to whip this top up.

It was an interesting process for me using the whole line of fabric and not my usual scraps. If I “blocked” myself into a colour/pattern corner I had very limited choices to get myself out (usually I just add another fabric from my stash!). I wanted to use all the fabrics in the line as equally as possible, but also wanted to get the subtle hint of a light block/dark block pattern in the top. I found myself fudging the last couple of blocks to make this work.

I really had to be careful not to use the strawberry fabrics too much. They are my favorite of this collection and I found myself wanting to put them in every block.