Quilts for kids

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I can not believe that we are already 13 days into September… this month is going way to fast for me. I have Bee blocks to do and quilts to finish and not a sewing elf in sight. Augh!

As September is slipping away I bustled this week to get a couple more quilts finished for the 100 Quilts for Kids project. I raided my pile of unfinished/nearly finished quilts and found two that I could easily complete without too much sweat, and that would be kid suitable.

The first quilt is my scrappy spiderweb quilt, which has been sitting waiting to be completed for over a year.

I really put a dent in my scrap pile with this little beauty. Lots and lots of different fabrics which means lots of “I spy” potential. It is a really fun quilt.

The other quilt I finished this week is a quick and easy wonky star quilt. I must admit wonky stars are my all time favorite “go to” quilt if I have to get something done in a hurry.

For this quilt I used a darling fussy cut novelty fabric for the center piece and then bright scraps for the star points. Most of these scrap triangles were left over from my “sparkle punch” wonky star quilt.

To back the quilt I used some bigger pieces from the same fabric range by Jone Hallmark.

Both these quilts side by side you can see which one I spent days and days making and which one was done in a few hours. In the end both will be loved and treasured in equal measure, I hope.

6Sep2013

Yummy Quilt finished

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

The weather in Portland has finally turned, and the rain and cold of the last two days has spurred me onto finish my Yummy Charity Quilt. I do struggle in summer to finish quilts, partly because the sun beckons me out to play and partly because it is too hot to be working under/over/on a quilt. Here is what my rain inspired burst of activity produced…

This quilt started life as 20 packets of 2 1/2 inch squares of “Happy Mochi YumYum” and some Kona “Snow”. You can read/see more about its humble beginnings in my original post.

I had fun randomly placing the squares and messing up the one white one print pattern. I like how the finished quilt feels a little off kilter.

To back the quilt I used the few remaining blocks and spare squares of fabric. The back is random but kind of fun.

I kept the quilting simple – I am still only able to manage straight lines at the moment, and bound the quilt in a fun green leaf print I had in my stash. A dislocated thumb makes basting, quilting and binding in particular hard work.

quilt binding

The finished quilt is part of the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS, which the Portland Modern Quilt Guild is supporting. If you are interested you can find out more about the Challenge here.

Now it is back to enjoying the rain…

28Aug2013

Playing with dolls – wip Wednesday

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Recently the Portland Modern Quilt Guild set it’s members a challenge to make Doll Quilts to help raise money for the Oregon Ballet Theater. I had never made a doll quilt before and it seems like a great way to practice my free motion quilting while helping out a good cause.

So I started with some 3 inch squares and came up with these…

What is so strange about both this little quilts is that they have made 3 inch blocks seem too big. I am going to have to go smaller – which scares me a little, but should be interesting.

I have also started playing with some 1001 Peeps scraps I had and have this little wip on my design wall.

Just in case you were wondering why I am supporting this cause so vigorously…

Yes that is me in my bright pink tutu!

23Aug2013

Another log cabin done and dusted…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I managed to get my Blush log cabin quilted and bound this week. I am so thrilled with how this quilt finished up and can not wait to see how it washes.

I quilted Blush using the diagonal lines of the log cabin block as a guide. I love how the how this simple quilting adds extra interest to the log cabin.

I must admit I am looking forward to trying some of the free-motion techniques I learned last week at the PMQG Meet Up, but I have a few weeks before my wrist is up for the challenge. So the next few quilts will involve straight lines in some shape or form and in the meantime I will do my free-motion exercises in my new graph paper note-book. As instructed by Rachel (of 2nd Ave Studios) I will be using pen only for the doodling. No erasing.

I found the perfect fabric piece in my stash for the back of this quilt – the Weekend by Erin Morris fabric worked perfectly with a little bit of pink supporting fabric.

The final touch was a solid binding in Magenta which just bought the whole quilt together.

Now I am just a few stitches away from finishing my Yummy quilt so it is back to the sewing machine.

I am linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF.

21Aug2013

A Yummy work in progress

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Last weekend I took part in the Pacific Northwest Modern Quilt Guild Meetup – quite a mouthful hey! Guilds from around the Pacific Northwest gathered in Portland to meet, sew and basically have a great time. It was a lot of fun and I meet some amazing quilters. One of the events on Saturday was a charity sew day at Modern Domestic. I spent several glorious hours using an amazing Bernina Sewing machine making these…

As part of the goodie bag for the Meetup there was small packets 2 1/2 squares of Lecien’s “Happy Mochi yumyum” fabric (Monica, the designer of these fun fabrics is a Portland MQG member).

I gathered my packets, hunted down some of the spare packets that were left over and then bribed some more packets from some friends. Finally when I thought I had enough, I went to work.

I paired the fabric with some Kona “Snow” and happily sat chain piecing and ironing for hours. I managed to get 4 blocks of 12 done during my time at the Sew Day, then bought the whole process home to finish.