Clearing the backlog…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I have been working hard this week to start clearing the backlog of quilt tops I have floating around my work space. What is spurring me on is the fact that I have not donated quilts to Project Linus for a couple of months now and am feeling a little bad about it.

So I spent yesterday day basting some tops up and managed in amongst it all to get my 1001 Peeps top finally finished. I first blogged about this quilt months ago (you can find the link here). So without further ado here is finally a compete finish.

I love the 1001 Peeps range by Lizzy House, actually I love everything Lizzy House does. She is one of my favorite fabric designers and you will see her Pearl Bracelet range in just about everything I do.

This square in square pattern is so easy and just perfect for fussy cutting.

I backed the quilt using scrap bits of the fabric I had left over from making the front and a splash of solids.

Finally I bound and labeled the quilt so it is now ready for delivery to the Project Linus meeting this month.

I am hoping to get at least another two tops finished this week. Wish me luck.

22Jul2013

Paper Piecing Monday fussy cut edition

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Today’s paper piecing Monday is a little detour from the regularly scheduled sampler quilt. Over the weekend Amanda at What the Bobbin? started a fussy square block swap and I was so excited I started making blocks almost immediately. There is swap joining details and a downloadable pattern on her site.

The idea of pulling out some of my fun novelty fabrics, fussy cutting them and making them into 4 inch blocks was too much fun…. here is what I have done so far.

I have so many great novelty scraps I can see myself getting quite carried away. But for now I am going to finish making my 12 blocks, then move onto finishing up some of the quilt tops I have laying in pieces around my work space. I want to have a finish for Friday.

Have a great week.

10May2013

Fabric Friday

Posted in Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

This week I did a bit of a spring clean on my fabric stash. I pulled out a ton of novelty fabrics that I have had for years and years, but really do not work with my current esthetic. I then spent hours cutting hundreds of 8 inch blocks for Project Linus and when I got bored, what was left was bundled up to give to the charity as well. I am sure they will be used to make some great kids quilts.

The process got me thinking about the fabric I now treasure and use. If you have seen any of my recent work you will notice I love to make scrap quilts. I love how you can play with colour and pattern within scrap quilt. In my most recent quilts I have used fabric I have had for 10+ years alongside newer fabrics to my stash. Don’t get me wrong, I have designers and collections I have hoarded and use as well – anything by Heather Ross, Aneela Hooey, Lizzy House and Denise Schmidt, but my heart currently belongs to scraps.

My stash is sorted two ways…

1. The above designers collections as well as my 1930’s fabric and Kaffe Fassett fabric get their own separate box – I have box for Heather fabric, a box for Aneela’s fabric etc.

2. Each colour (red, blue, green etc) has its own box or two.

What I consider my neutrals (which includes white/cream) tend to have more than one box….

Navy blue

Black & white

Grey

Within my colour boxes there are some fabric lines that I consider my “go to” staples. Nearly every quilt I have made in the last 6 months has included some of these lines.

1. Lizzy House’s Pearl Bracelets…. I started collecting Pearl Bracelets with her Castle Peeps line and then went a little overboard when they were released as a separate line. I bought a 1/2 yard of all of them at Hawthorne Threads.

Lizzy House’s Pearl Bracelet

2. While on Lizzy House…. her Jewels fabric is a fabulous modern tone on tone line that I use all the time. Again I started collecting this line with Castle Peeps and pick it up whenever I find it.

Lizzy House’s Jewel fabric

3. Art Gallery’s Oval Elements are another fabulously modern tone on tone fabric that I use regularly. I love the quality of Art Gallery fabric, they are sooo soft and the colour choices with this line is incredible.

Oval Elements by Art Gallery Fabrics

4. The glittery fun that is Michael Miller’s Mirror Ball Dot. I love sneaking some of this fabric in to give my quilts a subtle little sparkle and have used up most of my stash of this line!

Michael Miller’s Mirror Ball Dot fabric.

5. Talking of dots… I have a huge collection of them in my stash. My go to dot fabrics are Michael Millers “Ta Dot” and Kaffe Fassett’s “Spots“. You can not fail with these beauties.

I have recently started adding copious amounts of chevrons into my stash as well. They are giving my dot collection a run for it’s money!

I must admit I have become less afraid as time goes on, of using the last bit of a fabric because I realised there is always more beautiful fabrics coming down the pipe line. I am currently saving my money for Heather Ross’s Briar Rose.

8May2013

Taking Stock

Posted in Project Linus, Quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

WIP Wednesday seemed like a good time to take stock of what I have “in progress” at the moment. So here goes…

1. Blocks almost ready to be made into a top…

Paper Piecing Monday blocks… one block to go!

Granny squares ready to go

2. Quilt top needing the paper pattern removed…

3. Quilt tops waiting to be basted and quilted….

Sunburnt Country top

paper pieced square in square modern scrap quilt

Square in square quilt top

1001 Peeps square in square quilt top

4. Quilts ready to go to Project Linus…

7. Ongoing project that may take me years….

Hexagon flowers… all hand done!

6.. Very old quilts that have been sitting in my cupboard (or in storage in Australia) for YEARS…

My first ever quilt top… circa 1997

1930’s Star quilt… circa 2000

Kaffe Fassett floral quilt top… circa 2008

Novelty rainbow quilt top… circa 2009

So where do I start…. It is all so overwhelming!

3May2013

An abundancy of turquioise

Posted in Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

This month there are a couple of resolutions in our house, that may or may not work. Firstly my husband thought it would be a good idea if we did not eat any processed sugar during May. I do not remember agreeing to this at all, but it seems that sugar is off the menu. If the posts get erratic, the colours get to bright or I stop making sense, it is because I am suffering withdrawals.

The second resolution for May was to finish up more of the quilt tops I have floating around. This resolution came about as I finished another two quilt tops this week and the pile of UFOs grew to an embarrassing level. More quilting less piecing. Combine this resolution with the other one and it could be an interesting month!

Anyway the two tops I finished up this week are both from the same pattern…. I blogged them originally here. I used this pattern…

..to make this quilt.

This was a fun scrap quilt to make – lots of turquoise, navy (my favorite colour) and pink/purple. I really like this colour combination, which I stumbled across while playing with my piles of fabric.

The other quilt top I finished was my 1001 Peeps top.

I was battling the wind when I was taking these photos. It is the problem of photographing tops as opposed to full quilts – there is no weight to hold them in place in even a gentle breeze.