Another low volume finish…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

In my work room I have a box that I throw all my low volume scraps into as I am working. This box fills up pretty quickly, not surprisingly with all the quilts I have my hands in/on and every time it gets to the point where it is over flowing I make a Scrap Vortex quilt…

low volume scrap vortex 2

This is my second one of these quilts I have made and I really do love how they turn out…. you can see my first version here… and with both these quilts I have struggled to get good photos.

quilt detail 3

they really are just an excuse for me to throw in as much fussy cutting goodness as I can… which makes for the best game of I spy…

quilt detail 4

plus this was a fun break for me from the complex butterfly blocks I have been making….

quilt detail 2

This finished quilt is already in the hands of the local PICU for some kid to snuggle under.

Quilt Details:

Block: 12 inch Scrap Vortex technique by Crazy Mom Quilts
Fabric: Various low volume scraps
Finished quilt size: 48 x 60 inches

24Jul2015

A low volume scrap vortex…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I finished up my scrap vortex quilt… I actually started this quilt a couple of weeks ago in a bid to use some of my low volume scraps and after I found the wonderful QAL at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Amanda Jean leads the Scrap Vortex Quilt Along and does a great job of taking you through, step by step, making these blocks.. and makes dealing with all your scraps easy and manageable.

You start by sewing similar size scraps together and then sew those bits together and before you know it you have a quilt block.

For my quilt I trimmed my blocks to 12 1/2 unfinished.

It was so much fun putting this together. I was surprised by how many fun novelty prints I had that were low volume.

When I was selecting scraps for this project I chose only fabrics that had a white/cream background with a print on top of that back ground. There are probably five or six scraps that were pastel (a soft light colour fabric with a little white in it) but I wanted to predominantly white/creams.

You can see an example of one of those prints in the photo above… there are three little blocks that are a soft background with a white print. It seems like such a little thing, but the fabric reads differently than those around it…it reads darker and more solid than the print would suggest.

So if you are doing a low volume quilt, audition your fabrics carefully and if you can, use the camera on your phone to take a photo of the fabric and turn it into a greyscale image to see how the fabric actually reads.

For the back of the quilt I used bigger scraps and my left over bits and pieces to make an extra large block…with more novelty goodness in it… including my favorite bit…

Yep I managed to squeek in a koala bear…

For the binding I used the left overs from last weeks quilt….solid Kona pastels.

This quilt is headed to Project Linus for some kid to love and treasure…

Quilt Details:

Pattern: Scrap Vortex by Crazy Mom Quilts
Fabric: Various low volume Scraps
Finished Size: 48 x 48 inches

3Oct2014

The joy of a good Crossword Puzzle…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I have been working on a top-secret project for Quilt Market so my personal quilting has been at a minimum… but I did manage to squeeze enough personal sewing time in to get my Crossword Quilt top all done…

This is a very quiet quilt and very simple, but I love it. The subtly of the pattern is just perfect and adds just the right amount of interest to this low volume quilt.

I used white on white tonals, creams and greys for the back ground “newspaper” of the quilt and black and white/cream prints for the crossword section.

I used as many font or print patterns as I could find, which included raiding a few of my friends, stashes…. special thanks goes to MaryAnn who had some wonderful prints in her collection that she kindly shared. Oh and of course there is some Pearl Bracelet… I can’t make a scrap quilt without surreptitiously sneaking it in somewhere!

This top is a big one… 67.5 x 76.5. I actually played with the original pattern a little to make the quilt just a smidgen smaller than the on in “A month of Sundays”. The book actually encourages you to make up your own crossword, which is kind of fun.

So this is the point in the post where I admit I don’t understand the joy of a good crossword puzzle. My mum does them everyday but they frustrate me no end…oh and do not get me started on the craziness that is cryptic crosswords. Seriously they make no sense at all.

18Sep2014

A work in progress to change the pace…

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

I recently had the privilege of receiving a review copy of Cheryl Arkison’s book “A month of Sunday’s”. The PMQG is often sent books to review and when this title was offered I jumped at it. I loved Cheryl’s first book “Sunday Morning Quilts” which she co-authored with Amanda Jean Nyberg.

This book has a different feel and pace to it than Cheryl’s last book. It has recipes, bag patterns, musing on life and the best chapter EVER on low volume quilting. The chapter “Turn it Down” does a marvelous job of explaining what low volume is, how it works and how to select fabrics. It has tips on value, scale and colour in low volume fabrics and I learnt some neat stuff.

The book’s quilting projects are all fabulously low key, low volume and fun. You are challenged to take what you have learnt about low volume and apply it to patterns. There are helpful hints about turning up the volume on the patterns too but they are all perfect for the quieter style.

Flipping through the book there was one pattern in particular that caught my eye and I knew I just had to make it…

So fabric was pulled (I had a surprising number of text prints!) and then cut. Now, after months of loud bright colours my design wall at the moment is full of scrappy low volume prints.

The wall looks so strange with the random placement but as the rows are sewn together I am seeing some magic appear. I used more creams in my top, which gives my Crossword an old newspaper” feel I think.