More improv…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

So this week’s quilt uses a technique similar to last weeks but gets a very different looking quilt… which I love.

Like last week this quilt uses a foundation, this time a navy blue 5 inch square, and uses scrap strips…. but this time I used just warm solids and a band of white.

Also this block’s component adds fabric to two opposite sides of the foundation…last weeks only added fabric to one side of the foundation. The result is a tighter collection of diamonds on the quilt and the navy foundation feels more like sashing.

As you can tell I used a variety of different shades of blue for the foundations…mainly because I was using up scraps… but I love how the variety gives the quilt some depth and interest.

The backing of this quilt was one of my favorite sheet – a London themed Whim sheet. I have been using sheets for a few years to back quilts and love Martha Stewarts “Whim” line that Macy’s stocks. I actually bought two of the London sets and are hoarding the last of it for a special quilt that I have planned.

This quilt has also already headed out to Dornbecher PICU… I will eventually catch up and be showing quilts before they head out into the world, I promise!

The pinkies will, of course, have the final word…..

Quilt Details:

Blocks: Improv diamond using 5 inch foundation

Fabric: Variety of Kona solid scraps

Size: 54 x 63 inches

5Sep2020

Another old quilt share….

Posted in Finished Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

As I have been going through all my old photos it has been interesting to see what I remembered to share and what I completely forgot about…. this weeks quilt is one I love and it was really fun to make, so I am not sure why I did not share it sooner….

The block is a really simple improv block, using a 5 inch white square as a starting foundation and then different strips of different solid strips of fabric to one corner of the foundation square…. four of these foundation blocks are then sewn together to make a 9 1/2 inch (unfinished) block.

This quilt was made as part of the PMQG Charity Sew Days we used to hold at Modern Domestic… so the blocks for this quilt were made an army of different people which adds to the improv fun….and of course it has already winged its way to someone through Dornbechers’ Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

It was a great way to use up the tons of solid scraps I had gathered over the years… but as usual I swear we ended up with more fabric at the end of the day than what we started with…

When I was pulling the scraps to be used in this project I made sure that I had scraps of every colors and that I had a good variety of lights and darks. The contrast that the different values of the fabric have give this quilt its sparkle I think.

For the back of the quilt I used the last little piece of a treasured IKEA fabric I had been hoarding for years… I regret not buying yards and yards of that house fabric when I had a chance.

And of course it would not be a Wombat quilt without the pinkies… this time I opted for a closeup so you can really see Mr Wombat’s pinkie form. He practices that pose regularly… he takes his quilt holding duties very seriously.

QUILT DETAILS:

Block: 10 inch improv kite block

Fabric: Selection of Kona solids

Quilt size: 60 inches x 60 inches

22Jan2016

Rethinking Brown

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

My slight disdain for the colour brown began when I was a kid in art class…when mixing paints it was all to easy to mix too many colours and end up with a dirty brown colour…. and it happened to me all to frequently.

You do not have the same problem when making quilts, but I was still resistant to using brown at all. In traditional quilting brown has long been considered a neutral colour, but Modern Quilters on the whole tend to be wary of it.

Strangely though I have quite a bit of brown in my stash…not as much as I have pink or navy blue, but more than I should have. I have also had a few brown scraps given to me over the years and at the end of last year my brown scraps hit critical mass… there was only one thing to do…

Yep I made a scrappy improv quilt using my brown scraps and a touch of orange… and it was an interesting experience.

I forgot how many fabulous fabrics Heather Ross has done in brown… I used her seahorses, butterflies, octopus and plants in this quilt.

On of my other favorite designers, Lizzy House, also has done some lovely browns… with mice and cats and of course my all time fav – Pearl Bracelets.

And in between all that novelty goodness is a eclectic collection of prints including a handful of batiks.

It was kind of fun to challenge myself to work mainly in brown… it made me rethink the colour. The result was I came up with a few more brown colour combinations I want to play with including…