The fabulous Penny Lane – Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

When I saw the name of today’s block I could not help but smile. I know the block is named after the Beatles song, but Penny Lane reminds me so much of Kate Hudson’s character in “Almost Famous”, one of my favorite films. I think it is a fitting block for both the song and the character…

This 72 piece beauty is another fabulous block for the amazing Julie at 627handworks. You can find the free paper piecing pattern here. Her version of this pattern is darling and very different from mine.

This block was not without a hiccup or two. First there was the “not concentrating on what I am doing mistake” which resulted in this misformed section and lots of unpicking.

Then I managed to break a needle trying to go through the center bulk. I had forgotten to remove the paper bits from the middle section to make it easier to sew through. Whoops.

Despite all this I love how this block came out. It is going to fit beautifully with the other blocks. I may end up replacing my last green block which is also scrappy but which is too messy for me… if you are curious you can find it here.

26Jul2013

Getting back in the swing…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

After a month or so of being off my game I am pleased to say I have FINALLY finished a quilt top. Pausing for applause. I can not believe that the last time I posted a finished quilt/quilt top was the end of May.

So without further ado… here she is.

Yep I finished my Blush log cabin quilt top. I first posted about this block a couple of weeks ago… here. I wanted to make a quilt that used peach/apricot fabric, having seen a post on a Modern quilt site about how you should NOT use apricot in modern quilts. I really do love hearing that you should NOT do something, it just makes me want to do whatever I am not meant to do. (This feeling may possibly be the result of having an Army Colonel for a father).

My response was to find a way to make the colour work. I pulled this stash of fabric and started playing.

After a false start or two I got it to work… with this block.

Which turned into this…

Scrappy modern fabulous fun. And I think the peach/apricot fabric works perfectly. It is not at all dated or dowdy.

The fabulous array of pink and purple scraps help. What are your thoughts on the often maligned apricot/peach? Have your used it in your modern quilts?

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.

17Jul2013

A quilted container – WIP Wednesday

Posted in Finished Quilts, Other fun stuff, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

In my sewing career I have made hundreds of quilts and one fancy dress costume. Once or twice I have hemmed or mended a few clothing items on the sewing machine but that is absolutely it, until this week.

Rewind a little bit to last month’s Portland Modern Quilting Guild meeting where a new swap was proposed. I had never participated in a swap before, they scare me a little – you have to do something on deadline to please someone else. Too much pressure for me. Last month though, thru a combination of pain medication and peer pressure I said yes to making a quilted container.

Fast forward to this week. I need the container for Thursday’s meeting and I had not even started. I had spent weeks procrastinating and convincing myself I could not do this. With time running out I bite the proverbial bullet and started. The Guild website had helpfully linked to a number of free tutorials, so I picked one – 1/4″ Mark.com’s quilted bucket and went to work.

Step one.. I selected some unused blocks to use in the body of the bucket. These paper pieced stars set the colour scheme for the finished piece

Step two… I made the bottom of the bucket (this step also involved spray basting my fingers together)

Step three… I did some maths (the hardest part of the whole darn process), deconstructed the blocks and made the body of the bucket.

Step four, five and possibly six… quilted the bucket body, then pinned the bottom piece to the body piece.

Which resulted in this…

Step seven… turned the outside piece inside out and attached handles

Steps eight to twelve… selected lining fabric, cut bottom and side bits, sewed them together, turned them inside out and sewed them to the quilted outer piece. By this stage I was loosing the will to live, but bravely carried on.

Step two hundred and six five… nearly finished… I pulled the quilted part through a small 2 inch whole left in the lining part to reveal this…

My finished bucket. The sides of the bucket are 12 inches and the base is 8 3/4 inches. I think if I was to make it again I would make the sides a little smaller but other than that I am pleased with the finished product. So pleased I took lots and lots of photos…

finished bucket 5

Really lots and lots…

From lots of different angles….

Just to document the achievement of having made a quilty thing that was not a quilt…

15Jul2013

Paper Piecing Monday presents Garfunkel

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

Another Monday, another paper pieced block. Yipee. Today’s block is a little more complex than my last few, but is sooooo fabulous. May I present Garfunkel…

When Julie at 627Handworks.com posted this block a couple of weeks ago I fell in love. It took me a week or so to work out how I wanted to approach the block and what colours I wanted to use. I ended up choosing red/pink combinations, but wanted to use so many more colours. For the first time I was really really frustrated by this sampler quilt’s limited palette. The FREE paper piecing pattern can be found here.

66 fabulous pieces to make this hexagon wonder. I have already started planning how I am going to use this pattern again – it is so effective and I am a little hexagon obsessed at the moment!

Have a great Monday.