Getting back in the swing…

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?

24Jul2013

Dresden Plate challenge – wip Wednesday

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week I decided to challenge myself, and try to make a block I had never done before – the Dresden Plate. I was so inspired by Susan at The Bored Zombie’s Dresden plate quilt, that I had to give it a go. So I bought a Dresden plate template (I went with EZ Quiltings) and pulled some fabric.

I decided to raid my stash of 1930’s fabric which has been sitting under my bed, untouched, for years. There is something about the Dresden pattern that just called out to be made in vintage style fabrics. I was actually shocked at how much of this fabric I had accumulated over the years – what is shown above is about 1/15th of my stash. I went through a period many year ago of making baby quilts out of this fun fabric ( I was partial to the Aunt Grace and Storybook lines).

With the fabric cut, I found the rest of the process really easy. I sewed the top of the cut pieces together using chain stitching.

Snipped the corner, turned it inside out and I was ready to go. I was so surprised how quickly I could get the pieces and block done. I thought it would take me hours to finish a block but it was really quick.

Then came the hard part. Having finished most of the block pieces I realized I wanted to make the block feel a little more modern. I started playing with what to back the block with and here are my top choices…

1. Hatched block back

2. Scrappy white back

3. Red & white dot back

4. Black & white dot back

5. Navy blue back

6. Grey linen print back

7. Red solid back

HELP! I can make a case for each of these fabrics and I am feeling a little overwhelmed. Please let me know which back you like best.

All selections, suggestions, advice, feedback, comments and support gratefully accepted.

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.

8Jul2013

Paper Piecing Monday presents Morrison

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I can not believe I am already at block 6 of my bright sampler quilt. This week’s block is called the Morrison…

The pattern is once again from Julie’s Block Rock’n collection. You can find the free paper piecing pattern here, along with different layouts for the block. In Julie’s test block she does more with the center of the block which I really like, and which makes for a quite different pattern.

The Morrison is not to complex a pattern and uses only 40 pieces of fabric… perfect for the scrappy approach.

As I have made it to 6 blocks, I could finally lay out the blocks and see how the quilt is coming together.

I am pleased with what I have so far. I do love how the colour pops against the neutral grey background. Six down, quite a few more to go…. so see you back here next week for installment 7.