A heartfelt Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I decided to get into the Valentine spirit, despite my husband poo pooing the holiday at every turn. He strongly feels that it is a holiday that is purely about selling cards and flowers and chocolates. He feels just a little less negatively about Christmas and I ignore him then too!

So in honor the of the upcoming day of celebration…and to annoy my husband, I put together a little 3 inch love heart block…

The pattern for these darling little things can be found here….3 inch pp hearts. The pattern sheet has six of the heart patterns on it. After making my first heart I decided that one little heart was not enough for (1) annoying my husband and (2) making this a substantial Paper Piecing Monday, so I pulled some more fabric from my stash (the first block was done purely with scraps)….

and got to work making this….

Hopefully by the end of the week this will be a darling 18 inch cushion…which I may be allowed to put on our couch…

30Jan2015

Constellation crosses

Posted in Quilt patterns, Quilts by wombatquilts

In a moment of crazy at the end of last year I decided that I would not start any new projects in January or February this year. I have so many wips and unfinished quilt tops I thought I needed to do something to clear the backlog. This “resolution” saw me pulling out some old unfinished blocks this week and getting this quilt top done…

I actually started making these blocks in March of last year. I had made a 4 inch paper pieced version of this block for the PMQG medallion and then blew the pattern up to 6 1/2 inches to play with. There is a link on my original post to the free paper piecing pattern in two sizes (4 and 6 inch) in you are interested.

So this week I made a pile more blocks and this morning finally got them all wrangled into a top.

The quilt uses the wonderful Constellation range by designer Lizzy House. I love the fun bright fabrics that Lizzy makes and though I was late to discovering her fabrics, I have been hoarding and using them for a couple of years. I do not think there is a quilt I have made in the last year or so that has not had Pearl Bracelets in it somewhere.

This range is all about stars and fun Constellations, but you could easily use this pattern in any fabric range…the trick is to make sure you have a nice contrast in your blocks and that you embrace the light and dark fabrics from the range.

To really up the contrast with this top I also pulled in some solid white fabric as well as the white on white Pearl Bracelets. I also did not shy away from adding a touch of red/purple. One of the fabrics in the line had a touch of this colour and I thought I would embrace it…just a little. I used the design rule of three and added three blocks with the purple.

I just love how the quilt seems to sparkle and your eyes are forced to move around the top. Now all that is left for me to do is remove the paper and quilt this sucker up!

I am linking up today to Crazy Mom Quilts Friday Finishes.

27Jan2015

Better late than never….

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Paper piecing Monday just did not happen yesterday. After spending 5 days celebrating Russian Christmas with friends at Hood River we got home late last night and I just could not get my act together enough to post. I blame the vodka, the lack of sleep and the rip snorting good time I had. So without further ado here is Paper Piecing Monday’s latest block…

I like the pointy light green spike behind the dark green star. I used the lightest greens for the background points so they almost fade into the sky….

I branched away from the triangle blocks this week and went with simple square components. You can find the free pattern here….Star petal I promise the PDF has a numbered pattern, unlike the one in the photograph! I once again blame the vodka!

19Jan2015

Swirling Star Paper piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Today’s block is a very simple block, is really easy to make but really effective…

Just twelve easy pieces and you get a fabulous twisting pin wheel star. I can definitely see a quilt made out of a larger version of this block… The free PDF pattern for this 8 inch star can be found here…swirling star

This is block 11, if I am counting right. I need to start thinking about what I want to do with these blocks and how many I need to make. Usually 12 blocks is enough but as these are smaller blocks I feel I need more… should I make a few more or move onto something else?

19Dec2014

Finishing the catch ups…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

To finish up my catch up posts I have the last quilt I made to take to Australia. The finish was so last minute (binding the day before we flew out!!!) I did not get a chance to post about this quilt before I left…

This granny square quilt has been a pile of blocks for nearly two years but finally became a quilt for my darling friend Vicki. The day before we left I managed to get it bound and washed ready for the quilt suitcase…

There is something wonderfully vintage feeling about this quilt. I think the post wash crinkle helps…

There are not a lot of photos of this top because (1) I did not finish it in time to do a proper photo shoot and (2) the wind was blowing a gale making photos hard…

I did manage to get the husband to help and it is his fingers and feet you can see sticking out from under this quilt. He did remind me to take a photo of the back of the quilt too… probably because the back was his idea…

The conversation went Nick: “it would be cool to do just one big block for the back” Me: “why not”. And now I will now tell you why not…. the big block was all bias and stretch and a right royal pain the butt. I now listen to my husbands quilting advice, say “thanks dear” and promptly ignore it…it is easier that way!

The quilt was finished off with some Kona solid scrappy binding and delivered to its owner a couple of weeks ago… on a 95 degree day which was a little weird seeing it had been finished off a week earlier on a 38 degree day!