Neon overload

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I managed to finish my Neon pink quilt top…finally.

I must admit I procrastinated lots and lots about how to get the different sized blocks to work. Finally two of my fellow PMQG partners in crime suggested the same solution… border the blocks with white and then cut them down to the same size. Michelle and Kimberly’s genius idea saved my head from exploding from a math over exertion.

This quilt started life as two orphan blocks from a PMQG Michael Miller challenge last year – an 11 inch star block and an 11 inch modern line block. They were too fabulous not to do something with… and so I made some supporting blocks.

You can find paper piecing patterns for most of these blocks under the “free paper piecing patterns” tab if you are interested. .

The fabric used is all Michael Miller… the Neon range in pink, with Cotton Couture in Soft White and my new go to grey Fog. The grey really does a wonderful job of toning down the Neon overload!

29Jan2014

A colour dilema…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

A couple of days ago I realized that January was slowly slipping away and I had not managed to tick any projects off my 2014 To Do List. Drastic action was needed so I pulled out my Tula Pink blocks and got to work. I made the final couple of blocks, put them up on the design wall and stared at them for a day (very constructive use of time I hear you say).

I blame my husband for the delay, actually I blame him for a lot of things, but this was really his fault. You see last year when I started this project he did this…

It made me laugh at the time but when it came time to put the top together using just pink blocks something seemed to be missing. The layout with the Tardis was fun but it took away from the Tula Pink feel of the quilt. I then made this…

I thought a blue Tula Block would work but it just did not seem to have the same impact as a Tardis. In the end I have chosen to go with all pink blocks. I have added 1 1/2 inch sashing around the blocks and I am slowly sewing it together.

I have two more rows to go and before the top is all pieced…

As I add each row I keep thinking “should I add the blue”. I am constantly second guessing my decision.

I am loving the pink blocks together but there is something missing. AUGH… this is driving me crazy. What would you do?

23Jan2014

My blue period continues…

Posted in Other fun stuff, Quilt patterns, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

This week I got a little side tracked by a pile of scraps sitting around my sewing space. Most of the time I do a good job of keeping my creative urges under control – I usually jot the idea down in my note-book and go back to what I should be doing. This week the “should be doing” was quilting my sister in laws quilt... instead I took the scraps from that quilt and made some of these…

Yes the scraps from the project I SHOULD have been finishing tempted me into making log cabin blocks. In my defense I had a whole pile of 2 1/2 inch strips of fabric already cut and lots and lots of scrappy little ends of fabric. They cried out to be made into a log cabin, and I could not ignore it. The end result of this diversion is this lovely little top…

This 40 x 40 inch quilt top took me about 4 episodes of “Top of the Lake” to make and came together really easily. I already knew the colours worked together and all the cutting was done I just had to make log cabins.

I am really beginning to love what you can do with solids. I struggled with the first quilt with the lack of pattern, but now can not wait to make my next solids quilt. I have a cunning plan already.

This fun little exercise not only distracted me from my quilting to do list, but also added another UFO to my pile, but it was worth it. The only hard thing about this quilt so far has been photographing it in the howling wind this morning…

17Jan2014

Christine’s Quilt

Posted in Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

Some how, in between meetings, deadlines, dr’s appointments and the usual day to day chaos I managed to finish the top for my sister in law’s quilt. I was of course hoping to finish the whole quilting process by today but life had other plans. This is as far as I have got…

I made the blocks for this quilt using the Trip Around the World process and then instead of sewing the strips in order I mixed things up a little. My blocks ended up looking random and pixellated and a little cool. You can find my original post about the block here.

So now I have a quilt top made up of 2 inch squares of solid blues with a hint of blue purple thrown in. My stash of solid blues is now almost depleted but I am so thrilled with the result.

Now I just have to quilt this cascading waterfall up, bind it and get it to SoCal. Not a problem!

8Jan2014

Going with the flow…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Last Friday I became determined to make my sister in-law a quilt. I had spent months procrastinating, putting idea after idea up on the design wall and pulling it all down again. All I really had to go on was that she loves blue and is a no-nonsense, straight talking, fabulous woman. Finally I decided to do a blue trip around the world quilt. I delved into my stash and pulled out all my blue solids, which I was surprised to discover was a substantial wad and set to work.

I spent Saturday merrily cutting 2 1/2 x 16 1/2 inch strips from my pile of solids. I loved the colours together but I was becoming less and less sure about the quilt design. As my darling husband commented on Saturday evening “don’t those trip around quilts tend to have patterns in them”. Yes my nervousness at the lack of pattern in my fabric was getting to me. I had made a solid trip along before which turned out nicely…

but I was still nervous about it. With no other viable options at this point, I continued the process – sewing the strips in groups of 6, then sewing it into a tube, then cutting the tube into 2 1/2 strips. If you have done a Trip Around the World you know the process… if you do not know what I am talking about Quiltsville is where it all started. So now I had a stack of strips of squares…

Usually you pull your tube’s apart and put them back together in just a way to get this block…

but it was at this point in the process I threw out the instructions and went a little wild. I started sewing random strips together so my blocks look more like this…

I was not sure if it would work, but the idea of doing another Trip Around quilt all of a sudden was not at all appealing. So now I have a wild, pixelated, modern quilt that is coming together like this…

And I love it. I am so thrilled with how my deviation from the plan is working out. I am embracing the random and the crazy and just going with it. So far I have 8 blocks done and have 22 more to go. My design wall currently looks like this…