Keeping the volume on low…

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

First for all thanks for all the well wishes over the last two weeks… it has been slow going but after 10 days of wallowing in self-pity I am slowly getting back into quilting. Yesterday I finally put the machine back up and sewed a little… I thought I was at last okay enough to “operate heavy machinery”.

So I have been slowly, very slowly quilting a darling low volume quilt I had pieced before I got sick. Actually I have pieced two quilts which are almost identical – they use the same fabric but just arranged differently. It is a custom order for two gorgeous twin toddlers who happen to really like pink… girls after my own heart.

I have also discovered another joy of quilting in the last two days – you can do a little sewing and then have a lie down when you need to.

I promise I will be back on schedule next week…

26Mar2014

An interesting Colour Play challenge

Posted in Colour Play, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

First up a little bit of background before I show you what I am playing with this week…. Last week I gave a presentation on Playing with Color in quilting to the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. I talked a little about color theory and a lot about the colour schemes that quilters can borrow from the art based theory, as well as ones we have come up with on our own (like Low Volume). During the presentation I also talked about ‘neutrals’, those fun, versatile colours that play nice with nearly every colour they meet. It was during this part of the presentation that this weeks challenge presented itself…

So I was talking about the standard neutrals – white, cream, grey, brown and of course navy blue, which is my favorite neutral…though it is not really an official neutral. I rambled on about how navy is my response to my personal aversion to black as a neutral. I find black harsh and though it gives great contrast, I do not tend to use it unless I absolutely have to and always opt for navy or dark grey instead. I will, on occasion, condescend to use black and white prints but never straight black.

As I was making these statements I realised that I should not be making such a harsh judgement on black without at least giving it a go.

So I choose a pattern and went to work…

I went with the traditional Hunters Star block and used the paper piecing pattern by Quilters Cache. It seemed like the perfect pattern to make use of the high contrast of my colour choices.

The block pieces join together to make these wonderful stars… and we all know how I feel about stars! When you add a number of blocks together you get to see the bigger pattern which is stunning.

I have to admit I am thrilled with how this “experiment” turned out. I think because I am using scraps and different blacks, the colour is not quite as harsh as a solid black, and the blue just seems to pop off the quilt.

So going forward I am not saying I will be abandoning navy blue any time soon but I may give black more than a fleeting glance next time I am pulling fabric. So is this aversion to black just me or do others share my feelings? Have you used it in any of your quilts?

As it is Wednesday I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday…

28Feb2014

Tula Pink Friday

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I managed to get my Tula Pink quilt basted, quilted and bound. Yipee. This quilt has been a work in process since May last year…I would do a few blocks here and there when the mood took me, till I had 30 blocks ready to go.

I actually got the quilt top finished during the snow storm a few weeks ago but it took me another couple of weeks to get her basted and then quilted. I am beginning to notice that I am not as fast to baste and quilt as I am to piece. Okay I admit it I love to piece quilt tops…quilt them, not so much. Anyway I soldiered through and this was the result….

I love the blocks and that Tula Pink City Sampler blocks are a great project to dip in and out of.

Some of the blocks are really simple and easy, others a little more complex. I did not do some of the crazier blocks in the book…I am leaving those to the next quilt…

When it came time to quilt my top up I decided to got with a light grey thread for quilting. In hindsight I maybe should have stuck with white as the quilting is really highlighted which creates two issues for me…

1. It distracts from the pretty blocks I think…and

2. It highlights that my quilting may not be completely straight.

It was a huge learning experience for me and I think the quilt still looks cute, despite my missteps. It is backed with some lovely Lotta Jansdotter fabric from her “Echo” line.

And hand bound with two different Kona cotton pinks… scraps I had left over from another project.

I am definitely making a blue version of this quilt so I can do more blocks from the book and so I can slip in the Tardis block. I will take what I learnt from this quilt and apply it wisely.

19Feb2014

Colour Play Girly Style

Posted in Colour Play by wombatquilts

This week I went totally girly with my colour play. I love pink and love using pink…

Example One…

Example Two…

Example Three…

Example Four…

I could go on but I think you get the picture… so this weeks challenge was to try a new pink combination, one that I was a little different from my norm. The end result was this totally girly fabric pull…

Which when combined with a simple spiderweb pattern from Quilters Cache became this 12 inch block…

Which, when joined with other spiderweb blocks begins to look like this…

Totally deliciously pretty I think, but I am a little biased!

14Feb2014

Rocking my wonky world…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

A couple of weeks ago I spent a very fun day at the monthly PMQG Charity Sew meet up. The event is held at the fabulous Modern Domestic (my new home away from home) and I got to spend many happy hours sewing on a beautiful Bernina 560. In a day of wonderfulness the most amazing thing was having my wonky star world rocked by one of my fellow PMQG sewers, Cherri.

Wonky Stars have been a fun staple in my sewing repertory for a while. It is s a quick and easy way to make fun kids quilts and if you peruse my “Finished Quilt” tab you will see a few of them in there. So for years I have been cutting out my 5 inch squares, using my scraps to make star points and calling it good… but no longer. Here is how the new wonky stars block goes…

1. Take eight 5 inch x 5 inch squares of your background fabric… in this case various whites and creams.

2. Grab a pile of scraps in your colour scheme…for this exercise red.

3. Sew random fun bits of scraps together to make a squarish shape, making sure that it is a bit bigger than 5 inches square. Anything goes at this point. You can fussy cut…wonky log cabin or just improv. Then trim your random scrappy square down to 5 x 5 inches.

4. Make four points to you star using the 5 x 5 inch background squares as your foundation and larger scraps for the star points. Trim as needed to get a 5 x 5 inch square.

5. Sew the block pieces together – 4 plain corner pieces, 4 star point pieces and your fabulous scrappy center piece.

6. For an added extra bit of wonky fun at the Sew Day we then trimmed our blocks down to 12 1/2 inches square. This step allowed us to put the stars a little off center and added another element of randomness to the layout. The blocks work just as well trimmed down to 14 x 14 inches too.

And voila you have a fabulous wonky star with a scrappy center piece.

I can not believe I did not think of this technique myself. It is genius and the best way to use those little bits of fabric in your scrap bin. It was such a fun exercise this week to take all the wonky stars everyone made at the Sew Day and put them together into one loud, fun, wonky top.

There is a combination of solid centered stars and scrappy centered stars in this top and I think it works nicely.

And every star is so very very different. There was a lot of fun techniques used for the scrappy centers…

Because it is a kids quilt we went with bright colours, novelty prints and lots of fussy cutting. My favorite block is scrappy and fussy cut…

The finished top is 60 x 60 inches square and the next step is to find a fabulous PMQG member to quilt this beauty, or maybe we can throw it on the long arm at our next Charity Sew Day.