Cotton & Steel Economy Blocks

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I managed to finish up my Cotton and Steel Economy block quilt…and I am very pleased with myself.

cotton steel economy block quilt

You see I signed this week for the 2nd Quarter of the 2016 Finish Along and I am determined to get more done than I did last quarter. I am finding having a bit of accountability in my quilting a good thing… it really is making me conscious of finishing things up instead of just adding them to the large pile of works in progress.

cs quilt detail

This quilt is such a fun one to start with. I really had a blast fussy cutting up my Cotton and Steel stash. I had been collecting bits and pieces of the C&S since the line first came out but it was not until I started this project that I realized how well it all works together.

economy block detail

I have used prints from just about every Cotton & Steel line (including some of their new Garland line which has just come out).

quilt detail 2

And definitely have a piece of fabric for all the Cotton & Steel designers. I must admit for a brief little bit I was thinking that I might hold onto the blocks and wait till the next line comes out and add more to the quilt, but in the spirit of getting things finished, I just put what I had together and called it good.

quilt detail

I kept the quilting simple… lots of straightish lines using the lines in the block as the guide for my walking foot.

cotton steel quilt detail

For the back of the quilt I used some larger pieces of my stash…

quilt back

And to finish it all off I used a navy blue scrappy binding…

binding

So my first finish of quarter two is done and dusted…. now to get another quilt out of my WIP pile and finish it up. I am highly motivated at the moment…I just hope it lasts.

Quilt Details:

Name: A Cotton and Steel Economy
Pattern: 7 1/2 inch Economy blocks
Fabric: Cotton & Steel collections
Finished size: 45 x 60 inches

31Mar2016

Another group effort…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I wanted to share another one of Portland Modern Quilt Guild’s charity quilts… the blocks for this quilt were made in October 2014 and we now have a beautiful finished quilt….

pink cross quilt

I love the wonky cross block for group sewing because it is so easy to make… with lots of wiggly room and creative options for any miss-sizing issues.

I love the pink and brown colour combination… the brown tones down the pink so the finished quilt does not feel to bubblegum or over girlie…

pink cross quilt detail 3

When we were putting the quilt top together we also used some solid squares of fabric to give the eye somewhere to rest…

…which also gave our fabulous quilter, Coleen Bernhardt from the Quilted Thistle, room to play.

quilting detail

And Coleen really had fun and the back of the quilt shows just how much variety she put into the blocks…

quilting detail 4

For the back of the quilt I pieced together a collection of brown and pink scraps…

quilt back

Add some binding and you have another wonderful quilt ready to give some comfort.

18Mar2016

A special selection…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

It has been quite a while since I have posted photos of some of the charity quilts that members of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild have made, so I hope you will indulge me as I share some of the recent projects…

trip around quilt

First up is a scrappy trip along top… the blocks and extra fabric was donated to the Guild by the wonderful Elsa and all I had to do sew the blocks together and make the back….

trip around quilt detail 3

We put this top on the long arm at one of our Charity Sew Days and a number of people had a blast quilting flowers all over it….

quilt back

And for the back of the quilt I pieced together the left over fabric and a few extra fat quarters and viola…

Bernstein bears quilt

Another donation to the Charity program was a couple of charm packs of fun Bernstein Bear fabric, which were easily turned into disappearing nine patch blocks…

Bernstein bears quilt detail

This fabric is so fun and bright not to much was need too make a fabulous kid friendly quilt…

orphan block quilt

And it would not be a Charity quilt showcase without some orphan block quilts starting with this fun number.

orphan block quilt detail

I love all the quilting on this quilt….each block has a different pattern but all the pattern use straight lines.

And last but not least is this orphan block quilt that one of our wonderful members, Juline, put together. I love Juline’s use of negative space with this quilt… she made a handful of similar blocks into a wonderful modern quilt.

I will try and get some photos of our group quilts up in the next couple of days as well, if the Portland weather permits.

12Feb2016

Juggling Dresden Plates…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week, despite a cold, I managed to finish up another of my outstanding WIP… this one had been sitting in a plastic bag for a couple of years. It started in December 2013 as a Bee block for the amazing Nicole at Modern Handcraft.

I ended up making a couple of these Dresdens, I loved the first one so much, but they then sat unused for years, until now…

dresden quilt

This was a pretty quick project to finish up…. First I took my four finished Dresdens and a couple of yards of red pin dots by Lake House….

quilt detail

Because I could free float the Dresdens anywhere on the quilt it was fun to play with an off kilter lay out.

quilting detail 2

When I was happy with the placement of each plate, I spray basted them to the backing fabric, and then sewed around each Dresden.

dresden plate

I then went in and cut out as much of the backing fabric as I could out of the center of the each Dresden, just to cut some of the bulk out of the top…

dresden back detail

All that was left was to quilt it – I went with a off center grid pattern and my trusty cream Aurifil thread ….

dresden detail

And bind it – I used scrappy solids and machine binding to finish her up…

binding

The finished quilt ended up measuring 44″ x 65″ which is an unusual size for me, but I think it will be the perfect size for someone’s bed….

5Feb2016

Arkansas Traveller Quilt

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I managed to get another quilt off my WIP list….

arkansas traveller quilt

This quilt is a Do Good Stitches quilt from a long time ago. I actually finished piecing the top in October 2014 and first posted the block pattern in July 2014… actually feeling very guilty about how long this one has been sitting unfinished…

quilt detail

The block is a paper pieced pattern by Lee at Freshly Pieced called Arkansas Traveller. In setting a paper pieced block for your Bee, you are usually helping your odds of getting block the right size,…. unless some of your fellow Bee members, who are new to paper piecing, print the pattern out a little too small…

sashed blocks

This usually happens when you either print the PDF of the pattern straight from the computer, without saving it to the desktop or if you print the pattern with “scale to fit” box ticked on in the Print dialogue box.

quilt detail 2

When I first got the Bee blocks in and realised some of them were a little small I thought I might have to remake them… but my darling husband suggested sashing and it worked a treat.

arkansas traveller quilt detail

I fully embraced the scrappy feel of this quilt by adding a wonderfully scrappy binding, that used 8 different coloured fabrics…. I ended up attaching the binding, by hand, with the same variegated yellow thread that I quilted with.

scrappy binding

So another old Work in Progress is done… I was feeling so virtuous about my finishes that I decided to start a new project but more about that next week.