A special finish….

This week I managed to finish up the second quilt I am taking home to Australia…this one is for my mum.
So my Mum knows that this quilt is heading her way as a birthday present (yes she knows it is coming to her, because I am hopeless with surprises!)… her favorite colours are red and aqua so it is perfect for her…plus this quilt, with its beautiful stars and hours of work needed to go to someone special.

20 paper pieced stars, a couple of yards of Robert Kaufman Quilters Linen, spools and spools of thread and countless yards of red and aqua fabric and we are done.

I was smart enough to send this quilt out to be quilted and the fabulous Nancy Stovall did an amazing job. I actually left the quilting pattern decision up to Nancy and she choose a wonderful swirl that gives great movement to the stars. I love it.

For the back of the quilt I used a bunch of yard and half yard red and aqua prints from my stash. I also embraced the scrappy with the binding, using a variety of red prints to tie the quilt together.

As I was binding the quilt I got a chance to look at every star more closely, and reflect on what I have learnt.

My first couple of stars were a little rough….I did not use small enough stitch setting on some of them which means that some stitches at the seams are visible. I also was not as careful with the bulky joins in the some of the stars – I did not iron the seams open properly leaving a bulbous lump in the center of one or two stars. But 20+ stars in I was a pro – I had embraced scrappy, had finessed my process and was making kick butt stars.

This quilt really does represent a wonderful journey for me… and I am thrilled that my mum will get to keep it.

Quilt Details:

Technique: Paper piecing
Pattern: various stars by Carol Doak and Quilting on the Square
Quilting: Nancy Stovall of Just Quilting
Finish size: 65 x 80 inches

27Oct2014

Straight Star…paper piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week’s paper piecing star is a easy, fun one…

The straight star is another relatively simple 8 inch star block…using just 28 pieces none of which are weirdly shaped or angled. A PDF copy of the pattern I used can be found here….straight star pattern.

I used a random selection of green stripes from my scrap bag… but I think you could get some interesting effects with this star by carefully placing the dark and light pieces. The effect of a whole quilt with this block would be fabulous I think, so it has been added to my “To Do” list.

Tune in next week for another fun 8 inch star….

11Aug2014

Paper Piecing Monday the crazy edition…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Summer has well and truly arrived in Portland and I have been making the most of the sunshine… and not posting as much as I usually do. Sorry about that.

This of course does not mean I have not been quilting… I have still been sewing away, just a little more sporadically than usual. For the last week or so the only thing that has been up on my design wall has been my Starry Night quilt.

As you can see the jigsaw is slowly coming together. I have finished with the star blocks and I am now just making sky. Random weird bits of sky.

This week I went through my EQ7 quilting program and found a pile of paper pieced patterns and printed them out (my sky pieces are currently all 6 inch square or 3 x 6 inches). With EQ I have been able to find a pattern I think is interesting and print it out at both sizes.

Now as stand alone blocks they look a little weird but once you add them to the quilt they just blend into the background in weird and wonderful ways….

No matter how hard I tried to hide it you have probably realised by now that I did not have a grand plan when I started making these blocks, and that I am really making it up as I go along. The blocks are not being placed in any sort of grid and I am just going with the flow, piecing bits and pieces together and seeing what works.

It is a crazy way to work…but really fun. If you are interested in exploring the individual star blocks I have used, you can find links to them under the “Paper Piecing Monday” tab and/or under the “Free Paper Piecing Patterns” tab.

7Jul2014

Okay I may have a star addiction…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Another Paper Piecing Monday and it is another star. I may need an intervention…but not quite yet.

This block, like last weeks, is using the #opgivewarmth June colour palette that Sarah at www.nohatsinhouse.com set. It is also another great pattern from Don’t Call me Betsy’s Lucky Star BOM (this is from August 2013).

It is pretty easy with just 48 pieces, none of which are too tricky or small.

I am now eagerly awaiting Sarah’s July colour palette, but in the meantime I have paper to rip off these….

23Jun2014

Paper piecing the Night Sky

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

This weeks Paper Piecing Monday is all about the Night Sky. This week I have and will be playing with the background blocks for my Starry Night quilt. My strategy is to use all those scrap pieces of patterns I have printed and lying around the office, with most of them so far being 6 inches square.

I started last week with a half log cabin…

and this week I added some paper pieced crazy blocks….

some left over star pattern pieces from Carol Doak’s book…

some strange flower log cabin pattern I found in amongst the paper pile…

and of course there has to be some flying geese….

I have decided to go with the majority of the sky being paper pieced, as it will make piecing the quilt top together much easier. I find that piecing paper pieced blocks and traditionally pieced blocks together can be fraught with size issues and usually if there is a large enough amount of traditional piecing I remove the paper from my blocks so that everything is “paper less”. If I am just sashing blocks then the paper stays on… it is the best way to ensure accuracy.

So the sky is underway… and despite the disparate style of blocks, they seem to work together well.

Okay I admit there is an insanity to this activity but it is kind of fun. There is no right or wrong… just lots and lots of navy blue, and a smattering of purple. Quilting heaven for me.