A special quilt show…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I have been a little AWOL from the blog for the last couple of weeks because I have been feverishly finishing up quilts….

The first lot of finishes involved putting the finishing touches on some of the Guild’s charity quilts in time for this month’s display at Modern Domestic.

quilts on display 8

Usually when we finish up a charity quilt it is bundled up and sent off to the appropriate charity but for the last couple of months I have been collecting them so that they could be put on display at our local quilt store…

quilts on display 5

I can not explain how excited I was to see all our recent quilts hanging together. It was just so wonderful…and bright…and affirming. There are so many people who have had a hand in these quilts and there is so much love stitched into every one.

quilts on display 7

I also wanted to spotlight the newest PMQG quilt finish, so that you can see it in more detail…just in case you can not make it into the store to see it in person…..

quilts on display 4

For most of the charities we give quilts to there is a pressing need for boy quilts, and this quilt was made to as a gender neutral option…

quilting detail

Our colour scheme for the day was grey with a splash of aqua/turquoise. For a couple of months I had been putting all my grey scraps into a large bin, knowing that they would be perfect for an improv sew day.

improv quilt detail2 I love the improv days because everyone gets to do their own thing… and anything goes.

improv quilt detail There was a flurry of wonky stars made, spear headed by one of our charity sew day regulars Betty.

quilt block detail

Other people took the scraps and trimmings from other peoples blocks and made something fun.

We of course embraced novelty prints, because this is a kids quilt after all.

quilt detail

The fabulous quilting was done by another charity sew day regular, Kazumi. Kazumi is a professional long armer and you will see more of her work in the coming weeks as she has done some quilting for me recently!

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.

22Mar2016

The joy of quilting with others…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I am going to showcase some of the amazing quilts that the Portland Modern Quilt Guild has made as part of its Charity Program. The PMQG has a pretty active Charity arm and once a month we meet to make quilt blocks for one of our selected causes… our January get together produced this beauty…

half log cabin quilt

During the Sew Day we made a pile of half log cabin blocks…using pink, orange, red, purple and black & white stripes. Each blocks started with a center square and we then sewed out until we reach 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches (or trimmed down if we got a little carried away)…

half log cabin blocks

At the end of the day we had enough blocks to make a big (70 x 70) and a small (48 x 48) quilt…

small quilt

Bright, loud and fun were the words of the day…

half log cabin quilt detail 3

The two quilts were then sent out to two of our Guild members who did a wonderful job quilting them… the small quilt has a straight line pattern that radiates out from the center of the quilt…

small half log cabin quilt detail

The back of the quilt gives you a good view of the overall pattern… I love how effective this quilting is with this block… and I extra love that I could achieve this effect with my home machine, a ruler and Frixon pen.

small quilting detail

On the large quilt each four block section has an amazing feathering pattern on it…

quilt detail

Kazumi, who quilting the large top, used a ruler set to create the wonderful motifs in each section…

half log cabin quilt detail 2

The quilting is so pretty and detailed… and totally beyond my skill level….

quilting detail

Both quilts are so bright and fun, and the light touches of black and white stop the them from being too obviously loud and garish. They will shortly go out into the world and provide some warmth, comfort and colour in some kids life. Thanks to all who donated fabric, made blocks or quilting these beauties.

13Nov2015

Crossword Complete

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I will start this week with a moment of honesty…. this is the first and possible only Crossword I have ever completed. I have started many a crossword but never, ever completed one. My mum does the crossword daily, and does a stellar job of getting them complete, but not me. So without further ado, here is my one and only completed crossword….

I started this Crossword last year, when I was asked to review Cheryl Arkison’s book, A Month of Sundays. While flipping through the book I saw this pattern and fell in love.

The top came together easily using a collection of white/cream/light grey low volume prints and black and white prints. The pattern is gentle but very effective.

The black and white prints give you the squares of the crossword, with the creams giving the background a real newspaper feel.

I dug deep into my stash, as well as the stash of a couple of helpful friends to get enough black and white text prints…. and then tried to keep the supporting black and white prints very graphic.

You may have noticed the fabulous quilting on this project… I can safely say that it was not my doing. This quilt top is huge and I could not drag it through my home machine, let alone create such a wonderful pattern. The Crossword was quilted by the talented Jolene Knight, on of our Guild long-armers.

I love the rhythm of the undulating curves of this quilt. It is soft and gentle and really perfect for this quilt. Jolene kindly quilted this baby up for me as the finished quilt will be donated as part of the PMQG’s Charity program.

For the back of the quilt I used a slab of text print, which seemed a perfect fit…

And the finishing touch was a scrappy grey binding that I machine attached.

This is just one of the quilts I decided to get finished and donate. Earlier this year I took stock of my rather large collection of UFO’s and decided I needed to get most of them finished and donated. Unfinished blocks and tops do not do anyone any good…while a completed quilt can do so much…

QUILT DETAILS:

Pattern: Crossword by Cheryl Arkison
Fabric: Low volume scraps and B/W prints
Finished Size: 68 x 72 inches

2Oct2015

The Weekender Quilt

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I am finally getting the chance to share with you a quilt I finished last month. This quilt started as a small bundle of fat quarters that were donated to the Portland Modern Quilt Guild Charity program…. I added some fabric from my stash, a couple of solids and made this beauty…

The fabric line that kicked this all off was Weekends by Erin McMorris, an old line from 2012. I had some of the line, as well as some of Erin’s Wildwood line in my stash so I was able to get enough fabric to make a decent sized quilt.

I love the colour palette of this quilt, olive green, apricot, soft purple, dusty pink and cream. It is a gentle but vibrant colour scheme.

And in amongst the florals of the fabric are a smattering of these darling bicycle…

You probably recognize the pattern I used, it is one of my favorite go to patterns, the Trip Around quilt. I have made a few Trip Around quilts now and love how easy it is to make and how every quilt is so different…

This quilt top finished up big, particularly for me, and there was no way I was going to be able to quilt it on my home machine…my busted back just will not let me. So my local quilt store, Modern Domestic, kindly allowed me to throw the quilt up on the Bernina long arm.

It was so much fun to quilt loopy flowers into this quilt using the Q24 longarm. I am slowly getting more confident with free motion….very slowly….and love the adjustable handles on this baby…. it makes it so easy to find a comfortable position to work the machine in.

As a label for the quilt I got creative, inspired by one of our Guild long armers, Dawn… and quilted PMQG into the bottom of the quilt.

The finishing touches were a scrappy solid binding of beige… not a colour I use often in binding but it worked wonderfully.

This quilt is destined for NW Impact’s program that looks after Seniors at risk… it is fun to be charity quilting this quarter for an older set, as it has forced me out of my usual bright novelty kids centered world.

Quilt Details

Name: The Weekender
Pattern: Scrappy Trip Around The World
Fabric: Weekends and Wildwood by Erin McMorris and select Kona solids
Finished Size: 60 x 72 inches