A fun Bee block…

Posted in Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

This month I am the designated Quilter for my Do.Good.Stitches group….which means I get to set the block for the month that my other Bee members will be making. My recent down time allowed me to paw over quilting books for hours uninterrupted which was a wonderful pleasure…and one of the patterns I found in an old quilting book was this block called Homeward Bound…

The finished block is 12 inches square (12 ½ unfinished) and is pretty simple to put together… all you need is…

Four (4) 3 ½ x 3 ½ squares for the outer fabric (grey)

Four (4) 3 ½ x 5 inch rectangles of the cross fabric (electric blue)

One (1) 3 ½ x 3 ½ inch square of the center fabric (light blue)

Four (4) 2 x 5 inch strips of sashing (white)

Four (4) 2 x 3 ½ strips of sashing (white).

You can see above how I pieced the block together in segments which made for quick and accurate assembly. It is a fun block and I love the overall patterns these blocks are going to make…

I can not wait to get all the blocks in… it is going to be fun watching this quilt come together.

30Jan2015

Constellation crosses

Posted in Quilt patterns, Quilts by wombatquilts

In a moment of crazy at the end of last year I decided that I would not start any new projects in January or February this year. I have so many wips and unfinished quilt tops I thought I needed to do something to clear the backlog. This “resolution” saw me pulling out some old unfinished blocks this week and getting this quilt top done…

I actually started making these blocks in March of last year. I had made a 4 inch paper pieced version of this block for the PMQG medallion and then blew the pattern up to 6 1/2 inches to play with. There is a link on my original post to the free paper piecing pattern in two sizes (4 and 6 inch) in you are interested.

So this week I made a pile more blocks and this morning finally got them all wrangled into a top.

The quilt uses the wonderful Constellation range by designer Lizzy House. I love the fun bright fabrics that Lizzy makes and though I was late to discovering her fabrics, I have been hoarding and using them for a couple of years. I do not think there is a quilt I have made in the last year or so that has not had Pearl Bracelets in it somewhere.

This range is all about stars and fun Constellations, but you could easily use this pattern in any fabric range…the trick is to make sure you have a nice contrast in your blocks and that you embrace the light and dark fabrics from the range.

To really up the contrast with this top I also pulled in some solid white fabric as well as the white on white Pearl Bracelets. I also did not shy away from adding a touch of red/purple. One of the fabrics in the line had a touch of this colour and I thought I would embrace it…just a little. I used the design rule of three and added three blocks with the purple.

I just love how the quilt seems to sparkle and your eyes are forced to move around the top. Now all that is left for me to do is remove the paper and quilt this sucker up!

I am linking up today to Crazy Mom Quilts Friday Finishes.

8Nov2013

Urban Chicken Fun

Posted in Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

This week I manged to finish my first Urban Chicken quilt top…. I am so excited. I love this modern easy fun pattern.

The Urban Chicken block was designed for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meetup by Michelle Freedman. You can find my original post and tutorial on making the block here.

When laying the quilt top out I had great fun making the chickens run all around… there really is a sense of silly to this quilt block that I love.

It is also a very forgiving block – wonky triangles, lots of scraps and bold bright colours. You can get away with a few squiffy seams if need be.

This is Urban Chicken number 1 for me. I have another one following close behind in warmer colours, as I set this pattern for my Do.good.stitches bee this month. You have been warned!

1Nov2013

Briar Rose Quilt Top finished

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

I managed to finish up my Briar Rose Quilt top this week… and I am loving how it came together.

It really helps that I am using Heather Ross’s marvelous fabric line, Briar Rose and a great block pattern, Labyrinth by Red Pepper Quilts. If you want to read more about the block and the start of this quilt you can check out my original post.

The block is traditionally pieced, there was not a piece of paper in sight. My seams are a little squiffy in places but the pattern is so easy to follow and so forgiving it did not take me long to whip this top up.

It was an interesting process for me using the whole line of fabric and not my usual scraps. If I “blocked” myself into a colour/pattern corner I had very limited choices to get myself out (usually I just add another fabric from my stash!). I wanted to use all the fabrics in the line as equally as possible, but also wanted to get the subtle hint of a light block/dark block pattern in the top. I found myself fudging the last couple of blocks to make this work.

I really had to be careful not to use the strawberry fabrics too much. They are my favorite of this collection and I found myself wanting to put them in every block.

And at the end of this process I have enough scraps left to play some more with the Briar Rose line. Yipee!

22Jul2013

Paper Piecing Monday fussy cut edition

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Today’s paper piecing Monday is a little detour from the regularly scheduled sampler quilt. Over the weekend Amanda at What the Bobbin? started a fussy square block swap and I was so excited I started making blocks almost immediately. There is swap joining details and a downloadable pattern on her site.

The idea of pulling out some of my fun novelty fabrics, fussy cutting them and making them into 4 inch blocks was too much fun…. here is what I have done so far.

I have so many great novelty scraps I can see myself getting quite carried away. But for now I am going to finish making my 12 blocks, then move onto finishing up some of the quilt tops I have laying in pieces around my work space. I want to have a finish for Friday.

Have a great week.