Playing with a Lizzy Rainbow… and a giveaway

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

Last weekend my darling husband abandoned me to go on a boys camping trip, and as soon as he had walked out the door I knew exactly what I was doing with my free time….

You see just before DH left I took delivery of the latest Lizzy House range, Lovely Hunt….and I knew that I had to use it immediately so I pulled out ALL my Lizzy House fabric….

…and cut out a 5 inch square from each piece of fabric. Then, using my hexagon mini for guidance I got to work….

As there was no husband I could keep working without having to pack things away… I had squares and fabric all over the floor…and it took me a couple of days to get all the blocks up…I kept adjusting and rearranging, coming back to the design wall in between other tasks…I finally ended up with this…

The first block I placed was the low volume cats and then I just worked slowly from there. I tried to tackle one or two colours at a time, making sure that there was a flow to the colours…

Not all the fabric made it into this quilt top…

I only ended up using 168 different fabrics and had about 20 left over. I could not work out how to make the brown palette work so it did not even get a look in.

A couple of the prints had too much colour variation in them at 5 inches big to make the them work, but all the wonderful blenders…the Pearl Bracelets, the mini bracelets, the Butterflies and the chain links helped make the novelty fabrics play nice.

This quilt is definitely my quilt… it is not going anywhere but onto our couch. As the weather starts to turn icky here in the Pacific Northwest this quilt will keep me warm and cozy…. all I have to do is finish it up!

Now while I was cutting up my Lizzy Stash I cut an extra fat eight or two for a give away. By the time I had finished working through my stash I had a stack of 25 different fabrics… including quite a few out of print beauties, as well as some of the new Lovely Hunt….

So if you would like to win this fat eight bundle just leave a comment below, telling me what you would do with this wonderful bundle of colour. ~~I will draw a winner next Wednesday, and as always the contest is open to my overseas friends too.~~

This giveaway is closed. Thanks to everyone who entered and congratulations to Linda who won.

14Sep2015

Paper Piecing Monday’s Little Houses…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This past week I have working away on projects for other people… which has somewhat limited my selfish sewing. In between finishing charity quilts I have been making tiny little houses…

These little buildings are 5 1/2 inch square and are the only paper piecing I have done in the last week or so…. the pattern is called “Outhouse” and is by Carolyn Friedlander …I am also using mainly her fabrics to make this round of blocks…

I am going to be teaching a class on making these little houses at my LQS, Modern Domestic, and this will be my class sample…

I am almost done with making the blocks and it has been a fun challenge… and I have employed quite a few tricks which have made the process a little easier.

I am looking forward to getting back to some of my other projects later this week…. I hear my Lizzy House butterflies calling my name.

9Sep2015

A work in Progress…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week I have been working away, starting new projects and desperately trying to get other projects finished. Wednesday used to be the day that I posted Work in Progress posts but I have slipped out of that habit a bit. Last night as I was struggling with the computer and its strange technology, I realised that Wombat Quilts is very much a work in progress…

When I took the leap to start blogging a couple of years ago I did not know what I was doing… I jumped in and started working it out as I went along. The quilting bit was easy, the computer stuff was much much harder. This week two things happened that reminded me I am still working this stuff out…for better and worse.

The first thing that happened was on Monday I reached 1 million views on the website. For me this is a staggering thought… now I know some websites get that in a day but I never expected my little old quilting blog to hit that landmark. Thanks to all of you who have stayed with me through this all…. an appropriate giveaway will be coming soon!

The next thing that happened this week was not so positive. Facebook has forced me to migrate my Wombat Quilts profile to a Page. Last night, with tears streaming down my face, I complied…actually I had no choice they shut my Profile down. I am only just working out what this means, but in a nutshell I have lost two years of posts and photos and most importantly lost the ability to see what my 3000+ friends were making. It is heartbreaking….and there is nothing I can do about it. I will keep posting to the Facebook page but the joy of using that platform has gone (as has its effectiveness as far as I can see!)…

But in the mean time I am doing the only thing I know how… I am keeping on quilting. I have a class coming up at Modern Domestic where I am teaching paper piecing using this great pattern ….

I have been working on making hexies for an Instagram friend, which has been a blast. I am raided my stash for pretty fussy cut prints and have a nice little collection of basted hexagons so far….

And I have been finished up some Bee blocks and putting together charity quilt tops. I am working away, sewing little bits of fabric together and hoping that the computer stuff does not eat me alive…

4Sep2015

Back to School Blog Hop – Paper Piecing edition

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

Today it is my turn on the Back to School Blog Hop and today I wanted to talk about an under rated paper piecing tool – coloured pencils.

As you can tell my pencil set is well used. Most quilters will pull out colour pencils to colour in pattern sheets or maybe sketch out block ideas, but as a paper piecer I use mine all the time to colour code my patterns.

Not all paper piece patterns need to be colour coded… simple patterns can be easily followed without coding help…but with more complex paper piecing patterns, a splash of color can save on the unpicking and hair pulling when you are sewing a pattern.

For example this block is little complex…

For this pattern I used EQ to play with colour placement, but coloured pencils and paper work just as well, particularly if a colouring sheet has been provided…..

So before I started sewing it I pulled out my coloured pencils and scribbled away, marking the pattern with the predetermined colours I am using.

I choose colours from my pencil box that corresponded to the coloured fabrics I was using for the block….

So that the coding made sense to me as I sewed….

I regularly use this process for my paper piecing blocks… and will use symbols if I am using more than one type of fabric in the same colour range… remember the code just has to make sense to you…

When making my Cross Star quilt colour coding with pencils became an integral part of the quilt making process as I had to work out how each block fitted into the overall quilt pattern.

So next time you are paper piecing, dust off those colour pencils, do a little colouring in and make the paper piecing process a little easier. And if you want to play with this block, I have included a colouring page in the pattern PDF… Cross Plus extra block.docx

But before then, check out the rest of the super awesome Blog Hoppers for their tips:
Sept 1: Peta Minerof-Bartos of PetaQuilts
Sept 2: Cheryl Sleboda of Muppin.com
Sept 3: Teresa Coates of Crinkle Dreams
Sept 4: Cath Hall of Wombat Quilts
Sept 5: Sam Hunter of Hunter’s Design Studio
Sept 6: Melanie McNeil of Catbird Quilt Studio
Sept 7: Mandy Leins of Mandalei Quilts
Sept 8: Rose Hughes of Rose Hughes
Sept 9: Megan Dougherty of The Bitchy Stitcher
Sept 10: Lynn Krawczyk of Smudged Design Studio
Sept 11: Susan Beal of West Coast Crafty
Sept 12: Sarah Lawson of Sew Sweetness
Sept 13: Jane Victoria of Jolly and Delilah
Sept 14: Jemelia Hilfiger of Je’s Bend
Sept 15: Ebony Love of LoveBug Studios
Sept 16: Misty Cole of Daily Design Wall
Sept 17: Kim Lapacek of Persimon Dreams
Sept 18: Christina Cameli of A Few Scraps
Sept 19: Bill Volckening of WonkyWorld
Sept 20: Jessica Darling of Jessica Darling
Sept 21: Debbie Kleve Birkebile of Mountain Trail Quilt Treasures
Sept 22: Heather Kinion of Heather K is a Quilter
Sept 23: Michelle Freedman of Design Camp PDX
Sept 24: Kathy Mathews of Chicago Now Quilting Sewing Creation
Sept 25: Jane Shallala Davidson of Quilt Jane
Sept 27: Cristy Fincher of Purple Daisies Quilting
Sept 28: Catherine Redford of Catherine Redford
Sept 29: Amalia Teresa Parra Morusiewicz of Fun From A to Z
Sept 30: Victoria Findlay Wolfe of Victoria Findlay Wolfe Quilts
October 1: Tracy Mooney of 3LittleBrds
October 2: Trish Frankland, guest posting on Persimon Dreams
October 3: Flaun Cline of I Plead Quilty

3Sep2015

A fabulous little Bee Block

Posted in Quilt patterns, Quilts by wombatquilts

It has been a while since I posted any of the Do Good Stitches quilt blocks I have been making. Every month I make blocks as part of this charity Bee and I love it. I look forward to the first of the month when the new pattern is put up on our Flickr Group and I always eagerly make the blocks. I love being challenged to make things that I would not usually make in colour schemes I may not necessarily think to put together.

Twice a year I get to be the Queen and set the block and in June I choose this block and colour scheme for my month….

The block is from a free pattern by Clover and Violet which they originally put up as part of a Christmas quilt they were making. The colour tweaks I made changed how the finished block looks and made for a striking quilt top…

I love how the yellow strings make a grid pattern and the stars just pop. Each of my fellow Do Good Bee members made two blocks, so there is so much variety in the stars, which I LOVE.

One of my favorite bits about being Queen Bee is getting to see all the blocks as they come in and ohh and ahh over the fabric used (I may have a bit of stash envy!).

When these blocks came in I absolutely fell in love with the Barbar fabric one of my fellow quilters used…

I have not seen this fabric before and am now obsessed with getting my hands on some. It is so fabulous. This quilt top is now awaiting quilting and binding and then it will go out into the world to Do Good! I am Queen again in November and I have already started planning what block I am going to set.