Gator Quilt Paper Piecing Monday

A few months ago I agreed to test a paper piecing pattern for Louise at I’m Feeling Crafty. I was thrilled when Louise sent thru the most darling Alligator pattern, in three different sizes no less.

To test the pattern I decided to make the smallest version of the Alligator, my theory being that the smallest patterns are most of the time the fiddliest/hardest to make.

This pattern does have a few parts to it, but Louise’s instructions are easy to follow and the design makes assemble straight forward. I used the pin method to make sure that my points aligned, and it worked perfectly. When I was done with my small Gator I had a block measuring 9 x 21 inches.

The three different sized patterns Louise’s includes are designed to make this lovely quilt…

But I wanted to shake things up a little, so I put the Gator up on my design wall and started playing… a butterfly and some scrappy cream solids later I had a finished baby quilt.

My Alligator is definitely the star of the show…

button eyes, and all…

For the butterfly I used a paper piecing pattern I found on Craftsy. It adds such whimsy to the quilt I think.

To finish things off I used a yard of Michael Miller fabric I had hidden in my stash for the backing…

I did some straight line quilting with some kitty help… yep you warmed me last week this would happen and it did!

And finally some Kona solids, in blue and brown for the binding…

Using the small Gator pattern this quilt ended up at 35 x 39 inches. Next time I think I will use the medium Gator pattern and add more butterflies. It is such a great block I will definitely be using it again.

You can find Louise’s pattern for sale on Craftsy and if you want some Gator inspiration, check out the other testers work on the …

June 9th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty

June 11th- A Quilter’s Table

June 13th- Marci Girl Designs

June 14th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty– showing off other Testers work!

June 16th- Wombat Quilts

June 17th- Wholesome Midwestern

June 18th- Shaffer Sisters

June 19th- Crafty Shenanigans

June 20th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty

13Jun2014

Another quilt top done…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

If you follow me on Pintrest you will know that I have been obsessed this past week with finishing my orange and brown quilt top. I got a bee in my bonnet and could not let it go, even though I had other pressing quilts with deadlines.

The quilt started life some months ago as this simple block – you can find the free paper piecing pattern link on my original post. So over the last week I have feverishly been making blocks….sew, iron, trim repeat.

With scrap quilting there is not a lot of opportunities to chain piece usually but with this project I found myself chain piecing a bit. First I chain pieced an orange block to a brown block and then I match up those units and chain pieced the blocks together. It worked wonderfully well and I used so much less thread. Eventually it all came together to make this…

I love the meta pattern this block creates…and I extra love the scrappy feel to the quilt. The splashes of white and the variation in the tones of both the orange and brown make the top really sing.

The paper pattern makes for pretty accurate piecing so that there is a lovely crispness to the points and joins.

Now all I have to do is rip the paper off, baste, quilt and bind it. I already have a backing fabric chosen and have a name picked out. This is my Jaffa quilt.. .named after a fabulous Aussie chocolate orange lolly/sweet/candy.

6Jun2014

Group effort quilts

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

First up I wanted to thank everyone for the wonderful, supportive comments that were left on my last post. After being so nervous about sharing my story, you made me so glad I opened up. Thank you.

Now back to the regularly scheduled programming….today I am thrilled to share two finished quilts that were made as part of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild Charity Sew days….

A fabulous group of ladies helped make blocks, piece and quilt these beauties which were made for local charity Camp Erin. If you are interested in making your own simple quilt like this check out my post about the block we choose for directions.

Finished PMQG chairty quilt 2

The block was so simple but really effective – we managed to get two large tops made in one day. At the same time we also managed to make sure that each top had its own unique flair.

For both these quilts we used the Guild’s left over Riley Blake Challenge fabric. We had quite a few of our Guild members share their left over pieces with us with some added touches – Rachel supplied the coolest airplane fabric, Michelle supplied the navy umbrellas and I raided my stash for some Pearl Bracelets in navy, yellow and grey.

Our two completed tops were then handed over to two of the Guild’s fabulous longarmers, Dawn and Jolene, who set to work weaving their magic.

For the backing we used some of the bigger pieces from the Riley Blake stash and I then add some scrappy binding for the finishing touch.

We now have two fabulous teen boys quilts done and ready to add to our growing collection of quilts for Camp Erin.

2Jun2014

Revisiting Starry Night

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Last week’s paper piecing blocks, along with some of your comments, reminded me that I needed to finish my Starry Night quilt top up. So this week I am determined to make some good headway on it…. starting with a couple of new 6 inch blocks…

This little star is another of Don’t Call Me Betsy’s “Lucky Star” blocks from last years BOM series. It was fun using my teeny tiny bits of scraps to make this pretty.

I did make a small adjustment because of the size of the block, and used a larger scrap for the final blue sky piece, opting not to do a little piece in the corner. I also realised making these blocks that I needed to use smaller scale prints to get that scrappy contrast.

With my second star I managed to squeak some Pearl Bracelets in, but I had to position the scrap just right so the dots showed up. This block is a 6 inch star that I found on my EQ7 program – it has some neat paper pieced blocks. Julie at 627 Handworks’ Global Concept block is very similar to my tiny block, but bigger. You can find her free paper piecing pattern here.

I think one or two more blocks and I will be ready to start putting this top together. I am going to work this week at how I want to handle the negative space, playing with some scrappy navy/blue blocks as filler. I will share the results next week.

28May2014

The beauty of the Altantic Sea

Posted in Colour Play, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week I have been working hard to get my Atlantic Sea Quilt top done. This quilt started life many months ago as this block…

After making of few of these blocks I put them together to see what the pattern would look like and found that there was a beautiful meta pattern (as the hubby would say) which was giving the quilt a real sense of movement.

The pattern I am using is a free paper piecing pattern from Quilters Cache. You can find a link to the pattern under my “free paper piecing pattern” tab or on the original post.

Fast forward a month or four and I have made lots and lots of blocks. This week I pinned what I had made up on the design wall and Instragramed the results.

I liked how it was coming together but I thought it needed a little something. I could go with a coloured binding but I did not think that it would be enough… so this week I whipped up this block.

And then added it to the quilt work in progress….

All of a sudden the quilt came alive. I love this little splash… I think it helps the eye identify the pattern easier and makes the top sing…

Now I just have to sew the last couple of rows together, remove all the paper from the back and the top will be done. I am so excited by this piece of scrap magic. I had a blast raiding my scrap bin for this baby!