Some Lucky Stars to end the month…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This month I have been having a blast making blocks for #opgivewarmth. Sarah at www.nohatsinthehouse.com set the most fabulous palette for May and I have been having fun raiding my scraps each week. This week I got extra carried away. I started with…

This darling star is 6 1/2 inches (for a 6 inch finished block) and the pattern comes from Don’t Call Me Betsy’s Lucky Stars BOM from last year (2013).

I loved this paper piecing BOM series but extra loved the fact you got every block in two finished sizes per pattern – a 12 inch version and 6 inch version. I had not made the 6 inch blocks before so thought this was the perfect time to give some of them a run.

I went with some of the easier patterns at this size. There are some beautifully complex blocks in this series but I was not emotionally ready to tackle them at the small scale.

The Lucky Star paper piecing series is running again this year and you can still get last years series as well. Elizabeth at Don’t Call Me Besty has fabulous instructions and each BOM series comes with great introduction to paper piecing instructions and test blocks. It is worth checking out.

So these are the last of the May blocks heading to Sarah. I will now sit patiently and wait to see what wonderful palette she has chosen for June. While I wait I will be dusting off my Starry Night quilt and doing a few more of these small Lucky Star blocks in blue and yellow.

23May2014

Neon overload

Posted in Quilts by wombatquilts

This week I managed to finish my Neon pink quilt top…finally.

I must admit I procrastinated lots and lots about how to get the different sized blocks to work. Finally two of my fellow PMQG partners in crime suggested the same solution… border the blocks with white and then cut them down to the same size. Michelle and Kimberly’s genius idea saved my head from exploding from a math over exertion.

This quilt started life as two orphan blocks from a PMQG Michael Miller challenge last year – an 11 inch star block and an 11 inch modern line block. They were too fabulous not to do something with… and so I made some supporting blocks.

You can find paper piecing patterns for most of these blocks under the “free paper piecing patterns” tab if you are interested. .

The fabric used is all Michael Miller… the Neon range in pink, with Cotton Couture in Soft White and my new go to grey Fog. The grey really does a wonderful job of toning down the Neon overload!

19May2014

Paper Piecing Monday is back on schedule

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I ventured deep into the world wide web searching for a star pattern to make for this week’s Paper Piecing Monday… and ended up with this little ditty.

The block is called ET Phone Home by Lilly’s Quilts and you can find the free paper piecing pattern here. Note the pattern is 12 inches for a 11 1/2 inch finished block not a 12 inch finish.

To get the pieces to align was a bit of a challenge for me. I am use to patterns being designed so that you can easily match points so that things align perfectly. With this pattern there was lots of using pins to make things work (and for me lots and lots and lots of unpicking).

So do not look to closely as the points are not all exactly, perfectly match up… but it is pretty close!

16May2014

A quick and simple finish for Friday

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

Yesterday I dropped off some quilts to Project Linus, including my finish for the week, a simple patchwork quilt…

A few weeks ago our local chapter put a call out for baby quilts the same day I bought a half yard of the most darling print from Michael Miller’s “Wee Wanders” range.

Using this print as inspiration, I pulled some supporting fabrics in blue, green and aqua, cut some 5 inch squares and went to work.

I of course thru in some of my trusty favorites – can you spot the Mirrorball and the Pearl Bracelets?

I went with simple straight line quilting in a diagonal grid. Nothing fancy but I like the detail it brings to the simple squares.

The backing is a single piece of fabric from my stash… that is one of the joys of a baby quilt, you can usually just pull a yard or so from your stash and you are good – no extra piecing needed. The final touch was simple electric blue binding.

The quilt was delivered yesterday to Project Linus for processing. It will then be sent out into the world to do some good.

9May2014

Some low volume fun…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts by wombatquilts

I have just manage to finish up one of two low volume quilts I have been commissioned to make… despite the universe conspiring against me getting a finish for Friday.

Recently I was asked to make two low volume quilts for some adorable twin toddlers… with the instructions to make sure there was lots of pink, green and purple and only a small hint of yellow or orange, if necessary.

Okay I found it necessary to use a hint of orange just to include these adorable Heather Ross mice but other than that I stuck to the instructions.

Pulling the fabric stack was fun – the first round was only fabrics with a white/cream background and then I went back and pulled out a couple of soft pastels. I find low volume quilts some of the easiest to pull fabric for, because you are using fabric that reads as light but are not worrying too much about scale or style.

And when in doubt there is always the quick trick of photographing your fabric and turning the photo black and white to see how the fabric reads. I usually do this step when I have the blocks up on the design wall and always end up rearranging the blocks and sometimes removing a fabric or two altogether.

I of course had a fun time putting in as many novelty prints as I could…. because what kid quilt is completely without the ability to play “I Spy”.

For the back of the quilts I fully embraced pink… choosing some of my favorite fabrics to highlight, namely some Lizzy House “Catnap”.

I kept the quilting simple and went with a soft pink binding, in a shade just a little different from the backing solid and chose to attach the binding by hand. I love the hand-made touch that hand binding gives to a quilt… those little stitches let the recipient know that the quilt was made with love.