And back again… so soon….

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

Since I am on a roll I thought I would share another quilt from last years very productive PMQG Charity year….

This quilt was once again made at one of the monthly sew days we used to have at Modern Domestic…. and once again it is a simple patchwork block using 3 1/2 inch squares.

This time I gathered a rainbow of squares in a selection of specific colors. The block has a particular layout with to give the rainbow some uniformity. I first made this block years ago (2013) using a tutorial by Blue Elephant Quilts… and you can find the layout of the specific pieces on their original post…

It really is amazing what different things you can do with 3 1/2 inch squares. This quilt embraced the bright and the novelty prints which was so fun… and is always the case I swear we had more precut squares when we were finished this than when we started. Be warned do not leave precut squares unattended, they will breed.

To get the full impact of the rainbow splat we decided to do a layout with sashing. I do not usually sash quilts but this one really works with the black and white border. The sashing was expertly done by fellow PMQG charity volunteer Jenny McKee. Jenny has mad skills and was able to add a border without any sweat… were it would have taken me forever and lots of swear words to do it properly.

I did however make the back of the quilt which was equally rainbowy. The fabric for the back was part of a huge donation we received which was full of glorious black and white prints and two pieces of this wonderful print. It really was the perfect back for the top.

And as always we finish with the obligatory pinkies… no amount of begging will get him to hold a quilt like a normal person!

Quilt Details:

Block: 12 inch simple patchwork
Fabric: 3 1/2 inch scraps
Finished Size: 60 x 70 inches

29Sep2017

Some more urban chickens…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

As summer is coming to a close here in the US I took the opportunity to make the most of the sunshine recently and get some quilts photographed…. I actually have a stack of quilts finished but have not got all of them photographed.

I got a little bored with sticking the finished quilts on coat hangers and hanging them on the back fence so I have been venturing out with them when I can…

My latest adventure took me to the Oregon Coast with my cousin (aka. the quilt holder)…

finished urban chicken quilt

This quilt was made at one of this years Charity Sew Days. Actually we made two of these tops in one day. This year the charity program has exploded in a wonderful way.

quilt detail 3

This is a fun block that I have made before but I love this all solids version. The pattern was designed by my talented friend Michelle Friedman several years ago and you can find my step by step of it here… We did vary the pattern a little, using pre-cut 3 1/2 inch squares instead of strips, but the result is pretty much the same.

quilt detail

I absolutely love the quilting on this quilt, done by one of our talented long armers, Nancy Stovall. She used fluorescent green thread which was a daring choice but works wonderfully with the quilt.

quiltng detail

This quilt has now been labeled and set aside for next years Camp Erin. The sister quilt, which was slightly smaller (4 blocks x 5 blocks) has already headed out to our local PICU.

Quilt Details:

Block: 12 inch Urban Chicken block
Fabric: various solid cottons including Kona, Bella Solids and Cotton Couture
Finished quilt size: 60 x 72 inches

7Sep2016

Another lot of love….

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

Yesterday I shared the group Quilt for Pulse we made… today I am sharing my the quilt I also made for the cause. I had actually started making this quilt when we decided to make a group quilt.

For my quilt I used some more of my pre-cut solid squares, but worked with my 3 inch stash this time… I have a lot of pre-cut squares and both of these projects did not even start to dent my pile!

I played around on my design wall to find a heart shape that I liked and then went to work making these blocks in a rainbow assortment of colours.

I made sure there was a good mix of lights and darks in each heart and used a variety of whites and creams in the background. For the background I also threw in some pastel pinks, purples, greens and blues but I made sure I did not put the pastels right next to the heart so that there was clear definition to the heart shape.

I also quilted this quilt on Modern Domestic’s Q24 longarm… I quilted this one after I had done the huge heart so I was over loopy hearts and went instead for straight line boxes. It was nice to do something more structured on this quilt.

I think I am going to revisit this block. It was easy and really effective…plus I still have shoe boxes full of 3 inch solid squares!

19Jun2015

Rainbow Crazy

Posted in Finished Quilts, Other fun stuff, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

This week I finished up my Rainbow Improv quilt just in time to ship it to Sisters for their quilt show next month….there is nothing like an impending deadline to get you working hard!

I started this quilt a little while ago, making the blocks in between some complex paper piecing projects. It was so much fun to do something so free from rules and constraints. You can read more about the process on my original post…

I just used a rainbow of solid fabric scraps and played with colour. I must admit I did not know what the end product would look like, I just enjoyed the process of making the blocks.

Because this quilt was going to Sister’s I wanted to do something modern for the quilting, but I did not want to distract from the blocks too much. In the end I went with my beloved straight line stitches but used a rainbow selection of thread for the quilting.

Each row of blocks got their own colour, which was so much fun to do.

I just used my walking foot as my line guide…I did contemplate marking up the quilt top but this was so much easier and worked out perfectly… I got 16 lines of stitches per row and only went a little off course, one or two times.

For the back of the quilt I went with a patchwork of solid Kona greys (Ash, Charcoal and Medium Grey), which was perfect for highlighting the change in the thread colour. If you look closely you can see the rainbow effect of the quilting.

The final touch was some scrappy grey binding, a label and I was done.

I am so thrilled with how this quilt turned out. It is so different from what I usually do, but was just so much fun to make…

Quilt Details:

Blocks: 6 inch improv blocks
Fabric: Variety of solids – Kona, Michael Miller, American Made and Bella.
Finished size: 48 x 48 inches

24Apr2015

A little bit of Improv fun…

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

Over the last month or so I have been slowly making a quilt top, using nothing but my solid scraps. This week I finally finished sewing it all together to make this piece of modern crazy….

It all started when I began cutting up my solid scraps into useable squares…

I was left with a pile of long strips, small square and random shapes. As a scrap quilter I could not just throw them away, so I started making Improv blocks.

My first step was to sew lots of the small little bits together to make bigger units.

If I found a curved piece in amongst the scraps I used it…

The same with triangles (there was no shape biased here!)…

I was not afraid to slash through a block and add extra bits…

And I always made sure that there was tonal variation in the blocks…

I worked colour by colour….first I pulled out all my yellow scraps and made blocks….then my orange…then my red etc. Working row by row, colour by colour I could make sure that there was some flow between each line of blocks…

My blocks finished at 6 inches square and not one of them is even remotely like the another. I found an amazing freedom in making this quilt….there was no pattern to follow, no measuring or pre-cutting to do.

When I needed a break from paper piecing or just wanted to do something quick and creative I grabbed a handful of scraps and made some blocks.

So much fun…I can highly recommend this process… it is perfect for letting go and just playing. There is no right or wrong, just colour and creating and fun.