PMQG Medallion WIP

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

In the past week I have been working hard to catch up on my Portland Modern Quilt Guild Medallion quilt. I was officially two borders behind… and now I am all caught up…

As an officer” of the Guild this year I was gently persuaded to take part in this Medallion along but really wish I had thought my colour scheme through a bit better. As my husband loudly stated last week “why on earth are you making a pastel quilt!” . I have been asking myself that question for a couple of months now!

Don’t get me wrong I am loving the process of making this quilt, I just wish I had thought about the fact I would have to live with pastels for months and months! But the process…oh I love the process. Each month another border is added and each month, where possible, I turn the border into a paper piecing pattern.

For this month’s border I made a triangle/flying geese paper pattern (which you can find here PMQG Medallion Border 4 pattern) and the corner-stone pattern as well (you can find that pattern here PMQG Medallion border 4 cornerstones)

If paper piecing does not float your boat but you like the borders, check out the PMQG Medallion site. My fellow officers have done a great job of explaining how to make the borders with traditional piecing. You will also find all the directions and measurements for our Medallion if you are interested in playing along.

As it is Wednesday I am of course linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

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.

Now all I have to do is finish up the binding on the second quilt and they will be ready to send to their new owners.

11Apr2014

A do.Good finish…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

Okay it took me a while but I finally got the do.Good.Stitches Icicle quilt done…. so without further ado here she is….

This quilt started life when I was doing Julie @ 627Handworks “Block Rockin” paper pieced blocks. I loved how the Icky Thump block looked and decided it needed to be a quilt all its own.

With the help of the Hope Circle of do.Good.Stitches a Icky Thump quilt was made. It was a fun process seeing how different quilters took on the paper piecing challenge and what lovely fabrics they had in their stash. I infatuated with these tiny mice in particular…

It took me a while to decide how I wanted to quilt this top up. I ummed and ahhed for weeks about what to do and finally decided to quilt to enhance the star pattern.

I was not completely sold on this quilting until I turned the quilt around and looked at the back…

..the quilting really works on the back. Now I know I am not noted for my quilting prowess, as my darling friend Lisa confirmed yesterday (I piece like a champion but quilt like a beginner)… but I am chuffed with how this looks.

For the backing I used one of the blocks I was sent that was a little small and made it the focal point. This way everyone who contributed a block is represented in this quilt.

Finally I hand bound the quilt using some solid scraps I had. It was a lovely exercise to put the finishing touches on this quilt by hand. Another do.Good quilt ready to head off to do good!

Quilt Stats
Pattern: Icky Thump paper pieced pattern
Finished quilt size: 48 x 60 inches
Fabrics: various
Backing: Kona Medium Grey and various others.

26Feb2014

Colour Play – Grey

Posted in Colour Play, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

The last week or so I have been playing with a different kind of colour combination…one that really has not got a lot of “colour” in it. My inspiration was a very old photo that hangs on our living room wall…

(Please note..I can neither confirm or deny that I am in this photo).

Anyway I have always loved black and white photographs, which really are more grey and white than black and white, and thought why not play with greys in a quilt. The end result was this block…

I used another fabulous free paper piecing pattern from Quilters Cache called Atlantic Sea. The block pieces look rather strange and a pattern is not immediately obvious.