Wonky Stars – wip Wednesday

Posted in Finished Quilts, Project Linus, Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Today’s work in progress is all about the wonky stars. When the call went out last week for more quilts to replenish the Project Linus stocks, I turned to the old faithful wonky star. It is a fast, fun way to make simple kids quilts.

I have managed to finish one quilt….

I love how the quilt turned out and in particular the scrappy nature of it. I used different white and cream blocks for the background and blues for the star. I know it should, in theory, be the other way round – blue background with white stars, but I had a stack of white/cream scraps I wanted to use up. The quilting is simple as I want to get as many of these done as I can before next weeks monthly Project Linus meeting.

The quick and easy nature of the wonky star is why I choose to focus on them for this drive. I have managed to get another top done this weekend which I will try and get quilted this week. I “borrowed” the idea from another quilter I came across on the “wip Wednesday” hop. They had used a wonderful Eric Carlyle print as the center of their wonky star to great effect. I went with a Jone Hallmark kids print that had been sitting in my stash for a while.

My final wonky star is currently sitting on my design floor waiting to be sewn. It is the left over star bits from a quilt I finished a couple of weeks ago.

I hope to have it sewn and ready for quilting by the end of tonight, so I am going to stop blogging and go sew!

8Feb2013

Postage Stamp quilt finished

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I finally finished the postage stamp quilt…

In the end I think it was worth the madness…. though I did not make the quilt as big as I originally planned. I love the brightness and variety in this quilt. Some kid is hopefully going to love exploring all the different fabric. If you are interested in my process and a pattern link you can check out my previous post here.

Because the quilt was so busy I went with simple straight line quilting and a backing of just one fabric piece.

I am busily trying to get some more of my quilts finished, as our chapter of Project Linus has had a huge call on blankets in the last week. A local school, Crestline Elementary in Vancouver WA, burned to the ground and Project Linus is delivering 500 blankets/quilts to the kids this week. The kids affected are aged between 5 to 10 years old so the call is out to replenish our kids blanket/quilt stocks. The sewing machine will be going full pelt this weekend.

Happy quilting.

6Feb2013

Symphony of colour – WIP Wednesday

Posted in Quilt patterns, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

My work in progress Wednesday is just full of colour. I have started a new quilt this week – another classic pattern with bright colours.

The pattern is called a double pinwheel and the components of the block are really simple. McCalls has a great link to making the block the traditional way – though I only used one half of their pattern. The link to their site can be found here. I once again raided my scrap box to start this project, as well as cutting into my stash a little – I was woefully short on purple scraps in particular! Because of the high contrast in the colours seams are everything and I must admit they are not as aligned as I would like with this block. Practice makes perfect, so onto the next block!

I have also finished the top for my pink and gold quilt. My niece quickly claimed this quilt as her own so there is a impetuous to finish it. We are now at the fun stage of pulling paper off the back. I do find this part of the process therapeutic but very very messy,

And last but not least, I have just finished basting the grey and green quilt I started a couple of weeks ago.

Now I just have to quilt it!

1Feb2013

Gretchen Quilt finished

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I am not sure if it is considered cheating or not, but because the majority of my quilts are kids size, the task of finishing them is not as daunting/labor intensive as an adult size quilt. I must admit I do like the fact I can try an idea or color scheme out with out too much commitment. With the gretchen quilt I wanted to try two things I had not done before – the pattern, which is a very traditional quilt pattern and the orange/blue color scheme. Here is the results….

I must admit I am really pleased with how this quilt turned out. The colours pop and the pattern looks complex but is really quite easy. I blogged about this quilt block a couple of weeks ago, and included a couple of links to the pattern. You can click here to find it if you are interested. I went the paper piecing route and the only annoying thing was using the tweezers to remove the bits of paper wedged where eight corners meet. I did learn a valuable lesson with this – if possible remove as much of the paper corners before you sew the blocks together. I really does minimize the tweezer work and save time in the end.

I did simple straight line quilting, following the lines of the block and then stitched around the center of the square. I am still traumatized by the stipple quilting I did recently and think straight lines are still the go for the next couple of quilts. In my quilting defence (i) there is no stitching in the ditch and (2) I think the quilting compliments the piecing.

When it came time to put the back together I found in my stash the most perfect backing fabric….Ed Emberley’s Giraffes from his Happy Drawing collection.

I love this print and will have to track down some more, as I used it all on the backing. The design is fabulous and very boy appropriate.

For the binding I choose a solid navy/denim cotton which seemed to work really well. I hand stitch all my binding and the little bit of stretch in the fabric made it easy to work with.

Now I am heading back to my pink & yellow quilt. After posting my work in progress this week, my niece has claimed the quilt as hers, so I am trying to get it finished fast.

30Jan2013

Finally back in the Pink…WIP Wednesday

Posted in Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

It has been a couple of quilts since I raided my pink fabric stash and I was having withdrawal symptoms. This was the cure…..

I am using an old pattern called “stick something in the middle” which I first used many many years ago, mainly to highlight fussy/novelty prints. When I dusted the pattern off, I saw it a little differently. I can no longer find the original link to this pattern or Mary Ann’s site unfortunately. So hopefully you can just pull the pattern off this blog directly and use it, if you want.

So this week my work space (our living room) is full of pink and yellow fabric, and gold thread is replacing grey on my husbands shirt! The space may look at little messy but there is method in the chaos.

So I am slowly adding blocks to my pile. As I have been progressing with this quilt I have been adding a few more fabrics – mainly some darker pinks and a few oranges. I felt the quilt needed a little more punch.