Some bad habits…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

Some bad habits have formed over here at Wombat Quilts. I seem to have got out of the routine of documenting what I am up to, and in turn out of the habit of blogging. After a stern talking too from my darling husband I am trying to get back into the swing of writing more regularly…

The good news is that I have a plenty of finished quilts to share.. because I have not blogging does not mean I have not been making….

So turning over this new/old leaf I am starting this Friday with a lovely work in progress I have just finished…

Yep my Paper Piecing Monday green star quilt is now done… thanks in part to the wonderful long arm services of Kazumi Peterson.

Last week I did a talk at a local Traditional quilt guild and while preparing my talk I realised that I had given away most of my quilts…. I have kept a handful but I wanted more to show. So there was a couple of weeks of feverish activity to get some quilts done, as well as a trip or two to my local long armer.

I really love how the quilt to turned out with all those lovely 8 inch stars floating about on a sea of scrappy low volume prints…

There is a lot of work in this quilt, but doing a star a week really makes the process less daunting…

If you are crazy enough to want to make your own version the patterns for all these stars are on the blog… you can find them under the “Free Paper Piecing Patterns” tab.

I love the movement that quilting gives the stars… it is just a simple all over pattern but it is really effective…

I must admit I also love the little flying geese blocks I scattered around the border of the quilt… I am not usually one for adding borders but this quilt needed some space around it, and the three little triangles on all sides made everything all right…

To finish everything off I hand bound the quilt using a variety of scrappy solid and marbled greens….

This quilt also marks another finish for this quarters Finish-Along. After a very slack first quarter I have taken a decent bite out of my WIP list, while adding only a handful of new projects to my slate! If you want more information on the Finish-Along check out Debbie at A Quilter’s Table post… this quarter’s fun is already underway but you can always join in next quarter. It really has been a wonderful way to keep myself focused on finishing stuff and not just making new WIPs!!!

25Apr2016

Adventure block number 2…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Paper piecing Monday is proud to present block two in my new quilt adventure…

I originally designed this block for my green star quilt, but did not end up using the block… but not one to waste a good pattern, I enlarged it to 12 inches for this quilt…

You can find the PDF pattern, with numbers, here…Adventure Star block 2…

18Apr2016

Oh no more stars…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

After an extended break from paper pieced stars I am now venturing back into familiar territory. At QuiltCon I ran into an old friend who challenged me to make a special quilt… my response to that challenge will unfold over the coming months….starting with this block…

This is an adaptation of one of the blocks I did for my pink Snowball quilt (which means you can use this pattern too if you want to make your own version of my fun modern baby quilt).

You can see I used my tried and tested technique of marking the colour variations on the pattern. If you want to make your own block, and do your own markings… you can download the free paper piecing pattern here….Adventure Star block 1

29Jan2016

Finish Along 2016

Posted in Finished Quilts, Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

A week or so ago I signed up for the first quarter of the 2016 Finish Along. This is a online project that is run every 3 months… basically you sign up at the beginning of a quarter and say what you want to finish over the next couple of months. I am using the program to keep myself on track to finish up things before I start anything new.

If you are interested you can check out what people are doing there is an Instagram account – @finishalong and She Can Quilt is hosting the link up at http://www.shecanquilt.ca.

Anyway the goals I set myself for the next four months are…

Now I understand I may have over committed but I thought I might as well shot for the stars. But so far I have one of my Do Good Stitches quilts done…

This was such a fun quilt to finish up… I originally set this block for the Hope Circle of Do Good Stitches to do back in June last year. The block pattern is from Clover and Violet and you can find the directions here scrappy christmas star.

I was a little nervous about setting a Bee block that needed to be pretty accurately pieced to align, but it all worked out fabulously. I was able to coerce all the seams into alignment without too much effort…

One of the things I love about doing these scrappy blocks is seeing everyone’s fabric choices and extra love the wonderful selection of low volume novelty prints that were used…

There is so much happening in the quilt as far as print variation but the overall quilt is so quiet and gentle.

For the quilting I went of course with straight lines, which was perfect for this pattern. I used a cream Aurifil for the quilting (No 2309), which blended nicely between the teal, yellow and white/cream background.

For the backing I found the perfect Suzy Ultman for Robert Kaufman piece in my stash – and I had enough to do the whole back!

For the binding I used two different teal Kona Solids I had in my stash and of course hand bound it while watching the Australian Open Tennis. I am going to make the most of the last couple of matches to get another Do Good finish bound…..

So one finish down… at least 5 more to go….

20Jan2016

Paper Piecing Wednesday edition 5

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

Welcome to what I think is my fifth time posting Paper Piecing Monday on a Wednesday. If you think how many PP Monday’s I have done 5 misses is not to bad…right!

Anyhow I have another Hodge Podge block for you this week.. this time it a 6 inch version of the classic Centennial block….

I had fun using all the the little bits of yellow I had laying around (many left over from my Starry Night Quilt) but using just one colour does not really do this star justice, here is my favored alternative colouring….

So the free PDF pattern for this quilt can be found here…. centennial block pattern I now need to move away from the star patterns I think, otherwise I may get type cast…