The beauty of the Altantic Sea

Posted in Colour Play, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week I have been working hard to get my Atlantic Sea Quilt top done. This quilt started life many months ago as this block…

After making of few of these blocks I put them together to see what the pattern would look like and found that there was a beautiful meta pattern (as the hubby would say) which was giving the quilt a real sense of movement.

The pattern I am using is a free paper piecing pattern from Quilters Cache. You can find a link to the pattern under my “free paper piecing pattern” tab or on the original post.

Fast forward a month or four and I have made lots and lots of blocks. This week I pinned what I had made up on the design wall and Instragramed the results.

I liked how it was coming together but I thought it needed a little something. I could go with a coloured binding but I did not think that it would be enough… so this week I whipped up this block.

And then added it to the quilt work in progress….

All of a sudden the quilt came alive. I love this little splash… I think it helps the eye identify the pattern easier and makes the top sing…

Now I just have to sew the last couple of rows together, remove all the paper from the back and the top will be done. I am so excited by this piece of scrap magic. I had a blast raiding my scrap bin for this baby!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday….

30Apr2014

Some Random block fun…

Posted in Quilt patterns, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

I am desperately playing catch up on my Bee blocks and other projects that have been sitting around too long.

First up I have caught up on my Do.good.stitches blocks which included this fun ditty…

A wonderful wonky pin wheel. The pattern is from Greenleaf Goods who have a great tutorial on their site. It was a fabulous scrap buster and I am looking forward to doing my own version.

The other do.Good.stitches block that I have just finished up is the fabulous Granny Square block by Blue Elephant Stitches.

I have made this block a couple of times but love the instructions that my fellow Bee member added… Heather told us to make the white squares extra long… we added 3/4 of an inch to the pattern. This extra wiggle room makes trimming the block so much easier than the original pattern.

We also used 3 inch blocks instead of 2 1/2 inch squares and I am now fired up to use some of my 3 inch square scraps to make more of these blocks. But first I have to finish my original Granny Square quilt.

My Granny Square quilt is still on my 2014 To Do list but this week I did make some progress on the list … I am determined to finish my Denyse Schmidt Zakka flower quilt. I have made the last of the blocks…

And now I am onto sashing. I am hoping to have the top done for a Finish Friday… really hoping.

And of course because it is Wednesday I am linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced..

26Mar2014

An interesting Colour Play challenge

Posted in Colour Play, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

First up a little bit of background before I show you what I am playing with this week…. Last week I gave a presentation on Playing with Color in quilting to the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. I talked a little about color theory and a lot about the colour schemes that quilters can borrow from the art based theory, as well as ones we have come up with on our own (like Low Volume). During the presentation I also talked about ‘neutrals’, those fun, versatile colours that play nice with nearly every colour they meet. It was during this part of the presentation that this weeks challenge presented itself…

So I was talking about the standard neutrals – white, cream, grey, brown and of course navy blue, which is my favorite neutral…though it is not really an official neutral. I rambled on about how navy is my response to my personal aversion to black as a neutral. I find black harsh and though it gives great contrast, I do not tend to use it unless I absolutely have to and always opt for navy or dark grey instead. I will, on occasion, condescend to use black and white prints but never straight black.

As I was making these statements I realised that I should not be making such a harsh judgement on black without at least giving it a go.

So I choose a pattern and went to work…

I went with the traditional Hunters Star block and used the paper piecing pattern by Quilters Cache. It seemed like the perfect pattern to make use of the high contrast of my colour choices.

The block pieces join together to make these wonderful stars… and we all know how I feel about stars! When you add a number of blocks together you get to see the bigger pattern which is stunning.

I have to admit I am thrilled with how this “experiment” turned out. I think because I am using scraps and different blacks, the colour is not quite as harsh as a solid black, and the blue just seems to pop off the quilt.

So going forward I am not saying I will be abandoning navy blue any time soon but I may give black more than a fleeting glance next time I am pulling fabric. So is this aversion to black just me or do others share my feelings? Have you used it in any of your quilts?

As it is Wednesday I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday…

19Feb2014

Colour Play Girly Style

Posted in Colour Play by wombatquilts

This week I went totally girly with my colour play. I love pink and love using pink…

Example One…

Example Two…

Example Three…

Example Four…

I could go on but I think you get the picture… so this weeks challenge was to try a new pink combination, one that I was a little different from my norm. The end result was this totally girly fabric pull…

Which when combined with a simple spiderweb pattern from Quilters Cache became this 12 inch block…

Which, when joined with other spiderweb blocks begins to look like this…

Totally deliciously pretty I think, but I am a little biased!

15Jan2014

Trying to quilt by my own advice…

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week I discovered that there is a down side to giving advice on the internet – because it is there in black and white you need to make sure you are taking your own advice. My “Quilting Bee Etiquette” has come back to haunt me this week as I struggled to get my December Bee blocks out on time. You see blocks are generally considered late if they arrive past the 15th of the following month, and I could not, should not, would not be late. So this last week has been about getting Bee blocks done.

First up was the last block for my Scrapbeelicious December run. I had done one Christmas themed block for Nicole at Modern Handcraft but needed another block. My original plan was to do a 12/2 inch Dresden plate. I cut the fabric, sewed it all together and discovered it was 20 1/2 inches big. Whoops. Some quick re-calculations, more cutting, more sewing and voila, the b%$#y block was 14 inches square. My solution was this…

Scrapbeelicious December Block –

An “adjusted” Dresden Plate block that is exactly 12 1/2 inches square. Seeing this is a sampler quilt my adjustments will work well. This block, along with my Snowflake block should be winging their way to Nicole today (as per the Bee Etiquette rules my Queen knows they will be late).

I did make the deadline for my other December blocks by the skin of my teeth. The Do.good.stitches Hope Circle blocks for December were easy, I cut the fabric out and then promptly forgot to sew it all together. A polite reminder from the Queen had me sewing them up and posting them the same morning…

That same day I decided to tackle the January Do.good blocks to avoid the embarrassment of another reminder email (I like to be on time or early wherever possible)…

Wonky log cabins in blue with a grey border… easy peasy..

My final WIP for this week is not a really a Bee block, but is the start of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild’s 2014 Medallion Quilt. This year, instead of doing a BOM our guild is doing a Medallion quilt, starting with a center 16 1/2 inch center block.

Yep I have become a little Dresden obsessed. I blame my EZ Dresden ruler… it is all its fault, plus I see it as a challenge to improve my really bad math skills!