Adventure Time wip Wednesday

Posted in Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

After several “low volume” projects recently I wanted to do something different, loud, bright. I found inspiration in the pages of my husband’s Adventure Time comic for my new block. If you know Adventure Time at all you will see the strong influence of Princess Bubblegum in this block. She regularly pops up in Jake & Finn’s crazy adventures. Now if you do not know Adventure Time, this is Princess Bubblegum.

After pulling a stash of bubblegum pink fabric and aqua/blue fabric, I found a pattern I liked and started cutting. The end result is this…

With this block I did not let the pattern’s unpleasant name ( “turkey giblets”) turn me off. You can find the paper piecing pattern I used at Quilters Cache. It is a really easy pattern to make and is made up of two triangle blocks that are joined to make the building block of the quilt.

I can not wait to see how this quilt top comes together. I think it is going to be a quilt like my “Sun & Sea” quilt where the final overall quilt pattern looks so different from the individual block pattern.

25Sep2013

Bee Block fun… wip Wednesday

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week has been all about Bee Blocks… finishing up my September blocks and making decisions about the October blocks. First up is do.Good.Stitches Hope blocks…

After last month’s crazy mini flying geese block it was refreshing to do a nice easy fun block. The request was for two 12 inch log modern log cabin blocks… right up my alley.

The other Bee request was for some Trip Along blocks. We were given a bit of range when doing these blocks, so I stepped outside my colour comfort zone and ended up with a woodland inspired block…

And this one…

In between the Bee blocks I have been adding more blocks to my Zakka Flower quilt. This weeks new blocks include these two lovelies.

These flowers are decidedly addictive. I am currently at 18 flowers and have more cut ready to go. It does not help my addiction that Denyse Schmidt has designed so much great fabric!

The final project of the week has been getting some photographs taken of ME. Any of you who have explored my block in-depth or follow me will know that:

(1) I hate having my photo taken; and

(2) there is only one photo of me up on the site and it is ancient.

I finally had to give in and get some head shots done, so without further ado here is an out take from the shoot…

My darling BFF’s helped me out which meant the whole experience was not too traumatic… and there was lots and lots of laughter.

4Sep2013

Inspiration can come from the strangest places

Posted in Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

I am constantly amazed by what inspires me – where ideas and colour combinations for a quilt come from. This week’s work in progress is a good case in point.

This bright scrap quilt was inspired by my local petrol/gas station logo.

Strange I know, but I was filling the car up one day and realized I really love these two colours together. I promptly came home and pulled some scraps and made up this block.

I originally posted about this flying geese pattern back in April this year. You can find the original post, with a free paper piecing pattern here. A couple of months later and I got the urge to finish this quilt top, so I pulled fabric from my stash as well as from my scrap pile and started work.

Now I have a stack of blocks and I am gradually putting the top together.

My placement is random and fun and I have thrown in a couple of reverse blocks to break things up. It is kind of fun making the arrows go all over the place.

I have also been thinking of making some yellow arrows with yellow background, but I am not sure about it. Any thoughts?

24Jul2013

Dresden Plate challenge – wip Wednesday

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

This week I decided to challenge myself, and try to make a block I had never done before – the Dresden Plate. I was so inspired by Susan at The Bored Zombie’s Dresden plate quilt, that I had to give it a go. So I bought a Dresden plate template (I went with EZ Quiltings) and pulled some fabric.

I decided to raid my stash of 1930’s fabric which has been sitting under my bed, untouched, for years. There is something about the Dresden pattern that just called out to be made in vintage style fabrics. I was actually shocked at how much of this fabric I had accumulated over the years – what is shown above is about 1/15th of my stash. I went through a period many year ago of making baby quilts out of this fun fabric ( I was partial to the Aunt Grace and Storybook lines).

With the fabric cut, I found the rest of the process really easy. I sewed the top of the cut pieces together using chain stitching.

Snipped the corner, turned it inside out and I was ready to go. I was so surprised how quickly I could get the pieces and block done. I thought it would take me hours to finish a block but it was really quick.

Then came the hard part. Having finished most of the block pieces I realized I wanted to make the block feel a little more modern. I started playing with what to back the block with and here are my top choices…

1. Hatched block back

2. Scrappy white back

3. Red & white dot back

4. Black & white dot back

5. Navy blue back

6. Grey linen print back

7. Red solid back

HELP! I can make a case for each of these fabrics and I am feeling a little overwhelmed. Please let me know which back you like best.

All selections, suggestions, advice, feedback, comments and support gratefully accepted.

17Jul2013

A quilted container – WIP Wednesday

Posted in Finished Quilts, Other fun stuff, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

In my sewing career I have made hundreds of quilts and one fancy dress costume. Once or twice I have hemmed or mended a few clothing items on the sewing machine but that is absolutely it, until this week.

Rewind a little bit to last month’s Portland Modern Quilting Guild meeting where a new swap was proposed. I had never participated in a swap before, they scare me a little – you have to do something on deadline to please someone else. Too much pressure for me. Last month though, thru a combination of pain medication and peer pressure I said yes to making a quilted container.

Fast forward to this week. I need the container for Thursday’s meeting and I had not even started. I had spent weeks procrastinating and convincing myself I could not do this. With time running out I bite the proverbial bullet and started. The Guild website had helpfully linked to a number of free tutorials, so I picked one – 1/4″ Mark.com’s quilted bucket and went to work.

Step one.. I selected some unused blocks to use in the body of the bucket. These paper pieced stars set the colour scheme for the finished piece

Step two… I made the bottom of the bucket (this step also involved spray basting my fingers together)

Step three… I did some maths (the hardest part of the whole darn process), deconstructed the blocks and made the body of the bucket.

Step four, five and possibly six… quilted the bucket body, then pinned the bottom piece to the body piece.

Which resulted in this…

Step seven… turned the outside piece inside out and attached handles

Steps eight to twelve… selected lining fabric, cut bottom and side bits, sewed them together, turned them inside out and sewed them to the quilted outer piece. By this stage I was loosing the will to live, but bravely carried on.

Step two hundred and six five… nearly finished… I pulled the quilted part through a small 2 inch whole left in the lining part to reveal this…

My finished bucket. The sides of the bucket are 12 inches and the base is 8 3/4 inches. I think if I was to make it again I would make the sides a little smaller but other than that I am pleased with the finished product. So pleased I took lots and lots of photos…

finished bucket 5