Another Do Good finish…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I am back with another finished Do Good Stitches quilt… actually the weather in Portland has been lovely these last couple of weeks so I had the chance to photograph a few quilts which I will share over the coming weeks… but first up…

These blocks were made by myself and my fellow Hope Circle Bee hive members. I love a good wonky star and this block was extra fun because of the low volume background.

Using blacks and dark grey for the stars meant that the fabric we used as the background could have more color and interest in it. The stars were going to stand out against just about anything we threw at them… so we went fussy cut, novelty print crazy. The background does make for a good game of I spy.

The only low volumes that were a little problematic were the black and white ones… and only when they were used in making the star points. When choosing your low volume fabrics for a project it is always a good idea to:

(1) double check that they read low volume…. I do this using the mono chrome setting on my phone camera. Some low volumes can be deceiving and are tonally much darker than they appear.

(2) check that the print does not interfere or intersect with the foreground or main fabric. I have had this happen when the low volume print have had a strong print with the same color in it as my foreground fabric (this is why the black and white prints could be problematic with this quilt).

Because of the structure of this block you have a bit of built in negative space to play with. The block uses 3 1/2 inch squares, so one side of the block is just negative space (you can find the directions for the block here)…

Scrappy wonky Star 12 inch block

This allows you to play with the layout of the stars on the finished quilt. The layout can be uniformed or more off grid, like I did.

I must admit I loved the randomness of the star layout in this top… I think it gets your eye moving around the quilt in interesting ways.

As always this quilt is heading out into the world to do some good… at our local Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. So many hands help make this beauty and I am constantly reminded how many good people there are out there in the world, trying to make a difference.

Quilt Details:

Block: 12 inch off set wonky star
Fabric: Scraps and more scraps
Size: 60″ x 60″

12Oct2018

Return of the pinkies…

Posted in Finished Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

Yep you heard that right… the pinkies are back after an extended vacation…

We made the most of the brief bout of sunny weather here in the Pacific Northwest and took some finished quilt photos over the summer. I actually wanted to take all the quilts I had to photograph (about 12) to Hawaii with us on holiday but Mr Wombat did not like that idea. So instead we stayed local.

I choose this as the first quilt to share with you after such a long break because I LOVE it. It is so bright and fun. It was made a one of our Portland Modern Quilt Guild charity sew days from my large stash of 3 1/2 inch solid squares.

I process all the small scraps I make and am given into 3 1/2 or 5 inch squares using my trusty Accquilt cutter. It has made charity sew days so much easier for me having the Go Cutter to work with… I have spent many a happy evening cutting bits of fabric while watching trashy tv….somehow I am less guilty watching bad TV if I am doing something constructive while doing it.

The blocks are 12 inch finished blocks and use a 4 x 4 grid or 3 1/2 inch squares. They are so easy to make and even though there were at least 12 people making these blocks I had no trouble matching seams.

This was truly a team effort with PMQG members sewing the blocks, quilting the quilt and binding this beauty up…. and finally Mr Wombat helping with the photography and supplying the quilt feet and of course…

The pinkies…. this was the last quilt we photographed and by the time we found this great yellow wall he was pretty close to divorcing me… but all has been forgiven now.

Quilt Details:

Block: 12 inch wonky star variation
Fabric: Kona and RJR solid scraps
Size: 60 x 72 inches

1May2018

It is time for another Bee Block….

Posted in Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

Ah yes it is that time again… I am setting another block for my fellow Do Good Stitches gang… and this month snuck up on me so I have resorted to a variation of an old faithful….the wonky star…

For this 12 inch block I used:

Fifteen (15) low volume 3 1/2 inch squares
One (1) black/dark grey 3 1/2 inch square
Eight (8) black grey triangles – I used scraps but you can cut a 3 inch square in half to make the triangles.

Step one is to make the star points:

To make the star points you will need 4 of your low volume squares and your triangle pieces.

Take one of the squares and sew a triangle onto one corner, making sure the pattern sides of your fabric are together and when the triangle is flipped it covers the corner of your square.

Next trim the excess low volume fabric from the corner and press the triangle over into place.

Then add another triangle of fabric to the other side of the square…. sew it down … trim the excess low volume fabric and press over.

Your next step is to trim your block back down to 3 1/2 inches square.

The back of your block should look like this…. now repeat the process until you have 4 star point sections.

Step Two:

Lay out your block as illustrated….

Step Three:

Sew the block together in rows… then sew the rows together to make a completed block.

What I love about this block is that has built in negative space which allows for you to stagger the stars layout when putting the quilt top together. You can also make a couple of blocks that are just low volume squares (no star) to break up the layout of the quilt.

In the coming months I will have two different variations of this quilt to show you, as I also used this block recently at out Guild charity sew day. For the sew day we used a rainbow of solids and a white star which gave us a really fun bright quilt. If you want to see a work in progress shot of that quilt head over to my Instagram account.

30Mar2018

Getting a little personal….

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I am currently finishing up a few small baby quilts which are part of a personal project I took on at the end of last year. These quilts are part of my “Quilts for Pablo” project.

This project started last year when a dear friend lost her son after only 10 short days. In her son Pablo’s memory I want to make 10 quilts for my local hospital’s Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The day that I got word of Pablo’s passing I also got a wonderful package from Michael Miller Fabric – I had won a competition that they ran and they sent me two fat quarter bundles which were perfect for my project.

This is the first little quilt I finished up. The fabric line is called Flight School and this is just one of the two colour ways I have.

The fabric just called out to be made into wonky stars and I used as much of the fat quarter for each fabric as I could…fussy cutting as needed.

The layout makes the most of the fabric, using as many 4 1/2 inch squares as had left over instead of just using white in the background. I kind of like how it turned out.

I am also using these quilts as quilting practice…I am using Jacqui Gerings wonderful book “Walk” and I am determined to use as many of her quilting patterns as I can.

Mr Wombat says that this photos is the result of cheating…as I took the photo as he was about to fold up the quilt… hence no pinkies in this shot. But you do get to see a little more of him…

Quilt Details:

Pattern: Wonky Star using 4 1/2 inch squares.
Fabric: Flight School by Michael Miller
Size: 36 x 40 inches

28Apr2017

On a roll….

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

Another Friday finish for you…and this week is a darling little baby quilt I made using some small wonky star blocks I had floating around…

Usually when I make wonky star quilts I use 5 inch squares to make the stars , but for this quilt I used my stash of 3 inch squares and a pile of scrap pieces to make 8 inch (unfinished) stars.

Actually these stars had been sitting in my WIP pile for a while when I dug them up and started playing… I did not want to make any more stars so instead I used a pile of low volume scraps to play with the star layout.

I tried to lay the stars out randomly and used filler pieces – mainly 3 inch squares, 3 x 5 1/2 inch and 3 x 8 inch strips to fill in the gaps. I wanted the background to be just as scrappy as the stars so I did not use any really big low volume pieces.

The scrappy background also gave me more opportunities for fussy cutting, allowing me to cram in even more novelty prints (have you spotted the squirrels yet!).

My binding choice was a little different from usual with this quilt too… I went with low volume soft colours to frame the quilt instead of my usual wonky star binding – navy blue or scrappy brights. I liked how this choice lets the stars jump off the quilt instead of containing them inside a frame.

The wonderful free motion quilting on this piece was done by my friend Michelle of Mariposa Quilting. I was so pleased this quilt was not ruined by my clumsy straight line quilting.

Once washed this quilt will head off to the our local Pediatric Intensive Care unit where it will hopefully be used for a couple of good games of I Spy….