I have just finished this quilt…..
It did not turn out quite like I wanted, but it was a fun using a new pattern to make the blocks. The center piece of the quilt was made using a quick four block pattern that was demonstrated to us at Project Linus. I have attached a version of the pattern here.
As I was finishing the quilt it was fun to see how the colour border size and shape affected the look of hte quilt. I ended up trimming the quilt a couple of times to get a balance I was happy with.
This weekend, as I prepared to post about my latest quilt, I discovered my trusty digital SLR had stopped focusing. That is why some of my recent quilt photos have been soft.
My Canon has been around the world with me – probably several times over. I have taken thousands of photos with it and now I must say goodbye. I am sad, and a little disappointed.. I have had the camera about 7 years but I still have a Minolta film camera that I have been using for about 20 years with no issues. They just do not make them like they used to.
For the next couple of weeks I will be posting with my point and shoot camera and photos from my i-phone. This should be interesting.
I have had a wonderful time getting back into colour this week.
This is actually a quilt I started a couple of years ago. I had put it away in a cupboard and forgot about it, until now. In the spirit of challenging myself I decided to finish it.
It started with a pile of fabric and a paper piecing pattern I made myself.
I have not done a paper pieced quilt in a long time, and it was a nice reminder for me how messy and fiddly they are. These days I could have easily done this quilt without a foundation pattern, but back when I started making this, I was not confident enough to do anything without a pattern.
Whatever way I got there, I like this quilt.
This weekend I decided to challenge myself to do a quiet quilt. I predominantly use bright colours and fabrics in my quilts so this would be an interesting creative step for me. I was inspired by a great quilt I saw at Red Pepper Quilts (another Aussie).
http://www.redpepperquilts.com/2012/10/a-modern-i-spy-low-volume-quilt.html
First step was to see what white/cream based fabrics I had in my stash. I surprisingly had a lot to choose from, including some fabulous Heather Ross and wonderful Aneela Hoey.
I decided on 4 inch squares for my quilt, and to focus on giving the quilt a scrappy “eye spy” feel… so lots of fun objects in amongst the dots etc.
I must admit I struggled a little with laying out the blocks. I found it hard to focus on the flow of the quilt with everything being so low intensity. This is what I ended up with.
Next step quilting, then binding then off to Project Linus.
As I start this process of documenting my new quilting adventures I started thinking about where it all began. It started with a car accident and a film – “How to make an American Quilt”. While I was convalescing in Australia I thought I would try to make a quilt. My first attempts were interesting…. I was teaching myself and there were a lot of mistakes.
With each quilt I learnt something new, like measuring is important and there is a reason you start your quilting in the center of the quilt. I also found an outlet for my quilting attempts – my sister was a oncology nurse at the local Children’s hospital. It was a match made in heaven. Of the hundreds of quilts I have made over the years for Project Linus in Australia, England and now the US I only have a handful of pictures.
This is the only quilt that I have kept so far. I made it 15 years ago, as I was just learning to quilt. I had not yet learned about the value of tones or that stitching in the ditch does not add much to the quilt. I made mistakes and learned from them. This quilt is a good illustration for my two goals with this blog:
1. To be honest about the results of the challenges I set myself. To show the things that do not work along with those that do.
2. To actually photograph and document my quilts.
Let the adventure begin!
WOMBAT QUILTS 