35,000 and counting

Posted in Project Linus by wombatquilts

Last Thursday our chapter of Project Linus processed/bundled it’s 35,000th blanket. A wonderful achievement that was appropriately celebrated.

An amazing group of women and men from Portland and Vancouver have worked hard to make, quilt, mend and label 17,500 quilts, 10,500 fleece blankets and 7,000 afghans since 2001. You can see some of the quilts and hear some of the stories about blanket recipients at the chapter site.

This Project Linus chapter is the third one I have been involved in. I started making Project Linus quilts in 1999, when my sister was a nurse at the local Children’s hospital. At the time there was no Project Linus in Brisbane, Australia, so we set up a chapter. At first there was just me and my quilts, but it slowly built, with the tireless effort of my sister, to deliver to all the major hospitals in Brisbane. Working with my sister to supply blankets I got to see and hear first hand how much my blankets were appreciated.

When I moved to Bristol England in 2001 I started making blankets for the local Project Linus Chapter in Bath, and also to for the Royal Bristol Children’s Hospital. I was working for Aardman Animation, who had a strong connection with the Children’s hospital through the Wallace & Gromit foundation. Again I got to see first hand how my quilts were impacting.

Now each month I bundle up my quilts, not quite knowing where they are headed. They are made with love and sent off into the world where I hope they will bring some kind of comfort. I can imagine it is hard for some people to spend so much time making a quilt – a mini work of art – and then ship it off, not knowing where it will end up and if it will be loved or cherished. I am so lucky to have had such a personal connection to the process at the beginning of my Project Linus adventure. Having seen first hand the impact a quilt can make I know all my time and effort will help someone, somewhere.

27Mar2013

Wordless WIP Wednesday

Posted in Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

25Mar2013

Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday, Quilt patterns by wombatquilts

For this weeks block I present Carol Doak’s “Montana Star”, another fabulous pattern from her book “50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars“. Yes I am addicted. Yes I should move on, but when there are such great patterns to work with it is hard.

This block is a nice simple pattern with just 56 pieces that make up the eight parts to the block.

Making this block was not without its “issues”, though. I may have had a slip of concentration during construction – I am not sure if I can still blame jet lag. The result was this interesting block section and a lot of unpicking…

I maybe onto something with this mistake….it could make for an interesting quilt. I will however, leave experimenting with this for another time.

22Mar2013

Loud, bright and fun… the quilt

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

.. and the nephew. When I was back in Australia I took the opportunity to photograph the quilt I made my nephew last year. I finished the quilt just before I started blogging and forgot to photograph it before I sent it on its way. Better late than never right….

This pattern was an out-and-out steal/borrow from a “do good stitches” quilt posted on Blue Elephant’s site. I fell in love with the pattern immediately and thought it would be great for my nephew. The block is simple and the directions are easy and clear – its foundation is a 16 piece block of rainbow colours. If you are interested in the pattern check out the above link for all the great instruction straight from the source.

For the back of the quilt I used some of the extra blocks I had. I usually have blocks left over because I make more than I need so that I have choices when I am putting the finished quilt together.

This quilt replaced a baby quilt I made for my sister about 12 years ago. I actually made the quilt without knowing that my sister was pregnant or what sex the baby would be. All I knew was I was heading out on an adventure and I did not know when I would be able to quilt again. This is the much-loved, much washed old quilt.

Photographing these quilts involved more time and effort than usual as there was much misbehaving, silliness and photo-bombing going on.

In amongst the crazy I did manage to get a photo of Miss Banana and her new quilt.

What I did not manage to photograph was the hilarious sight of my 6ft tall husband walking around Portland Airport with a pink and yellow quilt sticking out of his backpack. It is a sight I will not forget in a hurry.

20Mar2013

Sun and Sea Quilt – WIP Wednesday

Posted in Quilt patterns, Scrap quilts, WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

We have returned from Australia to a wet and cold Portland. Last week we were on the beach enjoying the weather and now we have freezing rain. It is meant to be spring but definitely feels like winter. To get myself out of my weather rut I decided to make a sunshine and beach inspired quilt this week.

Too start I raided my stash and pulled all the golden yellow/orange and sea blue fabric I could find.

This bright a cheery collection was then cut to make block pieces for a simplified Iowa star block (Block Central has an Iowa star paper piecing pattern that can be used) . I am not sure what the official term for this block is, so if you know please enlighten me.

In my jet lagged haze this block was about all I could handle. It is made up of four 5 inch blocks and all I had to do was sew down the two sides of the central triangle. Easy peasy. I managed to make quite a few block pieces before the sleepy haze took over. Going back to Oz is fun but the time difference is a killer.

There was, however, one advantage to the 14 hour flight back to the USA – I had some time to do some hexies. I had never done English paper piecing before but I had been drooling over other people’s hexies for months. Then, just before I flew out the Portland Modern Quilt Guild did a tutorial and I was hooked. To prepare for the flight I:

1. printed a pile of 1 inch hexagon blocks (I used the Hexagon creator at http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/) ,

2. cut a stack of fabric squares – lots of fussy cut bits a pieces; and

3. found a pair of small travel scissors that would not freak out the airline security guys.

So in between sleeping I managed to make this wonderful collection of hexies…. 51 down, 549 too go.

I am not sure what I am going to do with them. My husband is encouraging me to work out what I want to achieve before I get to far into making hexies (he is concerned by my lack of a plan!). I have been toying with the idea of doing the classic hexie flower and I may try to a couple to see how they look.

Now it is back to sunshine and the beach…..