I love a sunburnt country…

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I have finally finished my “Sunburnt Country” baby quilt… it definitely took me longer than I had planned but I think it was worth the wait.

This quilt was a collaboration with a family friend, who commissioned me to make a modern bright baby quilt that had a hint of Australia in it. You can find my original post about this project here.

The graduated colours are inspired by the Aussie sun (bright, hot, & at times unforgiving) and because it is a baby quilt there are lots of little novelty bits and pieces to explore.

And…

My original quilting plan was to do a circles radiating from the yellow center of the quilt. Unfortunately my left thumb has not been co-operating, so I had to resort to drastic measures, which included getting my darling husband to baste this quilt.

The quilt is backed with a fabulous Australian print I picked up when I was home in March.

Snuggle Pot and Cuddle Pie on gum leaves, perfectly Australian.

To finish the whole thing off I bound the quilt with a navy sketch fabric and a Wombat Quilts tag.

This little piece of Australia is headed to the Mid-West to keep a Aussie/American baby warm and hopefully remind her that her Grandmother in Australia loves her.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

18Sep2013

Zakka Flowers wip

Posted in WIP Wednesday by wombatquilts

Last week, while I was cleaning up our very messy office/quilt fabric storage room I came across my large stash of Denyse Schmidt fabric. I have been hording Denyse’s fabric for a while, including the DS Quilts lines. I have not really used the fabric other than in bits and pieces in scrap quilts, but this week all that has changed.

All this week I have been making Denyse Schmidt Zakka flowers. I found this fabulous pattern in the book “Patchwork Please” and it just screamed to be made in my DS stash. So I have been making flowers all week… lots and lots of flowers.

During this process I have discovered:

1. I did not buy enough Flea Market Fancy – it is such a great line.

2. I did not start building my stash soon enough because some of the earlier lines are FABULOUS and missing from my collection – early Flea Market, Katie Jump Rope and Hope Valley in particular.

3. You must concentrate when paper piecing and not be distracted by your husband or you end up doing this…

So here is what a weeks worth of of Zakka flowers looks like…

And there are more to do. I have become a little obsessed with these beauties and have at least 5 more cut and ready to go. This pattern is proving to be the perfect showcase for my DS fabric stash.

So is there a line of fabric you have been stashing/hoarding and not using?

16Sep2013

Paper Piecing Monday Pastel style…

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I have another pastel pretty for paper piecing Monday…

I am only three blocks into the sampler, but they have all been pinwheelesque so far and I think I am going to continue that trend for the whole quilt. The red/aqua paper piecing blocks were all mainly compass star blocks, so this quilt will be pinwheels. The hunt is now on for appropriate patterns.

I know that the Lucky Star BOM, where this pattern came from, has a couple more great pinwheels. They do tend to be fun and simple patterns to make, and I think I can take some liberties as to what I include as a pinwheel. What do you think of when you think of a pinwheel pattern?

13Sep2013

Quilts for kids

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

I can not believe that we are already 13 days into September… this month is going way to fast for me. I have Bee blocks to do and quilts to finish and not a sewing elf in sight. Augh!

As September is slipping away I bustled this week to get a couple more quilts finished for the 100 Quilts for Kids project. I raided my pile of unfinished/nearly finished quilts and found two that I could easily complete without too much sweat, and that would be kid suitable.

The first quilt is my scrappy spiderweb quilt, which has been sitting waiting to be completed for over a year.

I really put a dent in my scrap pile with this little beauty. Lots and lots of different fabrics which means lots of “I spy” potential. It is a really fun quilt.

The other quilt I finished this week is a quick and easy wonky star quilt. I must admit wonky stars are my all time favorite “go to” quilt if I have to get something done in a hurry.

For this quilt I used a darling fussy cut novelty fabric for the center piece and then bright scraps for the star points. Most of these scrap triangles were left over from my “sparkle punch” wonky star quilt.

To back the quilt I used some bigger pieces from the same fabric range by Jone Hallmark.

Both these quilts side by side you can see which one I spent days and days making and which one was done in a few hours. In the end both will be loved and treasured in equal measure, I hope.

11Sep2013

Words that keep you going…

Posted in Other fun stuff by wombatquilts

Today the member of the Portland/Vancouver Project Linus group were sent a thank you email and I thought I would share a part of it…

You know sometimes I think all your precious ladies might get tired of making quilts day after day. After a while you think why do I keep doing this?

I want you to know that the little boy and the little girl that are going to get one of your quilts today don’t know that you have already make 100’s and 100’s of quilts each. They don’t know how tired of fabric and sewing you are. What they do know is that someone or ones who are very special made something just for them! Someone loved them enough to make these special and beautiful quilts and knitted blankets.

Their eyes dance and their pain subsides for awhile as they relish the treasure they were just given!

Notes like this remind me of why I quilt and why I give most of my creations away. I am now heading back to the sewing machine, with a renewed sense of purpose.