Rainbow I Spy Quilt done and dusted

Week two of October and I have another quilt finished despite some walking foot hiccups and a Briar Rose obsession. This week’s Project Linus finish is a little bit of a cheat – I pulled an old unfinished top out of the cupboard and quilted it up. But it is still a finish and still counts… right?

I made the top for this quilt about 3 years ago and finishing it up was an interesting exercise which showed me how much my piecing has improved. All over this quilt there are seams that just do not align…

A simple square quilt and my edges are squiffy. I am a little embarrassed but pleased to say that I have got better over the years. Plus the small mistakes here and there do not detract from the fun of this quilt.

The colours are bright and the fabric is varied. There is so much to see in this quilt, it is going to make for a wicked game or two of “I Spy”. And it is was so easy to put together, lots of 4 1/2 inch blocks in a graduating colour scale.

The quilting is simple… more straight lines. The backing is also simple, another IKEA fabric (part of a 100% cotton duvet cover).

All finished off with some purple binding.

I know this binding is a little crazy but I was out of solid navy fabric, which is my usual go to binding for a rainbow quilt. But now I have excuse to go shopping. YIPPEE!

4Oct2013

A solid finish

Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilts, Scrap quilts by wombatquilts

I committed this week to try to finish a quilt a week for October… and I mean baste, quilt and bind. I want to try to get as many quilts finished and delivered to Project Linus before the holidays. A crazy goal I know, but I have to give it a go.

To start this slightly mad schedule I decided to make another trip around quilt. I love these quilts, they are so easy and fun to make. This one is a little different for me can you tell how?

Those of you who know my work will note a distinct lack of pattern on the fabric. Yep I made a completely solid quilt. I have only made one of these before and it was a disaster, luckily this one came out much much better.

My Trip Along started life as a jelly roll, that has been sitting in my stash for quite a while….

I love the colours of the roll, but did not know what to do with it until I had to make some Bee trip around blocks recently. Those blocks inspired me to make another Trip Around quilt and so the fun started. I managed to get 16 x 12 inch blocks out the one jelly roll (with a little finagling to get the last block complete).

With the first Trip Around quilt I did I went scrappy, bright and used the traditional block layout but with this quilt I went with a wave layout.

My hand is still not allowing me to do any quilting other than straight lines, but luckily I think it works perfectly with this quilt top. I quilted diagonally across the top using a nice Sulky thread to add some shine to the stitches, my way of compensating for the lack of print on the fabric.

To finish it all off I had to find a piece of backing fabric that would compliment and offset the solid fabric front. I was thrilled to find in my stash this AMAZING Alexander Henry print.

Here is a close up detail on the fabulous jungle print. It really is the most perfect fabric for this quilt.

All that was left was to label and machine bind the quilt. Staying true to the front of the quilt I went with a Kona solid binding in dusty purple.

So one quilt down for this month a few more to go…

Fine print: I do reserve the right to subtly or not so subtly pull out of my “one quilt a week” schedule. I also reserve the right to call myself crazy for setting such a schedule.

20Sep2013

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!

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.

6Sep2013

Yummy Quilt finished

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

The weather in Portland has finally turned, and the rain and cold of the last two days has spurred me onto finish my Yummy Charity Quilt. I do struggle in summer to finish quilts, partly because the sun beckons me out to play and partly because it is too hot to be working under/over/on a quilt. Here is what my rain inspired burst of activity produced…

This quilt started life as 20 packets of 2 1/2 inch squares of “Happy Mochi YumYum” and some Kona “Snow”. You can read/see more about its humble beginnings in my original post.

I had fun randomly placing the squares and messing up the one white one print pattern. I like how the finished quilt feels a little off kilter.

To back the quilt I used the few remaining blocks and spare squares of fabric. The back is random but kind of fun.

I kept the quilting simple – I am still only able to manage straight lines at the moment, and bound the quilt in a fun green leaf print I had in my stash. A dislocated thumb makes basting, quilting and binding in particular hard work.

quilt binding

The finished quilt is part of the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS, which the Portland Modern Quilt Guild is supporting. If you are interested you can find out more about the Challenge here.

Now it is back to enjoying the rain…