A special little quilt

Posted in Finished Quilts by wombatquilts

Last night I managed to finish one of two little quilts I have been wanting to make for a while now. These quilts are special not just because of their lack of colour, but because of the thinking behind them.

This simple little quilt is made up of a variety of 3 inch squares of white and cream tone on tone fabrics. I was inspired to make this quilt after seeing the fabulous Molli Sparkle’s “No Value quilt“. It was a challenge to work with just white but it was great fun. I ended up using off white and cream to get some variation in the quilt, so the eye had something to follow.

So why tiny little white quilts… Christmas last year some friends of our suffered the heartache of having their son be still born. It is a heart ache I can not imagine, but one that a few people I know have suffered. There was nothing I could do at the time but cry, support and pray. Recently I was talking to some members in our Project Linus group who told me about the little white blankets that a group had been knitting and crocheting for some local hospitals. These tiny blankets are used to wrap a child in when it is presented to its parents to say goodbye. The parents can then take the blanket home as a remembrance of their child.

I do not knit but I thought that a tiny quilt would be just as useful. So I set about making two little quilts in remembrance of my friends and their son. As with all my quilts there is a splash of Mirror Ball and a splash of Pearl Bracelet fabric… and a huge dash of love.

I backed this quilt with a scrap of white fabric I had and a splash Mirror Ball and bound the quilt with Michael Miller’s Couture Cotton in Cream.

I have one more of these quilts to bind and then they are off to do their job of bringing comfort and support. There are a number of wonderful charities that delivery blankets/quilts to hospitals for this need, including Forever Warm in the USA, Sands in Australia, Sands in the UK and of course your local Project Linus chapter or Neonatal hospital.

On a much happier note, our friends who suffered such heartbreak last year have just had a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Life really is a wonderful roller coaster of a ride.

25Nov2013

Starry Nights grow – Paper Piecing Monday

Posted in Paper Piecing Monday by wombatquilts

This week I decided to play a little with my Starry Night blocks, that is put them up on the design wall and see how it was all coming together. But before I started “playing” I made this block….

Yes, another pattern from Quilting on the Square’s free Bonus Compass blocks… this time I went with their twinkle pattern. A lovely little pattern taking just 32 pieces.

As I started pinning the blocks up on my design wall I quickly realised I needed some more variety in sizes for my stars… so just for fun I made this “little” variation on my twinkle block.

This mini twinkle star uses Quilters Cache’s free eight pointed star pattern. I printed this pattern out at a smaller size than the pattern dictates and as I am not worried about being too accurate with the star sizes I let my printer do the re-sizing calculations.

When I was finished with both these blocks, I tacked them up on my wall…. now this is really just a very very rough work in progress, just so I could see how the blocks looked together and so I could work out what I needed to be doing with my patterns going forward.

I have a way to go… but I think it is coming together nicely. I have worked out that I want more variety in my stars and more variety in my sizes.

25Oct2013

Appleville Quilt finished

Posted in Finished Quilts, Project Linus by wombatquilts

I managed to finish my Appleville quilt this week… another Project Linus finish for October. I started this quilt a week or so ago and it was a real challenge for me.

I was using a “cheater” panel for the first time and really wanted to highlight each of the individual illustrations somehow. Once I had worked out my colour scheme and pulled some appropriate supporting fabric from my stash, the individual blocks came together easily. My original post on the quilt was full of optimism. Then the struggle began for me with how to lay them out.

I had never worked with this much white/negative space before. My design wall was a blessing as I moved the blocks around trying to find a flow I liked. Once I had a layout I was happy with the real hard work began. It was like doing a jigsaw puzzle piecing in the white Kona cotton. The top part of the quilt took me ages to put together but by the bottom section I was an old pro. There are even some Y seams in this sucker (another first for me). I would love to hear from anyone who has advice, tricks or tips on doing this kind of piecing. I know I have a lot to learn.

With the top all pieced I now had to fill all that negative space with quilting First off I tried some hand quilting in red thread – I liked it but my wrist is not healed enough to handle that much hand quilting at the moment…. so unpicking number one.

Then I quilted lines inside the blocks and tried a little free motion pebbles in the white space. I did not like it, and again my wrist was not up to that much pushing and pulling of fabric through the machine… unpicking number 2. In the end it was straight lines and boxes.

It does the job, but is not as beautiful as I would have liked. I am still coming to terms with my quilting shortfalls (which is my actual quilting) and my current physical limitations (my darn left wrist). I am chomping at the bit to do some proper free-motion quilting to build up my skills.

For the back of the quilt I used my favorite printed panel and made it the focal point.

I think it is one of the cutest quilt backs I have done. And it is all because of this little print.

Appleville Quilt Details:

Style: Modern free form

Fabric: Appleville by Robert Kaufman & Kona White

Finished quilt size: 47″ x 57″

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!

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…