Last week I woke to the news that Wombat Quilts had made it onto the “100 Best Quilting Blogs on the Planet”.  Feedspot, a blog reader, had put together this list by looking at site traffic, followers etc.  I came in at number 39.  To say I was pleasantly shocked is an understatement.

While I was looking through the list I noticed they had marked my blog as posting about once a month…. had I really slipped off schedule that much!  The answer is yes, kind of.  So in the spirit of sharing more I thought I would show you what I am working on this week…

A couple of months ago I borrowed a friends Baby Go cutter and went to work cutting some of my scraps into small circles (check out this quilt wip….) and small half square triangles (HST).

Last week while I was attempting to clear some space in my spare bedroom I stumbled across the shoe box with my Lizzy House HST in it.  Inspired by a block I saw on Instagram I started making these crazy but fun 10 1/2 inch blocks.

Now I was working with 3 inch unfinished squares but if you wanted to do a bigger block you could use 3 1/2 inch squares for a 12 inch finished block…

Last night I finished making the last of the blocks (20 in total).  Today I just have to put the top together.

This will be my first quilt for 100 Quilts for Kids 2016, a drive that is held annual to encourage quilters to make and give quilts to children in need.  This is my 4th year of playing along and I love the emphasis on giving leading up the holiday season.  Between now and December 1st you can make and donate a quilt to a children’s charity in your local area to play along… and maybe win a prize.

For the last couple of months the Portland Modern Quilt Guild has been donating quilts to a local Children’s hospital for use in the Intensive Care unit.  Just before I went on holiday I dropped off another 20+ quilts to one of the nurses at the PICU that had been made by Guild members and at Guild Charity sew days.

Most of the time when we make quilts for charity we send them off into the world not knowing who gets them.  We take a leap of faith that our hand made treasures will bring comfort.   I must admit that I have loved dropping the blankets off to the nursing staff at the hospital the last couple of months…this simple exercise in driving across town with a trunk full of quilts reminds me why I make charity quilts.  The nurses are so excited and grateful for the donations… they know first hand how much comfort will come from the quilts.

The latest collection of quilts dropped off included these lovelies…

This quilt was made at the April Charity Sew Day by a wonderful bunch of quilters.  It was a fun, easy block to make and was came together really quickly.

Also included in the September quilt delivery was this orphan block beauty…

This quilt started as a lovely pile of orphan blocks from one of our members, Elsa… she really does give me the best stuff.  I found some wonderful stripped fabric in my stash that worked wonderfully with the blocks and voila I had a quilt top…

Add some wonderful quilting by one of our talented long armers, some scrappy black binding and you have a wonderful quilt.

I was originally given 11 blocks and used the last two blocks on the back of the quilt, along with the last of the stripped fabric…

By now these quilts are somewhere in world giving comfort and warmth.  Thank you so much to all the PMQG members who have helped make these quilts, and the others that were donated.   Your hard work and talent really does make such a difference….

So September has come and gone way to quickly…and with almost no posts from me.  I did intend to share some more of my finished quilts but instead I took a holiday and went gallivanting in Europe.

I instead of posting I unplugged and enjoyed London, Lyon and Reykjavik.   I have returned with new energy and with a new commitment to get back on track with posting on the blog.  I have been struggling with getting back into regular posting this year and I am not sure why.

If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen a smattering of butterflies pop up in my feed while I was away and I must admit I have been slightly obsessed with Liberty fabric and making the butterflies….I have 42 finished so far…

Two of my butterflies are currently on holiday in Australia, with Ava & Neve at the Brisbane Quilt and Craft Fair.  The rest are up on my design wall, while I select the colours and fabric for the last 20 or  so.

I managed to bring back from London a decent stash of Liberty fabric and I am giving away a “Butterfly making Kit” on Instagram at the moment – 60 different 5 inch charm squares of Liberty fabric so you can make your own butterflies.  Pop on over and leave a comment on my photo for a chance to win.

So October is for new beginnings, new habits and new fabric.  See you tomorrow for a finished quilt reveal.

..and when I say funny, I am being very sarcastic…  yesterday I discovered that a Instagram account had used one of my photos from this site on their page without crediting me.

Now I am sure this happens a bit but what made me really miffed is the fact that they watermarked the image with their name… and I found out about it from copy of the image that had been shared by someone (again with no credit back to the original image source).

So after seeking advice from my Instagram family I have reached out to the party involved  to get them to either credit me or remove the photo.

You will now find a copyright banner on my sidebar…and I recommend if you have not already done it, you should add one.   After some research I found that the copyright notice will help if you have to pursue an issue through the Courts…also it is easy to do, costs nothing and can be a deterrent to plagiarism or image theft.

I usually also watermark my photos but have not been watermarking the PMQG Charity quilts because they are not all my work and it felt wrong.  The photo however is all mine… that is my back fence for sure…so in future I will watermark the photo to protect them but will credit the amazing people involved in making these wonderful quilts.

Please learn from this lesson and (1) watermark you work; (2) put up a copyright notice and (3) be diligent – if you see work being claimed by someone who you know did not make it say something.

This is the end of the community service announcement.  Regular programming will return next week with a showcase of some of the PMQG Charity quilts from the last couple of months.