Some of you may have noticed these brown packets of fabrics floating around blogland, but for those who haven't seen them before Umbrella Prints is an Australian company that produces organic printed fabrics for home decor, clothing and quilting. Amy and Carly do a wonderful job of designing contemporary yet timeless fabrics. 

Each year, well, for the last 4 years, they run a competition to create something from a packet of their fabric trimmings. Somehow I always seem to find out after the competition has finished but this time I bought my Trimmings in time to join the fun. 

 One of the conditions of the competition is to take a photo of the fabrics with the signature packaging, the brown paper with it's round window. Easy - I just took a photo when the postie ducks delivered the fabrics.

I let ideas brew for a while before coming up with The Big Idea. 
It came to me when I noticed the fabrics matched the autumn colours of the garden.

I laid my pieces out in 3 designs and sewed them into patchy rectangles.

I then quilted the panels to add decoration and stiffen them up a bit.
I used a mixture of hand quilting.
and machine quilting.

I added a panel of linen to the back and then lined them in white cotton. 
Soon I had three bags.

But ... 
I didn't design them to be bags.
With the simple addition of some glass jars  (plastic bottles would work wonderfully too)

They became Fabric Wall Vases!!!

The colours are a perfect match for the foliage and flowers from the garden . 






What can I say? 
These Fabric Wall Vases just make me happy!!

If the  Wild Autumn Garden look isn't your thing.
The Knotted Column of Tropical Birds style looks quite good too. 



I'm looking forward to seeing what other flowery configurations these vases will inspire. I might just have to have Fabric Wall Vase updates every now and then. 

Here's the links so you can find out more about Umbrella Prints and their Trimmings Competition: 
Umbrella Prints website
Trimmings Competition Details