This is one of my earliest quilts, made about a quarter-century ago. The SAE MIT graduate was headed from the United States for a 1 year master's program at the University of New South Wales in Australia. He liked Sydney so much that he is still there!
So in 1995, I was at the fantastic New England Book Fair with my mother. I had made 1 quilt at that point and swore never again as I found it dull to make the same block multiple times especially when the popular colors at the time were wedgwood blue and dusty mauve. I was looking at needlepoint books in the remainder section and saw this book by Margaret Rolfe. I suggested as a joke to my mother (who did not sew at all) that I get the book and we make the quilt to commemorate the recipient's year in Australia. We headed to the original Fabric Place Basement where I actually bought fabrics in fraction increments. That was the last time I would buy less than a yard of a fabric even if a patten called for a small amount. She agreed that she would learn to piece but somehow the project became all mine.
I added 3 images to balance out the 20 creatures Rolfe had designed. My parents had visited Sydney during that year as they thought they would never have a reason to go again being that the recipient was only there for the UNSW program. They picked up a university patch from the college bookstore which I then appliqued on an oblong 8-pointed star. I added a miniature Australian flag and an appliqued outline of AU and Tasmania in a batik fabric. The aboriginal dot fabrics weren't sold in the US during this era.
This isn't the greatest picture but it does show that the quilt has held up well. The quilt was entirely hand-pieced and hand-quilted. I thank Margaret Rolfe for opening my eyes to non-traditional quilt blocks and to her use of bright colors.
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