On the weekend at our local Quilt
Show in Springwood I found the woman with the long-arm quilting machine – and
to make it even better, she is just around the corner in Singles Ridge Road,
ten minutes away in the car! She is going to machine quilt the Maningrida cot
quilt using a spiral pattern, and the thought of having that little quilt
finished, ready for attaching the border has given me the impetus I needed to
get to the next UFO (yes, I have several, you might believe!). I call it the Uluru quilt because I bought a jellyroll of
commercial fabrics of various indigenous designs when Leo and I went to the Top
End maybe ten years ago now. It was a fantastic trip that began in Darwin,
included Kakadu and Nitmuluk (Katherine Gorge), and trip on the Ghan, out to
the Olgas and Uluru, and back to Alice Springs.
I loved the richness of colour and
abstract design in the jellyroll, and of course added others I had in my stash.
The blocks for the quilt were inspired by a pattern from the wonderful Michelle
Marvig. I am very glad to have found Kerren Yellend (of Tanglewood Quilting)
with the longarm. After manoeuvring my way round the very geometric, symmetrical
and dense quilting design within the 2” strips, I found it too difficult to
continue passed the first four panels on my little home Bernina – hence it too
became a UFO (dare I say, another stored in a box for Ron)! Because I do like it, it has been out of the box
for a few months, but still no action taken until I took it round to Kerren for
a bit of advice, hoping she could finish the quilting. It seems that with a
little more piecing of the finished blocks and joining of panels there is
promise it cab be finished to the stage of my putting on the binding, and hand
sewing the finished seem – a stage I love. Here is a preview of what is to
come - oh, it's actually the snake cloud that came across Uluru in the morning while we were there. I felt so privileged to be there at that time.
