The Uluru quilt

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.