Farewell from Down Under

Our neighbours of three years, a lovely young couple called Karen & Eric, are relocating back to San Diego, USA. We are very sad to see them go. As a goodbye present and reminder of their time in Oz, I wanted to make them a wall hanging featuring stunning fabrics designed by Australian Aboriginal artists.



I think most fabrics I chose, if not all, are produced by M&S Textiles. I bought them as fat quarters from several different shops at the Craft and Quilt Fair. I've been wanting to make a project featuring these special fabrics since seeing M&S' ads in Down Under Quilts magazine, and also seeing their vivid, gorgeous designs in person recently in the patchwork shop Quiltsmith in Sydney. M&S' Australian Aboriginal fabrics feature evocative names - some of those I used included Bush Sultana, Dreamtime Flowers, Spirit Circles and Women Searching. You can see the whole collection here.

As I have mentioned, I normally favour making projects based on others' designs, so creating this was a bit of a stretch and lots of fun! Luckily M&S' website also features several free quilt/wall hanging designs which I found really inspiring.





I paired the Aboriginal designs with Kona solids and incorporated a panel featuring Australian animals called "Awesome Australia" by Nutex.



Karen and my girls - we'll miss you!