Challenging

Sisters can be challenging, as well as lovely.  When Heather and I visited the V & A Quilt Exhibition in 2010, we bought 3 fabrics, the same, and set to finish a challenge quilt to be finished/revealed for Heather's 60th birthday.  In the intervening years, we have done these on our own, with the results being a complete surprise to the other.

So here they are!

There were some rules.  We had to use the 3 fabric in "recognisable quantities", add any fabrics we liked, be within a size limit, and have a demonstrable link to the exhibition.  I will leave it to Heather to explain the design of hers, but with Cynthia's encouragement, here is the inspiration for mine (on the left).  The pattern follows the likeness of a quilt in the exhibition called the Rajah Quilt.  Or should I say, just a section of it.  In the days of transportation, a Quaker led society, led by Elizabeth Fry, was promoting the improvement of the females being transported to Australia.  Leaving Woolwich in the UK, they were provided with fabric, and thread, and on the long journey to Van Diemens' Land, the women made a (very) large quilt top. 

My small token follows the pattern as the quilt grew from the centre to the outside border.  I interpreted the birds as being "Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover".  As the journey progressed down, I have South African fabric purchased some years ago in Cape Town, and I understand the women were able to sell some of their handiwork in Cape Town.  The journey continues, and I have some waves flowing across the quilt.  The final designs at the bottom are worked in aboriginal print fabric, symbolising their arrival in the new land.

All good quilts have to have a mistake in them and this particular mistake (although there are probably others) was on the back:

 

I had the convict women sailing into Sydney, but they actually sailed to Tasmania. 

 

And this blog has been sitting in my drafts for over a year.  Time to get this blog moving!  And challenge others to start one.

 

Maz