Koala Sunrise

I thought today I would show a photo of another koala quilt, even though it hangs in the loft over the TV it had "slipped my mind" when I was talking about the one I am giving away next week- end[see two posts back for info]

This quilt was a rescue of a failed experiment several years ago in the Ricky Timms Convergence method. I say "failed" because the hand dyed fabric I chose had too little contrast & being very discouraged by the result I was tempted to throw it in the "rag bag", literally!
The colors look washed out from the flash, they are more vibrant in reality. I really need to learn more about this camera that I have had for a year because I know it has ways to reproduce color more authentically.
Back to the quilt- my frugal side forced me to search for ways to use it & I decided that it would make a good background for applique, but what? I began to search through my stash & came across this koala fabric that I had bought way back at Joann's on sale with the intention of making a blouse. That was long ago because that particular Joann has long since closed down, & it has also been many years that I no longer sew clothing, I can buy it cheaper & faster than a pattern, fabric & notions etc. & I'd rather be quilting! The design & colors of the koala fabric appeared to be a perfect foil for the muddy looking convergence, so I cut out a koala & then used the same fabric for the borders.

I had some hand dyed Aussie fabric in the salmon tone with Aus. animals on it-I purchased it in Brisbane from Oz Dye-Art before they closed their business some years ago. Incidentally I was very sad when they did close, I had often ordered their unique patterns & fabrics & I hope some day when their families are grown those two talented women will be back in business.
The gum leaf pin is brass & too heavy for clothing but it has found a home on this quilt.
I quilted the whole thing with gum leaves.

In case I have piqued your curiosity about these items I took a few pics of just a small selection of their fabrics & very cute patterns, none of which said patterns have I made yet though I have used the fabrics in several quilts. The icons on the yellow fabric are too monotone to be seen in the photo, sorry about that!

There is an enormous amount of applique in this "Land DownUnder" pattern that was as you can see a "row of the month" originally. I don't do very much applique any more all those little bitty pieces are so fussy but it would be fun to get these made up.
The patterns above are titled with a couple of iconic Aus. sayings; Santa doesn't use reindeer in Australia[maybe it's just too darned hot at Christmas time for such cold weather animals, summer after all] Santa employs the services of white kangaroos, called "boomers".There's a Christmas song by Rolf Harris about the "Six White Boomers", go ahead & listen it's fun!
"Kangaroos loose in the top paddock" refers to the popular saying denoting lack of either intellectual ability or sanity!
That covers today's Australian cultural lesson!