Australia on fire and the Oz Comfort Quilts group

It's been a scary, frightening, huge few days in Australia with bushfires all over the country, and one with 1,000km front burning the size of Belgium.

Totally uncontrollable, and mostly fought with volunteers, and volunteer funding.

It has brought out the best and the worst in people.

 These days with so much online and social media, messages and information are sent much faster. Most people have access to the internet in one way or another. In 1997 I joined an online quilting group called SCQuilters (Southern Cross Quilters). They were on yahoo groups, and you had to read all your emails to see what people had written.

I met some of those dear friends at SCQuilters retreats. I think the first one I went to was in Melbourne in about 2001. I didn't even know anyone, I just went!  Then I went to another one in Bendigo in approximately 2003, and there I first saw Jan Mac and her charity quilts.

She gave a talk and showed us what she made, and what we could donate. She accepted even the tiniest of scraps and showed us her crumb quilts. What we had kept and had left in scrap bags or what we were throwing away, she was turning into hundreds of comfort quilts.

Well. That made a huge impact on me. And when I decluttered my house for sale on 2011-2012 I gave away a LOT of fabric and scraps and bits and pieces for charity quilting.

Which brings me to my current post.

With the internet, and the fast transferrence of news (fake, construed, real and monitored news) we saw heartbreaking images and videos of trapped animals that died, red and yellow glowing landscapes, people trapped on a boat in the water, on the beach as they could not escape fires.... our hearts broke all over, and I personally felt horror, fear, indignant (that we had been left without a leader and without support or overseas aid)... this turned into sorrow, heartbreak, and then collaboration in worldwide prayer groups, and mass timed reiki sends. Then for me there was acceptance, submission, and I sent healing and loving thoughts to our animals that had passed away to raise the mass vibration of humanity, for the suffering of people and trauma young people would always remember.

Then Jan Mac posted this wonderful message, that she was coming out of "retirement". In 2009 she has organised quilts for bushfire affected people in Victoria and nearly 3,000 quilts were distributed.

This year we are going to need more than that.

Jan's blog is https://sewmanyquiltstoolittletime.blogspot.com/

You can find details of how to make QAYG blocks and turn them into a quilt here: https://sewmanyquiltstoolittletime.blogspot.com/2020/01/quilt-as-you-go-block-tutorial-for-oz.html

This was just what I needed, and I immediately sorted through fabrics to find some pieces, enough to make at least 3 quilts. On average the quilts end up 50in x 70in so they are a very useful size.

I am using this yoga frog fabric, because I wanted the quilt to be uplifting. The right person will receive this quilt and they will hardly believe how much it suits them.

These fabrics will really resonate with someone, and I wanted to give someone the best, not the leftovers.

I need to make a total of 35 blocks for this quilt.

It feels great to be actually doing something.

I am very grateful that I can make these.

I had a bit of a blub as I listened to Cathy Miller's song "A Quilter's Embrace" and I imagine this quilt hugging someone whenever they think back to memories that will never really leave their mind.

https://youtu.be/gddjG_obHto

Here is a link to the song for you x