My last blog post was about a new quilt I made for my young granddaughter. One of the quilts I also finished this year was a quilt I helped my Mom with about 9-10 years ago. This blog is similar to the previous blog about the Unicorn Quilt/Family Ties. There’s a LOT of meaning in these blocks I’m about to show you. However, there are 24 quilt pictures and a few extra, so I may break this into a few blog posts.
My mother and TJ, my younger brother, had come to Australia (her first and last visit) for my eldest daughter’s wedding. She stayed three months, and we did quite a few side trips to places like Featherdale zoo, the Blue Mountains, Kangaroo Island, several vineyards including a fascinating visit to a bio-dynamic vineyard where we bought the most delicious late harvest white wine. I don’t usually drink, but we did go through several bottles of that wine while they were visiting!
Cheese classes have been on my mom’s wish list for years. I did a quick search, just a few weeks before Christmas, to see if I could find any classes going on in the area. Amazingly, there was a place up in Hahndorf, Udder Delights, that had just had a cancellation of two students. I explained that my mom was from the US and had always wanted to take classes, and they were kind enough to offer me the two spots – normally you have to book ahead by as much as a year, we were told!
The cheeses are made below the Udder Delights cheese shop , in their cellar. To this day, my mom still has the instructions, the rennet, the forms – everything you need to make your own cheese. We took home some Feta we had made that day as well. And of course, we learned whey can be used in everything from breadmaking, soups, and as a fertiliser in the garden. I’ve done all those things since then. The hills of Hahndorf have a lot of vineyards and olive oil groves, and we showed that in the olive leaf inner green border. The cave is represented by the darker leaf border and the cheese as the innermost block. We didn’t make it cheddar coloured, as feta and ricotta are creamy white.
We also took a dolphin cruise. Now, my brother is a first responder, and it seems EVERYWHERE he goes, he meets other firemen and first responders. This cruise was no different, and he talked up a storm with the guy, and gave him one of the first responder patches he carried with him everywhere in Australia.
We FINALLY saw some dolphins cruising along the boat just before the finish, and we were thoroughly delighted. Since my mom grew up in the Great Lakes region in the midwest, she hadn’t had much chance to see dolphins prior to her trip. While paisley isn’t technically a dolphin, they do look like them from above, right?!
Being choc-o-holics, of course we went to the Haigh’s Chocolate shop in Adelaide, and bought their famous truffles. We also saw some cobbled streets and did the Adelaide tourist thing – including the farmers market. It had been a very long time since my mother had been to anything resembling a European Farmer’s Market, and this was as much fun for her as it was for myself and my brother. I adore Farmer’s Markets, the more diverse the better!
These are the Aboriginal fabrics that showcase some of the artwork and imagery of Australian Aboriginals in our travels. We were lucky to see a young man playing on a didgereedoo at an art gallery we visited. These blocks remind us of the Elders and Tribal lands that we stood on.
Mom bought small boomerangs painted with Aboriginal designs, and these reminded me of boomerangs – properly thrown – and their whirling paths back to the start.
This is the only block mom dislikes on the entire quilt. Witchity grubs! Of course, the dot painting style is familiar to many who have seen Aboriginal art. The witchity grub, is a protein rich food source for outback wanderers as well. I fully admit, it gives me a childish giggle whenever I see it and it’s one of my favourite blocks.
I’m already working on the next post for this, and at the end of all of them, will show the quilt in its entirety. With some luck, I should have the next installment up before Christmas. Hoping you’re enjoying the start of this series and that it gives you food for thought. Just not grub related food, as mom would most assuredly agree with!
