Hubblebird's Quilt Blog

We’re not in complete lockdown here in our part of Australia, but we are getting closer every day.  As of midnight 30 March we can no longer congregate in groups of more than two.  Living as we do on a large property, and leaving now only to get some groceries or to walk the dogs on our almost deserted beaches, life has not changed too drastically. It’s curious, to me, that so many people find it difficult to ‘isolate’ or ‘socially distance’ themselves from other people even though we know this is the way to minimise the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. I don’t find it hard at all and I have to work at understanding those that do find it hard.  As a child, my favourite punishment was to be sent to my room! This is me to a 'T' My husband is a good example of someone that finds it hard to go into seclusion. We are retired and spend a lot of time together.   That’s not difficult because he’s also my best friend. But I am someone that craves solitude at

I finally got the sewing room set to rights, post bushfires, and released my sewing machine from hibernation.  It’s my best friend’s birthday next week and I wanted to make present for her.   I originally intended to make her a tote but ran out of time. Instead, I found a free pattern by Diana Harris aka Stashbandit for a small wall hanging and I set to work sorting through scraps.   I’ve been collecting white-on-white’s and neutrals to make one of Lynne Tyler's (Patchery Menagerie) bird quilts one of these days.   I picked one of the neutrals out for the sashing for the heart blocks.   As it turns out the neutral fat quarter is just the right amount of fabric. I put the blocks together fairly quickly and by the end of an afternoon I was able to play around with them for placement.   I used all sorts of scraps, predominantly flowers, because Belinda loves gardening. I also had a few brights from quilts I made many years ago. Then I added the sashing.

Little did I know that within days of writing my last post, and describing the bush fire burning near Braidwood, I would be in the midst of my own bush fire crisis here at home.* The 31 st of December 2019 will forever be a nightmare for me.  And so will the following days.  We got the bush fire alert to evacuate at 6.30am.  I had family from Canberra staying and they immediately hit the road and left for home.  The Kings Highway was closed so they had to get home via the Princes Highway.  This closed from Batemans Bay northward shortly after they left.  They were lucky to get through to Kangaroo Valley just ahead of the bush fires. If not for my husband, and a few local men in our area, we would have lost our house.  They stayed and put out spot fires all over our area.  One escape route (of three) closed completely, and the other two were barely passable.  My husband says that after this experience he will never again stay to fight a fire.  North Rosedale on fire