My story here about novelty fabrics is in some ways bittersweet, and in other ways, it’s full of hope. Novelty fabrics, to me, are all about people: our interests; our hobbies; the things we like; our stage in life; our hopes and dreams. They can be very personal, and often we collect novelty fabrics because they say something about us, about who we are.

OK, I love novelty fabrics and when something new comes out, I just want to buy some. But here in Australia, fabric isn’t cheap and I do purchase carefully. That said: check out the gumboots… who can resist these (I’m a kiwi) and these are so much fun. I just went to look for the gumboots in my kiwi stash…… I found kiwis, tuis in the kowhai, sheep, (starting to panic), Paua shells, fernfronds, flax, ….. finally! Gumboots….

Back to my story: why should novelty fabrics be sad? They are often quirky, humorous, cheerful and fun. Well, some years ago, my daughter’s best friend’s father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was a lovely man. I wanted to make something that would be comforting for the family and significantly about him. I didn’t know him terribly well: in some ways I knew him through the family’s comments. For example, his favourite aisle in the supermarket was the condiments, as his family all well knew.

While I felt very much for the family, I wan’t a close friend, but I did want to express my sympathy and support. So I came up with an idea about a quilt. I decided to make him a quilt, but one that had many functions. Firstly, I wanted it to be a talking point. People can find it hard to work out what to say when visiting a friend who is sick and I wanted him to have something that he could use to break the ice. By making the quilt out of novelty fabrics, I made it so everyone who visited him could have something to talk about. It was a bit like an “I spy”. There’s food, music, turtles, Australian flowers and wildlife, cattle, Aboriginal designs, thistles, gum blossoms, manta rays.

Secondly, I made it like the world’s biggest greetings card. It was made with plain coloured stars so everyone could sign the quilt and write a message. My hope was that over time, the quilt would become a very comforting way of collecting all the love and prayers and good wishes of family and friends and medical staff in one spot, and the quilt could accompany him in all his journeys to medical treatment and back home, and just be a constant gift of the love of his family and all his friends.

Autograph quilt using novelty fabrics - gum blossoms, thistles, aboriginal art, manta rays, fish, turtles.

Thirdly, for me, it was a way of expressing my sympathy, but also a way of stepping back and letting the important people in his life be the ones who were with him through their signatures and good wishes. I thought it could be a comforting thing to reread and to just have.

At the time when this happened, we were living in a completely different city, half the country away. I posted off the quilt with all our hopes and prayers for his safe recovery accompanying it. My daughter later told me that her friend had commented that the quilt had become a sort of talisman for them, and was being used constantly.

Autograph quilt using novelty fabrics - music, waratahs, capsicum, cranes, books

This was a few years ago now (over 10), but I wanted to share the story with you, because this small gift of a quilt, became much more than that for family and friends, and is still treasured. It contains signatures of other relatives who have since also passed away and has become much more than the fabric and thread it started as.

When a work colleague’s wife was diagnosed with cancer and given no hope of recovery, I decided to make a personalised autograph quilt for her too. Once again this was not someone I knew well.

This time, I used very bright prints of flowers and birds in really pretty colours and appliquéd some funny birds and a few tulips in the centre to give it a bit more pizzazz. The birds are like the ones in one of the novelty prints I used on the back of the quilt. This is the quilt after I finished it but before it was signed.

I asked work colleagues to sign the back of the quilt, keeping the front for family and friends. My colleague was quite overwhelmed and told me his wife had always wanted a patchwork quilt and was absolutely delighted.

quilting detail - my first attempt at rulers (not great, but I tried)

While making a quilt, even a lap quilt, is not a small thing, it was small compared to the tragedy facing these families, and I felt good about the fact that even though I wasn’t a close friend, I could help these families in some small way.

I like to think of this as a story of hope and friendship: one that shows that a small act of friendship can be something that can accompany people through life’s difficult journeys, and somehow, through the contributions of family and friends, be a comfort in times of trouble. I would love to her your thoughts on this, and any other ways we, as quilters, can support our friends and community.

Here is the schedule for the other blogs for this bloghop. I’m so looking forward to reading the ideas and enjoying the eye candy. I can’t wait to check them out.

Thursday, October 24

Quilting and Learning - What a Combo
Days Filled With Joy
Life in the Scrapatch
Bumbleberry Stitches

Friday, October 24

MooseStashQuilting
Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Seams To Be Sew

Monday, October 28

Quilted Delights
Melva Loves Scraps
Scrapdash

We are lucky enough to have a lovely giveaway of a pack of fabric worth $30 from Timeless Treasures which will run until Friday November 1, 2019. The shipping cost will be pad by the winner, but they will ship internationally, which is awesome.

Please leave a comment to enter, and check back for other blogs written this week as it will be there as well.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nifty Novelties Bloghop - Novelty fabric prints