All week I have been trying to find some time to place images of the “Safe as Houses” quilt online. I have finally managed to do so this morning.
This is the small wall quilt I finished off last week in order to take to the retreat. I made it in response to the Canberra Fires in January 2003. I named it “Safe as Houses” because they are not. I completed most of the stitching on it within months of the fires but did not really have the heart to put a border and bind it until now. So it’s been sitting on my design wall without those finishing touches, and in need of assembly. The retreat pushed me to finally get it done. For those who are unaware of the fires here is the Wikipedia page about it.
On the day we stayed to protect out home so the first area of the quilt represents the day itself and ember attack. The next is the rubble that was left our neighbours homes. Afterwards we had a false autumn as everything was either black, grey, and trees that had not burnt dropped their leaves and bark in stress. For weeks afterwards all you could hear was chainsaws taking down the burnt forest and chipping it so the final panel is of the mounds of wood chip that were at the end of our street.
More images and details of the quilt are found here .
