In The Garden - Robyn - "When I Was A Kid"

When I was a kid I spent much of my time playing in the garden with my brothers and sister. We didn't have a TV until I was about 6 or 7 and almost all of the shows that were on then were from America. Our favourite programs were the westerns so it was only natural that we played "Cowboys and Indians" in the garden. Even though I had an Annie Oakley cowgirl suit (still have it, but it no longer fits me :-)), I did like to be an Indian. We used to make Indian headdresses from corrugated cardboard and feathers, usually from the chooks. These days I collect any interesting feathers from around my garden so it seemed natural to use feathers as inspiration for this quilt. Initially I was going to stitch some feathers but out of the blue came the thought of making an Indian headdress. I made the "corrugated cardboard" from fabric and simply inserted some of the feathers I have collected. I love looking at the variety of leaves around our yard and remembered a piece of sun-dyed fabric I had made, a reject from another project. I quilted some gum leaves and some fern-like shapes onto the background and then stitched the headdress on.

If you look closely you can see the wiley fox I have quilted, hiding amongst the feathers. I is a most unwelcome  visitor to my garden. He comes early morning or late evening and sneaks up on the birds and leaves no sign other than a pile of feathers that he has been.

My inspiration for this quilt - leaves from the eucalyptus fastigata which is a predominant tree in my garden and feathers from Kookaburra, King Parrot, Crimson Rosella and Magpie.