Mountains of Hope

Mountains of Teal

Lately, one of the sewing projects I've been working on has been making quilt blocks depicting mountains. Once again, Kate from Tall Tales from Chiconia put out the call for teal and cream blocks for another wonderful quilt to raise funds for the Ovarian Cancer Society. In her usual clever and fun punning style, Kate has called this year's quilt  Go Teal It on the Mountain. I had put my hand up to make 2 blocks, but ended up making 3.

I live with Mt Warning right at my back door, a mammoth peak that's the remnant of the volcanic shield, and standing at over 1000m, it can be seen from all over the valley, from the Border Ranges in Queensland and from the coast as well..  This mountain is what drew me to the Valley many years ago, and I never tire of seeing and photographing her, in all her moods, rain or shine, and from different angles and views.  Mt Warning... or Wollumbin to give her indigenous name.....is a sacred site to the local Bundjalung people.

So it was obvious Mt Warning was going to be one of my blocks. I decided on an applique block, and used Australiana fabrics to highlight the complex network of steep ridges and valleys that fall away from the heights. These hills and ridges have great names like the Sisters, Brummies, Blue Knob, Egg Rock and Doon Doon!

My second block is also a sacred mountain, far from here. Back in 2014 I joined a group from Australia to make a pilgrimage to Mt Kailash .....Kangrinbroque Peak.....on the high western plateau of Tibet.  We travelled by bus from Lhasa to our base at Darchen, then began the trek, firstly a day's walk to Dirapuk Monastery, where we rested and adjusted to the high altitude.....4800 metres. Then we walked 3 days up through the Dolma-la  Pass (5700m) where the weather changed dramatically and we trudged through snow and freezing, biting sleet. This trail descended back to Darchen, and took us 3 days of walking, trudging really, completing our circuit of the mountain. This brief description does nothing to describe my awe, the sense of 'coming home', and the deep connection I felt being near this mountain, and in those wind swept high mountain passes.

I took all these photos from around Dirapuk Monastery, and from up behind our accommodation.....the buildings in the picture at lower right.

Although the sun was shining and the sky was blue, it was actually freezing at the camp at Dirapuk, and I wanted my block to depict this......the snow laden peak and the cold and remote landscape.

I hadn't planned a 3rd block, but this photo a friend posted on a local facebook group stirred my imagination. I hadn't seen Mt Warning from this angle before, with the curve and sweep of the Tweed River so evident. This was taken recently when westerly winds pushed the dust storms from the central west of the state across the range and into the valley.

Photo with permission Raymond Condon

Although I had deadlines for a couple of other projects, I knew I had to do "something " with this image, and after drawing and fiddling with fabric for a couple of days, came up with this appliqued block, River Dreaming.

I wanted to capture the look the mountain has in certain lights, and different times of day, where it looks like a cardboard cut-out against the sky, with no definition of the network of ridges and valleys that radiate out from the mountain. The Tweed River is the other dominant feature of the landscape here, so I took some creative licence and moved the river source up into the high ridges of the mountain, where it would've flowed from eons ago, eroding and deepening the valleys over time, and then carving out the river's present day basin and flood plain. 

If you'd like to see the other blocks that've been made for this quilt, here's a link to Kate's fundraising quilt page. Do go have a look, there are beautifully-wrought mountains in fabric, many with personal stories and memories for the makers.  They will take your breath away, and Kate will do a wonderful job, as always, of combining them into a magnificent quilt.