The tenth story is told by Robin…
The Illyarrie or Eucalyptus Erithrocorys is one of WA’s beautiful and fascinating trees. No one can ignore its spectacular display of red bud caps and fluffy yellow flowers in mid summer. A closer look reveals the amazing square shape of the centre, and the unusual arrangement of the stamens in each corner, the flattened base (pedicel) and stems below. The quilter in me had to reproduce it! So began my journey of collecting fabrics and ideas and experimenting with techniques.

Then Lisa Walton visited Perth and led a workshop, ‘Fantastic Fusion’, using fused fabrics and improvisational techniques. As I had taken my Illyarrie collection of fabrics, I soon found I had an interesting set of background pieces that cried out for an embellishment. Yellow flowers, but how? That is when I began fringing yellow strips and forming them into circles. I had my flowers. 16 blocks and many flowers later I had a quilt ready to free motion quilt. It was a very engrossing and satisfying piece of work which I entered into Stitched and Bound in 2019.
Most amazingly it was sold.