On Monday, we started making quilts for Christchurch. As a group, we cut gossiped and stitched. I cut strip and strips of blue and green to make something. The something kept changing shape in my mind until I really didn’t know what I was making. By the time I got home, I realised that I didn’t need to make a new quilt for Christchurch. I had already started one. I started it six years ago.


This is Moni’s Wedding Quilt. The blocks are signed, in sharpie, by the guests at the wedding. The blocks had been waiting for me to get around to them. It’s all ready to go together in a rail fence pattern.

I have a new idea for the front*. I have a bundle of 0.3m cuts of Amy Butler Fabrics and I’m looking for a pattern. It has to be simple and quick because I don’t want to break my momentum in getting this finished. I saw something a few days ago. The title was along the lines of “open doors and window” but I can’t for the life of me find it. If you have any suggestions. Please le me know.

Now Moni’s house is shaken. Every brick has either fallen off, or been removed as a safety precaution. It’s time to get this quilt finished.

*The front was going to be a Tivaevae pattern based on native plants. I managed to complete one of the panels before my shoulders began to groan at the mere thought of if. I was miffed to see a similar quit on the cover of NZ quilter just weeks after I had cut two of the panels out. Looking back I was just ahead of my time.

I’m back from Christchurch. I’ve been back for about a week now, just mulling things over before letting myself write anything down. I haven’t any photos. I was there for work, not as a tourist. It felt obtrusive to raise my camera for anything other than essential records. It was a busy week and I am glad to be able to go home. As I talk it out with my family, I can see the way I saw that week changing. If I was to use one word, it could only be sobering.

If I was to boil my impressions down to three things it would be these:

Everyone I spoke to feels fortunate.
Those who have left their houses, those who have sent family members out of town, those who had close calls. None of them saw themselves as being the worst off.

Sometimes feeling fortunate can be hard.
There are a lot of people thinking – What if? What if I hadn’t run? What if I had been on a different bus? What if I had been in that car?

It’s not going to be the same.
People are talking about a new normal. I hadn’t spent more than a few days in Christchurch since I lived there as a student. It was a city that I left home for, met many of my best friends in, fell in love in, and I spent a lot of time growing and learning there. It doesn’t look the same. For those that live there, much of it doesn’t feel the same. It’s going to take some time for it all to get to normal and when it does, it will be a new normal.

My bags are packed and I am ready to join the influx of helpers to Christchurch. We’ve watched the news with the kids. We have explained that Mummy is going to help people’s houses. I shall be back shortly.

Christchurch was hit with an earthquake of devastating proportions yesterday.

You can search the news agencies for the big stories and summaries. The web is awash with them at the moment. On a personal level you read an individual account as Sarah of Miss Crafty Tea Pot tells of how it felt in her little house here.



There are a few ways you can help right now.

The Red Cross Appeal - www.redcross.org.nz (collecting funds to support their tireless actives and efforts during this period)

The Student Volunteer Army - http://www.facebook.com/StudentVolunteerArmy?sk=info (mobilising available hands to work in co-ordination with Civil Defence)

I am sure there will be other drives to mobilise support in the following days, but right now I understand that financial support is the easiest for the aid agencies to work with.

Edit: Catalina's Cottage is calling for quilt as you go blocks. Dimensions and links to tutorials can be found there too. This comes just as the ones for the September event are sent on their way.

KiwiQuilters is donating the surplus healing hearts quilts (140?) from the Pike River disaster (that felt like just yesterday too) to Quilts for Christchurch.

Leonie at Kiwi at Heart is calling for softies for the Children of Christchurch. Add a comment to her post, with means of contacting you and she will email out the details.

The last line of this poem has been in my head for days.

Caliban in the Coal Mines

GOD, we don't like to complain;
We know that the mine is no lark.
But — there's the pools from the rain;
But — there's the cold and the dark.

God, You don't know what it is —
You, in Your well-lighted sky —
Watching the meteors whizz;
Warm, with a sun always by.

God, if You had but the moon
Stuck in Your cap for a lamp,
Even You'd tire of it soon,
Down in the dark and the damp.

Nothing but blackness above
And nothing that moves but the cars …
God, if You wish for our love,
Fling us a handful of stars!

It has been a hard week for many people in a small town. The whole nation watched as the story of the 29 Pike River Miners unfolded, everyone holding their breath until the devasting news of a second and surely fatal explosion on Wednesday. We'd like to think that events like this happen in another time or country.

I had read this poem years ago, thinking of an older style of industry, but it reads just as bleak today.

Crafters doing what crafter do are looking for ways to help. One I know of is Shirley Goodwin who is collecting heart blocks to make quilts for the families. I have checked with her and stars would be most welcome too.

She is looking for blocks measuring 6.5", white or cream background, stars or hearts. Her details are at the link above.

I'm sorry, no pictures, not really appropriate to try and liven up the post.