Pelicans at the River Mouth
Julie Haddrick 2002
Fabrics
hand dyed and printed / painted by the artist
Machine pieced
Machine quilted by Sharon Vickerige Smith.
The ‘Pelicans at the River mouth’ is a design for use in my
teaching workshops. Designed for more experienced quilters, this image
is a popular choice for its versatility and details. Illustrated here
is the Australian Murray River as it meets the Southern ocean at Goolwa,
South Australia. Many family holidays were spent there playing in the
warm, shallow waters, chasing and hand feeding the pelicans. The home
of ‘Storm Boy’ by local author, Colin Thiele, this bird Is
a cheeky and intelligent resident of Goolwa. For years, pelicans saluted
the cars as they drove onto the ferry at Goolwa, with a hierarchy seeming
to exist between the birds for the best post to perch on. They settle
on the waters in the bay at our shack in the evenings, to fish and to
socialise. The ‘Pelicans at the River mouth’ can be personalised
using colours and patterns that depict the particular place of the quilter.