The Finish Line: Uluru in Fabric Collage by Terri Ahrens

In early April, I’ll be returning to Australia for my third excursion to the other side of the globe. In 2016 my first trip took me to Melbourne on the Southern coast, teaching for AQC, the Australasian Quilt Convention. In 2018 I hopped from Perth on the West coast for a class at Handcrafters House, to Urunga on the East coast for the “Sewing Up a Coastal Storm Retreat”. This year I’ll be returning to Melbourne for the AQC event.

It was on these travels that I met Terri Ahrens, three years ago in that AQC class and then again last year as a student in Urunga. That’s her quilt above, an image of the sacred Australian Aboriginal site, Uluru. I wish I could say I had some hand in helping Terri with this quilt, but she made it in 2017—between the years I saw her—and it takes my breath away.

But before I get into that story, a quick detour to the pieces Terri began in the 2016 and 2018 classes, beginning with a bright and cheerful cockatiel from AQC Melbourne, below.

And last year at Urunga’s Coastal Retreat, Terri began the equally colorful portrait of her son, below. When I asked her recently if either of these collages were finished, she replied:

Unfortunately, I haven’t quite finished the quilts from my classes with you. Very close, but not quite there. I don’t get a lot of time to work on my own quilts sadly, as most of my sewing time is allocated to samples and class samples for the shop [where she works]. One day”¦. I will certainly send you photos once I do finish them though. I have a couple of others that I have started as well but nothing finished!

I certainly look forward to seeing these completed and featuring them in a future Finish Line blog post. And in light of what Terri did finish, her Uluru quilt, we can certainly let her off the hook for not having finished the other two.

However, I’ve held off showing Terri’s Uluru quilt for long enough now. As I’m anticipating my upcoming trip to Australia, it’s time to share this magnificent quilt of hers, featuring one of Australia and the world’s most distinctive natural landmarks—Uluru—also known as Ayers Rock, as named by the English.

In one a life’s grand coincidences, in May of 2017 I heard from student and former Finish Line subject (here and here) Ria Mille, reporting that she had seen Terri’s quilt at a local concert—in Belgium!

Last Friday we attended a poetic evening “A Sunburnt Country,” with music, dance and poetry, all about Australia. The backdrop of the happening seemed to be a large picture of Ayers Rock. After close inspection, it turned out to be a most beautiful quilt made by Terri Ahrens, clearly a Susan Carlson technique. Terri is the mother of the performing artist, Maddilyn Goodwin, flute player at a high level, and studying in Antwerp. Terri and I had a brief, but very lively and intense talk about our shared interest. I am sure she will email pictures of her amazing work to you. So impressive! So you see, all this happiness is a result of your classes.

A couple weeks later I heard from Terri about the same event:

Hi Susan, I wanted to show you the quilt I have worked on from January to May this year. It was commissioned by my daughter Maddi, who is studying in Antwerp, Belgium. For her final flute master’s recital, she chose an Australian theme and so the quilt came about. It had been swirling around in my head since 2004, after visiting Uluru, but I couldn’t make a final decision on how to do it. Once I did your class at AQC in Melbourne in 2016, I knew what I wanted to do, and when my daughter asked me to make a backdrop for her performance, I knew this was the perfect thing. It was very labour intensive, almost 700 hours from start to finish. I used genuine Aboriginal fabrics only to add to the authenticity. It is called “A Sunburnt Country.” Each piece stands 2.1m tall and 1.1m wide, so it is quite a big piece.

 

On another note, the week before I left Australia to take the quilt to my daughter, I read the Belgium Connection post on your blog… I idly thought, wouldn’t it be great to catch up with those quilters. On the night of the recital, a lady came up to me and asked me if I had heard of you as she admired my quilt very much… guess who that was?? Yes, it was Ria! I couldn’t believe it…what a small world it is.

Both Ria’s and Terri’s emails made my days. “A Sunburnt Country” is a beautiful work of art. I hope to see it in person one day. To think I had any part whatsoever in its creation is an honor. My head spins when I think of all the criss-crossing lines of travel that had to happen for Ria and Terri to meet: Ria to Maine from Belgium, me to Australia from Maine, Terri to Belgium from Australia.

I asked Terri then for permission to share the quilt in a future Finish Line blog post. I also asked if there was any video I could share of her daughter, Maddi Goodwin’s concert, shown below.

Here’s the proud mama:

Maddi’s project, A Sunburnt Country, was aimed at showcasing Australian talent, and examining what it means to be Australian. She commissioned three pieces of music by Australian composers, including a renowned Aboriginal didgerdoo player, William Barton, so the recital was the world premiere of those pieces. The icing on the cake was the actual performance by William, who travelled to Belgium especially for the recital. To say we were very proud parents sitting in the audience is definitely an understatement!

You can also find this video and others at https://www.facebook.com/asunburntcountryproject/

As of Terri’s last email, Maddi had planned to continue with “A Sunburnt Country” as an ongoing concert series, however has been unable to secure enough funding to help her go ahead. Maddi is now working with The Stairwell Project, which funds musicians to play in the stairwells and in the palliative care/oncology wards of the major hospital in Brisbane. She is also part of a duo with a harpist, Duo Faun, and is recording and writing music.

Later Terri emailed an update reporting that her quilt had raked in three awards in a quilt show in her state’s capital city: First in Art Quilt section, Best in Show, and Viewer’s Choice!

Although it was too large to enter into the Queensland Quilt Show, the organizers of the show have asked to hang the quilt as a special exhibit anyway! I’m thrilled! I never expected to ever do anything that would win a prize! So humbled.

Below is a montage of detail photos of Terri’s Uluru quilt. Click on any of the images to see them larger as a slide show.

Finally I leave you with the image below, which is breathtaking:

I travelled to Uluru in 2018 and I took my quilt with me. It was so exciting to get it photographed with the rock in the background. Cheers, Terri

Thanks for inspiring us all with your work, Terri, and for sharing the haunting musical art of your daughter, Maddi.