For the second year in a row I am participating in the annual group Ovarian Cancer Charity Fundraising Quilt headed up by the lovely Australian based quilter Kate C. @talltales from chiconia.
I made two 12.5 inch by 12.5 inch blocks and shipped them off to Australia on Monday. (By the way I have a really good friend and penpal in Austria that I regularly mail letters and I made sure to clearly enunciate the country to the my regular postal clerk and make sure envelope was going to “Australia” this time and not “Austria” – ha! My Austrian based friend years ago sent me a funny magnet with a kangaroo with a slash mark over it that read: “there are no kangaroos in Austria”!)
This year’s theme is “Tealing All Our Stories” and we are to make bookcase shelf themed blocks. Check out Kate’s blog I linked in the first paragraph if you’d like to see some of the blocks she’s received from other quilters around the world.
So if you haven’t guessed, we needed to make teal, the color used to represent Ovarian Cancer Awareness, the feature color in our blocks.
I had a fat quarter of tiny stripe pattern Figo fabric I won at QuiltCon in February (see my post QuiltCon February 2025, Phoenix Arizona if you’d like to read about my first trip to QuiltCon), that reminded me of pages in a book seen from the side of a book and that was my inspiration.
I created two blocks of stacked books view from the pages side:
I happened to have in my fabric stash some unusual ombre teal fabric that sort of looked like mountains and I used that as the. background for my book stacks to represent Colorado where I live.

In order to unify all the bookcase blocks, Kate asked us all to put a 1 inch finished border around our blocks and that is why you see a cream border. She also asked us to use a dark teal as the background for whatever image we create for our blocks.
Fingers crossed the blocks arrive safe to Kate’s house in Australia (and don’t wander over to Austria, ha!)
If you are interested in the progress of this quilt please follow Kate’s blog @talltales from chiconia; and I will try to post an update on the quilt when she has the layout complete (she does a tremendous amoung of work on these annual charity quilts, the rest of us just have to make a couple blocks and ship them off!)
Postscript
I’ve fallen a bit behind in blogging as we’ve been enjoying the late Spring/nearly Summer warm weather and going on some fun holidays and roadtrips – from day long trips where we come home at night to trips over several days. I’ll blog about some of them in the future.
This past weekend we went to the community garage/yard sale and picked up some fun items, each for $2:
A leather top hat for John (for fun or costume wear):

And a lovely cast iron Japanese tea pot set for me:



Gorgeous book blocks! I love them. And the tea set. and hat – good hunting!
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Thanks so much and we were pretty pleased with our thrift finds! We might attend a different community garage sale this week and look about 🙂
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Tierney, the fabric for the book pages is inspired. I can’t get over how well that works with this theme, and the fact that you won that fabric in February is kismet.
Those are some great finds at the garage sale. I’m glad you’re enjoying the season.
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Thanks so much and I couldn’t believe how well it worked out either. I think the Universe sent me that fabric, ha! We are having a fun pre-summer so far 🙂
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These are my favourite quilt blocks I’ve ever seen. The colours, the story, the artistry in making them so book-like – you did an amazing job!
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Your are too kind – thanks so much 🙂
🙂 (huge smile on my face)
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Clever use of that fabric to create pages in your books, and. your blocks look great! Nice finds at the garage sales, too!
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Thanks so much and it was magical that I happened to have won the fabric that inspired the blocks 🙂
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That ombre teal fabric is wonderful. I wish I had something like that.
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Thanks so much and I am not sure where I found it as it was a large scrap, maybe someone gave it to me.
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Book blocks. Never a better subject for Art! I love how you depicted the books and their pages.
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Thanks so much I really appreciate that! Made me think of the side view of one of my library stacks!
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Yes, me too!
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Your quilt blocks are lovely, Tierney! As always, very artistic and imaginative 🙂 Also, great thrifting finds – now you two are ready for a steampunk tea party!
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Thanks so much and we were happy with our finds 🙂
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Beautiful book blocks. Subtle. I love them
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Thanks so much appreciate your comments 🙂
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x
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Lovely block and for a fantastic cause
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Thanks so much!
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Hi ! I used to have a simialar tea pot – but it sat on the hutch for 15 years and I gifted it to a tea lover (who at the time was on a tight budget and she was so happy – but since that time they have a lot more to work with – but it was a special gift at just the right time for her) and I really like John’s hat – is it old or a newer hat? Just curious
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That was a very thoughtful gift and I bet she had so many wonderful cups of tea with it so far. Not sure of the history on the hat, we picked it up from the same community garage sale but the man selling it said he had another one and didn’t need that one also 🙂
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well good for the man for letting one go (it can be way too easy to keep the extras – esp for the items we like) – and I wondered how old it was because when I saw the photo, my mind went to the VERY old hats that got people sick with mercury:
“The phrase “mad as a hatter” originated from the historical practice of using mercury in the hat-making industry, which led to mercury poisoning among workers” – but this hat does not look like it is from the 1800s hahaahaha
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Oh my goodness it is so cool you have so many historical references – I am fascinated by the history of the term “mad as a hatter”! I thought it was from Alice in Wonderland (Mad Hatter character)
I think it is a newer hat and a replica. I will watch John to see if he gets weird while wearing the hat! Ha!
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I think the Alic in Wonderland character was based on that past history of the hat and the mercury – but not sure.
anyhow, it has been fun connecting this month – 🙂
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These are great! No-one else has even considered showing the books this way round, and they’ll make a great conversation point in the layout. I just love the subtle mountain background too. That teapot is wonderful, it has an almost sea-anemone or fossil look to it. I hope the tea it pours out tastes wonderful too.
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Thanks so much and oh please let them make their way to you 🙂
The teapot is awesome so far, I just love finding a good deal – it was practically free!
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We’ve never had blocks go completely astray before, only take their leisurely time to arrive, so I’m hopeful!
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And of course making books is so YOU!
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Thank you I do love books 🙂
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I’ve never seen books quilted like that before, very clever. I can’t wait to see the finished quilt. What is a voodoo ranger? You scored some nice things at the garage sales, they are so much fun!
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Thanks so much, I just wanted to do something different and hoped the project coordinator did not mind 🙂
Voodoo Ranger is a popular IPA beer by Colorado brewery New Belgium. (I know boring compared to what the explanation could have been – ha!)
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An inspired representation of books. Also love the mountains in the background fabric.
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Thanks so much I appreciate that! I love the pages view of books!
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This is why I love the ovarian cancer quilts, everyone gets the same brief but the blocks are all so different!
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I agree, I love all the different interpretations of the theme 🙂
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