Sue Cody’s One Earth – One Chance won Bernina Best of Show at the 2025 QuiltNSW Exhibition. She says in the catalogue:
“Time to sit beneath the mighty Boab and reflect. To tread lightly on Mother Earth, build ethically, live sustainably, nurture each other and our environment and hand over a thriving healthy resilient world to our children and generations to follow.”
Sue and One Earth – One Chance, 145cm x 170 cm
There’s always a story behind creating a quilt. I think we’re all interested in the designing and construction of a quilt, so when I asked Sue about her quilt making process, she generously shared these thoughts.
“The idea behind this quilt was long in the ‘thinking’,” she says. “Many years ago, I wandered through the Sydney Botanical Gardens and took many photos of a boab tree. Its form and beauty lingered and I promised myself one day I’d make a quilt with it as the centrepiece.”
At the Exhibition there was a photo of the actual Boab pinned to the quilt, so viewers could see Sue’s original inspiration.
Sue’s life became busy and her teaching was a priority, so that idea was put on the backburner. “Now I’m retired and can indulge my creativity and use my work as to canvas for the things I’m passionate about, namely the environment and my concerns for it as we move forward. I’m a great believer in one step at a time BY EVERYONE, not just me,” she explains.
“I worked on the quilt in stages. The Anna Maria echinacea wavy border went on first, then the boab, then I added the Tula Pink stripes and flowers to the outer border to make it quite luscious. The hills and houses were next but they looked a bit stark so I added the rows of flowers and some trees. The tree needed more leaves and berries and finally a flight of birds,” she says. “It wasn’t until the birds went on that I started to like the quilt. It had been ‘a labour of love’ up until that point. The birds had that sense of whimsy I like in my work.”
Sue likes to piece and prequilt her backgrounds, using Quiltlite as the middle layer. “It’s so stable and people did comment how straight the quilt hung at the show,” she added. “I prefer Pearle 12 thread, and I don’t call what I do ‘quilting’, more just running stitch with no hoop nor teeny tiny stitches.”
Going back to Sue’s catalogue entry, we can see clearly why she named her quilt One Earth – One Chance. “While I have optimism for the future, I also have concerns,” she explains.
Too see more of Sue Cody’s quilts, visit her Instagram page dragonfly.studio
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