NSW OTA QUILT Information kindly provided by Margaret Weissman The idea for an OTA Quilt was born in 2005 when Frances O'Brien and I attended the AORN Conference in New Orleans. At that conference the President was presented with a quilt that had been made by AORN members and it represented all the Chapters in the Association. We returned to the OTA Conference with the idea that we might do a similar exercise in NSW/ACT. As the 50th anniversary of the OTA was imminent in 2007 it was decided to send out invitations to the Zones and ask for interested members to design and make a patch relevant to the Zone.
Zone 0 Sydney Photograph of Harbour Bridge and Opera House taken and printed onto fabric by Margaret Weissman Embroidery by Jenny Cubitt Additional fabric and buttons by Julie Horn
Zone 1 - Central Coast and Hunter This is the work of June Thoren. *The red stars represent each of the Hospitals in zone one as listed on the OTA website ( in 2006), the red lines are the New England and Pacific Highways and the Putty Road. *The cows represent the dairy industry of the Upper Hunter Valley from Maitland to Taree although this industry is getting smaller. *The horses are for the Scone area. *The coal truck is for the multitude of coal mines around Singleton and Muswellbrook. *The grapes, well who hasn't been here in the Hunter Valley Vineyards or at least sampled the produce! *The funny fawn things in the bottom left hand corner are the vapour towers of the Power Stations around Wyong and the Lake etc. *Yellow line is our sandy coast with great beaches for surfing and boating. *The cargo ship that can always be seen waiting out off Newcastle Harbour.
Zone 2 - Central West This patch was designed by Dr Stavros Prineas. The wonderful work was done by Maxine Miller. The patch shows the wonderful diversity of our region. The Bathurst car race, Parkes Telescope, Dubbo Zoo, Vineyards, Sheep, Apples and mining.
Zone 3 - New England Designed and created by Terri-Anne Atkins and Lyn Southwell *Moree and Narrabri - Cotton Heads. *Inverell - Sapphires. *Armidale - city of all seasons, leaves changing colour. *Gunnedah - Koala country *Tamworth - you guessed it...the guitar We also have a reference to PSNA on our square as we are very proud that one of our members was one of the first to achieve this.
Zone 4 - Riverina and Murray Block designed and created by Wendy Jarick from Wagga. *This block represents the Dairy Farmers and the Sheep industry in the area. *The wind mill and tank are for the hope that the drought will end in the near future. *The letter box is for all the rural Properties and their roadside mail boxes. *The yellow grass next to the mail box is to show the wheat and oats grown in the area. *The tree has fruit such as Apples for Batlow and Oranges for the citrus industry around the Griffith area. *The river is for the Murrumbridgee which rune through Wagga and the Murray for the border at Albury *The area also has lots of hills around it.
Zone 5 - North Coast. This block was designed at a Zone meeting and created by Jan Timbrill and Christine Webster. *Sun at bottom *Colours represent the five regions - Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Grafton and Lismore Tweed Heads. *Rainbow for Northern NSW region *Various symbols represent the diversity of the regions - costal, timber, farming, agriculture and tourism.
Zone 6 - Illawarra and South Coast Block designed and created by Miep Mulder *Tulips for Bowral *Lighthouse for Wollongong *Pelicans and wine for the vineyards on the South Coast. *The signpost lists the towns from the Zone. *River is the Shoalhaven river.
Zone 7 - ACT and surrounding area. The block designed and made by Sandra Tuckey Black mountain and the bell Tower
Additional work Waratah cross stitched by Jane Waldron. Map of zones by Ros Berryman Canberra Bluebell by Wendy Todd OTA logo by Margaret Weissman Printing and additional material by Linda Mee Eve Stones assembled and machine quilted the finished Quilt Robyn Hannan was involved at the beginning and provided some fabric and Debbie Dobbs worked hard as Zone Co-ordinator to motivate the zones to produce blocks!
MANY THANKS TO EVERYONE INVOLVED A WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENT. THE QUILT IS ON DISPLAY AT ALL OUR CONFERENCES