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We raised $2,310. Yay!

The Koala Quilt Auction ended on November 23, 2020. Through the Auction, sales of Koala merchandise, and extra donations, we raised $2,310 for Australians for Animals.

Thanks for your generosity!

Below is a history of the Koala Quilt community stitching project. Any additional sales of Koala merchandise will also be donated to Australians for Animals.

The Koala quilt was made with love by over 90 stitchers from around the world to support wildlife endangered during the Australian wildfires of January 2020.

Koala Quilt Details

• Dimensions: 80" x 94" (approximately 203 cm x 239 cm)

• 126 hand-embroidered Koalas made and donated by stitchers from around the world

• Extra fabric for the front was sewn with scraps trimmed from the donated Koala embroideries

• The fabric used for the back, border, and binding was donated by several stitchers who sent extra fabric with their Koala embroideries.

• The Koala Quilt was pieced by Penguin & Fish owner, Alyssa Thomas, and her mother, Patricia Scholz using an improvisational piecing technique.

• Free-motion quilted by Alyssa Thomas in a loose, free-hand, eucalyptus leaf pattern

• Hand-stitched binding

• 100% Cotton batting

• Back includes an attached fabric label with details of the Koala Quilt, an extra attached embroidered Koala, and a small Penguin & Fish label

• 800-1000 hours went into the making of the quilt

Thanks for your support!

Proceeds from the items below will be donated to Australians for Animals to help Koalas and other animals affected by the Australian wildfires of 2020.

Australians for Animals

"Australians for Animals" is an organization that has been helping Koalas for over 30 years. During the January 2020 wildfires, they "adopted" smaller Koala and other in-need animal shelters that weren't receiving the millions of dollars that large foundations were getting. They helped provide food, medical supplies, and other needs to help these smaller, more-in-need shelters.

Through their political, scientific, and legal endeavors, "Australians for Animals" is continuing to protect Koalas and their habitat. We're excited to help.

The Koala in the image is one of the actual koalas directly helped by our community donation earlier this year.

The Koala Quilt Story

About the Koala Quilt

The Australian wildfires of January 2020 burned over 45 million acres, devastating the Koala population and habitat.

To help, Penguin & Fish started a Koala Fundraiser by raising money through Koala embroidery pattern sales.

On January 25, 2020, the Penguin & Fish online community came together and embroidered Koalas during a live stream stitch-along.

From those embroideries, we sewed and assembled the Koala Quilt. It's truly a community quilt made with love.

Check out the Koalas stitched by our amazing community.

The Penguin & Fish online community stepped up with their donations, especially through Koala pattern sales. They mailed us over 120 Koala embroideries and we sewed all of them into the Koala Quilt. Check out the video below to see all of the donated Koala embroideries.

Assembling and Quilting the Koala Quilt

Notes from Alyssa Thomas, owner of Penguin & Fish:

Chad is the worst selfie taker.

"My mom (Patricia) and I assembled and quilted the Koala Quilt in one long 3-day weekend at my parent's house in Wisconsin.

Which of course meant I also got to visit my dad and Chad Kitty.

This was early March, right before Covid-19 hit the US.

I'm so happy my mom and I got the opportunity to work on the Koala quilt together before Covid meant we wouldn't be able to visit as often as we'd like."

"First, I trimmed all the koalas. I didn't cut them in any certain size, just framed each koala in a square that looked nice and cut. We ended up with 120 squares of Koalas.

Mom and I made sure to save all of the scraps so we could use them later in the quilt."

"This is the first quilt that my mom and I have worked on together from the start. We consult on projects but don't always have the opportunity to work on them together.

We arranged all of the blocks on the floor. That's when we got the first sense of how big the quilt was going to be. Originally I thought it'd be a lap quilt. But it turned out to be a queen!"

"Since all of the Koala squares were different sizes, I took the scraps from trimming them and cut them into strips.

We sewed strips to Koala squares to make smaller squares big enough to sew to the larger Koala squares.

The entire piecing of the quilt was a process of matching strips and Koalas together to make bigger and bigger pieces.

While I was busy matching strips to Koalas, Mom got to sewing them all together."

Mom piecing together Koala blocks

"After two sewing-filled days of cutting, piecing, making the back, and sandwiching the quilt with batting, it was time for quilting.

I only had one day left at my parent's house, so it was a full day of quilting for me. I stopped for food, but just barely. Phew!"

When I was finished quilting, Mom took over the machine to attach the binding.

I spent an hour or so hand-stitching the binding before heading to bed, then it was back to Minnesota the next day.

I finished stitching the binding over a few months during my nightly Livestream on YouTube and Facebook.

 

"Finally, this week during the Koala Quilt Auction, I'm stitching the label to the Koala Quilt.

 I designed and printed the label onto fabric, and I'm combining it with one extra donated Koala embroidery.

After the label is stitched on, the Koala Quilt will officially be complete. I love it so much!"

 

Revisit the entire quilt-making process on YouTube.

Click on the image above to view the Koala Quilt playlist.

Thanks for your support!

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