Travelling inspires ...
We spent spring break in Africa last April. Marocco to be exact and Marrakech to be even more precise.
We're very lucky, it's not far from here to travel to, and it's one of my favorite places on the planet. We always stay right in the middle of the Medina in a Riad. Just writing about it makes me miss it again, and I can hear the sounds and smell the scents... ahhh, it's nothing short of amazing.
The city of Marrakech is surrounded by the Atlas mountain range and the desert.
Therefore you'll find many camel riding and desert tours.
The first time, we stayed at an Oasis outside the city many years ago, inspired me to design my camel quilt block pattern.
This time, I added some other African animals to my animal series,  the elephant family.

These are some of my favorite quilt block patterns ever.
They are not only fantastic for all sorts of quilted items, such as pillowcases and table runners, but they will look fantastic as a wall hanging as well , in any room really.

I get asked all the time, what other ways, besides the ones mentioned above, there are to use these blocks, well I thought the elephants would be perfect for fabric baskets...
tadaahh (almost the sound of an elephant, right ?)
For some reason they suit the round form of the basket, don't you agree?

As you can see, there are many ways to use these baskets, I'm using mine in the bathroom for towels and hair stuff, but the possibilities are endless.
You will find the pattern for the baskets here.

The wildfires are devastating,

with images of burning forests and dying animals, we feel helpless.
We want to do something, but we’re not sure how.

Here's what we found helps the most at the moment:

DONATION

Many of the emergency relief services have said the best option right now is cash.
The money can then be directed to those who need it, and it doesn’t require storage like physical items.
Please be aware as usual – unfortunately there are quite lot of scams at the moment for fundraising – so do your research when choosing who to donate to.

That beeing said...
I have designed a koala pattern and 100% of the proceeds throughout January 2020,
of this cute pattern will be donated to @therescuecollective
www.therescuecollective.com
to help support their amazing rescue efforts in Australia....
Renate Kämmer  @rlebt  has been helping for days now to raise awareness,
and her work is amazing! Thank you sooo much Renate.
If  you were thinking of making a koala quilt block, koala pillowcase, table runner,
back pack or whatever else, now is the perfect  time....
In case you want to help, but would like a different pattern,
there are many other pattern designers out there, that support this cause ...
Check out the following accounts on Instagram if you're interested.
@quietplay
@quiltdesignduo
@corinne.sovey
@sewquirky
They are donating all or some of their proceeds towards the wildlife rescue.

Here are some of the fantastic quilt blocks that so many people made 
with my Koala pattern....

(Feb 2020: we were able to raise over 1,000 Euros for The rescue collective...
How amazing is that? Thank you sooo much everyone who participated in this effort )

@twinklyhelterskelter