News Release

Pitcairn Islands Study Center, 1 Angwin Ave., Angwin, California USA Herbert Ford - hford@puc.edu - 707-965-6625 - 707-965-2047

Editorial Note: Nadine Christian may be contacted at flatland@pitcairn.pn for a picture of her with the quilt, or for additional information.

PITCAIRN WOMAN SEWS 'BOUNTY SAGA' QUILT TO PAY COST OF TRANSPORTATION TO HOSPITAL

PITCAIRN ISLAND, South Pacific Ocean, July 21 ------- What do you do if you live on what is arguably the world's most remote island if you are broke, and you need money to transport yourself and your children thousands of miles across the seas to hospital in New Zealand for medical care?

If your name is Nadine Christian, you sit down and start quilting, with the thought in mind that you might be able to sell your quilt on the Internet to at least help pay part of the cost.

But you know it can't be just any ordinary quilt; you've got to create a truly one-of-a-kind bed cover, something that will command heavy bidding on eBay with a resulting bid price that is as high as possible.

And that's just Mrs. Christian has done. Through countless hours of planning and stitchery - and with the help of other Pitcairn islanders - she has created a quilt the likes of which may never be seen again.

Bidding on Mrs. Christian's Bounty-theme quilt will start on eBay on August 1.

It depicts the 1780's travels of the ship H.M.S. Bounty from England to Tahiti, and then to Pitcairn Island. The famed "Mutiny on the Bounty" is also depicted on the quilt.

Hidden away in the quilt, Mrs. Christian has intricately stitched the names of each of the Bounty's 45 crew members. Some of the cloth used has been hand-dyed from Pitcairn's Doodwi nuts by Pitcairner Meralda Warren who is now in hospital in New Zealand herself. The stitched Bounty and longboat concepts in the quilt were first drawn by Pawl Warren, another Pitcairn islander.

And the quilt has been signed on its reverse side by every member of the Pitcairn Island community - from eldest to youngest - many of them descendants of the Bounty mutineers.

As a one-of-a-kind history-oriented piece of native South Pacific craft, the quilt is expected to draw high bids from collectors.

"My hope is that the proceeds will take the children and me across many of those thousands of miles to medical care in New Zealand," said Mrs. Christian.

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Pitcairn Islands Study Center, 1 Angwin Ave., Angwin, CA, USA. Herbert Ford, 707-965-6625, 707-965-2047, Fax: 707-965-6504, Email: hford@puc.edu, Website: http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn