Home Again, Home Again . . .

I am home again, home again . . . after a beautiful summer filled with two kayak trips - one in the Broken Group and one in Desolation Sound - time with friends and family on Hornby Island, a family reunion in Hudson, Quebec, and visits to Nora and her parents in Victoria. And there was time for quilting too, although less than in the cooler months of the year, I must say. One thing that did get finished is my Kilimanjaro Quilt - a commission quilt now winging its way to an amazing woman who climbed Uhuro Peak in August last year, and who decided to commemorate this achievement by having a quilt made for her, using batiks she collected while in Tanzania. I'm very happy with the result, and hope that she is too. These African collage-type quilts continue to delight me. Sort of like doing a jigsaw puzzle, only much more fun.
And I am home again to this blog as well, after too long an absence. I hope to reconnect with any and all of you who have been keeping in touch and who are interested in my quilting. I promise I'll be back again soon.

My Newest African Collage quilt, cont'd

It's sometime since I posted, but I have a good reason. Believe me! After a brief visit in Victoria at the end of January (there's a photo of Nora at the bottom of the post - isn't she great?), I headed over here to Hornby Island for a 6-week "artist's retreat". It's the first time in several years that I haven't gone to Uganda at this time of year, so I decided to use the time to hunker down and "do the work". That is, to play with my fabric. When I last posted, I had just spent a few days on Hornby, and had begun working on a new African collage quilt. I thought you might like to know what became of it. First of all, I added borders to all of the silk-screened prints - 4 different borders in all. Then I began figuring out how to put the whole thing together - decided to work in three columns. I used strips of leftover fabric for fillers and constructed two zebra-stripe and black columns to separate the different sections, and then I just sewed it all together. It still didn't look complete, though, so I constructed a strip of huts for the bottom, which helped to balance the sun on the top left and the stars on the top right. I had a lot of fun doing it,
although I couldn't seem to step away from a symmetrical setting. I've moved on to a couple of new projects, and will show you those once they're a little further along. I'm going to do my best to post once a week - think of it as a weekly report on my retreat. I am without TV and internet service (I can come to this office and use theirs if absolutely necessary). I have a cell phone but no land line. I have music and CBC radio, or just plain quiet if I want it. When I wake up in the morning I can hear the eagles in the nearby nest, and there are lots of beach or forest walks when I need a little exercise. Most of all, I'm away from my usual commitments and obligations, and can sew to my heart's content. Or read or write. Pretty wonderful. I'll let you know if I am as productive in this environment as I hope to be. I anticipate learning a lot about myself as well as progressing in my work. Until next week . . .

My Newest African Collage quilt

Today my daughter Jessie and I head over to Hornby for a couple of days. She works as a masseuse at a spa in Tofino, and has a few days off. Charlie (my yellow lab) and I are happy to accompany her there, where my newest African Collage awaits me. When I get there, I have been known to sew all morning in my nightie and caftan. I'm an early riser, and love to use those hours when I'm most alert and alive, to do my designing and sewing. Some things can wait until later in the day, but not designing. I think I forgot to show you all seven of the silk-screened prints with their borders, so I've included them this time. You will remember that I added half-square triangles to two sides of two of the prints. Now I'll be deciding on borders for the other 5 prints, and then begin to think about what to use as fillers. I've also added a photo of the African fabric binding (double-fold) that I will use on this quilt. It will also be available online on our new website, for $1.50 a metre. It's the perfect way to finish off a quilt which incorporates many different African fabrics. Lastly there's my "hut quilt". I called it my "hut quilt" for so long, that I had a hard time coming up with a proper name for it when it was finished. Somehow the present title - "Home is Where Your Hut Is", just isn't quite right. What do you think about "There's No Place Like Home"? I think I like that better. And it's not too late to change it.

Happy New Year 2012!

Happy New Year to all of you, wherever you are and whatever you're doing! Now that the January 1st marker is behind us, it's time to start sewing. When I last posted, I was making a list of completed projects from 2012. The pleasant surprise was that there were more than I thought. The next thing I did was to make a list of all my quilting goals for the coming year - everything - an unedited list. There were 39 things on that list. No wonder I sometimes feel overwhelmed! Next I narrowed it down to 9 specific goals for January. A bit easier to deal with, although still over the top for
do-ability. The first item on the list was to make a new African Collage - just because. I love piecing. I love bright colours (especially at this time of year). And I love working intuitively. First I pulled out a North American multi-coloured piece that has a very definite African feel about it. (You can see it in the first photo.) I would like to have bolts of, but with less than a yard left, I decided that now's the time to use it. After all, I could be dead and gone by next year, and then what use would it be. I used that favourite fabric in choosing my other colours - reds and golds, greens and browns, and some black and whites. Next I pulled out 7 of the
silk-screened animals I designed and printed when my South African supply ran out. On a whim, I'd printed them on a lettered fabric, and I am very pleased with how crisp and clear they are. Next I chose borders for each of the prints. Each has an inner green border, and then two other fabrics for the outer borders. Already they have so much more life! Then I began contemplating what other borders to add, and began with trusty half-square triangles on two sides of two of the prints. They're pretty bright, I know, but everyone needs some colour in their life. All of this happened when I was over at my
cabin on Hornby Island for the weekend. And now I'm home in Comox again. I've left everything over there until I return, so I'm going to have to leave you hanging off the edges of your proverbial seats before I can tell you what happens next. But stay tuned, and I'll let you know in a later post . . .

Other Africa-Inspired Quilts

I hope you have all enoyed a wonderful Christmas, full of all the good things that bring us together - especially friends, family, food. And that you have been enjoying a relaxing Boxing Day - tidying up the leftover bits of paper and ribbon, cleaning up the remaining turkey and trimmings, bringing back some sense of order to your home and life. Boxing Day is one of my favourites of the year - I indulge in reading a good book, doing a Sudoku or two, and possibly bringing out a new jigsaw puzzle to try. It's also been a day to begin thinking about what I want to work on next - which quilts I have managed to work on this year
and which quilts I hope to work on during the coming year. I thought you would enjoy seeing a few previously unposted Africa-inspired quilts, to get your own creative juices going. First is Sandy's African Collage piece - beautifully balanced, and most effective in showcasing the African art work. Next is Margaret Kelly's scrap piece, which I might have showed you before. It's been donated to the Kitambaa Sewing project, and will be quilted and bound shortly, with Opportunities to Own it being offered to you whenever it makes an appearance.The next two photos show the front and detailed quilting on
Janet Archibald's African Collage. Just gorgeous, Janet. She took the motifs from around the silk-screened animals and used them as the inspiration for the quilting designs she used in her border. And lastly are three little hut Christmas ornaments - made by the Niger quilters I introduced you to earlier this month. Perhaps they might be a fund-raiser for us for next Christmas? I also wanted to let you know that most of the money to finish Alice's new sewing school has now been raised. Christmas sales were terrific! There have also been donations of 5 new sponsorships for students to her school, and several donations of sewing machines, so that graduating students can be provided with treadles, fabric and thread as they begin their own businesses. My husband will be leaving for Uganda the day after tomorrow, and will be gone for 4 months. He is taking new "fashions" for Alice and her students to start producing, as well as some of the fabric they need for borders, new sewing machine
needles, more embroidery floss, and various other things for the Bitengye Designers. He will be seeing all of them at one time or another, so will send photos that I will then be able to pass on to you. Thank you to all of you who have continued to support this work, and who have bought items made by these remarkable women, and so have enabled them to provide for their families in all the ways we take for granted we can provide for our own families. You have truly made a difference in their lives!

Collaging with the Blue Mountain Quilters

I'm just home from teaching another class of African Collage - still one of my all-time favourites. This time I was with the Blue Mountain Quilters in Port Coquitlam. I was thrilled to see the amazingly different quilts develop, and to witness the creativity of each and every person in the class. They all started with the same fabrics, more or less, but tackled the questions of how to bring balance to the different design elements in their work, of deciding what "worked" and what didn't, in their own personal ways. For some, the process of designing their own quilts was quite new, but they
were all enthusiastic, and I can't wait
to see photos of the individual wall-hangings when they are finished. In the top photo, Brenda and Gail are deciding where best their pieced borders might fit, and in the next, Janet and Mary Ann are figuring out how to put an unconventional top on Mary Ann's piece. Works in progress by Carol, Brigitte and Louise are also pictured. All in all, it was a great weekend, complete with a Trunk Show and an evening dinner at the home of the President (Louise) I'd like to thank you all for being so welcoming. It really was a treat to spend the weekend with you.

African Collage in Czar, Alberta

I have just returned home from a wonderful teaching trip to Czar, Alberta. Where is this you ask? Well, it's 2 1/2 hours drive southeast of Edmonton - a town of 200 with a Quilters' Guild that draws members from all sorts of nearby rural communities. This 75-member Guild was celebrating their 10th anniversary, and I was fortunate enough to be invited there for this event. I can't tell you how impressed I was with these women, most of whom are traditional quilters, but wanted to try something a little different. They opted for my African Collage class, and each and every one of them created thier own unique wallhanging. I'd like to introduce you to just a few of them in this post, with more to follow in a day or two. First is Vicki. She had to prepare breakfast and lunch for the men on the ranch, who were branding cattle this weekend, before coming to class and designing this beautifully balanced and colourful piece. Next shown is Elaine, who added touches of blue to the warm fabrics provided in her class kit. Just the right touch to cause the eye to travel around her collage, and totally unlike anything she'd
made before. Carole used a deep blue and rust colour combination, to set off her batiked and silk-screened animals and people. The beads she's auditioning are the final touch. Ann went from saying that she wasn't sure what she was doing, to adding a row of squares on point in just the right colours to bring all the elements of her piece together. And lastly there's Miriam's work, with the unexpected addition of blocks from another quilt entirely, a curved pieced border, and a village scene in which rounded roofs of the huts echo that curved border. I am always amazed in this class, how individual each wallhanging is, how the personality of each person comes through. Apart from being a brave group of quilters, willing to try something quite new to them, they're also a phenomenally strong group of women. No matter what's going on in their lives, as many as can make it meet on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month in the Czar Hall. Once a year, on the weekend before Halloween, they have a quilt show, which draws people from as far away as Moose Jaw and Red Deer and Edmonton. And there's an annual sleepover at the
hall, and an annual bus trip, although now that they're up to 75 members, it's harder to do that. And then there's the food - home made soups and salads and desserts to die for. I was introduced to Saskatoon berry crumble, and will remember what a treat that was for a long time to come. So thank you to all of you in Czar and surrounding communities. You gave me such a warm welcome. I hope our paths cross again one day. And for any of you who might be travelling through that part of the country at the end of October this year, be sure to stop in and enjoy their quilt show, which is a much-anticipated event for the whole community every year. You'll be in for a treat.

Teaching in Yellowknife

I am just coming to the end of a delightful week in Yellowknife. The quilters here are terrific, and jumped right into making their own African Collage quilts. These shots give you a glimpse of works in progress, and in a few cases, of finished wallhangings. Donna plunged right in and in painting the white African figures green, yellow and orange, added her own unique spin to the fabrics provided. Julia's piece grew bigger and bigger over the two days. Not only did she have her own collection of African fabrics to add to the piece, but she also included unusual fabrics, such as Dupioni silk and satin. Next pictures is Diana, who hit a bit of a wall in her construction progress at the end of the class, but reappeared two days later with it all together, having found that working at home was just what she needed to push through that temporary barrier. Pat came with her finished wallhanging on that same day, having added guinea fowl and beads, borders and binding. Her quilt was even labelled already! And lastly is Hazel with her quilt, just about ready for her to add the finishing touches. I so enjoyed spending time with these quilters. And what a treat
to be able to visit Yellowknife for the first time in my life. Yes, there's ice and snow, but also brilliant sunshine most days, and rocky, granite outcroppings topped with trees, which are reminiscent for me of many places I visited while I was growing up. And the welcome and warmth (of a different kind) that I've been shown here has been wonderful.

A Little of This, A Little of That

Have I introduced you to the wonderful women from Incomparable Buttons in Johannesburg, South Africa? These are the ladies that make hand-crafted buttons that I am often found selling at quilt shows and in classes. They're fired at very high temperatures, so washing machine safe. Great for knitted items, or in African Collage quilts. Next is a delightful African Collage wallhanging made by Noreen Duncan from Winnipeg. And lastly is a small wallhanging made by Trudy Thorne.

It's just terrific to see so many Africa-inspired quilts, but nowadays so many of us have first or second hand experience of different African countries, so that it's no longer an unusual thing to share stories of time spend on that great continent. In fact when I recently taught my African Collage class in Saskatoon, 11 of the 12 participants had African connections of one kind or another. It's a small world, indeed.

African Collage class in Winnipeg

One of the best parts of being a teacher is the opportunity it gives me to travel to different parts of the country and to meet quilters all the way from the west coast to the east coast. Today I'm happy to show you the work of some of the quilters I met in Winnipeg in April. I was there to teach one of my design classes, African Collage, and always enjoy these. It's marvellous watching as each of the students brings her own interpretation to the making of her own quilted work. Each one is unique, in spite of all starting with similar fabrics. By the end of the second day of the workshop everyone's pieces are up on the wall - some are almost completed. I thought you'd enjoy seeing just a few examples from these students - still "works in progress", still mighty impressive. I had the opportuntiy to teach this same class again at Quilt Canada in Calgary, and look forward to receiving photos of their finished pieces as well. All have been most impressive!

African Collage

The other thing I did at Gibsons, besides enjoying the colour and energy of all the fibre artists, was to teach the class, "African Collage. Participants started with a selection of lino prints and a group of African and North American and batik fabrics that worked with them. They constructed borders and fillers for each of the prints, then tackled the challenging job of how to put them altogether into

one piece, that was balanced but not overly symmetrical. It was pure pleasure for me to be in the midst of such a creative group of women.There was enormous variety in the settings, and each one created a unique wallhanging. The possible variations on this kind of piece is endless, and provides a wonderful way to showcase African handwork and fabric. Some chose to add a little beading to their finished pieces, others included embroidery, and one person incorporated mask designs found on ancient African artifacts.
When I have photos of the finished work, I will be sure to post those too, so you can enjoy them. By the way, if there is anyone out there who would like to take on a similar challenge, I am willing to make up more kits and send them out with class instructions. It would be a great thing for a few friends to get together to work on. The kits would be $50 each, and include 10 fat quarters, 3 lino prints, some beads, and two borders.