Africa-Inspired Quilts

One of the lovely things that frequently happens, as part of my life as a quilter and quilt teacher, is the arrival of photos of African-inspired (or Art Deco-inspired) quilts made by students and/or other quilters. Here are just a few recent pics. The first two are made by Margot Calvert from the Fraser Valley Quilt Guild in the Fraser Valley. Her rendition of African Sunshine is just terrific. Such a mixture of different and often unexpected fabrics. My eye travels around it, Surprising the viewer, using the unlikely, adds such richness to a quilt like this. I love the quilting lines too, how they give the whole piece such movement. Her second quilt is made from a Carol Piercy pattern. Again it's the choice of fabrics, and particularly the outer bordering fabric, that makes it so appealing. That may be one of the things that draws people to quiltering - that even if two quilts are made using the same pattern, each one is unique as each person chooses different fabrics to work with.























The next quilt is made by Joanne Colleaux from Kamloops. What's interesting in this African collage, besides the observation that many different elements can be successfully incorporated into one piece as long as there are unifying borders and fabrics in the rest of the work, is what a difference it made when Joanne added the outside border. She knew she wasn't finished with it yet, and wasn't truly happy until she added the piano key border around the entire outer edge. Ahhh! Perfect. Thanks to both of you for sharing.