Africa-Inspired Quilts, This Year's Grandmothers' Quilt

Many of you have made quilts which have incorporated small pieces of textile art in them, in combination with a variety of African fabrics. This first quilt photo comes from Langa Lapu in South Africa, and contains many lino prints and block prints. We've been importing them from Lembu prints and Langa Lapu for some time, and they have been so successful that we are hoping to teach this skill to the Bitengye ladies, so they can make something similar.











This next "African Collage" was made by Joanne Colleaux, from Armstrong, BC. She and a group of friends got together to work on their own individual pieces, in this case incorporating batiks as well as lino prints and African fabrics.















And how's this for a colourful rendition Africa-inspired quilt? It's a variation of a Rail Fence quilt, and was made by Trudy, Joyanne, Judy, Noelle and Lindsay, a quilt group based in Victoria, BC. And most exciting for us, it's this year's Grandmothers' quilt. This weekend I delivered it to Marilyn Wickes, who has once again graciously agreed to quilt it for us. As soon as this has been done and the binding has been added, we will begin selling "opportunities to own" this quilt. The tickets will be $5 each, and will be sold right up until the time of the Whistler Quilters' Guild show in June of next year, when one lucky person who has made a donation will become the owner of the quilt.

Africa-inspired Quilts

One of the delights of our trip to Uganda earlier this year, was collecting some remarkable batiks in the craft markets. In some cases we even managed to meet the artists responsible for making them. We sold out of all that we brought back with us fairly quickly, but kept back a few for ourselves to work with. These first two wallhangings are the work of Joan Darling, who has added free-motion stitching and beading as well as borders to the batiks. The first wallhanging of two women carrying pots on their heads is part of our fund-raising efforts for this year's trip to Uganda, and is for sale for $125. The second wallhanging of a woman walking in the rain, is not for sale. Aren't they delightful?

The quilt below is made by Ann McLean, owner of The Country Quilter in Richmond, Ontario. The Richmond Guild made all the blocks for their October block-of-the-month challenge, and Ann put all the blocks together with African fat quarters from Kitambaa Designs, as well as from her Ugandan friend, Petwa. I love the colours in it. There's nothing quite like silouetted animals against a sunset sky to evoke the feeling of Africa. Except perhaps the music.

It is six weeks today that we fly to Uganda, and preparations are well underway for the next workshop. Thank you to so many of you who have collected unused embroidery floss for us to use with the ladies, as well as all the other miscellaneous supplies we will be taking with us. Now we're busy making samples up of "new designs" to take with us, and filling totes with fabrics, particularly the black fabric that is so hard to find in Uganda. We'll be sourcing out local supplies for this once we get there, but have no way of knowing how successful we will be.

Another African Journey

Joyce Nicholls, who makes her home in Newfoundland, Canada's eastern-most province, recently sent me this photo of her completed "African Journey". I love the bright colours again the yellow wall of her bedroom. She tells me that she had been attracted by the brilliance of African fabrics and had been collecting them for some time before she visited our booth at Quilt Canada in St. John's last year. So when she discovered Kitambaa's patterns using these, it was a natural fit. The detail photo of the quilt shows the curving quilting design she chose, a beautiful counterpoint to the straight lines and angular lines of the strip-piecing and flying geese. Congratulations, Joyce, on a beautifully exectued quilt!

A Day of African Sunshine

Yesterday I had the pleasure of teaching a one-day class for the Nanaimo Quilters' Guild. African Sunshine was the title of the class - the sample for the class can be seen behind Sandy. This is an original setting of the New York Beauty block, and everyone arrived with colourful fabrics with which to construct their own wallhangings. It took a little patience to get the hang of it, but spirits were high, and even those who were dubious about getting it "right" were soon underway and building their own arcs. It was wonderful to look around the classroom and see all the variations appearing up on the walls. After

a brief lunch, everyone began piecing their arcs into blocks and excitement mounted as quilters imagined what the outcome would be when another 13 or 14 blocks had been made. Mid-afternoon everyone had an opportunity to see a living example of where they were headed, when all the finished blocks were put up on a design wall, and miraculously, the individual blocks of 16 quilters, each with their own individual sense of colour, looked spectacular when combined with each other.
I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing the final results of yesterday's efforts, and may just be working on another African Sunshine myself. It was such fun to play with the colours, to throw in a wild card fabric, to use uglies and unexpected treasures as well as dependable and familiar fabrics. To break the rules and go a little wild with the possibilities. Thanks to all of you for a great class!

While We Wait . . .

The totes from Uganda, containing all the items completed by the Bitengye Designers since we left Uganda in early March, arrived in Vancouver on Monday. But sadly we were unable to collect them then - it being a holiday, there was no-one in customs who could process them. So my husband, who had made a special trip to Vancouver to collect them, returned home with an empty van. Today (Wednesday) an ACTS worker from the mainland went to pick them up from the airport, and he's had an equally frustrating day, spending hours and hours filling out copious amounts of paper work, but still the totes are not being released. So it will be tomorrow, all being well, before these much anticipated totes and their contents make their way to Comox. In the meantime, I thought you would enjoy seeing the work of two fellow quiltmakers. The top detail is from Lee McLean's Under the African Sun. Lee hails from Fredericton, New Brunswick, and has been a friend since I met her at CQA in Winnipeg several years ago. Last year we got reaquainted when I stayed with her suring a teaching trip "back east". What a treat that was! The second photo is of a quilt made by Betty Manuel, who had purchased a number of batiks from me, and set them in this original arrangement. I love it!

Trunk Shows and Classes

I have just returned from a delightful week in Abbotsfrod and Vancouver. Diana, my wonder-hostess, is pictured here on the right. She and her mother took fabulous care of me, so much so that I am already dreaming up reasons to return. I presented Trunk Shows to both the Abbotsford Quilters' Guild and the Vancouver Quilters' Guild, and also taught classes for both Guilds. Here Diana and Doris are holding up one of my earliest Africa-inspired quilts, "Pottus Afrikanus", featuring block-printed fabric from a women's cooperative in Zimbabwe.



This quilt is "Under the Mexican Sun", and is an alternate arrangement for my pattern "Under the African Sun".


Here is a small wallhanging made by Trudy Thorne, one of my faithful "worker bees". Silk-screened village scenes that I found on my visit to Uganda two years ago, are featured in the centre of wonky log cabins.

This most unusual quilt, is made by Joan Darling, my other faithful "worker bee". She collected the labels from a sampling of our veritable wax fabrics, and made a quilt featuring all them. Each 12 yard length we receive from Uganda has such a label attached, in addition to having the same information printed on the selvage.

And, of course, there was time at both Guilds for a little shopping. My "little shop on wheels" accompanied me to both the Abbotsford and Vancouver Quilters' Guilds, and proved as popular as ever. African fabrics. lino prints, batiks and more, joined ranks with hand-dyed, sun-dyed and batik fabrics, and are now bubbling away in the recesses of various quilters' imaginations, awaiting their next quilts.