This is "Mowani", a small piece named for a starkly beautiful camp in western Namibia that we visited several times during our three years there (www.mowani.com). This area of the country is home to the elusive desert-adapted elephants who live in a wild, extremely dry environment. They're free, but mankind presses in on their world.
The fabrics in this piece are African prints and an elephant I hand-stamped with an Oshiwa block carved by artisans in Windhoek. I just love the beautiful blocks they make, and I've been hooked on fabric stamping with them since the very first time I did it!

This is a detail of "Mowani" showing the threadwork around the block print Oshiwa elephant.

As I go through my photos, I'll put a few into the blog to show what I've been making with my hand-stamped fabrics. Here are four postcards I made this spring, two of which were sold in an auction benefitting the Wendy's Wish Foundation, a cancer charity supported by the Stitchin' Post in Sisters, OR. All of the teachers at the Quilter's Affair were asked to contribute postcards, and I was happy to send them the crocodile and the bird. The whole collection of beautiful postcards can be seen at http://www.sistersoutdoorquiltshow.org/WishPostcards09.htm

The Quilter's Affair is a week-long orgy of classes taught by some of the best quilting teachers around, like Libby Lehman, Lura Schwarz Smith, Sharon Pederson, Barbara Shapel, Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran. The talented mother-daughter team of Jean and Valori Wells runs the Stitchin' Post quilt store that organizes the Quilter's Affair every year, and they top off the week with the biggest outdoor quilt show in the world. Their whole town is given over to the display of something over 1200 quilts, and thousands of people descend on Sisters, Oregon for the thrill of seeing the show and being part of the quilter's equivalent of Woodstock! OK, there's far less use of illegal substances in Sisters, but the show provides us with a real quilter's high nonetheless! The show is always on the second Saturday in July, so next year's is on July 10, 2010. It's not too early to start planning your trip! Check out the details at http://www.stitchinpost.com/ And in case you're wondering, I don't own stock in the store, but I wish I did!

I'll post photos from the workshops I taught in Sisters this year soon. The students did some terrific work!

Paula