Friday, August 24, 2012

"Out of Africa" 2013: African Quilting comes to Canada

I'm thrilled to announce that I will be teaching at the London International Quilt Festival in London, Ontario, Canada next spring!  LIQF is an annual weeklong event which is featuring the quilts and quilters of Africa in next year's edition "Out of Africa" 2013.  As Garnet Smalley, the head of LIQF, wrote me, "we started this exhibit to bring together quilters to learn about different cultures through the wonderful works of art the quilters make."  Next year's festival runs from June 12 to 15, and promises to be a colorful and exciting safari! Besides the classes, there will be an exhibition featuring African quilts, a selection of vendors to satisfy our shopping instincts, and a Gala Evening on Saturday, June 15th, with cocktails, dinner and live entertainment.  I'm packing my bags now! :)

I'll be teaching two sessions of my favorite 2-day fabric stamping workshop.  In this class, I teach printing with the wonderful hand-carved wooden blocks from Oshiwa Designs in Namibia, one of my former homes in Africa, covering everything from choosing fabric paint, tackling different surface design techniques for preparing backgrounds, embossing velvet, and foiling with the blocks.

Information on these workshops and the other fabulous classes which will be offered at LIQF will soon be listed at www.londoninternationalquiltfestival.com.
Info on the Oshiwa blocks used in the workshop and the artisans who carve them can be found at www.promoteafrica.org

I hope to see you in London in 2013!




2 comments:

  1. Hi Paula,
    I discoverd your blog via the seehowwesew blog.
    The world is small. You mention Kallisti quilts. Michelle is a good friend of mine, who supplies me with sashiko supplies and Japanese fabrics.She only lives 50km from me.
    Last February we visited Kenya and Tanzania with a learning tour organized by the Mennonite Central Committee and the Canadian Food Grains Bank.( yes I'm a farmer)
    We experienced a lot and are planning to go back. One evening I met with Gill in Nairobi. We had plans to meet with more quilters, but we were stuck in traffic and it had to be cancelled.
    I live about 100 km from London, On and I'm planning to see the show.
    I'm a traditional quilter and you can find some of my work at www.renskehelmuth.blogspot.com
    At some point my African fabric will be used in a group quilt to be sold at the Mennonite RElief Sale in New Hamburg.Loved your blog

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    1. Hi Renske,
      It truly is a small world! Gill is a wonderful hostess and friend, your travels took you to some great places, and I'm not surprised you want to go back. I'd love to go back to East Africa myself! In the meantime, I work with African fabrics and hope to see some of the ladies from the Kenya Quilt Guild at LIQF. Please say hi to Michelle when you see her!
      I look forward to meeting you in June!
      Paula

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