Teaching in Kenya - Part 2

No blog posting about my visit to Nairobi would be complete if I didn't include some photos of two wonderful places to get "up close and personal" with animals. Gill took me to Giraffe Manor, where I actually got to pet and feed giraffes! I've lived in various countries in Africa for a long time, and I've seen giraffes on numerous game drives, but these giraffes were the first that I could touch. How can you be ho-hum about that? They're charming!

Dena took me to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/index.asp to see the morning baby elephant feeding. Most of the baby elephants you see there are orphans of the ivory trade-- their family members having been killed by poachers who then sell the tusks. To me it's horrifying to think about the tragedy of the many, many elephant deaths that poaching causes every year. Elephants are intelligent, caring beings who inspire in me a great deal of respect. The Sheldrick Trust is doing an amazing job in attempting to right the balance, and show that human beings can be companions to elephants, instead of their worst enemies. Their program of fostering orphaned elephants is remarkable for it's constancy, it's caring, and it's demonstration of the ability to form ties of love between our two species.

The photos here show the intimate and loving relationship between many of these orphans and their keepers. It is unbelievably touching to see the way the babies twine their trunks around the keepers' necks, follow them around, and nudge them pretty determinedly when they're ready for their second bottle of milk! To see these relationships between people and elephants gives me a sense of hope for the future.

Teaching in Kenya---last fall!

I have a lot of catching up to do on the blog, so let me begin with a wonderful two-week stay in Nairobi. I had the very great pleasure of being invited to visit the Kenya Quilt Guild in Nairobi to teach several classes and speak to their guild meeting. What a pleasure it was to fly over to East Africa and spend time in the company of a group of dynamic and creative quilters! I was incredibly lucky to meet new friends like my hostess Gill Rebelo, who is a wonderful cook as well as a very skilled quilter! She has an amazing collection of fabric pieces, many of which came from clothing she bought at the second-hand clothing market in downtown Nairobi. Making her quilts with the nice bits from these used blouses, shirts and so on puts Gill very much in the quilting tradition of recycling lovely fabrics while creating beauty---and gives her a huge "fabric shop" to hunt for bargains in!

I was also able to reconnect with Dena Crain, an immensely talented quilting teacher I first met online while I lived in Namibia! She teaches regularly online at Quilt University.com, which is how we "met" so I was happy to meet her in person in Canada a couple of years ago. Her blog is great---lots of quilts and tips, but also great photos of her life in the bush. You can find it at: http://www.denacrain.com/blog/

While in Nairobi I taugh Doodle Quilting, Fabric Stamping with Oshiwa blocks, and Try it Now! - a workshop on using lutradur, paintstiks, Angelina and other interesting materials in quilts. I'm posting a couple of photos from the classes, as well as a photo of Dena and me while we visited Karen Blixen's home. I'd wanted to see her farm and house ever since I saw Out of Africa, so it was definitely a highlight of the trip!

Gill and Dena took me around Nairobi to see all the important sights, which was terrific, but the best thing about going there was the experience of spending time with the ladies of the Kenya Quilt Guild. I can't thank them enough for taking me into their midst and treating me to two weeks of vibrant, stimulating, creative fervor! It was an absolute pleasure!

SAQA 2011 Benefit Auction

So I've made three small quilts now, one of which will be my submission to the SAQA 2011 Benefit Auction (http://www.saqa.com/) in September.

The first one is a series of small jewels of fabric I printed with my Oshiwa blocks in gold fabric paint on batiks, which I then embedded into a hand-painted background of black Kona cotton stitched with a double needle in an abstract grid pattern. The jewels are outlined in another batik, sewn in an adaptation of a bound buttonhole, familiar to people who actually sew clothing!

The second one is more simply composed of a double-needle-stitched background with three mini-quiltlets I printed with my Oshiwa blocks appliqued on top. Each of the mini-quiltlets has it's own batting and backing and is finished with muliple-thread satin stitching. On the left side I've attached some of my textured "strings" made of strips of fabrics, sheers, embroidery thread, and other stray bits from my sewing table, all stitched together by machine with an interesting thread. These "strings" here represent the grasslands that these African animals live in.

The third piece features a hexagonal print of a croc framed with a geometric block (both from Oshiwa of course) extensively quilted to make him at home in the nest of scraps of African fabrics I freemotion stitched all around him. I have quite a few African fabrics in my stash, and my scrap bag is still full-----I may have to make more pieces like this!

One of these will go to SAQA very soon...unless I have another idea and make yet another possible donation quilt. So many ideas, so little time! :)

Fabric Shopping in Gabon

I thought you might like to see what a typical fabric shopping trip looks like here in Libreville. It's a great way to spend a couple of hours!! I often go to a neighborhood called "Petit Paris" and look at African fabrics in one or two (or more) of the small shops there. The typical shopper is buying fabric to have clothing made, so the shops sell fabric in six yard chunks. This is more than I'd normally buy for a project, but since I have a group of friends here who are also interested in making quilts from African prints, we trade amongst ourselves, and end up with a slection of one-yard lengths to play with.

So here's a dashboard photo of the street along the way.....don't worry, a friend is driving! And a couple of photos of the fabrics stacked floor to ceiling in the shop. What a great riot of color! It's so hard to choose just a couple of pieces and leave the rest there----they might be gone next time we come shopping! It's true I tend to want to buy everything, but I do manage to leave some of the fabric there for the next person, or the next shopping expedition. :)

I've also included here a photo of some of the signs marking the fabrics that have been chosen as the group fabric for people's weddings or anniversary celebrations. The tradition here and in several other parts of Africa is that invited guests can come to the fabric shop and see which print the bride and groom or the anniversary couple have chosen for all the guests to wear. The guests then buy the fabric and have clothing made out of it, and everyone at the celebration has an outfit that matches! It's a great custom, and makes everyone invited feel part of the event. It also makes for great group photos!

The Purplemeister

I've finally finished a project I started with some friends in Canada! Of course, the deadline passed some time ago, but I couldn't have been in the show anyway, since I'm a bit far away.... Anyway, it's purple. It's not just a little bit purple, it's VERY purple. It started as a color study exchange with some fiber art friends. We pulled colors out of a hat to start, and I got purple. Then when we added a second color, I got red. Yellow was the third and last color I got, and this quilt is the piece that I made from the blocks the other members of the group made for me.

I've inserted a photo of the square blocks I received in the exchange, and and another of the quilt that grew out of the blocks. I've included a detail shot showing one block stamped with an Oshiwa block done by a friend who had been in one of my fabric stamping classes! For now, I'm calling this piece the Purplemeister---it just seemed appropriate somehow.... :)

Reporting in from Libreville, Gabon

After a short break (ok, it's been over a year!) I'm now writing from Libreville, Gabon, where my husband has taken up his posting as Ambassador in the U.S. Embassy here. We arrived in October, and have been happily exploring this extravagantly green country since then. I'm putting in just a couple of photos to give you an idea of our surroundings. One is of the Residence and the other is one of the beautiful sunsets we are priviledged to enjoy almost daily. It's been wonderful to be back in Africa---I love the intense activity of life in the markets, and the vibrancy of the colors here, not to mention the sight of women (and some men) wearing clothes made from the fabulous African prints I just adore! I'm happy to report that I've managed (just) to avoid stopping the car every five seconds to ask if I can take pictures of yet another great outfit on a passerby.....

I'm busy working again, and as proof, I offer a photo of my design wall with some pieces that I'm working on now.

On the left is a black and white collection of fabric I've printed with my Oshiwa blocks, mixed with some commercial black and white prints. I haven't decided yet exactly how I'm going to put this together, but it will have vertical columns with some texture.....

On the right is a hexagon quilt top with a bright mix of fabrics I've printed or over-printed with Oshiwa blocks, assembled with pieces cut from some of my African prints. I'm contemplating borders and some fun quilting.....

In the center are the first two of a series of foot-square pieces I'm making with the idea that one of them will go to the SAQA auction. I printed up way too many pieces of great batiks with gold fabric paint, but working in a series is supposed to be good for artistic growth, so I'm having at it. :)

In the lower part of the center is a pillow-top in the making. I used one of my hexagons with a croc printed on it as a centerpiece, and then I stitched bunches of the scraplets from the hexagon quilt onto interfacing foundations to make the surrounding hexagons. It's pretty shaggy, which makes me happy, and isn't that what creating things is supposed to do?

Fiber Art Postcards for Wendy's Wish Foundation

The Stitchin' Post in Sisters Oregon not only organizes the most fun week of quilting activities I've ever attended, they also support Wendy's Wish Foundation, a Central Oregon non-profit that helps to make cancer screening and services available to those who cannot afford them. This year, I'm again participating in the Stitchin' Post's Wish Upon a Card Project by donating two fiber art postcards I made last month, both featuring fabrics I hand-stamped with Oshiwa blocks. On their way to Oregon are an elephant, with a funky, twisty and hairy fiber string trim, and a giraffe with a fancy fabric-lace frame. It was very fun to create these in support of such a good cause!