Stuff I've Made: Quilts with West African Wax Prints

African Market quilt.

I was trying to show a colleague my West African wax print quilts that I made shortly after our trip to Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana & Cote d'Ivoire in 2006.  And realized that I have mentioned them but never put them up on this site.  The Roommate had 2 snow days last week (I had none!), so he took some photos for me. Thanks, Honey! 

So, we did our last big backpacking/overland trip for 5 weeks through West Africa.  Last because we're getting pretty old to be lugging backpacks around and sitting on buses for hours, staying in places with shared baths, etc.  We've done that all over the world, partly to stretch our travel & souvenir-buying $$, but also because riding buses (not renting a car & driver) and staying in hostels is a great way to see how the local people live. We don't cover as much ground and certainly travel inefficiently, but on the other hand it's a great way to find out what's happening, plus watch some wonderful Nigerian movies on the bus, and get off and do bird-watching every time the bus driver takes yet another unscheduled break. We are usually the only non-locals on the bus, always of great interest and high entertainment value, plus people are generally quite friendly and curious about who we are and what we are doing there.  

Reverse of African Fabric Shop.

We knew we wanted to buy as much kente, kuba, bogolon textiles, and wax print fabric as we could carry on the plane (about 40 lbs/each). So we took old clothes and shoes that we left behind, and just stuffed our backpacks! We used a scale in a little neighborhood market to check & were thrilled when we got to the airport & checked in with 79 lbs!  

Reverse of African Market quilt.

We've spent time in markets all over the world (we love them, in fact, and go out of our way to be in town on market day), but found them to be so crowded that you spent the whole time worrying about being pick-pocketed.  Also, they are HUGE, so it's really hard to find what you want; i.e., the textile stores!  When we finally found the fabric section in the Accra market, we discovered that the prices weren't that much better, and the selection wasn't any different in the less crowded, well-organized shops a little bit out from the city center.  

African Fabric Shop.

Speaking of fabric shops...they were wonderful. (A few photos here.) Clean, organized, & often with marked prices--a real luxury.  So the second quilt I made is called African Fabric Shop.  I used pieces of all 44 fabrics I bought, (as I did with the Market quilt), but tried to make them a bit more orderly.  Both of these quilts are smaller (3' x 4' or so), and we use them all the time in the sun room when we're reading or watching a movie.  Bella also loves them, which is really all we care about.

The last picture, below, is to show you the great machine-quilting my friend Mala Ramakrishnan, of Classic Quilts Dubai did.  Mala is an amazing quilter & a true artist, so I always felt safe giving her my quilts & saying, "Whatever you think will look best."  Both are quilted with the same pattern, to make them a matched set, along with the same fabric selections being used in both. 

Another Xmas Gift Finished!

We got a lovely blast of snow and ice today, so it feels a lot more like xmas & makes sitting in front of the fireplace, reading with Bella (who has kept me focused on sewing all day, in managerial fashion), a lovely proposition.

Of course, it's Sunday and not having to go out in it helps...it feels romantic & cozy & fun.  I don't work tomorrow, but the Roommate does, so this won't be so fun tomorrow for him, driving to work, especially if we have a true ice storm as they're predicting tonite.

Lining on left.

So after we ran out to the gym & to get some supplies (milk, limes!),  I got one of my projects done, a quilted iPad holder for my sister (who doesn't read this blog, so my secret should be safe).  I did a bit of piecing, and decided to curve the edges of the front flap because I couldn't find my instructions for making a mitered corner for the binding.  I could have looked it up on the innerwebs, I know, but decided this made it a bit softer & worked better with the pretty fabric.  

I think most of this fabric was a gift from a quilting friend, but there were so many different colors that matched & mixed, so I think parts of it were serendipitous, too.  No complaints; it was nice to work with such pretty fabric, and to have lots to play with.  

I also managed to get caught up on my Project Runway Allstars episodes.  Sometimes I feel like I spend more time trying to find something to watch while sewing than I spend actually sewing!  

This is the outside back of the tablet cover.  

What are you making for xmas gifts?  

Workt By Hand: Quilt Show at the Brooklyn Museum

Flying Geese, 1847

We spent a few days in NYC recently (no, I didn't go to Mood; instead I spent my retirement savings at the Strand Bookstore!)...and happened upon a quilt exhibition, Workt By Hand, at the Brooklyn Museum!  

The idea of the show was to place value on the work of the women who made these quilts, who weren't paid for their work (except the joy of keeping their families warm). 

Flying Geese, again!

Of course I took photos, and thought you'd like to see some.  One impressive aspect of these quilts is they were much older than the ones I usually see in exhibitions.  Easily pre-dating many of the Amish quilts we've seen in Pennsylvania, or the quilts in the collection at the Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, NE by 30 years or so!  

 As always, clicking on the photo will get you the largest version available...

Delectable Mountains, 1850

Wedding Ring, 1850

Another view of Wedding Ring, 1850

Star of Bethlehem, 1850 - ALL silk

Tumbling Blocks, 1850, the colors are mostly silk

Maltese Cross, 1870

Log Cabin, 1890 (Barn Raising Arrangement)

Double Wedding Ring, 1930

Last Quilt Update

A photo to show you the quilt, which is now finished & on our bed.  I had to bind it, which required lots of handwork (and you know I hate that stuff).  I am trying to take a Gertie approach to handwork & think of it as relaxing...so, zen stitching!  

I even finished up after our yoga class this morning!  Everybody say, "Ommmmmm!"  ॐ

The Last Quilt (?)

I made this quilt when we lived in Abu Dhabi.  I'm calling it the Last Quilt because I don't really plan on making many more quilts. (How many do you need? We only have 2 beds!)

A friend helped pick out the main fabric & then I did a bunch of tests w/ the leaves, green swirly, dark purple & the pale purple to see which showed off the pattern the best.  I originally thought I'd use the dark purple, too, but though it matched, it was just too dark, & because it is solid, too boring w/ the pale purple (which has a pattern, but hard to see in these photos).  You can see which version won out above.  I really like how it's sort of an optical illusion:  is the green floating on the pale purple?  

Here are a few more up close photos which show the swirly machine quilting.  I like it because it matches the swirliness of the green fabric, too.  Denise at Upstairs Quilting machine-quilted it for me & it looks amazing.  It has bamboo/cotton batting inside, which she said was really nice to work with.

Below you can see that the actual quilt top was rather small, so I added three borders. First the checkerboard using the dark purple.  Then I (fortunately) had plenty of the leaf fabric, so made that border nice & wide.  But even then, when I pulled it out of the box in the basement a while back, I could see it wouldn't be big enough for our queen-sized beds.  So I found the plain purple border (far right in photo below) at Hancock Fabric and added that.  That's the fabric I'll do the binding with, too.  

For the back, again, I was thinking Last Quilt, so I made an attempt to use up as many scraps & fat quarter sets as I could.  It's very scrappy & doesn't match at all, but I think it's sort of fun.  And we can flip over the quilt every once in a while for a change.

I had so many great sets that friends have given me over the years; you can see two of them here, but we don't really have the sort of house where I have lots of quilted things laying around or hanging, and so I attempted to use a small percentage of them up--at least I'll see them a bit more now that they are no longer living in a box of fat quarters!

Tilly always does such a good job remembering to add a song...I often forget, but there is always music in my head--my big problem is getting that song out so I can concentrate!  

Here's a fun one:  Travis Tritt, Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)

Details...a few from the Esprit Amish Quilt Collection show in Lancaster

The actual quilting (what holds the 3 pieces of fabric together) is actually the most difficult part of quilting.  Piecing?  Deciding what color to use and how to arrange the block--easy peasy!  But the quilting--it's hard and from the one time I hand-quilted a very small (3' x 3') quilt, I mostly remember lots of needle pricks!  But if you look closely, quilting, the handstitched designs that are the backbone of a sturdy & beautiful quilt, are the most time-consuming and the most detailed part of most quilts you'll see...certainly the most detailed part of these Amish masterpieces.  (Remember, click on a photo to see the original size & get even more detail.) 

This one is my new desktop background!  Like being lost in colorful city blocks!

Music?  I Fall to Pieces by Patsy Cline.  Oh, Patsy, I love how you're just a beat slower than the music!

Live from Lancaster! Amish Quilts from the Esprit Collection

We made a special trip to the Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum to see all 82 quilts from the Esprit Amish Quilt Collection in one place.  They are amazing, mostly from about 1880 - 1925, made from solid-color pieces of wool.  Known for their graphic quality and modern art sensibility, Amish quilts made a big splash when they were exhibited as art at the Whitney in NYC in 1971.

Lancaster is a great little town, in the heart of Amish country...very charming & lots to see & do. Sunday afternoons are a good time to be out and about as the Amish head out in their carriages to socialize.

Here are a very few of the 82 quilts, just to show you some of our favorites.  I'll put some detail shots on the next post. Enjoy!

A quick note about the collection: they are in financial troubles and really need a donor to help them find a new home (though the collection will remain together & be used for shows; but will spend more of its time in storage than on show).  If you're an oil baroness or google heir, please contact them at the link above!

Music?  Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend?  by Marilyn (who else?)  To explain the pun, two of the above quilts are called Diamond in the Square...sorry!

Bella models the W. African fabric quilt; knitted socks

You may have seen the list of items I've made (I've made more, but don't necessarily have pics, or haven't put them up); this in particular, a tablecloth & 2 small quilts I made of fabric we bought in Ghana & Burkina Faso.

Well, it's winter here now (cold & rainy tonight), and Bella is staying warm by avoiding the hard wood floors and the leather love seat!

And here are some nice warm wool socks from back in the late 1980s when I was knitting socks a lot.  They're the Roommate's.  They haven't been worn that much (wool doesn't look good at all when you live in the Middle East!), so they're 20+ yrs old but in great shape...I can never make the same thing twice, hence the mis-match.

Do you love the bedspread pictured above?  It's a print from India.

Twisted!

I've begun work on a quilted wallhanging for my mother.  She recently updated & redecorated her house (part of the house because she wanted to, part because a big rainstorm on an adobe house is not a good thing--ever!).  Lots of new colors & furniture, so she & a friend decided a pretty wallhanging would be just right for the living room...

When I was in ABQ we picked out the pattern & started shopping for the colors.  When I returned home, I had the background & border fabric, plus a start on the fabric for the twisted pinwheels (see what the finished quilt will look like--6 bunches of 4 twisting pinwheels with a narrow & broad border). I also had the paint samples my mother had used.  If you look closely at the quilt, you might notice that those 24 pinwheels have 14 different fabrics, so it's a fairly scrappy quilt.  I wanted to get that variety into this quilt, so went to Hancock Fabric today (which I can't believe I never found before--it's closer than JoAnn!).  Hancock also happens to be very close to a big hardware/home improvement store--so everyone in the family can be happy with one 3.5 mile drive down Highway 1.  I found 4 more greens that will work with the paint samples I was sent home with; we had trouble finding the greens in ABQ, though the turquoise & reddish/orange fabrics were easy to come by.

I also decided not to use the actual gadget that came with the book my mom found the pattern in...it's quick & easy, but wastes a LOT of fabric.  I can't stand that--because any leftovers will get added to my stash!  So after a few tries and lots of sewing/unsewing I figured out how to use almost all of the 5" block, rather than lose about 25-30% of that block.  To give you an idea, according to the book, a 5" block would end up about 3.25".  But my version ends up w/ about 4.5"!  That's using the 1/8" mark on the quilting foot.

I like the way the test square came out, but it definitely demonstrates one of my weaknesses: although I consider myself quite visual, I'm not so good at shades.  So, the 2 lighter shades, which look pretty different in person, really blend into a double-twisted-pinwheel-blob because they're not different enough.  I will definitely get the Roommate to assist with this--he's good at the different shades.  In fact, the biggest quilt I ever made (my 2nd) was all sorts of blues & greens.  I had the washed/ironed fabric on the back of our futon--and he put them in order by shade gradation, so when he wasn't around I could still keep the quilt going.

It was a good test run, though, and I only need to make six of these squares...this first one took a few hours, so obviously, if I put this one aside as a lesson, I haven't wasted  that much time.

What do you learn about yourself from sewing?!  Do you have any weaknesses that wouldn't otherwise appear?  How do you get around them?  Just curious...

Ironing board - in Action!

Here's my new ironing board, installed firmly on the wall.  The thrills, the chills!  Life is certainly good here. The Roommate is so great for projects like this--he remembers to measure & can also hold up the very heavy ironing board & run the drill properly so no one gets hurt & it looks great when the project is finished.

So what is my next project?!  Well, I'll be doing a smallish (52" x 36") wallhanging/quilt for my mother.  It's called Twisted Pinwheels & there are many variations.  This particular picture (left) is not quite right either.  I guess you'll just have to stay tuned?! I think I've figured out how to do it; I just need to get started.  We're having friends for dinner tonight & last night was a flurry of straightening/cleaning up, so maybe tomorrow?  But we want to see "Attack the Block" before it closes--and it's a bit of a commute to get to Silver Spring, where it's playing.  Does this sound like a bunch of excuses?  I hope not...it's just that life & work & new house are definitely getting in the way of sewing. 

Appropriate music?  The Action! of course! 

Something I made but don't have anymore :-(

When we left Istanbul (and we were in a hurry) we had to leave lots of stuff behind (sewing notions, lots of sewing notions!).  And this quilted wall-hanging, which I didn't think I'd miss, but I do and I might have to make another to replace it.  It's supposed to be a window looking out on a flower garden.  What do you think?

Other stuff I've made: Quilts

West African Fabric Shop

I'm always raving about West African textiles & the roommate's & my 5-week shopping trip there...here are some quilts to show you what I made.  I bought a lot of fabric, and haven't made much of a dent in it, so plan to use more for dresses, shirts for the roommate, etc...

The first quilt (they are smallish 6' x 4' or so each) is called West African Fabric shop and shows nice orderly rows of fabric, one each of every kind I bought!  A friend in Dubai machine-quilted them for me.

The Anarchy of the African Market

The second quilt is titled The Anarchy of the African Market.  We like markets and find that they are a good place to observe the local people just being people, not selling things to tourists, or performing in any way.  We like to walk around a good market for a long time.  But the markets in Africa are pretty chaotic, to say the least, and really, downright scary.  (This doesn't include the much smaller, much harder-to-get-to markets of Goram Goram, Burkina Faso, or in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, which were fun, friendly, not crowded and very interesting--though not if you were looking for tourist treasure.)  So this 2nd quilt tries to reflect that anarchy and explains why I ended up not buying much fabric at the markets!  And mostly why we skedaddled after 20-30 minutes...we did try to go a few times, in Ouagadougou, in Accra, in Lame, and in Tamale, in northern Ghana, but never lasted a half hour--scary!  Jammed so tight you knew you were a target for robbery (I get nervous about this anywhere in the world), and also, it was pretty easy to lose each other!  Yikes.

This last one is a table cloth, and it sort of quilted itself, because as I sewed each strip on, I sewed it to the backing, then I just put the binding on.  Hope you like seeing these.  Comments? Questions?

Here's a mix of classic highlife music to get you in the mood.  I'd recommend looking for a classic highlife (50s-60s) CD online, or at the library, to get a better taste of this amazing music.