I have taken a small break from quilting to try out my Christmas present to myself, RESIN. What fun. I played around with beads till I got a handle on things and now have coasters woohoo. I thought I would share how to make these with scraps from my quilts.
1.

I bought a mold for these lovely coasters, I know there are many resins out there but I got these and will try out more later. Mix for a ratio of 1:1 (or as your resin directs) stir WELL and pour into mold. I learnt through Youtube how to get rid of the bubbles, gentle heat gun or blow dryer. Its that easy.

The hard part is waiting for 24hrs till you can take them out.

Next you will need:

Good glue

toothpicks or brush

scissors

fabric

cork

I chose my favorite African print, I had about just enough left for this project so yay.

Glue around the outside edge (on the back of the coaster of course) and a small bit in the middle.

I found gluing the whole thing gave the fabric a funny look, but I might try other glues.

Position the fabric where you want and press down securely. roughly trim.

I wanted something on the back of the coaster to give it a better look than just glues fabric so I looked around my small craft area and found my cork paper, PERFECT. Glue the cork on as you did the fabric. Press fermly, I waited about 1/2 hr and then trimmed the fabric and cork. Its that easy.

You might notice in the back I have a bead. I try not to waist anything so from my little scraps of fabric and cork I made a few beads hahahaha. What fun, but time consuming.

www.jhkalahariquilts.com

Jenny Healy Designs by Kalahari Quilts website

 So here is my next project. People have asked for the pattern for these quilts. It is a complicated method but once you have it down its so easy. I will be working on getting this published on my website (which I also have to finish haha). As I go through the trials and errors of publishing my first pattern I will be blogging about it. This should be fun and NOT AT ALL TAXING FOR A VOCABULARY/GRAMMAR incompetent quilter hahaha.

Wow HIIIIII!
It has been so long, with so much going on. I had to close the store in Botswana and move back to Oregon USA. I however still have stories untold and pictures to share, so stay tuned as I build my website again and get into the grove of things.

MY FABRICS YAY

My Zentangle drawings, pen on fabric are being made into fabric. Check out

http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/jennyhealy

Elephant zentangle

Africa zentangle

Lion zentangle

Zebra zentangle

Leopard zentangle

African ladies zentangle

Botswana baskets zentangle

Giraffe and Christmas Acacia zentangle

MY NEW SHOP YAY
This will be a new experience for me. I am trying to build my own on-line shop. Yes I have started up Etsy again but this new one is on Shopify. I hope to be able to link it to my website and blog. I LOVE African fabrics and know its a market I have access to that others don't have.. So watch this space for crying..... anger tantrums..... and yells of glee and success as I have decided to post some of the trials and tribulations of making my own website shop on-line.

 http://kalahari-quilts.myshopify.com/

Firstly, our Internet here is TERRIBLE. So uploading a picture could be normal time, but other times it may take a day. I understand that offices and such have slightly better Internet speed than I do but they also have the mula (money) for it. Anyhow, I have been lucky this month and been able to get several in without a problem.
Have I said before, I LOVE AFRICAN PRINTS. Well here is a little known fact. Most African prints are NOT made in Africa but printed in Holland and India. However we do have a traditional fabric that we are very proud of. SHWESHWE by Degama in South Africa. Otherwise known as GERMAN PRINT. There is a long history of this fabric being brought over by the Germans into Southern Africa and being adapted for our use. We used to only have Blue(indigo), red and brown. Now we have the most beautiful turquoise, Orange, Reds with Orange, Tuquoise with Orange....WOW. I think Ill give you a picture to show you the different prints (there are hundreds of different prints in each color way.)

Set of 6 Shweshwe fat quarters

Part of the packet above, YUM

Turquoise, green and orange (LOVE)

 

Presidents, Dave and Bushmen :)

Looking through some old pictures I found this beauty. Speaking on the left and beholder of the fabulous "Shooting at the stars" quilt (by KQ of course:)) is former (but at the time) President of Botswana Festus Mogae. The FUNNY story about that will come after my personal story. On the right is great friend the late David Williams. This amazing man has so many facets. For me my favorite was his friendship, after my husband and my kids father passed away in 09 David would turn up at my gate with a bunch of roses and the inevitable bottle of wine on Daniels birthday, my birthday, our anniversary valentines day and all the important dates he know I would not just be lonely but heartbroken. He passed away about a year and a half after Daniel. Both such special people. Enough sad, here is the funny part. Dave was our friend but also our lawyer, thats how he knew all the dates. After a few months were he told me to just settle and get things together we started working on Daniels estate. Yes we had a will, but we didn't have it signed by two witnesses. This was all before Dave became our lawyer. We thought there was time of course, Daniel was only 39 when he passed. You just don't think of these things. Anyhow Dave went on a holiday shortly after we started the work, for more info Google The Williams family and Vanuatu. So funny and interesting. The short of it is.....Dave's Great grandfather was a missionary, landed in Vanuatu and was eaten, YES EATEN. Well the island wanted to pay retribution so the Williams family so gave them a child. That should wet your pallet to find out more hahaha. Anyways he came back we started the whole estate of Daniel again but then he sadly passed away. Five years later and I have signed the final copies to send to the court last week and hope next week for it to be finalized. WHEW.

Now onto the funny part about the quilt and the incidents surrounding the time frame. Keep in mind "Bushman" and "Survival International" As we were commissioned to make the quilt, the theme was shoot for the stars. Consumer watchdog Botswana (Two of our best friends Richard and Kate Harriman run this as a community service to Botswana) was celebrating customer service stars hence the theme.... Hence the stars and background. What is manly for a quilt? A bushman RIGHT? Well the quilt was finished and approved. A few weeks before the event the Survival international thing blew up. OPPS. It was decided it was ok to give him the lovely quilt as it was so Botswana anyways. What you must understand is being an expatriate who has lived in Botswana all her life I have a firm view on this escapade. Yes the Bushman have the right to live their 'ancestral lives' which is what they were fighting for. But what they do now is not live the ancestral lives. I have seen it firsthand. The hunt animals yes.....but with guns. They live isolated lives yes.....but fight for power and water lines so they can have an easier life. No problem....then pay the taxes and share your hunting grounds with others. They drink yes....but not water from roots, they drink local beer. There is so much more. Anyways don't get me started on this. The funny thing was the quilt was made before all this erupted.

Ahhhhhhhhh the fun we have living in this amazing country, the people we meet and the things we get to participate in. Couldn't ask for more.