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.

MY 'DUDE'

I am BACK

 

I am BACK (kind of :)

I wont go into the whole longgggg story but give the short version. I broke my nerves. Strange but true. Apparently I had been dealing with too much since my husband passed away. Making sure the kids were fine, the store was fine as well as numerous employees who are like family. It was my turn to break down. 5 months I couldn't even leave the house. I never understood how people could suffer from (whats that called when you cant leave the house???) well I do now. It took me another 4 months to get back into the store a few hours a day and have worked up from there. I still suffer from panic attacks but I fight through them better now. Thank god for my 'MOMMY'. I love you and thank you for being the rock in my life as well as my best friend.

Anyhow, I feel like I have caught up enough with the store and getting things underway that I can do things like my blog again. What fun we have had in this last year, panic aside.

May 2014

I got a call from a lovely energetic yet calm stranger who happened to be the producer of the opening/closing ceremonies. The conversation changed my life. With 3 weeks to go till the African Youth Games held here in Gaborone Botswana they wanted to know if I could make the 'BIG FIVE' for the opening ceremony.......WHAT! No way was that possible. Ian, the lovely energetic yet calm stranger asked what we might be able to do. We came up with a herd of Zebra (the national animal) One prototype done 10 times was the best I could offer. You must remember I am a quilting store,. Ian, however, knows that if you see someone creative and push them in a new direction that anything is possible. So we worked 15 hr days or more the entire time and came in a day before schedule, YAY. So much fun. These Zebra were huge, and true to Kalahari Quilts they were fantastical. Only my main 'dude' was black and white.....OK so he had gold and silver with studs (yes, silver studs) running down his nose and back. The others who I referred to as his harem were multicolored with black stripes. A true Kalahari Quilts herd of Zebra hahaha.

We also volunteered behind the scenes for the costume fittings. My daughter of 10 worked as hard and furiously as any member of the adult teem bless her. She tied almost 200 school kids ties for them. The thing I will remember most out of everything though it the people we met. WOW what a group of fantastic, hard working, fun loving souls. Topping the list is Ian who kept everyone going with his can do attitude. A friend I am glad to have found in this crazy wonderful world. I will never put limits on what I can do again, this lesson has changed my life.

Enough writing for now, I have fun stuff to do today. I will however post some pictures.

Love to all and to all a happy day.

FRANCE

YAY my quilt is going to France :)

What an exciting event IQCAfrica was. I did not realize until I was there that I don't get to go to a quilt shop and have a little spree.......I AM THE ONLY QUILT SHOP hahaha. What fun it was to go and see all the other fabrics and notions that my small (albeit fun) quilt shop does not have as demand is still small. I cant wait to have more demand and therefore have more selections. We are working on that, classes, new teachers and generally finding all those closet quilters.

I have to say I went a bit nutty when I saw the stall selling recycled sari silk. WOW what fun I will have with that embellishing quilts. Well that's it for now, my trip was cut short as my daughter got quite sick and then was nice enough to share it with me. Bless her. Back to bed to cozy on down and smile at the thought of MY QUILT GOING TO FRANCE YAY:)

ETSY SHOP :)

Our Etsy shop is now open, come and have a look:)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KalahariQuilts?ref=seller_info

What a fun Quilt to work on. We had a young lady of 6years old come in with her grandma a few months back. Her Grandma lives in The States and wanted her to have a quilt of her own when she comes to visit. This lovely little girl loved Orange and rainbows. Well as a quilt lasts so long I wanted to make it a bit more timeless than a plain "Rainbow" which she would outgrow in a few years. I thought for a while and came up with this idea. I have to say we were not sure it would come out this well but we started to get quite excited by it. We had to put it aside for a few weeks while we moved but now that is done and we were happy to get back to this quilt. Only problem is I cant get hold of the lady who commissioned it. So if by any chance you read this blog please contact me. We so want to give it to the owners and see a lovely little girl smile :)

New store at Kgale View Shopping Mall

 

Well we have done it...WE ARE OPEN. What an experience opening a shop like this in Botswana. Full of fun and many painful sleepless nights. Getting a license...WOW now there is a challenge for anyone let alone someone who faints at the sight of paperwork. The wait alone will tear you to shreds. I had booked the Health inspector to come in on a Tuesday, plenty of time to get the paper work in by Wednesday afternoon. Now keep in mind, in Botswana you have to be mostly in your new store before he can come, this means first and last months rent, construction, moving costs etc before you even know if you will for sure get your license (have not heard of anyone not getting it but I have heard of 4 week delays.) Well he arrived on Thursday morning, too late to get the papers in that week which meant SEVEN more days closed (Rent, security, insurance and salaries must be paid with or without license) This Thursday I went before the board and with my wit and charm talked my way through 18 grueling minuets which felt like an hour of questions. I though I would leave knowing the result but NO, another restless night and Friday morning we called in and YAYAYA WE ARE OPEN :):):) I must lay more respect on my wit and charm from now on. Well here are some pictures of our new space which is 3 times bigger than the old one. BTW The health inspection for my kind of store entails 1. Do you have bathrooms? YES 2. Do you have Band aids? YES

Puni's Dolls

Setting up the fabric wall

 

Baby corner with baby quilts, slings, balls and stuffed Zebra and Giraffes

 

My favorite the thread Baobab tree hanging upside down from the ceiling with fairy lights :)

 

Within moments we had guests. Me with my back to the camera of course (sly Marlie taking pictures without me knowing haha)

 

View from outside between the coffee shop and KQ

 

Wow this space is HUGE...lots of room for expansion

 

 Our new range of T-shirts with some of our quilts on them. Coffee mugs (good big ones) with our new phrase "No Matatta Sew Easy. Kalahari Quilts (No Matatta means no problem :))

Ahhh lovely Kasane

About to teach quilting at my old high school :) Not that this has anything to do with the picture but I was looking over some older pictures of my quilts when I came across this. It seems unreal but actually in Kasane this is not hard to find. Early morning sun, all the lovely little baby animals and the protective parents around the shade of an acacia tree.

Other tid bits

Cell Phone connection!!!!
One of our ladies is getting married :) She has had to go up north to her home village to retrieve her birth certificate....all sounds good yes? well in order to keep in contact with her and know all is going well we have made arrangements for her to CLIMB A TREE at a certain time just so she can get phone reception hahahaha. What a funny life we lead here. I should say all our ladies are related one way or the other so we are a familly. Therefor knowing she is safe and well on a bad road is quite important to us...so climbing a tree is a must :)
Here are some other things KQ does like our lovely ornaments and hot water bottle covers. (Yes its cold enough in Botswana for a hot water bottle....just)

PLEASE NOTE:
Again, I am a quilter with fun experiences....not a writer, so dont mind the spelling or grammar. Just enjoy :)

Lion on the loose

LION ON THE LOOSE
Yup you got it. I am so happy to live in this wild land. There is a lion walking around the town somewhere, no one knows where so trust me when I say the kids are inside the gate. Two years ago it was a leopard. This is unusual, not an everyday occurrence at all, but it reminds me of when I first arrived in the States for collage and knew nothing of REAL city life. Then again no one knew anything of my life in Botswana either. I remember sitting at a table with a few new friends and when they found out I was from Botswana they asked in awe "so do you have Elephants wandering around town?" In the beginning I said no, they are out of town, but after a few of these I would just say yes, all around my mud hut. I was a bit of a party trick those days. People would want to invite the African haha (I should point out I am white so quite a few people were shocked back then)
Another story of being an African moving to America. When I arrived for the first time without my parents I filled out the immigration forms. I had never heard the word Caucasian, in Botswana we were called Lackoa. So of course I checked the box that said African American (because thats what I am) Well the immigration officer (who was African American) was not amused. I was confused, I am not Asian, Indian etc what else could I be? When he explained to me what Caucasian was I asked him if he was African. No, well I was born and raised there with an American passport..therefor a TRUE African American, so does colour in America mean something? Because where I came from it didn't. Well that got a good chuckle out of him and a friend he had called over (I think for support in case I was trouble) I cant remember the outcome but they let me go with a smile and apologies (from them to me)
SNOW TIRES how would I know about snow tires? I bought a car at the end of winter, a real scorro scorro (beat up car) well in June I got pulled over by a cop for my tires. I always wondered why they made such a sound but so did my car. When he told me about SNOW TIRES I could not believe people would have two sets of tires, one for summer and one for winter (I had moved to Oregon where it snows maybe one week of the year) I showed him my blue cardboard Botswana drivers licence and told him I came from a desert and had no idea ( my roommate who was with me never told me either) Again some laughter and he let me go but I had to get them changed immediatly.
Well all this makes me sound silly and stupid but who did they call when going camping? ME. who did they call when there was an emergency? ME. and again and again I would come to the rescue when things got tough because I had parents and a country that made me that way. I should also note I never took drugs which many of my friends did and I always was there when a friend needed me. My nickname "McGyver, or African Queen" haha. Ok. Enough of my rambling down memory lane...there are many more stories, but back to quilting with my daughter (8) who is learning all about Steam a seam and how to iron.

Kasane Trip and IQC Challenge

 Elles, warthogs, drives, new store, quilt challenge......yup. The life of Jenny continues.

Its done and submitted. WOW what a year this has been already. This quilt is for the IQCAfrica Challenge. I had made a quilt only to realize that I had done one with inches in mind not cm haha oh the life of me lol. In the mean time I have been to Chobe Game park, one of my FAVORITE places in the world. I visited all the lodges with the kids in to and a friend from "Passion Monkey" to sell our goods. I was so happy to see people loved them and we left everything we had up there. YAY. We came across an Elephant or two you might say, one of who was HUGE and scared the bageezers out of me. He popped out from behind a tree, Elles on all side we had no where to go but go around him and FAST lol.......Warthogs on the lawn outside one of the lodges, playing in the mud and not worried we were 2 feet away. I love this country I live in. All of this and two days drive (not me behind the wheel) with a very bad back and lovely muscle relaxing meds. I hope I was coherent when talking to people. I dont remember much haha. 
We have also decided to move the store to a much better location and pray it works for us. It has much more foot traffic as well as being closer to home for me. Kgale Shopping Center here I come :)

TAFA list

Firstly if you have not heard about TAFA (Textile and Fiber Art) you MUST go see the site. www.tafalist.com I am blown away by all the extraordinary talent on there. KQ is a new member so check out our member list as well. Secondly what a deal if you have a business. Half off advertising till MARCH 20th folks....do not miss this.  (http://www.tafalist.com/sponsor-ads) The site is creating a wonderful place for Textile and Fiber art people like myself. If you are a possible member contact them for submission too. Just love this site.

http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=7&aid=195&dir=2012%2FMarch%2FMonday5

I BEG of you to read this post about "art on bed covers". If you dont crack a smile then I truely appologise.

Please note the prices of the Quilts range from P200 to P2000 with the most expensive one being Kgosi Tau at P6280 :) and it was a larger quilt (NOPE it is on the smaller side just very detailed and framed)

Let me explain, we are having an Art Quilt exhibition to which I have posted about. WELL we get most of the newspapers in town come to things like this. It is a smallish City in a country of just over 2million so news like this is kind of hard to come by. Now, I understand not knowing what a Quilt is. I understand therfore not knowing what an ART Quilt is....but as a reporter if I was to say report on the local Kalahari Desert Race I would Google about it. Check what kind of things they do and what they are about before I go so I know what to ask. Well as you can read this did not happen before OR after.
I must say that I was profoundly happy that during this interview I had a witness or no one would believe me how bad it was (well now they will haha). We both could not believe what she was asking. This I forgave as I was in a great mood and even gave her ideas of what to Google like Art Quilts, Kalahari Quilts, Fiber Revolution....even my blog. None of this was written down as she said she knows how to google and what to look up. OK :)
We have had other good articles but this one was soooooo worth sharing under my experiences of quilting in Botswana. Please read it and have fun. Here is Kgosi Tau again (yes he is King Lion)