Our teacher Lorato and the lovely ladies in Manyana

I will write more on these lovely ladies and their journey through quilting after we have done the certificate ceremony. In Botswana having a certificate after completing a course is so very important. These ladies have worked hard and have done a fantastic job, we are so proud to have been a part of this. I have to give HUGE thanks to my mom Mrs Case for all of the hard work behind the scenes. Setting up the classes, forming the layout of a handbook, and basically doing everything for this project. A big thanks to Lorato who was our primary teacher for doing such a great job. We have to teach in Setswana and some of the words are not translatable which caused quite a few laughs and hand motions hahaha.

Crazy Cobblestones in Manyana Village

 

Well here it is at long last. The picture of the Cobblestone Quilt. This picture was taken out at Manyana Village where KQ is teaching some local Village ladies how to Quilt for extra income. I have to say my heart is sore to see this picture. I worked so hard on this quilt and it sold in 2 days. At least it has a happy home and I know the owner :)

Crazy Cobblestone

This was a fun project for me. Crazy cobblestones. I took a queen sized sheet and cut it into strips in half inch increments starting from 5 1/2 up to 10. I then sewed the crazy blocks and cut them to the closest size I could also in the half inch increments. Pinning them to the sheet took forever. I think I really must have a design wall but space is an issue. This is the last picture I have of it before it was completed. We put it into the store on Sat (we are closed on Sun) and it was sold on Tue. I was trying to explain to one of my student how to put binding on her quilt and noticed she was not looking at me but staring at the wall. She had to have this quilt. I begged for one more day to get pictures of it, so sent it to Manyana Village (where we teach 10 local ladies how to quilt through a project called Lodibo by the Lutheran church) with our ladies and KT to have pictures taken on the ruins there. Lets hope the pictures come out OK because the quilt is gone. I have to say it was my favorite one so far. It went to a good loving home though.

My INSANE Mowana tree

This tree is called Insane for two reasons.

• I am Insane for even having the thought of this Art Quilt

• I was medically insane when I started this Quilt. I had been poisoned by a regular medication I was taking and the withdrawal effects of this poisoning was brain shivers, lack of co-ordination and general feeling of drunkenness 24/7 for 5 weeks. To tell myself I would be OK and keep my fingers nimble I decided to start this quilt I had thought about for months by then. It helped that I was bed ridden and in need of something to do that did not need scissors and sharp objects. The lack of co-ordination and brain shivers made sewing on buttons extremely difficult but I persevered and hundreds (if not thousands) of needle pricks later....................... ITS DONE :)

On the set of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency

This is a quilt made up of my favourite squares of African prints. What a pleasure it was to help the set designer find some fun stuff for his set on this series. He walked into my store and said "Wow, can I hire your whole stock for a week" I then politely asked him who he was haha.

Aldo's Aloes

Ah, my Aloe’s. The background on this one was hand painted using light sensitive paints and sticks to create a bursting effect. The Aloe’s are made up of different pieces of black silk, cotton, chiffon and satin fabrics steam a seemed on and embroidery quilted. The name comes from my best friend who fell in love with the quilt and ended up receiving it for his Birthday.