Hello after so long :) And a special DUMELLA to all my new followers, Thank you
Well we have been so busy at KQ I have had no time to Blog at all. I plan to take time off after Christmas and see what all my friends and people I follow have been up to.
I thought before I forget lets put some pictures up of my new series, sorry the colour is a bit off but I had to get quick pictures of them before they went to new owners. A little background first. My husband passed away almost 3 years ago leaving me with a new business and two lovely little kids. My daughter is 7 now and her Setswana name is Sethunya meaning flower bud, her series is to come later. My sons Setswana and main name is Mowana, the local name for the Baobab tree. The tree of life, mighty and bold. Let me tell you he is living up to his name, he is 10yrs old full of love, life and compassion (and as tall as I am 5'10") This series is mostly for him and his dad who is represented by the moon. Whenever the kids see the moon they say dad is looking down on them, a star was just not good enough for him. So this series is called Mowana Moonscapes. In Botswana we have lovely moons so bold and bright its fantastic, also a bit sereal at times, like a sci-fi picture. The Mowana trees are unbelievable. The local story of the Mowana tree is that many years ago God was angry at man and picked up the tree and threw it down. This is why it looks like the tree is growing roots.
Well enough said, back to work. All these were sold before they hit my wall so off to the drawing board for more before Christmas.

Map Quilt and KQ kids behind the sceens

The Maru-a-Pula wall quilt is done Wheeeew. What a job and what fun. This picture is of it laid out on the floor of my store. It takes up 3/4 of the length of the floor, we had to move the massive cutting table and other stuff so we could check every inch of it for quality and straightness. ( It is machine sewn and ALL hand quilted) I cant wait to see it hung up in the new wing of the Library at MAP. Every piece in here is a Bali batik, for some reason Batiks are the largest part of my fabric collection. The quilt will hang on a wall 5 meters wide by 3 meters high. Ahhhhh to be done with this is an amazing feeling. The thoughts on hanging it was troubling. There are no ideas on the web for such a large quilt so finally decided on 6 smaller sleeves on the back with eye hooks on the wall and boards through the sleeves so the quilt will look like it is floating on the wall and add another bit of astonishment. By the way, this was quilted in my mothers back garden by 2 ladies and 1 man while kids come and go to school. One of the reasons I started KQ was to have ladies be able to earn an income while at home watching their kids and monitoring the schooling so as to help further the education of the next generation. All three were below minimum wage before KQ and their kids had to live in the Village while they worked just to survive. Now all 8 kids are doing really well and living with their mothers and going to good schools. ( My mom was a teacher all her life and has instilled GREAT studies and provided extra reading material for them and their friends too, anything to further education.) 2 of the kids ( I call them my boys too) are over here right now for a sleepover with my kids. Hallelujah is my sons best friend and top of his class, while Andrew (named after my brother) is my daughters friend and as smart as his older brother. All 4 playing away on the computer :) Such a lovely life we lead here.

KQ is GREEN

How Green is Kalahari Quilts? Talking to a wonderful customer the other day called Chiho Suzuki who was as enthusiastic about the small things as I am by the way. I realized I had not actually explained this in my Blog yet. WE ARE VERY GREEN. We care about our footprint.  Living in a place where the fabrics cost twice what they cost in the States, and where people all around us are scratching for every penny we care a lot about wastage. Here is a picture of our final step. Our "Threads of Africa" is made up of the smallest bits of fabric we have. After a quilt is made we keep the scraps in a huge Botswana Basket. From there we make our ornaments and small things.

 Shown here are our Hut Ornaments which I also use as my gift hung around the wine bottle neck when I go for dinners, and our "Mpopi" which means doll in Setswana.

The scraps from these items are used to make the "Threads of Africa" A technique I designed myself (I am sure I am not the first) We only throw away a small trash can once a week and that usually consists of my paperwork (also used on both sides) and used tea bags haha, we LOVE Bush tea in the store. So GREEN WE ARE :)

A quick look at the store

Here are some pictures of the store July 2011

Looking at Hester's first quilt from my class, she is on the Right. :) Me in the middle and Mirrium my manager on the left. I wish I could say I have a thatched hut in the middle of the desert as my store but that is closer to my 5yr dream. For now I have a cute store in a lovely location called The Craft Market. My second store will be thatched with a Lappa for classes and coffee outside with warthogs walking through. Never stop dreaming.

Here is our upside down Mowana (Baobab) tree that holds our threads from the ceiling with fairy lights.

MAP Wall Quilt

So you may have seen my Crazy Cobblestone quilt, well this is a peek at it again. The story behind the story. I was on my last day of work (a Sat) before leaving for the nice 3 week vacation we just had in California and Vancouver. Mr Taylor came into the store and we chatted about this wall he wanted a quilt for. No problem right? Well I went in to see this monstrosity the day before I left and WOW was all I could say. And when is this due? Mid October (I was only to be back Sept 8th with jet lag and all) OK I will do it. I had already started another of these quilts for my store so if he liked it 1/5 of the work was done before I left. Before I had even put the picture on the table he said....Thats the one, thats what I want, just like this but bigger....Thank you God, or I would never have gotten it done. We arrived back on Thursday night and Friday morning I was to work. I clocked in 72hrs this week to get the patchwork and design part done. I have just today taken it to make sure this monstrosity fits on the wall and it was PERFECT. I have handed it over to my main quilter Lorato to organize the quilting. We do ALL our quilting by hand on these. It will take 3 people 3 weeks to quilt it by hand. Lorato is the large quilting job manager (we do this at my moms house so she can look after her kids....and my mom hahaha), Lydia quilts in the store and is such a hard loyal worker, and KT our right hand MAN....yup, man. He has the best quilting stitch of all and he also does all our driving as well as helping me with school pick up when I have classes. We should have one week lee way on this in case of problems and also to figure out how to hang such a large quilt, basically a double queen size.
I am exhausted but happy and proud. I have not shown a complete view of the design as we want a bit of a surprise when its done and will wait for the grand opening of the Library for unveiling of this. Now I need a good name.....any suggestions other than monstrosity?

MAP Library wall 3M by 5M

This is the Library wall I have to make a quilt for, 3M by 5M WOW.
Let me introduce you to Andy Taylor the Headmaster of Maru-a-Pula school, my lovely old High school. Mr Taylor was a teacher, while I was there and now he is an inspiration to me as well as the one who pushed me to make these works of Art. The first quilt made for anyone outside of my family was for Mr Taylor. He needed a gift for his sister and when it was completed he said sorry Jenny I can’t give her this, it belongs on my office wall, you’ll have to make me another one, sorry. Well as the years have gone on he is the biggest collector of my quilts both for him and for gifts. He inspired me to start the business and thanks to him when my husband passed I had Kalahari Quilts and I LOVE WHAT I DO.

Vacation time

Well guys, I am sitting in Vancouver at the moment but thought I should just check in. I have been to San Jose to visit my late husbands parents for 2 weeks with my two lovely kids. What a blast we have had, sailing races, Giants ball game, Great America, swimming in the pool and of course shopping. I found a quaint little quilt shop in San Fransisco called Sweat Pea. The owner is a friend of the family's daughter in law. Does that make sense haha. I also went into several fabric shops to bring in some new fat quarters for the store. It's really just an excuse to go shopping, but it adds to the variety of FQ's we have so it all works out for the best. I dont have much room but what there was is stuffed with fabrics lol. I love this trip. What fun it has been. I will be back to normal when I get back in a week, give or take a day or two for jet lag.