African Dancers

Our FibR group has a show that opens on Friday May 16, 2014 at the Tippecanoe Arts Federation. I have the following two pieces in the show.

This one I have titled "Sisters." This piece reminds me of all of the great African women I have had the honor and pleasure to work with and become friends with who really are like sisters to me. This piece was part of a challenge that our FibR group worked on. We selected one of the African fabrics that I had brought back from West Africa and each of us took a piece of the fabric. The challenge was to work some of that fabric into the wall hanging.

My second piece is titled "Convergence." The inspiration for this piece came from one of my visits to a village in Niger West Africa. I watched the women place maize in the bottom of the large wooden mortar to be pounded before it was cooked for the evening meal. They stood in a circle around the mortar each with a large wooden stick to pound the maize. They efficiently and with great speed took turns hitting the maize.  With the aid of song and rhythm they never once hit each other’s stick, but rather made a very labor intensive job look graceful and fun. I realized that, for these women, there was a convergence of work with dance and song. The background for this piece is a technique called convergence where four fabrics are pieced together. The two fabrics, which are also in the border, were ones I acquired when travelling in West Africa and typical of the women’s dresses from that part of the world. The red circles in the upper left symbolize the intense hot African sun.
 

Quilting Update

After my surgery in mid February I enjoyed such great care and attention from many great folks (especially thanks to Teri and Sue for coming and staying with me and then to Jane and Sue for taking me to Shipshewana for the Common Threads quilt retreat) that I regained my strength quickly and was able to enjoy quilting.

The first piece I made was a baby quilt for Maria Marshall. I was in a hurry to get it finished for the baby shower so didn't get a full picture of it - but even better I can now see how much she is enjoying it, having set it up in the baby's room with the Ragedy Andy doll.

The next piece I finished was this "Floating Diamonds in Blue" made for Moira Lemke in Calgary. I pieced this while in Shipshewana and quilted it once I got home.

Teri found this great pattern "Metro Link" and at the same time that she made it I decided to also make it. I also pieced this one in Shipshewana and quilted it once I got home. I donated this quilt for a Silent Auction in my department. This was part of a challenge amongst Purdue's College of Ag. departments to raise the most money for Food Finder's, the local food bank. I was really pleased that several people liked it and the bidding was exciting as rivals bid up the price - it ended up selling for $250. 

I had started this baby quilt for Tahirou and Amina Abdoulaye's baby that was born Dec. 23, 2013 back in January. The first thing I did in Shipshewana was to put the mitered borders on this side. These are all flannel fabrics - and as an added bonus I was able to use up pieces left over from other projects.

I found this panel, which is a world map, at Joann's to make this a cute two-sided quilt. It was a bit more challenging to quilt it as I had to ensure that the top and bottom matched up. I did that by starting in the middle of the quilt and quilting it from the center out. In that way I did not end up with the bottom being "off" from the top.  I was really pleased the Baoua was here from Niger and willing to take the quilt back to Africa so that the baby and his older brothers can enjoy this quilt.

It was great fun designing and creating this baby quilt for Nicole and David Widmar's baby that will arrive in early June. We decided that a pocket quilt with barnyard animals would be perfect for them.  I remembered that Sue Hine had found the wonderful farmyard panel at Rossville Quilts so that made a great center. Tammy Kettler had the idea that cow print would be nice - and indeed it really sets everything off. It's not too surprising that the outside red border was my idea (after all you can never have too much red). I had a lot of fun making each of the pockets - as well as finding all of the stuffed animals for each of the pockets (except for the tracker pocket and that is a teething ring)

I remembered that when I made a pocket quilt for Lauren's second birthday Teri got a plastic tub to keep the quilt and stuffed toys all together. When I found this tub with the white lid it was the perfect opportunity to pull out the black felt and glue gun - and make the top of the container match the cow print from the quilt.

Today is the Kentucky Derby and Mike and Alee Gunderson are having their annual Derby party. I'm going to use this opportunity to deliver this baby quilt (for the baby that is due May 14).  Some of the first piecing that I did during my recovery from surgery was this top with the purple flannel with pastel letters - again using up fabrics from previous projects. I found the baby print for the other side of the quilt at Joann's - making the second two-sided baby quilt that I made in just a month. This one was much easier to quilt as the second side was a design that ran the width of the quilt - and not a bordered piece where all 4 sides have to match up.