Christmas

Wishing all the readers of my blog a wonderful, peaceful Christmas with your loved ones and hopefully 2012 will be a happy one for all of us.
Let us remember the true meaning of Christmas.

I will be taking some time off enjoying the Festive Season with my family, but will be back with another part of my story middle January 2012. 

If you are away from home, travel safely and enjoy the holidays.



 

Full circle...

We left Port Elizabeth in 1988 and arrived back in 1996.   Settling down was relatively easy as we still had very dear friends here.    I did not even try to make a quilt for the National Quilt Festival in July 1996 which was held in Durban or apply to teach a workshop as my life was in limbo, waiting to move back to Port Elizabeth.   To add to this, my dearest mom suffered a massive stroke 6 weeks after we arrived back in Port Elizabeth........

But life went on and I immediately joined the Dias Quilters' Guild.   I brought finished wallhangings back from Harrismith and found an outlet here in Port Elizabeth at Wezandla Crafts.    I made many small beaded wallhangings which was sold to overseas tourists - it kept me very busy.  

During the July school holidays, the kids and I visited my parents in Knysna and I came home with another invitation for an exhibition!   Bitou Crafts in Knysna invited me to exhibit quilts in their shop during the Nederburg Knysna Arts Festival in September 1996 - I was elated!   I was beginning to feel much less freaked out when an opportunity for an exhibition came my way, also new design ideas came much easier.    I noticed another development in my geometric work - I was moving away from the very bold designs and refining the overall "look" of the quilts.   

I played with different shades of a colour and did designs in a colourwash format, cutting took forever as every little piece was cut very precisely.    As I was using fusible web to assemble the designs, I really had to concentrate very hard as it was so easy to get lost....

Some of the pieces which I made for the 1996 Nederburg Knysna Arts Festival....

96-11 Colourwash style - Sold in Knysna

I also played with a row by row design, clearly moving back to traditional quilt design styles from which I deviated before.....



96-08 Row by Row Design - Sold



It was as if I was really now merging the traditional Ndebele geometric mural designs with quilt design.   I designed a block pattern which I repeated and graded the colours in shades of browns.   

96-10 Block Design - Sold

As I explained earlier, while I work on a project, my mind is always working on a next project.....    I got the idea to make a quilt in two panels, a diptych!   I had to work very accurately as the borders would tie the two panels together and it had to be exactly the same size as a trained eye would immediately observe if the alignment was out.    I was very excited about this piece and was very distraught when two friends visiting from Switzerland bought the piece and each took one panel home...!  



96-09 Diptych - Sold (Switzerland)
I never thought that these photo's would be in public domain and only took it for my records.   My daughter Elizabeth holding the panels was not part of the design!  

Before we left Harrismith, I played with a mirror-image design and included the quilt in the Nederburg Knysna Arts Festival exhibition.   

96-02 Mirror image design - Sold

I made some waistcoats as part of the exhibition which the Americans loved buying .....



 





1996 was a wonderful and very productive year for me although it was also very traumatic with my mom severly affected after a stroke and our moving to Port Elizabeth.   I made 29 wallhangings and waistcoats, selling most of it.   I attributed this to the change of environment.    As I have lived close to the coast most of my life, the colours of the sea, clear sky and lots of green vegetation make me feel alive and at home.   The winters in the interior were too severe and brown for me and I battled to be creative as nature around me looked barren and dead, making me feel depressed.     I realized I constantly needed to see lots of green around me as I experience life very visually............

Part of the 1996 batch was quite a big beaded wallhanging which I entered in the First National Bank Vita Craft Now 1997 competition which was juried - I was blown away when my quilt was selected to be part of the exhibition.



96-19 Made for FNB Vita Craft Now 1997 Exhibition - Sold to an art gallery in Johannesburg



Another highlight for me in 1996 was when the Dias Quilters' Guild announced that they would host the 1998 National Quilt Festival in Port Elizabeth and they needed volunteers to serve on the Festival Committee.....   I offered my services as I needed new friends......!

Eduard Wium - Influence of a Wonderful Artist

We arrived in Harrismith at the end of September 1994.........!    Willem bought an older house which had an extra bedroom for me to use as a workroom, but the house was in a terrible state.     I really battled to settle down in a routine as the  house needed major renovations and I would be in charge of it all!

My fabric, books and machine was constantly full of dust and I was challenged with workers in the house every day - I was used to having the mornings to myself while the kids were at school.    We were in Harrismith for 5 1/2 months when Willem told us we were moving again, this time back to Port Elizabeth....!   The renovations was just completed and I had to stay behind to sell the house....

I felt very isolated as there was no Quilters' Guild or group in Harrismith which I could join.   I met Louise Rheeder who lived in Senekal but it was too far for regular visits.   I started teaching a bit at home, also taught a few workshops in Puthaditjaba and Bethlehem.   I was soon invited to put up a display of all my quilts in the public library which led to another invitation - a joint art exhibition in 1995 with two well known artists of the Eastern Free State, Eduard Wium and Petro Swanepoel.     Eduard was near his 80's, almost bent over double from severe arthritis, but he still managed to paint every day.  Petro was one of  his students in her younger days.   

As I did not have much time to prepare for this exhibition, I decided to make smaller quilts.   I chose cosmos and birds as themes, as well as some geometric pieces.      I sold the cosmos quilt to Dutch people who were in South Africa on holiday, the other quilts were sold in Port Elizabeth, mostly to overseas visitors.



95-03 Mahem, Crested Crane.  Sold - Canada

 

95-04 Guinea Fowls - Sold to a restaurant in Geneva

 



95-08 Beaded.   Sold in SA

 

95-06 Cosmos.    Sold - Holland



We mounted and minded the exhibition ourselves and I spent very special times with Eduard who sat painting in the exhibition hall, happy to chat and share with the public.   What a priviledge!    He painted the most amazing landscapes in oil and I commissioned him to paint me one of the famous Platberg in Harrismith as a reminder of a special mentor!    It was amazing to observe a master - he taught me to paint skies and  I was fascinated to see how he painted trees, he just did it so effortlessly and kept on explaining as he was going along...   He showed me how to mix colours etc and encouraged me to use painting as another dimension in my quilts.   I will be forever grateful for his guidance as he somehow understood my need to explore and he encouraged me to push my boundaries.   He would often visit me after our exhibition for lunch and a special chat about art and my quilts as he was genuinely interested in textile art.   Observing Eduard paint, I realized how time consuming quilting was, especially pictorial quilts where so much time is spent with cutting and preparation before one can actually stitch.     

I lived in Harrismith for 18 months, the highlight of my stay was visits to various parts of the Drakensberg and meeting Eduard Wium.  I sold geometric beaded quilts at a craft shop in Harrismith which overseas tourists loved buying.   It also kept me busy while waiting to sell the house....

At the end of March 1996 we left Harrismith to start a new life in Port Elizabeth.....

Being a student.....

1993 - 1994 was a wonderful creative time with many opportunities as I was also fortunate to serve on the Kaffrarian Quilters' Guild Committee.   The Committee invited Lorraine Steenberg from Jagersfontein to teach a machine embroidery workshop in East London - she had quite an impressive CV.     Lorraine specialized in Madeira Machine Embroidery and did lots of workshops for Bernina and had won some international awards for beautiful tablecloths and similar articles.   Although I was packing up our home to move to Harrismith, I felt obliged to attend the workshop as I was on the Committee and felt I needed to support the workshop.   The shoe was now on the other foot and I was the student for the very first time....!

The workshop was held in 2 groups, a morning group and an afternoon group for 5 days....    We soon discovered why we could only survive 3 hours per day.....     I would go home every day with a monster headache and eyes completely out of focus.....   

Lorraine was a wonderful teacher and I suppose she was used to the reaction of the students as the work was so different to normal quilting.    She immediately threw us out of our comfort zones....     She taught us to do free motion machine embroidery with dropped feed dogs, to work in an embroidery hoop and to our horror, to sometimes work without a presser foot!    She also showed us a very important function on our sewing machines, the slow speed button!   Quite a few of us drew blood stitching through fingers etc.     Her designs provided in a kit were very specific and we slowly embroidered the designs which she had prepared.   We filled in with long and short stitches, granite stitches, some cut work, doing line stitches without using the zig zag stitch on the machine!     She also taught us about directional flow in a design.     It was extremely difficult attempting this with arms frozen stiff as we were all so stressed, not forgetting the neck spasms......   We were starting to settle down by the 3rd lesson, but it was very intense.    By the last lesson, Lorraine showed us a packet of Avalon (wash-away plastic) and told us what we could do with it although she did not demonstrate working with it.   We were all intrigued and were delighted when we found some in a shop in East London.    

When I was doing the final packing of our home, I was pondering about this workshop.    I wondered how I would ever apply my newly acquired skills to my style of quilting as there were no common ground.......   

I learnt a very important lesson from her which I still apply when I teach!     No trying on a sample piece first, just dive in and work directly onto the prepared piece!   If you have to practice until you do perfect work, it is unlikely that you will ever attempt work on the project....!   Being in a workshop situation, is most often stressful for the student.    Usually they unpick when they get home and perfect the technique in their own time (or the project lands in the cupboard as a UFO!)

Another lesson learnt was to be open minded about a workshop and absorb like a sponge, the emphasis is actually on learning new skills.     Even if you don't really like the workshop, you will most likely learn something new or it will trigger something different for you to develop further.     Every thing Lorraine did on the machine looked so easy, it was amazing to watch her stitch as she was very much in control of her sewing machine.   I realized that she was a master of her craft and that I still had lots to learn.     I have never repeated any of the methods or designs which I learnt in this workshop, but it gave me the freedom to play with my sewing machine.   It opened my eyes for other possibilities and I took from this workshop what I wanted and developed it further which is still an ongoing process.    I think I can say in all modesty that I am now also in control of my sewing machine.....    I attribute this wonderful skill to Lorraine Steenberg.

Working in a creative genre is a continuous learning curve as there are always new things to discover.   In that lies the excitement of exploring and being creative.....

Sadly for me, it was time to leave East London....

For Jayne and more.....

My friend Jayne:
Some people come into your life for a reason, others for a season and the rest become friends......    I am deviating a bit from My Journey as I need to tell you about my friend Jayne...

I have never really been one for a quilting group as I feel my quilting approach is too individualistic and I don't really fit into the mould!   However, when we moved to East London, I did start a small quilting group to make friends.     I started chatting to a lady at a Kaffrarian Quilters' Guild meeting and I mentioned that I was thinking of starting a group......    We realised that we lived in the same area and decided to meet the next week and see how it went!     Jayne and I later invited 2 other ladies to join us on Wednesday mornings - we became firm friends and were a wonderful support system for each other.

I think the reason we love our quilting friends is for the unconditional support, love, humour and appreciation we get.  

Jayne became a surrogate granny for my kids and kept us going when Willem had to move ahead of us to Harrismith.   She taught me to believe in myself, that one is never too old to try new things, age is just a number and life is for the living.....!    I am convinced that Jayne was born in the wrong generation ...........     When everybody was making pretty pink/blue/green quilts, eyes would pop when Jayne used orange, magenta, lime and black for a bold design and then hand quilt with metallic thread!    Way ahead of her time, never afraid to experiment, quite fearless in her approach....!   I think it rubbed off on me, she always encouraged me to explore, to push my boundaries.....!    She was instrumental in launching my quilting career by taking my quilts to the USA and bringing back an award, kept me sane when I was working on my first exhibition, she constantly encouraged me to push myself further and provided a permanent sounding board for all my ideas..........!    A true friend indeed.

I was fortunate to visit Jayne a week ago and she showed me a wonderful quilt which she made in 2009.    She started the quilt in a workshop - she was 83 years old at the time and won first prize at the East Coast Quilters' Guild (previously the Kaffrarian Quilters' Guild) annual exhibition!   

Jayne McComb and me November 2011 in East London



Jayne's peacock quilt made in 2009 when she was 83 years old



Teaching at Festival 1994:

Teaching at a National Quilt Festival for the first time was so intimidating - I was very anxious ......!   The awards won for African Heritage helped to settle my nerves a bit, but I felt so green............    
Ideas for workshops come to me in the same way as ideas for quilts - I get a mental picture/flash of an idea which I then turn into a workshop.    I vividly remember the idea for this workshop coming to me when I was struggling with designing the 1993 exhibition quilts.    I had leftover motifs (cut pieces where the colours did not work) which I kept to do something different with.    As I was re-arranging these motifs into new designs, the idea came to me to make paper templates for students to help them design Ndebele quilts.    I bought poster paper in various colours and started cutting templates for each student who received a packet of these motifs to design their own wallhanging.  

I met such lovely people in this class and it is still very special to bump into them at National Quilt Festivals...  A few names which I remember - Pat Perry, Annette Miller, Lin Simpson.......



Students busy with Ndebele Machine Applique in 1994, Cape Town

 The students and I survived my first attempt at being a National Quilt Festival Teacher, I will always be extremely grateful for this wonderful opportunity which opened so many new doors for me.

Next time my first encouter with machine embroidery.....

1994 - A memorable year ..........

1994 will go down in history as the year of the first democratic elections in South Africa...... 

Personally it was also a memorable year as I was taking my quilting "career" to the next level - participating in a National Quilt Festival as teacher and quilt artist for the first time......   The only dark cloud was that we were moving again as Willem was transferred to work in Phuthaditjaba in Qwa-Qwa and we would live in Harrismith.      The property market was extremely limp as South Africa was anxiously awaiting the birth of the Rainbow Nation, so the kids and I had to stay behind in East London to sell our house. ....   

In the meantime life went on for us and I threw myself into serious work.   I had to prepare for the Ndebele Machine Applique workshop at the 1994 National Quilt Festival in Cape Town........!    I was excited yet also extremely anxious.     I was worried about my level of expertise and how I would fit in amongst the well known quilters and teachers..........   I was in awe just mentioning their names...   Paul Schutte, Jutta Faulds, Odette Tolksdorff, Lee Hackman, Rosalie Dace, Sue Akerman, Suzette Ehlers to name a few....     I had a serious case of stage fright...!

As I was a new kid on the block, I felt compelled to enter a quilt in the competition to showcase my work to establish some credibility.  The festival theme reminded me of the shrub (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow), so a floral themed quilt was the obvious choice.   After finishing the bird quilt the previous year, I became very interested in realistic themes for my quilts.    I chose the protea as theme because Cape Town/Western Cape is synonymous with fynbos.   I used my group as sounding board and the consensus was that it would be too difficult and I was crazy even to try....    Well, I just love a challenge...     My idea was to incorporate the proteas with Ndebele designs to give the quilt a distinctive South African flavour.

Making the bird quilt the previous year, established a process or recipe of how I make these quilts.   The first and most important ritual is the mental process.   I will sometimes do mental gymnastics for over a year before starting a quilt.   I can only start such a quilt once I had a "visual flash", I feel very blessed that I have this ability.   I will mentally do all the problem solving before I actually start the quilt, so once I start work, it flows quite easily.   Once I had my "news flash", I firstly determine the finished size of the quilt, width of the border and secondly do the layout of the blocks and other fillers.    When preparing patterns for all the different elements, balance, scale and proportions are very important.

For African Heritage, I machine appliqued all the floral and Ndebele panels and embellished the flowers with hand embroidery.    At the time, silk ribbon was very new on the market and I used it very effectively for spiky leaves and Ericas.    When I had to plan/make the border, I was very frustrated that I could not find suitable fabric.    Plan B was to make my own fabric - I used a good quality calico and painted proteas on it using a stencil which I made...!    It looked awful, so I tried another piece in a more abstract way using all the different colours of the flowers in the quilt which seemed to work.   This was the very first piece of fabric which I painted for a quilt and the start of my painted fabrics.

African Heritage/protea quilt took about 4 1/2 months to make.    I hand quilted around the motifs and the background of the 4 floral blocks, the border was machine quilted in straight lines.


African Heritage 1994

This quilt is very special to me - it was my first entry at a National Quilt Festival and won 3 awards, 2nd place in Applique Small, Highly Commended in Machine Applique and Highly Commended in Other - Traditional.   It was also published in the commemorative brochure of the festival.    I was so excited, happy and in awe............

Making African Heritage, was a huge learning curve as it was an experimental piece and would set the tone for my future work.   I particularly enjoy the research which forms part of making such quilts and adding elements like the little butterfly with their habitat the Western Cape working around the fynbos.....

I was approached by Dutch lady in East London to make replicas of two of the blocks - it was the only time that I made replicas, something which I did not really enjoy.    I suppose I like the challenge of pushing my own boundaries and exploring......  





The two replica panels made for a commission

(My son held these two panels for me to take photographs, they look a bit distorted, sorry!)

After the Festival, it was time to return to Mother Earth and start packing to move to Harrismith, but I first attended a workshop in East London...........










A year of many firsts......

I have mentioned a phone call at the end of the previous post....    I was left feeling a bit overwhelmed after the exhibition and wondered what I would do with all these wallhangings.   The week after the exhibition, I received a phone call from a lady saying that she saw the quilts through the gallery windows after hours and was hoping to see the quilts in my studio......

Nan and Huub van der Kolk promptly visited and immediately bought 93-04, my personal favourite.   I was overjoyed, my first quilt sold!    

93-04:  First quilt ever sold!

Nan and Huub owned the Willowvale Hotel in the Transkei and loved everything South African.   We chatted away like old friends as they were very interested in my work.   They left with the quilt and soon phoned again with an offer!   They were on their way to visit their daughter and her family in Swaziland and offered to take the exhibition to Swaziland and hoped to sell all the quilts for me!    The most amazing was that they gave me a cheque for all the quilts and Huub made me phone the bank to check that the cheque was good....... !    Truly good people.     The deal was that if they did not sell the quilts, I would return the money.   Well, they returned home with only one quilt, buying and selling 9 quilts.    I was stunned and very touched as they helped a total stranger.

I think I was left with the feeling of what now...!     I started dabbling with more designs and made more wallhangings.    I loved playing with all this colour... I also starting incorporating beadwork which I bought from street vendors to give the quilts a true South African feeling.   My friend Jayne McComb insisted on taking two quilts 93-13 & 93-18 to the USA as she was going to attend a quilt show in Ontario, California.    Yes, there is an Ontario in the States....    She showed these two quilts at the Show and Tell and was promptly awarded a Special Award for the two pieces.    Jayne sold the two quilts before returning home.....  This was the very first ribbon which I won for a quilt(s)!

 

93-13




93-18

I was invited to participate in the annual Round Table group art exhibtion in King William's Town for which I made 5 or 6 pieces.    I also received a commission for a bird quilt for a beach house in Kei Mouth which was very exciting.   The client took me on a site inspection so that I could see where the quilt would hang.   I find such an inspection very helpful as it sets the "mood" for the quilt as even the colour of the walls would influence something so specific.    I was given some fabric for the border which decided the colours which I would use.     I bought a bird book and started some research!      I chose birds which would tone in with the fabric of the border and did a submission to the client.   She was happy so I started work.   In hindsight, the quilt would have looked much better with more quilting, I think a mistake of most inexperienced quilters.   This was my first dabble with realistic work.

93-17 First realistic quilt and first commission

1993 in East London was a wonderful creative time for me with many "firsts"....     I had my first joint exhibition in an art gallery, two quilts went overseas and was sold there, I got my first commission for a quilt, I applied and was accepted to teach at a National Quilt Festival.....    The kids were well adjusted and happy at school, life was so good and I relished every moment........

And then it was 1994.............

Thanks to Tim Smith

It is strange how chance conversations can lead to wonderful opportunities and change the course of one's life....

While I was making my first Ndebele wallhanging 92-11 in 1992, I had some embroideries framed at an art gallery in East London.   Tim Smith, the manager of the gallery was very interested when I told him about this Ndebele wallhanging which I was making and he was very keen to see it....   I showed him when it was finished and I was gobsmacked when he invited me early in 1993 to participate in a joint art exhibition with Daph Allam, a wellknown painter in East London........!   Needless to say, my legs were jelly, I was totally out of breath and I was hyperventilating....!    We were each assigned one long wall in the gallery to fill with our work, I had 2 1/2 months to work for this exhibition........     Another fools rush in moment for me.......    I took a deep breath and accepted the invitation before the enormity of it all hit me....

I started work immediately but soon panic set in as I was not used to designing under such pressure, I really battled and felt out of my depth.    I suppose it is the same problem that authors encounter....   Feeling very dispondent one day, tired and out of sorts, I phoned Tim and said that I could not do it, that I was battling........!    He just calmly said that everything was planned and I must calm down and WORK!     I was happy with some of the designs, others were rather mediocre but I had a deadline, a very long wall to fill  and just had to try my best.     I managed to make 10 quilts and decided to include 92-11 as I was so exhausted and battled with "quantity"!    I suppose I was a bit overwhelmed....

The designs were very bold and I loved working with strong colours which were not part of my normal palette.   I worked very long hours and fell asleep a few times over my sewing machine as the opening night drew closer.   The quilts were al quilted in the ditch, not nearly enough for my fussy standards of today, but I honestly also did not have enough time to do more!   

  

Some of the 1993 Art Exhibition Quilts - East London



I can still remember the day that I loaded the quilts in the car and took it to the gallery and helped Tim to hang it.   The other wall was filled with all of Daph's beautiful paintings and she just looked like such a pro.   I was interviewed by the press and was so scared that I might sound stupid....   This art world was all so new to me....

The opening night was sponsored by the Dept of Arts and Education with the Director delivering THE SPEECH, he was very kind in his summation of my work for which I was very grateful.   My "wall" was filled with one big splash of colour and the quilts looked bright and very good under the gallery lights.     I was so chuffed yet very anxious at the same time as I did not really know what to expect of the public....   Of the quilters, only my group attended and gave me much needed support.......    Willem was so proud and supportive (and still is).

This exhibition was the first time that my work was in the spotlight.    I found it exhilerating but also very frightening as I felt that I was under scrutiny and everybody was looking into my soul.   It however also put me onto a different quilting path and it was instrumental in me re-defining my African roots.   Since this exhibition, I became aware of how deeply rooted in this Country I am.    I also received so much support and encouragement from artists in the art world for which I was and still am incredibly grateful.  In those early years when I was taking very tentative steps, they gave me the support and courage to continue on this new road of discovery.  

I became increasingly interested in South African themes and I chose machine applique as my preferred medium of construction.     I loved the symmetry of Ethnic geometric designs and designing became easier the more I practised it....

At the time I was confronted with my own demons of not "fitting" in the normal quilting mould, but it was an experimental road which I had to travel to find my own way of visual expression in textiles.

I did not sell one quilt during the week of the exhibition, but then I received a phone call......  

Learning to Fly........

You might wonder about the title of my previous rambling....   In retrospect I realize how little I knew about quilting when I started teaching 23 years ago...., hence the title Fools rush in (where angels fear to tread....)!

I think we all have a tendency to reflect on life, past choices made and the journey we've had.    Some choices were good, others could/should have been different/better....!    I think my decision to teach quilting in 1988 was a good one.    In the process I have learnt much  more than the students from me as I had to continuously produce new and fresh ideas which was imperative if I wanted to be a successful teacher.   It sent me on a solitary road of discovery, not just creatively but also so much of myself.   I discovered talents which I never dreamt I had....

I was fortunate that I was already a member of the Kaffrarian Quilters' Guild (now East Coast Quilters' Guild) when we moved from King Williams' Town to East London in 1991as it immediately offered a group of prospective friends...!    We all settled down very quickly this time and I formed a small quilt group.    We had weekly get togethers on Wednesday mornings and had great fun.   I also continued teaching from home.

Beverley Swemmer, me (yes I had dark hair!) and Jayne McComb.   The 4th member Margaret Brown took the photograph!

This small group offered me so much support with the new direction where quilting was taking me.   I became intrigued by the work of Esther Mahlangu, a Ndebele mural artist living in the north of the old Transvaal.    An established artist in her community with beautiful mural art, she was invited to exhibit her work in Paris, France which catapulted her onto the world art scene.   I also remember the BMW which she decorated with Ndebele art which was published in the newspapers.   I was totally smitten with this lovely, strong geometric designs.    I soon tried my hand at a very bold wallhanging (I now think it was rather ugly) which I made for our house.    I designed it full scale on paper, fused all the motifs onto the background and satin stitched around all the motifs with black thread to create the black lines which is an integral part of the Ndebele art.   I quilted in the ditch, in hindsight it could have looked so much better if I added more quilting.   I regard this quilt which I made in 1992 as the platform for my work to follow.
  

92-11   My first Ndebele style wallhanging made in 1992

 Making 92-11 soon lead to an exciting invitation of which I will tell you next time.....

Photographs.......

I have uploaded some images of quilts and projects on the Gallery page, more to follow.....   I will give you details about it all as My Journey unfolds.....
You can click on the photograph and it will enlarge automatically.    The quality of some of the older photographs are not too good, sorry about that.
Enjoy............

Fools rush in .....

Growing up in Knysna, I was blessed with emotional security in my parental home and a very special childhood friend.    Everything came easy and I was never forced out of my comfort zone....  I had however no problem to move to Port Elizabeth after marrying Willem and start a family as this was a natural progression of life.   All of this was to change early in 1988 when Willem was transferred and I was forced out of my comfort zone......      One of the biggest lessons which I learnt during this time, was that I had to make the effort to reach out to make friends as I was the new face in town.....

Moving to King William's Town early in 1988, was my first tentative steps into creativity and becoming a serious quiter......     I discovered latent talents of which I was unaware........   Indeed exciting....  

As I was very lonely in my new environment, I decided to offer patchwork lessons to make friends!   One prospective student, Louise Els responded to my advertisement in the local newspaper and I decided to start with her and was hoping that it would soon take off by word of mouth.   It soon did and Louise brought friends along and soon classes were very busy ..........     Soon I was teaching various methods of patchwork, hand & machine applique, shadow applique, hand embroidery and soon candlewicking followed.   

During this time I joined the Kaffrarian Quilters' Guild in East London which exposed me to the quilting fraternity in South Africa.  The copyright issue was raised in quilting circles and I decided to draw my own designs for candlewicking and embroidery classes.   The students were so taken by my designs that they encouraged me to compile a candlewicking pattern book which I sold in the area.    I designed patchwork and candlewick quilts for the students of which I would give them scaled down diagrams in ink for them to work from....   This gave me the freedom to create my own work and I regard this as the platform of my quilting career.  

During this time, wonderful women from all walks of life touced my life and we formed special friendships as we learnt so much form each other.    I was very touched when they organized a huge farewell party for me when we left town....   Yes, we were transferred again....    

  Friends Wilma Pitt, Maureen Burger, me and Elza Conradie pictured left and Heather Farrow and Cynthia Olivier on the right at the farewell party in the Library Hall in King William's Town.

The creative mind plays with the object it loves - Carl Jung

This heading is so apt for me as I was always intrigued by fabric.   Thanks to my friend Brenda who sent me this quote, I used it on a quilt of which I will tell you much later.....  

As an award winning quilt artist, I feel that it is important for my students to know that I did not start off by making award winning quilts!   This is why I feel it is important to share My Journey with you to give you hope when you battle to make the perfect quilt.....    I learnt by trial and error, lots of experimental work, loads of humour and patience.   Without the wonderful support of my Willem, our kids Elizabeth and Jopie as well as my wonderful quilting friends, this would have been difficult.    It is easy to create something of beauty when one is emotionally secure......    This blog is a tribute to all those who touched my life in some way......
As a child, I was always so interested when my mom was sewing and I always made clothes for my dolls of the leftover fabric.    It was the most wonderful day when she allowed me to sew on the old black Singer and by the time she got the green electric Singer, I was halfway to heaven......   I knew that I  had found my passion around the time that I went to High School.

Beginning 1984, a year after I had my first child Elizabeth, I was really getting bored as a stay at home mom and my cousin, Denise Opperman showed me a few patchwork techniques.   Needless to say, I was totally hooked and I have never stopped quilting since!   During this time, quilting supplies, books, classes etc were very scarce in Port Elizabeth and we made do with what we had.  We did not know about decent batting, we thought the thicker the better!   We had no idea of quilting thread, we used No 8 crochet cotton to quilt with and never heard of a quilters knot!   All of my initial work was hand pieced and hand quilted (with the crochet cotton).     In 1985 I tried my hand at machine applique and was so excited by the possibilities of this new technique.   Again, magic applique (for fusing) was not available and every piece was painstakingly tacked.   Now we are spoilt for choice with a wonderful array of supplies to make quilting so much easier.

I made my first big quilt in 1987 when I made a log cabin top which I promptly turned into a duvet cover for our bed.   This was before we knew of rotary cutters, cutting mats etc.   I used a 30cm school ruler, HB pencil and ordinary dressmaking scissors to painstakingly mark and cut the 1300 strips!   These strips were stitched onto the 100 calico blocks of which I also marked the grids with a HB pencil!    It was long before paperbased piecing.....

During this period 1984 - 1988, I stitched traditional blocks from patterns in magazines and my first patchwork book, Patchwork Patterns by Jinny Beyer.   This book gave me the freedom to use my geometry skills and understanding of mathematics as a whole new designing tool for my patchwork projects.

Next time:   We were transferred and I became a Quilting Teacher!

New beginnings...

Well, here I am in cyberspace on orders of one my students!   Thanks Hettie, this is for you!   

I will slowly introduce you to my work through My Journey - I do hope it will inspire you!    I will post images of my work as my story unfolds......     I cannot chat every day as my creative process is rather slow and my reserves are rather low after a hectic 18 months.   The past term has been very busy starting with the National Quilt Festival in beautiful Stellenbosch where I taught 2 workshops, then rushed home to paint more brush rags stock to take on my teaching trip to Bloemfontein, Sasolburg and Wilropark in September.    So many wonderful people became part of my life during this trip - quilters are such a special breed...!  This week is home in Port Elizabeth with our local Dias Quilters' Guild Spring Show which ends tomorrow.    What wonderful talent we have here in Port Elizabeth - the standard of the workmanship is very high and a beautiful cross section of quilting styles are on display.   Well done Dias Quilters.

Two of my friends, Elaine Swan left and Nadine van Westenbrugge on my right with yours truly in the centre at the Dias Quilters' Guild 2011 Spring Show.