Another festival..

I am extremely sorry for being so quiet, but our broadband data cap was hacked into and our access to the internet limited...

I find it a good thing to constantly evaluate my work as I am extremely critical of my efforts...    With the progress which I made with Avian Grace (bird quilt) and Cape Peninsula - Floral Kingdom, I decided to revisit the animal kingdom for an improved version of Woodville made in 1998.    I really loved the layout of Avian Grace and actually designed an animal version of it before I started work on the 2002 Cape Peninsula quilt, but left the designs untouched for maybe, one day.....  

In 2004 I decided that it was time to make this quilt, partly because of time restraints as I was nearing the end of my term of office as SAQG President and I really did not have time to wonder off in my creative space to design something fresh....  It made good sense to tackle the new version of the animal quilt as all the mental preparation was done, I could just dive in with cutting and stitching...    I really loved working on this quilt and I was so satisfied with the blocks as I completed it, BUT I got stuck with the Zebra block....   The river scene with reflections was just so difficult and soon I could not thing straight....    I  unpicked it so many times....    My idea was to create a scene with zebra drinking water at the river with their reflections in the water....   

I made mirror image zebras which worked very well, but somehow I could not get the water right....    I layered chiffon fabric and organzas over the zebra images, but stupidly, had too many layers of fabric over the zebras .....    I was in a total panic and the clock was ticking.....   In the end I just gave up and finished the quilt, but was immensely disappointed with this section.....!    I again spent lots of thought on the quilting designs.   I found footprint images of the different animals depicted in the quilt in a field guide which I used  as quilt designs and combined it with some geometric quilting and very fine stipple quilting.   I free motion embroidered the spots on the leopard and the stripes of the zebras without using a presser foot on the sewing machine.....     For the lions I made little wigs of unraveled fabric for the manes, the elephant ears were made using 3-D techniques with Italian quilting....   The trees and bushes were made using the needlelace technique on wash-away substance.

Spots, Stripes, Ivory and Afro - Bush Style 2004
Part of Exhibition of South African Quilts at 10th European Patchwork Meeting, Val d'Argent, France

I actually love this quilt and somehow don't really notice the failed attempt of the reflections in the water.....    I subsequently tried a similar setting in a smaller quilt and got it right....

Zebra's - Donkeys in Striped PJ's 2008

This small quilt was kindly taken to England by my friend Wendy Singer and exhibited at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK in 2007.

Next time, setting up my dream studio .....

Little bits of everything....

In 2002, I was approached by one of our Guild members, Jacqui Hattingh (a librarian in the city) to assist with making a quilt which would be displayed at all the libraries in Port Elizabeth on a rotational basis.    The libraries in Port Elizabeth received a grant from the Carnegie Institute in New York to be used for an upgrade and the quilt would be made to commemorate this.   
Jacqui had a good idea of what she wanted to do, but was feeling a bit overwhelmed to initiate the project and she needed somebody to hold her hand....    I designed the basic layout for the quilt and we decided to make 4 blocks depicting the different roles of libraries in the communities with the International logo as the focal point in the centre of the quilt.   As it was a South African quilt, I designed geometric borders in the colours of our National flag to give it a distinctive South African flavour.     Jacqui organized some volunteers to help sew and we started work.    I stitched the logo and the others started on the 4 panels - in the end Jacqui did the bulk of the work......    It was really lovely to see the quilt finished and displayed in the historical main library in the city centre for the first showing..... 

 
I was also fortunate to teach some workshops at the Outeniqua Quilters' Guild in George towards the end of 2002 which was really a lovely experience.    I taught Protea Workshop #2 to a small, but very dedicated group of quilters.     Sadly, I have since stopped teaching Protea workshops as it is too intense....    

Protea Workshop #2 in George 2002

From left to right:  Nancy Swanepoel, Jenny Hurter, Fiona Barnwell, Diana Bezuidenhout, Annette Zondagh, me holding the workshop sample and Margaret Horn in front of Cape Peninsula - Floral Kingdom

This was an extremely busy period for me as I had lots of administrative duties as SAQG President, teaching trips and the Kariega Project.    I had very little time to do experimental work....    I was asked by the Threads magazine to design a cushion to launch A Rose is a Rose competition.     The Rose Trellis cushion, made of my handpainted brush rags fabrics, was the result of this.   I subsequently turned the idea into a workshop which I also taught in Hermanus and East London.....    

Rose Trellis Cushion designed for Threads magazine

Although it seemed that I did a lot of work, it was a bit frustrating as I felt that I did not really have enough time to experiment and play.......