National Colours...

Watching the London 2012 Olympics, brought back memories of the 2010 Soccer World Cup which was held in South Africa!   I can still recall the intense excitement in the streets, shops, newspapers, radio and TV.....!    There was so much goodwill among all the people and as a nation, we were all so immensely proud of successfully hosting this major sports event.   Seeing our team winning medals in London, brought back the good vibe of 2010...

To commemorate this event in South Africa, the Natal Quilters's Guild had a special challenge "Images of Sport" and I was fortunate to receive an invitation from their Guild to participate.   Participants could portray any sporting discipline whatsoever....  

My initial idea was to make a realistically themed quilt using photographs of a sportswoman in action and adding quotes from her inspirational talks.........     I really battled to make contact with her and I was extremely disappointed when her agent eventually responded to my request  and refused permission to use any material of my sporting icon....

So, rather despondently I had to rethink my concept....   I decided the safe thing was to make an anonymous quilt depicting soccer players all dressed in Bafana kit!     I collected pictures of soccer players in action from the local newspapers and started work - the images were from players from all over the world disguised in Bafana kit!    But I must admit, I felt a bit deflated and I battled initially to get started ....

I prepared patterns for my little men, depicting all the race groups in South Africa and chose to work in the colours of our National flag.    I used fabric paint to add shading to the little men...

The eight blocks of National Colours 2010

Making hair for the players was great fun!    I used the needlelace machine embroidery technique as well as painted tumble dryer lint to make wigs for the 8 players - some players had short hair, others dreadlocks....    Creating boots and soccer balls were great fun!    I used yellow embroidery thread for the shoe laces....    I used green painted iron-on-vilene for the pitch and quilted in green thread to create the illusion of grass.   As I studied the newspaper photographs of the sportsmen, I observed that because the cameras were focused on the players, the crowds in the stands were out of focus causing a blurred vision of colour.... I painted fabric creating this blurred background and quilted head and shoulder shapes to create the illusion of crowds in the stands watching the game....

I framed each of the 8 blocks with a narrow geometric border in the colours of our National flag and stitched it onto black background fabric.    I added another geometric border to the outer edge of the quilt, leaving an open section onto which I quilted hexagons using a variegated thread in the colours of the geometric borders.  I added beadwork bought from street vendors - loveletters with the SA flag as design and round coasters representing the shape of a soccer ball  to add additional interest and a uniquely South African vibe.    

National Colours 2010

I made a special label for this quilt - using the shape of a soccer ball!

National Colours 2010 Label!

Some close-up detail of the quilting in the border section....