African Mask

African Mask

Tuesday 24 May 2011

My African Quilt!

Long long time ago, back in the day when ...oh sorry wrong story..ahem..*sheepish grin*
In 2001 I dyed some fabric. Then I stenciled some designs onto it. I painted 6 panels with what was almost African rock drawings..but a bit more... today ..is the only word I can think of. It was a lot of fun. I showed the pieces to my Mom and we discussed how it should go together. Then I put it aside...various things were happening in my life, my son got married, I went on to a sailing school on a Coastal Skipper's course for a month to gain experience on large keel boats. Up till then I'd only sailed small dinghy racers. Suddenly I was offered a trip, from Durban, South Africa to Chesapeake Bay near Washington DC. All I had to do was help sail the boat there. I jumped at it and my life turned upside down...what to do with the house, the car etc..I solved it all by handing the keys to my son and said.."here you go my boy..how about taking over..not sure when I'll be back..maybe never....I might like it out there you know"....ha ha he he he ..

Anyway I digress, I'm always doing that..:-p...here are some photo's of the quilt and then some close-ups of different sections.
My African quilt in our Aft Cabin.
One of the hand painted blocks.

Another of the blocks.

Still another.. :-)
Notice the tiny loin on the gold square?
This is the lion...

 There are other animals in the other corners.
A Hippo yawning...

An Elephant.
A Giraffe drinking..

A Warthog mom and her babies.
 These are stencils of different homes built around Africa. Some of them are beautifully painted with designs in bright colours.
This is an overall view of the quilt...taken on the boat outside.

An overall view.
This quilt has been everywhere with me..usually it was stuffed into my back pack and dragged around from boat to boat..whichever one I happened to be working on at the time :-) I also often threw it into the washing machine along with other stuff...no protection and not on the delicate cycle...I decided that it would be a good test to see if my colours lasted..and I'm very happy with the result....:-D
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No, I'm not back in circulation yet :-D I wrote this whilst still in Panama and the scheduled it to post today..Just to keep you all on your toes. :-)

4 comments:

  1. this is one of the best quilts ever - and such a colourful history

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  2. What an amazing quilt, and with a wonderful story to go with it! Did you dye it using a batic technique? It looks beautiful.

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  3. No, I didn't use the batic method...I designed this method myself..it's totally unique to me. smile....

    Thanks for the comments guys...
    sylvie

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  4. Gaynor/africapintail3 July 2011 at 07:12

    Hope to see your thoughts on the long trip youve just completed. Were you able to work on your designs?

    ReplyDelete