Paula's Kenyan Wall Hanging

Today was a limited sewing day. After working on Christopher's quilt for an hour, I switiched over to Paula's project - it's small, it's fabulous, and it's finished. She made us a beautiful photo album of our trip to Kenya, and I think this hanging is a fair trade!  Now I can give my undivided attention to Christopher and have his quilt finished by Saturday.  23" x 31"

Remembering Kenya

Look! Two of our favorites - grandchildren and travelling - in the same picture! We had such a terrific time in Kenya, and this wall hanging from two t-shirts, the flag of Kenya, and two great ethnic prints will always remind us of our Kenyan safari with my sister Paula and her husband Dennis. It hangs above our entertainment center, which serves as an everchanging display for the latest pictures of the grandkids and the latest travel souvenirs. 22" x 47"

Tomorrow begins a 3-day retreat with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  15 of us are heading to Racine, Wisconsin; and I'm pretty excited about going.  Since I have a studio and sew all the time, this retreat presents a special opportunity for me to do something out of my comfort zone.  So far I know I'm packing my scraps and the "ingredients" for Paula's Kenya wall hanging.  Stay tuned for what actually emerges from this weekend!

Should vs. Want vs. Did

Today was one of those rare days where I could work uninterrupted in the studio - no workout,no parent visit, no appointments, no cooking. I know that I should have gotten busy on adding the borders to Christopher's quilt. But what I really wanted to do was quilt this table runner:

However, John made one of his rare quilting requests. He asked that I begin work on the wall hanging of the two Kenya t-shirts and Kenyan flag. So I got busy on that. And it turned out to be exactly what I wanted to do.

I might have even gotten this quilted and bound except Midge, my direction reader, had some time to work on the hobo bags we started, the same one I'm stuck on.  So we spent a couple of hours finishing them. I need to carry this for a couple of day before I figure out where and if I want a snap closure and whether the handle/strap needs any adjustment.  The one thing I know about this purse is that I again have loved using Soft and Stable by byannie.com as the purse lining.

This evening I'll continue work binding one of Ebony's quilts, something I happily volunteered to do in exchange for the work she did on Cristina's quilt. 

Some days don't have enough hours in them.  Today is one of those days.  And in the back of my mind all day has been what I want to work on this weekend at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild retreat in Racine.   I still don't know - what a lovely "problem" to have!

Jambo!

Jambo is "Hello!" in Swahili. What a terrific time we had in Kenya and its national parks of the Great Rift Valley and Amboseli. Fabulous people, wonderful animals, and the best weather ever. My brain is just agog with all the possibilities for the Quilting Studio.  Look at this scene from Amboseli with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background.  There's a landscape quilt which will eventually emerge - I still have 800 other photos to consider.

These two t-shirts along with the Kenya flag will make a great wall hanging. Originally I bought 4 t-shirts thinking that I would do a square wall hanging. Then I decided to break up the 4 t-shirts into 2 separate wall hangings. The remaining two will be a wall hanging for my sister Paula and her husband Dennis, who went to Kenya with us. Great fun to travel with them!

Use your imagination.  Surround these shirts with red, black, green, or yellow. 

If you're a faithful reader of this blog, then you know I have a thing for purses and bags.  This zippered bag is great.  I love the zebra print mixed with the cheetah print.  And the animals?  These were the animals we saw - constantly.  I'm not sure whether I will use this bag in the studio, imitate it for its size and pattern, or use its palette as a design source.



This whole cloth is 40" by 60", and the Maasai use it as a wrap - it's a kanga. If you look closely (click on the picture), you'll see words in Swahili.  A loose translation is "God controls the rhythms of our lives."  I am going to quilt this and use it as an opportunity to work on my free-motion skills.  I was a bit disappointed to learn that this kanga is a product of Tanzania since we officially didn't visit Tanzania.  Unofficially?  We actually did.  Our balloon ride came to a swift end when we began to sail into Tanzanian territory, and we did a quick crash landing!

One of the nice surprises when we returned home was the arrival of my 2010 blog in book form, ordered from blog2print.com.  Although my blog is securely on line, it's great to see all the entries from 2010 and be able to page through them.  This volume will sit on the bookshelves along side the 2007, 2008, and 2009 volumes.


Be it ever oh so humble, there's no place like home!

Kwaheri!

My bags are packed. Well, actually they aren't. Just yet. My 60" x 80" zone is no longer a reference for a queen-size bed. It is now the "what goes into the suitcase" zone. We leave for Kenya on Friday and will be gone two weeks. T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, convertible pants, multi-purpose vest, a pair of shorts, a swim suit, pj's - that's it. I still have another day to refine this pile. But the studio is closed and now a staging area for packing.

Kwaheri! That's "goodbye" in Swahili, which besides English is the official language of Kenya. I'll be back the end of this month!