Calender Blocks

Another BOM by teacher/designer Iessie for this year and I am very proud to actually have finished this in the year I started it. I however must admit that a trip to fellow quilter, Riette de Wet, in Aliwal North along with teacher, Iessie, who explained to me just how organized she was and how much she gets done, helped me to get over my 'quilters block' that I've been suffering from during the festive season.

The reason for the trip was that the 3 of us have very bravely decided to each start working on our very own Baby Jane quilts and we just needed a decent brainstorming session before beginning.

So before making this entry I was so excited to "delete" one project from my list of UFO's but just now realized that I now have to add yet another. Will I ever get to less than 16 UFO's on my list???

Completed: 29 December 2007

Litema quilt

Fellow quilter, Frances van Schalkwyk, approached me to help (being one of 5 quilters) make a quilt based on the mural art by the Basuto (a South African tribe) women to decorate the outside walls of their homes. After looking at photos of different mirror image patterns used by these women, we used EQ6 to design the block pattern (appliqued). A photo of this quilt would be used in a coffee table book showing this dying art called Litema but pronounced Ditema.

After findind the exact orange fabric, Frances and 2 other quilters cut and glued the motifs on the blocks. My first job was then to do the blanket stitching around all the motifs where-after teacher, Iessie Steenberg, had to join the blocks, cut the batting and backing and then the quilt came back to me.

I meandered on all the background blocks avoiding the applique itself and once again back to Iessie for the binding and label.

Queen sized quilt completed in only 3 weeks.

Completed: 7 December 2007