Internet Radio

I have just been given access to internet radio and I am in heaven! No more listening to the political b---llsh--t that our radio stations put out ad nauseaum, no more appallingly bad and repetitive music- and best of all, I CAN CHOOSE what I want to listen to! Classic? yum! Rock? yes, please. Popular music- as in my age group? Lovely!- and from anywhere in the world.  I have just found BBC Cumbria and York and knowing both areas, its great to listen to what is going on there.

Now to find a way to dump SABC 1,2 and 3 - and e-TV and M-Net with all their rubbish.

Now to get on with that quilt.

Frustration

What does one do when the hobby becomes a business and takes over ones life?

My dyeing was suppposed to be a side line to my work- that of making art quilts but after 15 years of dyeing fabric, I find that the work of making art quilts seems to be pushed further and further to the side. Advertising samples have to be made, patterns created , sales targets pushed higer and higher and I now have the responsibility of making sure that two workers are keep busy and fulfilled and that the work continues to flow in.

I have so many ideas for quilts that I would like to  realise but I know that they will probably remain ideas. And the frustration grows.

Winter on the Horizon- at last!

It's finally gotten cooler as the first real front of the winter season is passing through.
We haven't seen any rain but my friend in Swellendam says that the mountain outside town has a dusting of snow.

We have clear skies and a cold wind blowing here and I am energised again. I hate the hot weather with a passion as I can't think or work properly - and its got worse since I went to Antarctica.I didnt think that two weeks in that place would make a difference but it has.

I even have a new idea for a tote bag class and will have fun making the sample. It will be called " Weed Wacker Tote Bag" just for fun.

Telkom woes

I have given up trying to do just about anything on this blog or even try to surf the net as our esteemed telecommunications company- Telkom- just cannot get it right. Sometimes we have fantastic speed and other times, its worses than the Death March.

Its pretty obvious that they have got rid of all the really good workers ( the ones who actually got off their posteriors ) and we are now sitting with the sick, lame and lazy.

Winter's End

 Winters End ( 50 cm X 75 cm) came about as a result of a trip through the Eastern Free State literally at the end of winter, just before the first spring rains. The Earth was bone dry and the grass not much better off. This is my interpretation of that time.

Close up of the Winters End quilting.The one thing that contributed the most to the success of this piece was the use of acrylic felt as batting. It quilted easily and did not "puff up" the quilt and contributed to the texture of the piece without overwhelming it.

                                                   

New Work

Its been difficult to settle down and produce new work- mainly because I am so busy in my other job of running a hand dyeing business. Hand dyes are not exactly top of the pops in the South African quilting scene- especially locally produced hand dyes. If it comes from the States- even though the fabric is made and printed in China or other Far Eastern countries, for some people, it has to be better than local. Funny thing is that I have American and European customers who can't get enough of my fabric.

Be that as it may, I managed to produce a couple of small pieces:The one above is Desert Pan.

Here is Earth Warming:

This was in response to all the discussion about global warming. Is it or isn't it? Some scientists reckon that is the lull before a new ice age but no-one really knows.

Rain in the City was in response to the moans and groans in a guild where the challenge was to use greys.

When I started this quilt I couldn't stop and it just sort of "flowed".

I was very happy with the result.

This is a detail of some of the stitching.

Antarctica 2007

December 2007 was the time we took to go to Antarctica.

Two years later I am still trying to process what I saw and felt on that continent and get it into some kind of workable art - and not succeeding too well. Lots of staring at the photographs I took and lots of sketches later, I am still no nearer to getting a piece that means anything.

Antarctica had a huge effect on me and I would go back tomorrow if I could.From what I understand from others who have been to Antarctica, it seems to have the same sort of effect on them. If nothing else, the place is so vast and so-o-o- quiet, that it cuts one down to size very smartly. Its incredibly beautiful, very scary, challenging and almost impossible to describe if you haven't been there.

Your perception changes, your ideas about light and colour change as do your ideas about who you are and where you fit in the scheme of things. I believe that every polititian - especially those with over inflated egos- should be forced to spend a couple of weeks in that environment.

Scale and distance are deceptive and you don't have the reference points you would have in other parts of the world. You are surrounded by the most incredible pristine white, deep blues and greens, turquoise and jade along with violets, purples and lavenders. Its another world- almost alien

While on board the ship, I learned a lot about Antartctic art which deserves considerable study- except that there isnt much information about it in South Africa. Alan Campbell of the U.S.A. , Jenni Mitchell of Australia,Sue Lovegrove from Australia,Scott Hanson fron U.S.A.are all artists who have benefitted from their country's "Art in Antarctica" projects. Unfortunately, South Africa does not have a similar program.

Resurrection

It's been a while(like YEARS) since I last posted on this blog and I thought it might be worth resurrecting. Since I last posted we have been to Antarctica, mind blowing!) Norway and Sweden, twice to the U.K. and we have travelled around South Africa.

I now have a website www.amafu.co.za with LOTs of quilt photos and most of my concentration has been on that.

May be I'll post some photos from our travels a bit later.

Cloud Nine Quilt Group and the Optical Illusions Travelling Exhibition

Cloud Nine Quilt Group : Putting up the Optical Illusions Quilt Exhibition for Natal Quilters Guild.


In our wisdom / ignorance(?) the members of the Cloud Nine quilt Group decided to spend the March meeting putting up the Optical Illusions Traveling Quilt Exhibition for the Natal Quilters Guild at the Alliance Francaise in Durban.


To say that it was entertaining was not the least of it!

Although we had all exhibited at various Quilt shows and exhibitions, hanging an exhibition was a first for all of us and it kept us pretty busy for most of the afternoon- including lunch at a great little coffee shop we found.

This was how the quilts were initially placed but by the end of the afternoon we had played musical chairs with them and eventually came up with a pleasing presentation with the help of an experienced quilt exhibition hanger- Colleen Roberts.

Hanging Hanging the quilts was a challenge for us- mainly because this is a travelling exhibition and although we had quilt sizes, we had never seen the quilts before and it was difficult to plan anything before hand.











Its amazing how much discussion it took to get the exhibition hung properly and what you see in these photographs bears no resemblance to the final order.








It does help when there are a couple of tall people around to help with the lights!



















The opening was intimate and involved quaffing a qualtity of wine and much concentration by the guests on the quilts.

IKATI'S TRAVELS PART 2

This is typical Free State countryside with the road stretching in a straight line for kilometers at a time with very little traffic.

There has been a lot of rain in the Free State ( this part anyway) and the grass on either side of the road was long and green- such a contrast to the winter when the veld is just a sea of brown.








We found this old Synagogue in Senekal.It looks as if there was a sizable Jewish community in the area in the early part of the 20th Century and I wonder what happened to them as the years passed. This building looks as if it has been unused for years.
Many buildings of historical significance are beginning to fall apart as communities battle to cope with more mundane costs such as housing and sanitation with very little money.

Senekal itself seems to be the centre of a farming district with huge silos and a couple of petrol stations and not much else.

The Bed and Breakfast we stayed in was over a hundred years old and very well maintained by its owners but the upkeep of such an old building must be astronomical given that the building was probably not that well built to start with.

This mountain outside Harrismith is more familiar territory for us- we pass it 4 or 5 times a year on the Main Johannesburg/Durban freeway. Wonderfully green at this time of the year, these mountains always exude a sense of secrecy- to me at any rate.

IKATI'S TRAVELS: PART 1

Its been a busy month of travelling around South Africa attending Provincial Guild meetings with the shop and three weekends on the trot in February heat is not my idea of fun! It does nothing for the creative spirit although I saw wonderful quilts en route.

We travelled to Pretoria first- this time taking ten hours to do a normally 5 hour trip. There was heavy rain on the way up to Pretoria and a HUGE accident on the van Reenen's Pass which necessitated a two and a half hour through the picturesque but very slow Olivers Hoek Pass.
Here is a picture of the Sterkspruit Dam which is on the road through the Olivers Hoek pass. Its huge and right in the mountains and when we passed there was mist rising off the water.

IT was only when we hit the outskirts of Johannesburg that we realised just what damage had been done by the rains- and was still being done. We got into a traffic jam and had to find a place to stop for a couple of hours until the traffic cleared and the rain slowed down. It simply wasnt worth the possibility of an accident.It was as though someone had opened the sluice gates in the sky and everything possible was comming down. It was like sitting in a West African thunderstorm- except this wasnt West Africa and it wasnt a thunderstorm!

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful and on the way back I stopped in Kroonstad for petrol. Opposite the petrol station was the most marvellous stone church with a very unusual roof so "nog" a photograph.

Many of the older buildings in the Free State are built out of the beautiful Free State sand stone which varies from creamy yellow to a variety of browns.This church was probably built at the turn of the century when stone masons were still working in the country.

This piece of sculpture we named " the Lego Man" and we found him at the gate of a farm between Kroonstad and Senekal in the Free State.When we got closer we found that he had been welded together with bits of pipe and old farm implements. Either way he made for welcome relief from a sea of green grass and what seemed to be a never ending road.

IMAGES OF POWER

Images of Power reflects my facination with the Bushman/San culture.I spend as much time as I can in our Drakensberg mountains and there are many many Bushman paintings in the caves and on the walls of overhangs. It is believed that the Bushman paintings reflected their spiritual life and not their daily lives ,hence some very strange paintings which could have been done under the influence of hallucogenic drugs. No one really knows.

Size : approx 90 cm X 1 meter.

Summer Magic was one of the first curved piecing quilts I had ever done - and one of the most interesting in terms of techinque and result. I have been using this method successfully ever since- but usually combining it with freehand curved piecing to make up the individual section of the quilt.

Size: approx 1.00 m X 1.00 meter












Dust of Africa was an exercise in precision for
me- I cant sew a straight seam to save my life!
It has a strong African feel- very reminicent of the Natal Drakensberg where it was made.I was on holiday at the time and cannot go anywhere for more than a day or so without my sewing machine and a bit of fabric.All the fabric was hand dyed
fabric from AMAFU ,South Africa.

Size : approx 1.00m X 75 cm








ADINKRA DREAMS was made using the inspiration of the symbols of the Ashanti people of West Africa. I have used the colours of Africa and tried to emulate the casual attitude to precision that is prevalent throughout Africa.
THERE IS NOTHING THAT IS STRAIGHT IN AFRICA! Who cares as long as it works!

Size : approx 50 X 75 cm

STRAIGHT OUT OF AFRICA!

This could only happen in Africa! This market is outside Pretoria on the side of the road which leads to CAIRO, EGYPT! Seriously, this is the main road which leads to the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The cloth behind the sign is not hand painted - they printed in one of our local mills and very often find their way to these markets where they are sold at exhorbitant prices to the tourists. 

INSPIRATION

Sometimes I get inspiration from walking amongst the stalls at the roadside markets. This one is outside Pretoria, South Africa.They are geared for the tourist and much of the stuff one sees here comes from other parts of Africa. 

DESIGN WALL

My design wall is made of soft board and covered with felt. The work on the wall belongs to two students in a Rosalie Dace class.

If ever you get the chance to do a class with Rosalie Dace, grab it. She is a wonderful teacher and has encouraged many a student to dig deep into themselves and produce stunning work. 

MY STUDIO

Part of my studio with the studio boss, who has to examine every piece of fabric or quilt by sleeping on it. The studio has a huge sliding door onto a roofed patio and another huge window on the other side so there is plenty of natural light as well as 6 double flourescent tubed lights with colour corrected tubes. Its the only way I can work at night. 

THERE BE DRAGONS IN AFRICA

The title refers to the dragon in the quilt and was inspired by African traditional art work. All the fabric was hand dyed and hand screened by AMAFU from South Africa. This quilt is now in a private collection. 

Ghost Dancers

Ghost Dancers is a small piece 50 X 50 cm in size and completely machined. The background is one piece of fabric which is a piece of hand painted AMAFU fabric and overlaid with synthetic organza.This was then heavily quilted with metallic thread. 

Savannah Ghosts

This quilt was machine pieced using AMAFU hand dyed fabric from South Africa. You cant see it in this photograph but there are two kudu (buck) in the bottom left hand corner- hence "Savannah Ghosts".