I've had a fun time in Lagos learning about quilting. I've been a part of a fun quilting group and we've had some expert quilters who have shared their expertise with many of us beginners. I love the vibrancy of African fabrics and I've enjoyed using them in some pretty wild quilts. I'm definitely not into traditional quilts. Here's pictures from some of the quilts I've worked on during my time here.
This one is a baby quilt that I made for Natalie, my granddaughter.
This quilt is from a pattern called the "Steps to Freedom." It's one that many of us in the quilting group have made. It's a relatively simply pattern and it's a fun, scrappy quilt which showcases a variety of fabrics. We share fabric scraps in the group so we can get a good variety of fabrics for this quilt.
I made some quilts using blue fabrics for presents for two grandsons. They're pretty wide and crazy.
My daughter-in-law is as new as I am to quilting, but she has a real gift both for composing and creating quilts. My quilts are amateurish compared to hers. She also was really productive, at least until the baby she's holding in this picture (my youngest grandson, Mason) got mobile. And she has 4 young children! I couldn't believe how many beautiful quilts she was able to finish. She was very nice to quilt these two large blue quilts on her mom's long arm quilting machine.
My latest quilt, which I finished piecing over the summer is one called a "stack and whack" or a "one block wonder" quilt. The quilt top is made from using just one fabric, but the pattern is made from how that fabric is cut and put back together. The quilt top is composed of hexagons made up of triangles that are exactly the same pattern, cut from stacking 6 pieces of fabric on top of each other. Because the triangles have sides of equal length, each hexagon can have 3 possible variations depending on when corner is in the center.
The the hexagons are organized into whatever seems to be a pleasing pattern. This next photo is the hexes arranged on a "design wall." When they are sewn together, it is done with half hexes sewn in strips, so that part isn't as hard as it may look. I loved doing this quilt. It looks like a kaleidescope. It also wasn't that difficult, though it looks pretty complicated.
I used some of the original fabric around the border of the quilt on the top.
And I also used the original fabric, with some yellow border fabric on the back, so you could see what the fabric looked like in the original state. My daughter-in-law is also going to quilt this one for me. I'm excited to see what the finished quilt will look like!
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