Thursday, March 12, 2009

When is the same quite different?

I've been wondering what to blog about lately and was pretty much stumped until my friend Katie emailed me some pictures from her friend Sarah. Background: Katie and Sarah were became best friends (BFF's) when they lived in So. CA and their children were small. Many, many moves later they are still the best of friends and make it a point to get together at least a couple of times a year. A few years back Katie and her hubby moved to Eureka and she became one of our fabulous employees at Scottie Dog Quilts and even a member of that elite small quilting group, The Grateful Threads. I met Sarah a couple of years before that when she was visiting Katie and the two of them came into the store. Sarah said she needed a lot of thread, needles and a large number of books. She gave me a list and said she'd be in town for three weeks. I was pretty surprised at the list of 25 or 30 books, 100's of needles and a huge assortment of thread. You see, Sarah was living in Bali. Yes, BALI, land of paradise.....LAND OF BATIKS! Her husband works for an oil company and she's lived many places around the globe. She had to make a large order because mail order didn't really work to Bali. She just got a lot of empty packages. So she stocked up.
Sarah's come back several times and Katie has gone to visit too. (Wow!, pack me in your suitcase). So now, Sarah lives in Nigeria. That's in Africa. Lions, tigers & elephants, Oh, my! African fabrics are quite different than our American fabrics. (Even though most of our American fabrics are printed elsewhere, they are designed by Americans.)
So back to the beginning of my story. I got an email from Katie who was sending pictures of three of Sarah's quilts using African fabrics. They are called Snap, Crackle & Pop although I'm not sure which is which any more.

I'm a "BLUE" person. I love blue and this Blue quilt is no different. I like the graphic Zig Zag of the red/green print that runs through this quilt.

This quilt has so much energy with the stripes and the red/orange going through it. The wild diamonds of the hot colors in the midst of the cool fabrics really grab me. Lots of movement going on in this quilt.

These fabrics are African waxed Batiks and again....a hot color (gold) running through the cool colors. But such a more relaxing feel. I applaud Sarah...all three of these quilts are just wonderful. Each one evokes different feelings and snatches of memories.....but they are all the very same pattern. Great job Sarah! Thanks for letting us share your quilts.

3 comments:

Carol E. said...

Fabulous quilts! i love the first two, especially.

Mama Z said...

Thank you Brenda! I'm flattered you featured me in your blog. You're welcome to tag along with Katie on her next visit. A safari in Kenya is planned!

jen duncan said...

These are so vibrant! And they give me a great idea. I want to do a quilt for John's oldest who is getting married in the Fall...wouldn't a pattern like this be fab with some Jane Sassaman fabrics fussy cut? I think so, too! :-)
Did you have fun today? Sure wished I could've gone but I got to witness Madison enjoying her first M & M's so that was a treat for me. Best part about being around these littles--experiencing everything new again.
How'd that pic of my booth turn out last week? I'm thinking not good or I'd have seen it by now ;-)
see you soon.