Potholders

I made potholders.

They are a birthday present for a friend.  They both have checks one side and birds the other.  The birds I got from JoAnn fabric when I was in the states. I went to the fabric measuring counter to do a price check, but it was too expensive, so I was going to leave it. Then the lady behind me gave me a 40% off voucher - which was very kind of her since I didn't know her - so I bought some. YAY.

Thank you very nice lady who I don't know!

I made bread, again, many times...
because it's fun, useful and EASY!   I can't believe I had so many problems before!

Fabric here.

Someone asked if I can buy fabric here....yes and no.

Yes in the market there is lots of fabric...but I don't buy so much here.
Most of the fabric here is non-cotton, ugly or if it has a nice pattern is polyester/nylon, flimsy, very loose weave stuff.  This last Tuesday we went to the market, and I bought 3 scarves - which I will probably use for sewing instead of headscarves - they are very very loose weave flimsy things so i will have to do something to them before i sew with them.

this one below is more satiny type material....

It is also very expensive compared to US/UK (I am a walmart cheapo/joann fabric bargains type girl!).You can buy polycotton sheets in the market, that aren't too bad, but i think i prefer to save the money and buy when we go overseas somewhere.  I did buy a couple of jellabiyas (house dresses) soley for the fabric and made a little dress for Potspie with one, and when foreigners are having yard sales I can sometimes buy cotton clothing that can be made into things.

Matt, when he was down in Juba (near Kenya) bought me 5 METRES of one fabric (it sort of came that length apparantly) :-)

If only cloth could talk ...

Before we were married (or even dating) my husband bought a wall hanging in Kenya.
I think it is made of old saris/scarves or something like that, and is from somewhere like India or Bangladesh -  but I'm not sure...
I think it is made from whatever colours they have and is then dyed (in this case red).

At first I didn't like it but more recently I've been looking at it more closely, wondering who wore these different pieces of cloth and what the story of the fabrics in it is. Now I really like it!
If only cloth could talk...

Quilt Festival

So there is an online quilting festival and you are supposed to post your favourite quilt.  Not sure if your s'posed to post it now or later... but I figured now was OK.

Here's mine.  It's a present for my brother and his wife's baby (due fairly soon). I've only made 4 quilts so didn't have many to choose from!

I made it here (Sudan)- took it with us to the UK and then the US in a bag, then posted it from the US to where he lives in Japan.  Can't post it from here  as it would never make it to Japan, and US is cheaper than UK!

The animals were cut out from some IKEA fabric.

The surrounding fabric was whatever I could find that I thought would work.  A couple of shirts, T-shirts, jellabiya material (material you buy here to make a dress thing for guys here to wear), some fabric Matt got me when he went to Kenya, and various other bits and pieces bought in the US and UK.

Sandwiched in the middle is a white cotton sheet as you can't buy batting here.  Actually I like how flexible and 'comfy' it feels with no batting.

The backing is a sheet.

I 'handquilted' (sewed as i don't know how to 'handquilt' really)  around the animals/squares with different coloured embroidery threads.  I like how it looks on the back - but my photos of the back weren't very successful.

(In case you're wondering, the photos were taken on our washing line in our yard - and it's entirely normal to have a bed in your yard here.)

Things I've made..