Wednesday, October 29, 2008

AFRICAN GALA







They brought some of their wares to sell . The proceeds help their village in Africa







These are some of the quilts in the show made by the African quilters
This was the workshop I took. The teacher was from Africa, but she was born in Enland.
I made one doll in an African theme to use for a draw in my class and one of the african ladies won it. she was thrilled





One of the local quilt shops called Cotton By Post presented an African Gala last week, which I was involved in
The village is small(pop.600) but the enthusiasn is big.It took Suzanne and Garnet Smalley, the owners of the shop 1 1/2 years preparing for this event, including a trip to East Africa, where they met available teachers willing to come to Canada and teach workshops.
I was invited as a Canadian teacher to do a 2 day doll workshop with a Canadian theme.
I also took one of the workshops which was an appliqued wall hanging (2 african women pounding grains for flour) The class was the last one of the week and the teacher had a draw for an african story wallhanging and I WON!!What a treasure.
The wind up was on the Saturday night . All the African teachers were dressed in their native costumes...Beautiful... There was an African Band and African food tasting including goat stew. DH wouldn't try it but I did and it was delicious. It tasted a bit like lamb...African beer and wine was also served.All in all it was a very exciting week to meet these people and to learn a bit about their culture. Last year it was Russia(previous post) and next year it will be Ireland.Enjoy the pictures..

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, thank you SO much for sharing these photos of the African workshop with us!I know you enjoyed the interaction; their quilts are wonderful!Mighty cute dolls also...I hope you bought some of those bright gorgeous fabrics!Heh, heh.......

NEEDLEWINGS said...

It looked like it was a grand time. I love African art and colors! My sister raised goat and I have eatten goat sausage and it was good. I use to work at a country club many years ago and I couldn't get past the smell of serving lamb chops to even try them. Then tried a Gyro one time with lamb and not my thing. I guess it must be an aquired taste.

Reflections of life and art said...

Hi Maggie, is this the celebration that you made your african dolls for....looks like a lot of fun. What inspiration from all the pics...tahnks for sharing!!

Hugs,
Noel

Pat Winter Gatherings said...

Beautiful art quilts. I can imagine the details and color of viewing them first hand. I love your pumpkin quilt in your blog header. Very nice!
Hugs,Pat

Bethel of Bethania said...

G'day Maggie,
Wooh what a wonderfully enriching experience this Africian Gala week must of been ... Congratulations on your win too ... The quilts are beautiful - I do love colour ...
Thanks so much for popping over to my place too ... OOroo ... Bethel of Bethania

Barbara said...

Maggie,
Sounds and looks like you had a fabulous time. Congrats on winning! I love all the dolls.

3rdEyeMuse said...

what a fantastic event! thank you for sharing the wonderful memories and photographs with us. :)

Carla said...

Beautiful photos. Wish I could go to something like that. Congrats on your win!