Southern Cross

Elizabeth was in the process of finalizing her U.S. citizenship. I have always lived in the U.S and always will. I am happy here and this is my home. I wondered how I would feel if circumstances caused me to leave a country, home, and family that I love to permanently move to another land. I think there would always be a place in my heart for the first country.

I wanted to make a quilt using the indigo and red Shweshwe to celebrate Elizabeth becoming a U.S. citizen. It would be a patriotic sort of quilt, but I also wanted to tie it to South Africa. Elizabeth had told me about the Southern Cross constellation which is only visible from the southern hemisphere. I decided to incorporate it into the quilt.

The Southern Cross has 5 stars in it. When viewed, 4 stars are approximately the same size and the 5th one appears smaller. At first I was thinking in terms of pieced star blocks arranged in some manner in the center of the quilt surrounded by a pieced border. I couldn't quite get a handle on it. Then I decided to applique the 5 stars. That was the breakthrough.

1. The center appliqued block would have red stars against an indigo background. It would be 12" finished with a red 1" inner border.
2. The outer border would be pieced from 7" indigo and red log cabin blocks arranged in a star formation. The strips in the log cabin block would be 1" finished.
3. The corner log cabin blocks would contain all indigos.

Chocolate Pudding

Many of the quilts that I make take shape as they progress. They grow to be whatever size they end up being. They don't symbolize anything in particular, but they may take on meaning and form personalities as they go along.

Chocolate Pudding is not that kind of quilt. It was symbolic from the start. I met Elizabeth's family (her husband Steven, her mother Tersia from South Africa, and her in-laws Judy and Larry from North Dakota) in April of 2008. I'd learned from Tersia that a South African dessert may be called pudding even though it is not pudding as I know it. I wanted to make another sample for Marula Imports and these were the thoughts in my head:

1. The sample would feature the chocolate brown Shweshwe.
2. I would produce a pattern for this quilt.
3. I would use the Cake Stand block because cake is a dessert that is not pudding. I decided that the blocks would be 8" finished. (I prefer blocks that are 9" or smaller. Cake Stand works best if the block size is an even number. I thought a 6" Cake Stand block might intimidate some quilters.)
4. Since it featured the chocolate prints, the quilt would be called Chocolate Pudding.
5. The sample did not need to be a large quilt. (I am fond of making large lap and bed size quilts.)
6. The sample needed to use fat quarters, but incorporate different prints. (I like using a lot of different fabrics and wanted to give others the opportunity to use different Shweshwe prints.)
7. I would use light shirtings and double pinks to show the chocolate Shweshwe to advantage. (I am a fairly traditional quilter with a fondness for reproduction fabrics.)

At this point I got out the graph paper and sketched the quilt:

1. The center featured 5 Cake Stand blocks set on point. The blocks had chocolate and pink against light shirtings.
2. The border was pieced so it could be primarily brown with a chain of pink squares. I wanted the pink squares to be larger at the corners. The border ended up having 2 different blocks in it - Double Four-Patch and modified Puss in the Corner.
3. Since the blocks were on point, setting triangles were also needed. If the setting triangles were cut in the normal manner, it would require 13" Shweshwe squares. To avoid a lot of waste, the setting triangles would be cut from two fabrics at the most. I pieced the setting triangles in order to use a wider variety of prints.

On the night that I cut the pieces, I only had 5 chocolate prints on hand, but they were half-yards instead of fat quarters. I pieced the quilt using those 5 prints even though I knew that 8 fat quarters would be needed. (You know how it is. When you are ready to do something, you are ready. You cannot stop yourself.)

Marula Designs

Marula Designs is a line of quilt patterns designed for Marula Imports. The patterns feature an African cotton called Shweshwe. Marula Imports is owned by my friend, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and I work together. She was planning a trip home to visit family in South Africa and knew I was a quilter. She asked me if there was some kind of fabric she could bring back for me. (Have you ever known a quilter to answer "No" to such a question?) A long time ago I had purchased an African fabric from a vendor at a quilt show and had used it to make a quilt. All that remained were a few scraps. I showed them to Elizabeth.

She returned from her trip with ten different prints. We were both excited about the prints, but Elizabeth was also excited and impressed by the Da Gama company that makes Shweshwe. 45% of the company is owned by its workers and it supports many worthwhile community projects. Marula Imports was born, the website was created, and Elizabeth made plans to vend at quilt shows.

I made plans to provide Elizabeth with samples for her booth. At the first show there were requests for patterns. Marula Designs came into being.