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Tag Archives: kenya quilt guild
Walls of Fire
The art of Geraldine Robarts is ablaze with color, and it is on display through this weekend in the “new” exhibition hall at Village Market. Robarts combines her mastery of paint with her love of life in Africa and the flames of both her passions leap from the many canvasses hung in the show. Hot and spicy reds, oranges and golds are accented with bits of blue, green and purple, then highlighted with metallics that light up the work and make it dance. The ambiance in the gallery fairly simmers as the eye is drawn from one colorful statement to the next.
One piece in particular, though, demonstrates Robarts’ affinity with Kenya as it suggests ties to both past and future. A squared framework of poles lashed together holds a stretched parchment upon which has been painted many African motifs. The whole is heavily beaded which ties it into common African priorities in the appreciation of beauty even as the work is reminiscent of some early hunter-gatherer technology.
Stunning African masks are traditional in composition but contemporary in interpretation. These benign spirits observe through slit eyes the panoply of human activity around them, making a link between past and present as they cross from world incarnate to the realm of the soul.
Pastoralist images, powerful in their gestures, abound and are reputed to be among the most popular of Robarts’ pieces, ones likely to find new homes soon!
Diverse in theme and content, Robarts’ paintings host thick layers of paint to create highly textured surfaces replete with two-dimensional imagery in a state of transition to three dimensions as they capture and carry the viewer along on the journey.
This is an exhibition not to be missed, but you will have to hurry–doors close on Sunday evening!
Filed under Art in Kenya, People
Kenya Quilt Guild Exhibition Open Today
The Kenya Quilt Guild Exhibition at Village Market in Gigiri, just outside Nairobi proper and near the American Embassy to Kenya and the United Nations in Kenya, is in full swing. We have had a number of visitors, a few nice sales, and press coverage from Asian Weekly and The Star. Most important of all–we’ve had FUN!!
The show remains open today from 9:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. We have quilters giving live demonstrations of hand quilting, machine quilting and hand beading. We will be raffling off three lovely patchwork quilts to three lucky winners, so be sure to buy your tickets and to vote for the quilt you believe is the best in the show when you visit us today!
Filed under People, Quilt Festivals
KQG Exhibition
Members of the Kenya Quilt Guild will have their quilts on display from Friday, May 11, through Sunday, May 13, at the Village Market shopping centre in Gigiri, outside Nairobi proper. This year’s exhibition promises to be one of the best, as all our members have learned and grown so much in the last couple of years, gaining new skills and perspectives on what is possible with patchwork quilting.
"Hands of Friendship" art quilt by Gretchen Sanders-Mwaura
"Simba" lion quilt by Jaswinder Phull
"Hot Log Cabin" contemporary traditional quilt by Deanna Gaudaur
The exhibition will be open from 9:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. every day of the weekend. I will be there to help sell quilts. Three quilts will be raffled off through raffle ticket sales, and we will be looking for new quilters to join the Guild. Both hand-quilting and machine-quilting demonstrations will be ongoing.
This show is not to be missed. Find us in the exhibition hall above the food court; we’ll be eager to meet you!!
Filed under People, Quilt Festivals, Quilt Groups
Seamless Binding Success Story
What a pleasant surprise! I am in Nairobi, and a lady who lives across the street, April, is a friend, fellow quilter and member of the Kenya Quilt Guild. She rang me just now to tell me she had followed my tutorial for Seamless Quilt Binding, and that she was delighted with the outcome of her seamless bound quilt!
April said that when she first looked at the instructions, she felt baffled and thought the process was terribly complicated, but she persisted, made a couple of small samples, and then tackled the quilt. She said the binding went on with great ease and she’s just thrilled!
I asked April to bring along the quilt to the next Kenya Quilt Guild meeting and show everyone else her success. She said she would, but that seems a very long time to wait to see it. I may have to go for a walk in a few minutes . . .
Filed under People, Quilt Groups, Quilt Tips & Tutorials
Hot Links!
One of my students at Quilt University took time out from our online quilt class Reflections to attend a Ricky Tims Super Seminar in Asheville, North Carolina. She was one of the organizers for the Seminar, so got a good firsthand look and had a wonderful time. She had this to say about her experience:
I’m just now recovering from this intense 3-day experience. The seminar was wonderful — informative, inspiring and very entertaining. As a volunteer I worked VERY HARD, but as a bonus lost a pound, mostly because there was so little time to eat.
Dena, Alex Anderson and her husband John also had very good things to say about you and your Guild (as did Ricky and Justin) — you all must have made quite an impression.
And as another bonus, they gave each seminar attendee the latest copy of The Quilt Life, which has your article in it — so 475 more people get to see the great work you do there.
If anyone has a chance to attend this seminar, I strongly recommend it!
My student was referring to the Kenya Quilt Guild‘s “Tea with the Stars” which took place in Nairobi, Kenya, last January when Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims and their tour leader Jim West of Sew Many Places visited Kenya.
Special note: The Quilt Life was selected by Library Journal as “One of the 10 Best New Magazines of 2010.” Not QUILT magazines: ALL magazines!! Well done, TQL!!
Filed under Quilt Publications, Quilt Teachers, Quilt Workshops, Tourism, Travel
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