Quilting

One book I read suggested that an expatriot's likelihood of being able to thrive long-term could be predicted by looking at the ratio of native species versus imported species of flowers they planted in their gardens.  Be that as it may, I bought 3 coordinating Cameroonian materials almost as soon as we arrived this year, with the purpose of making them into a quilt.  It took 3 months to use 1 hr to cut up the blocks with a friend (who has all the cool rotary cutting things), then another month or so to finalize the fact that the sewing machine I was lent was unusable. Thankfully, other friends lent me their machine and I sewed the quilt up in a week or less.  Now we have a light quilt for the rainy nights when it's a tad chilly.  It seems like a great merge of african fabrics & the western idea of quilts.

one block

It's a healthy thing for me to do - I had started one with similar colors while out at camp last year but was unable to complete it after our things all got taken.  So here is a better one, machine-sewn, even, that took a lot less time.  It's an easy pattern while looking complicated - which fits me perfectly.  I sewed 9-patch blocks, cut them in fourths, rotated them various directions, and sewed them back together.  The middle block is my favorite part of one of the materials.

the full quilt

So this was my attempt to settle down, fighting against the transient tendency to live a life of continual waiting and fighting against the cynical attitude that no matter what you do it'll just disappear and be wasted.  moths and rust destroy, thieves break in and steal, and yet - and yet it seems a healthier thing to live in hope.