Time has passed and I don’t have much to show for it, in fact I don’t know what I have been doing since I came home from India! I did spend two weeks in the Gambia, it  was essentially for a seminar on rural resilience and waste but we tacked a few days on each end. Our accommodation was in an eco lodge, Sandele, which is within spitting distance of the beach so each night, once I got used to it, I was lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves on the beach and the wind in the trees. The temperature was perfect and I now miss the feeling of salt in my hair!

With delegates from many different countries it was a very colourful gathering, not least when the Cameroonian wore his velvet tunic with bright stitching.

During the days devoted to waste there were demonstrations from ladies who create items from plastic bags and bicycle inner tubes. They crochet the plastic and create key rings with the rubber making paper beads for added decoration.

Ladies from the local town came down to see what was going on and hopefully to inspire them to have a go. In a country where jobs are hard to come by there is a need to inspire the population to find ways of earning a living, the Gambia has the highest percentage per population of people who leave by the ‘back way’ and since I was last there two and a half years ago there are noticeably fewer young men in the town. Between 10 and 13 thousand Gambians have gone, while we were there we heard of a young lad who had died in a camp in Italy. I had spoken with a young welder who has set up in business and he was telling about this lad who had been an apprentice with him who had left and was happily in Italy,  they do not realise that many are in the holding camps in squalid conditions…… What a waste….

The women always seem to be occupied whether tending gardens, collecting firewood or multi-tasking…

No celebration is complete in Africa without music and dancing…

Once the work was over there was time to observe the wild life whether bird watching on an early morning boat ride, walking through a nature reserve, a visit to the reptile farm which allegedly rescues reptiles or assisting with the release back in to the sea of a turtle caught by fishermen….

At the reptile farm we were able to handle some of the snakes, I even had a ball python round my neck for a while, but it was the texture of the skin which fascinated me and I can’t now remember which snake this was but I didn’t handle this one!

Then there was the unexpected wildlife… which moves at the most amazing speed.

No journey is complete without a visit to see textiles, the Gambia only produces a thick soft cotton which is woven on narrow looms and is used for men’s over tunics or blankets, it is coarse but really soft. I was very pleased to buy around a metre and a half which is eight bands crudely stitched together, I intend to undo the bands and dye them… watch this space for what happens next. I was also lucky enough to visit a family who work with traditional batik and I intend to return to spend some time with them. Then there was  a visit to see fabrics dyed in indigo and kola nut, the latter produces a lovely orangey brown, and yes, there was a kilo of kola nuts in my suitcase when I came home. I just need the weather to be warmer so that I can set up my outdoor kitchen for dyeing.

 

Stitching wise there does not seem to be much to show, I have completed two more journal quilts, one was as a result of a tifaifai lesson with Dijanne Ceeval who came and taught my local club for a day. The free quilting leaves a lot to be desired but I was pleased with the edging, the form is from the walls surrounding Fatephur Sikri and I have filled the holes by weaving ribbons, which echo the sari colours, the central motif was also inspired and adapted from one I saw in India.

The most recent JQ is stencilled and then stitched by hand and machine, it is the reproduction of a photo that I took of a light-shade in our hotel in Pushkar, it is made of wood and it intrigued me. The great thing about Journal Quilts is that they are relatively small and they give one the opportunity to experiment and  play with techniques and ideas.

Finally this week I have been working on a sample for my courses, I am off to the Israeli Quilter’s Guild in June, Festival of Quilts in August, La Roche sur Foron and Maastricht in October and I am trying to get organised well in advance.

Now it is time to get back to my fabrics…