Wedding Blessing quilt
For REBECCA and Erin who loves gardening-- behind their names I have images of garden tools and bees and I think bees are so important and what they do and tiny little slithers on the side of the green bees that represent ferns because REBECCA loves ferns and in the top left corner part of a map and what it represents is traveling, I hope that they do a lot of traveling in their life and on the other side I have a big EYE, I’m obsessed with eyes but it also is I watching over you are yielding away all evil stuff etc. anyway then the parakeets mate for life and the parakeets those are Erin and REBECCA and they’re looking at each other they will always look at each other and on the other side I have cassette tapes that represent music and sewed a g-clef across the cassettes, kind of funny and cute and then underneath that is a little picture of a dog (it’s fabric I found in South Africa in a place called The Strand near Cape Town, a fabric store right by the beach!) and over that I quilted the word WOOF and then below that there’s a huge tree that’s planted in the middle of the quilt as a symbol of strength and purity and represents their love and nature (found this in THAT SAME store in the Cape) and to the right of the tree bicycles with a big bicycle quilted over for their work that they do--teaching people how to ride bikes (!!!) which is so wonderful, that fabric is so special, it’s from Japan and by a designer name KOKKA and I always find cotton linen blend because it sews so great and feels so good and on the other side of it is a big bowl with food, kinda reminds me of an Asian soup and from all the gardening you will always have food on your table, this beautiful print was found at one of my favorite stores in Nigeria, underneath it is avocados, natures candy, so fantastic and underneath that is an African water wheel because without the bees and the water their won’t be anything and underneath that is corn, an amazing political print that I covet (and they’re the first people to get a sliver of this),this image belongs to the Frelimo party, and here’s a little info on them: (you know I grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era and all this is my complete youth… Frelimo, byname of Mozambique Liberation Front, Portuguese political and military movement that initiated Mozambican independence from Portugal and then formed the governing party of newly independent Mozambique in 1975.
Frelimo was formed in neighboring Tanzania in 1962 by exiled Mozambicans who were seeking to overthrow Portuguese colonial rule in their country. South Africa (the government during apartheid sided with Renamo, they were fighting Frelimo, so we had this always on our (white) news.
Then I also have the date 8 7 2021 which is when they got married and underneath the doggie there is a black power sign, the fist, and interesting fact, I live in the town of Greenwood Mississippi and this is the place where Stokely Carmichael made his Black Power speech and raised his fist in the air(!!!) July 28, 1966. Wild huh. Underneath that is a fantastic print of fabric I found it’s from Mali and I call it my blue pears, it’s fabulous it also reminds me of the little fairytale little red riding hood, it’s animated and fabulous but also so symbiotic with them and their life of gardening and reaping the fruits literally of their work, underneath that is the greatest leader of the last century,my beloved beloved Nelson Mandela and underneath that is a piece of fabric that I’ve been coveted too (lord, I covet so much) it says Merci Cheri, and this is from another piece of political fabric, it also have her name underneath, but I left that part out, I think this is enough, and it was made for The Merci Cherie is from Mali wax print that I have had for a long time, honoring Mme Keïta, the widow of former Mali president President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. She is also known for her work w healthcare, public health, and is a children's advocate, she served as the First Lady of Mali from 4 September 2013 until 19 August 2020. During her tenure as first lady, Keïta Aminata Maiga has promoted improvements in healthcare, education, the welfare of mothers and children, the environment and athletics. She was an opponent of child marriage, launched a national campaign in October 2015 to end the practice in Mali. (I believe in all my heart that again, we will all be saved by black women, the same women who have been treated the worst of all in life, we owe it all to black women, the backbone of life)
Next to Nelson is a love letter print and it’s probably from 2008 but it’s so romantic, a love letter and underneath that is an apple, an apple a day keeps the doctor away and underneath that is jacks for that game jacks and a part of a backgammon board and it’s also to remind them to always remember to have fun and to play and to be goofy and then also over it I overlaid appliquéd some carrots and radishes and there’s a piece of lettuce to the left of Erin & underneath around you see the carrots and to the right you’ll see the radishes that grow and it’s what they do and I couldn’t find any fabric that I liked that reminded me of that so I decided just to make it, oh and then finally there is a music page with a huge big insect I overlaid over it and these are the things so important to us, and the Colorado river that I found from a beautiful piece of topo fabric of the Grand Canyon to represent their work with the river <3
And I think that is it 😊
I love the back so much too.