9th July - 16th October 2010
‘Under African Skies’, the second exhibition, is the story of one quilter’s 10-year journey to source African fabrics. Magie Relph often spends up to eight weeks each year ‘on the road in Africa riding crowded buses and the occasional horse-drawn cart visiting suppliers and sourcing new artisan producers. What started as a hobby has developed into a small fair trade business, supplying those British quilters and textile artists who also have a fascination with unusual fabrics.
‘When I started selling a few fat quarters of African fabric out of a suitcase to my quilt group,’ recalls Magie, ‘I had no idea that ten years later I would be seeing so many wonderful creations made using African fabrics.’ Fabrics sourced by Magie include hand-dyed batiks, resist dyed Indigo, Kola nut and Indigo and traditional mud cloth as well as wax prints and Shwe Shwe Indigo.The exhibition will include a selection of quilts made with African fabrics and also displays of the fabrics themselves and information about their provenance and makers.
The Quilters' Guild Collection is held by The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles.
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