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Thank you.
- TaMara Howard: Well, good morning everyone.
I'm bringing greetings to you from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
I'm so excited to be here.
And so, let's just give yourselves a round of applause
for getting up early this morning.
[laughs] [audience applauds]
So thank you, thank you, thank you.
So let's go ahead and get started.
My name is TaMara Howard,
and I've been quilting for nearly 30 years.
I was inspired by my great-grandmother,
Maggie Virginia Folk,
and was called to follow in her footsteps.
Without a sewing machine, I learned how to quilt.
I started learning by hand.
Needle, thread, scissors, fabric.
That's how I started.
And then, over time, I was able to acquire a sewing machine.
I was talking to Deanna Springer before coming here,
and she asked me to show you all my very first quilt.
Want to grab that for me?
We haven't done this before, but because she asked.
So, I didn't know much about color back then.
Everything was just in a crayon box.
[all laugh]
And I didn't know anything about fabric.
And so, the line matched, [laughs] and there we go.
So I did it all by hand. [laughs]
[audience murmurs] Thank you.
So, my work today fuses the old with the new.
I honor tradition while embracing innovation.
And I have a very modern aesthetic
that is very rooted in heritage.
My background is industrial and manufacturing engineering.
And then I have an MBA
and worked many years in banking and finance.
So, accolades.
I'm a member of the Modern Quilt Guild
and have been, the Pittsburgh chapter, since 2011,
its inception year, and have been a member
of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
I've earned several awards for quilt shows
in modern and traditional categories.
This is my third time appearing
at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show.
I was here in 2022 and 2023,
and then I'm back today to talk to you
about African wax fabrics.
And then also, I have a booth, so feel free to drop by.
Booth number is 129.
Also, I have a love for cotton
and Black cotton farmers in particular.
I had the privilege of writing three articles
for Curated Quilts magazine, one on their-- why they farm,
why they're still farming rather,
and then also how they farm, and then their future.
My children, these are my helpers today.
This is Camille and Darren, so give a wave. [laughs]
They're both seniors, and they're both 17.
They're three months apart.
They're cousin twins.
So pray for me as we get ready for senior year.
[all laugh]
So, I did take them with me the three times
we went down to the cotton farm.
It's a fifth-generation Black farmer.
And we were there when there was no cotton in the field.
We came back again when it was planted and growing beautifully,
then came back again for the harvest.
So they went all three times.
Best experience ever.
And really, when all of the cotton that we use
in our quilts,
always think about the farmers that are farming it.
Okay?
And then on this past year,
I was blessed to have two quilts on permanent collection,
one at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.
Next time you're in town, make sure you take a peek.
And then also at the Heinz History Center as well.
So let's talk about what we're gonna do today.
It is my hope that we examine African wax batik
versus African wax print.
Okay, it's all wax.
But I do wanna make a distinction between the two.
Also, we're gonna show you-- I'm gonna show you
lots of quilts today.
Some mine, some are others'.
I just kind of brought a collection from folks
from this past year.
So we're gonna be looking at contemporary uses
of African wax in our quilts.
And then, we're gonna talk about community
and how important it is, and how it's the Ghanaian way
to always be in community around your textiles.
So the thesis of the day, I would say,
is African wax fabrics are both complicated and beautiful,
layered with history, identity, and artistry.
But they carry power in contemporary quilting.
So I had the chance to go to Ghana in 2004.
Had an incredible time.
I went with the Sew Creative Lounge.
They're out of D.C.,
and there was over 107 sewists and quilters
ascending on Ghana.
And so it was wonderful
because the tour was geared toward textiles.
And so, we had a wonderful time there
going to the textile markets.
Of course, we did all the historical sites as well,
but got to spend a lot of time talking
and working with those that manufacture the textiles.
So fabric isn't just material,
as we kind of sometimes think of it.
For the Ghanaians, it's a connection.
It's a part of their life.
They sew their own clothes to this day
for all different types of occasions.
And then, of course, they don't quilt because it's warm.
But they do make blankets, okay?
But textile is a part of their everyday life.
And there is a difference between batik
and then wax prints.
So let's get into that.
So what is Ghana batik?
So most people know what batik is.
In its most general sense, it's wax-resist dyeing.
And so, as you can see here,
there's a whole group of a variety of stamps
that they had available for us.
All of them are hand-carved.
And then you dip it in a bowl of hot wax,
and then you lightly and gingerly create your pattern.
If you push too hard, you get a glob.
If you push lightly, it doesn't always come through.
But, so the art is in that, right?
Your skill development comes through in your technique.
So then, once the wax is applied,
then you pick your color.
And then, there's a master mixer that then picks the color,
the combination of the different powders to make the color.
Now, I wanted purple.
And as you can see, when she finished dipping it,
it came out blue.
So then they had to lay it out in the sun.
It was probably almost an hour, but it was really hot.
It could have been longer, [laughs]
but as time went on and it oxidized, it turned to purple.
It was really interesting how most of the colors
started green or blue,
and then they evolved into the actual color
that you were looking for.
And the purple did take quite a bit of time.
So we made two yards of fabric that day,
and then I was in the first group.
I kind of wanted to,
you know how you wanna get through it, right?
But those that went last, 'cause there was 100 of us,
they started mixing all kinds of colors and combinations.
They were having a ball.
So when you watch other people,
you learn what not to do and then what else you can do.
So this is how my fabric turned out.
[audience exclaims]
It was a lot of fun.
So now, what do I do with that?
So someone said, "When the fabric is beautiful,
how do you use it?"
You don't wanna cut into it and all of that.
But when you think like a Ghanaian, you're in community.
So I shared a lot of this fabric with others
and they added it to their own projects
when they needed some purple.
And that's how you wanna share.
And then also, I saved a piece for myself.
And it's here.
[audience exclaims]
On my little pillow.
So let's talk about this little pillow pattern right here.
I did a class when The Color Purple,
the new movie came out because Alice Walker,
in a lot of her literary work,
references quilts as if they're a character.
And in The Color Purple, it's no different.
There's the theme of this quilt from beginning to the end,
and Celie, the main character in The Color Purple,
named the pattern in the book,
and the pattern is called Sister's Choice.
So this is the pattern.
So I did a hand quilting class with some friends in Pittsburgh.
We gathered together.
We did three sessions, did the entire--
This is by machine 'cause it was an example,
but they did it all by hand.
And then, of course, I used my batik on the back.
So keep that in mind.
It's a really fun pattern, simple to use,
but you can really do some fun geometries with it as well.
But let's look at some other styling.
We've got some big quilts.
The lady, the woman that taught me how to batik,
her name is Esther.
We call her Auntie Esther.
And so I had the privilege of going to her shop,
and I couldn't decide.
You know, when you walk into a shop like that
with all these batiks, how do you decide what to purchase?
You can't. [audience laughs]
You just can't.
And so she was-- Let me tell you what this wonderful woman did
'cause she could see I was perplexed.
I just wanted a little bit of everything.
She said, "I'll tell you what."
I was in her shop at 1 o'clock.
"I'll tell you what.
What hotel are you at?"
I told her.
"What time are you leaving to head out on your adventure?"
I said, "9:00, 9:30."
She said, "I'll see you at 9:00."
She showed up to my hotel, 9:00 a.m.
with five of these pieced.
Five from 1:00 to 9:30.
Yes, that's how much they sell.
So what she did was, and she did five colorways.
So this is, like, the rust and warm.
And then I have another one at home
that is more cooler tones, but all very beautiful.
And so, when you put them together,
you can see the artistry of the artist.
And of course, once I took it, threw it on the longarm--
Let's flip it around so you can see the back.
'Cause I wanted to get this quilted right away.
And then, you know, you get so excited and eager.
Who needs to bound it?
I just serged the edges, and now we use it.
[all laugh]
So now you can see the quilting on the backside.
Okay.
Awesome, so that's a style.
As you can see, I did just a single color in my batik.
But some of those pieces, lots of different colors.
And then there's another group out of Accra
that I love as well.
And they're called the Global Mamas.
And a very different style.
These women started the Global Mamas over 20 years ago now.
There were six of them that needed to make a living.
Three knew how to batik, the other three knew how to sew.
That was all they needed to do.
And so, what the Global Mamas primarily does is
they make clothes.
If you show, Darren and Camille, show your outfits today.
Yep, this is from the Global Mamas. [laughs]
So they're a clothes manufacturer,
and all of their fabric
is 100% certified organic cotton.
They control their supply chain to keep it consistent.
As a result, their fiber is very soft
and good for clothes, sheeting, that sort of thing.
On the back, which is also fun, they use flour sack.
[audience exclaims] Isn't that awesome?
They use everything; there is no waste.
So these patches are leftover materials
from clothes that they made.
And then, when I got in contact with the Global Mamas,
what they now do at end of season,
they send me their remnants. [audience murmurs]
Okay.
Awesome, thank you.
So African wax, what's the difference
between the batik and the print?
Well, in terms of the batik, it's handmade, as you just saw.
The wax-resist dyeing made by artisans.
Layered patterns.
There's a lot of uniqueness.
It's one of a kind.
No matter how hard you try, you would not be able
to identically make that quilt again,
that blanket again.
And then, it's community and it's cultural heritage.
But when we look at the prints, the prints are industrial.
It's mass-produced on cotton using roller printing.
It's bold, repeating patterns.
They're consistent, uniform designs,
and they're extraordinarily popular in West Africa.
So the question is, is African wax African?
And I think someone-- someone alluded
to that question earlier.
So let's talk that through for a minute.
So African wax print we know is industrial.
It's from the Dutch.
They are imitating the Indonesians.
They are the master batikers.
Okay, the Dutch figured they could make it faster.
The Indonesians wanted no part of it.
And so, it landed with the Africans.
So here's the question.
The origin, it's not African, but because of use, it is.
It's a part of the culture.
It's a part of their heritage.
When I was in Ghana, they wear the print.
Everyday life, head wraps,
baby slings, dresses, the whole nine.
They wear it, but it did not originate with the Africans.
It's through use, okay?
So that's the important distinction there
when we're looking at that.
With batik, handmade every time.
Now, the Kaufman, you know, batiks that we buy in the store?
Yes, those are precise, exact, beautiful, right?
Manufactured batiks.
But what I'm talking about are the hand ones.
Those are African, and they're coming out of the community
in which the tradition lives.
Okay.
So one of the things I did when I came back from Ghana
was I wanted to continue this community experience
that I was having in Pittsburgh.
And I know that there were several
master textile artists in Pittsburgh.
I knew them by name, but didn't know them intimately.
I wanted to sit at their feet and learn from them.
And a lot of them are older now, and so they're no longer
teaching like they used to when they were younger.
And then what happens when, you know, they move on and pass on,
and that craft doesn't get passed down?
Like cursive, right?
They kind of know cursive, but they can't read it.
[all laugh] Right?
So I was able to acquire a small grant
that then allowed me to hold workshops about once a quarter
with a master artist.
And it's been absolutely phenomenal.
So the first artist that I chose to work with,
his name is Saihou Njie.
He's a master batik artist from The Gambia.
Now, The Gambia batik is different
than the Ghanaian batik.
He doesn't do the traditional stamping.
He's using paint brushes
and whatever tools he can get his hands on.
He said that his mother is who taught him how to batik.
And his work is so abstract, but extraordinarily beautiful.
He was even on Mister Rogers.
You know, Mister Rogers always wore a sweater.
[laughs]
But the one episode, and you can Google it.
It's still out there.
Mister Roger had on a batik vest.
[audience exclaims] That was the only time.
Otherwise, he always had on a sweater.
So this is Saihou Njie, and he is just so marvelous.
Mostly abstract.
And so, we had a wonderful time with him.
When I put the call out for his workshop, I wanted 16.
He wanted 18.
We ended up 21.
Sold out in three days.
And that was just phenomenal.
Folks were so excited to learn from him and celebrate with him.
So if you look at the top corner there,
those are all the batik art that we made. [laughs]
And I was hoping to be able to show you some of them,
but they're all framed and all of that, right, on walls.
And only one person actually used their quilt,
I mean, their textile in a quilt.
And that was my nephew Darren.
So, Darren, would you want to show your quilt?
And this just came out of exhibition in Pittsburgh
at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. [audience exclaims]
And so, you can see here the batik work
that he did with Saihou.
It was six hours, total session.
And then, he added some string piecing
that he learned with African wax.
Look, there's a piece of my batik right there, right?
I share.
As well as he's got some other batiks in there.
And then your traditional cottons.
So just a nice hodgepodge that turns out beautiful.
And want to show them the back?
When I work with youth, it is important that
they get on the longarm and learn technology.
So all of the youth have to set the machine themselves,
load it, pick their pattern, scale it,
and then stitch it out.
Okay, thank you.
So that was Darren's quilt.
The next artist that I brought in,
her name is Christine Bethea.
She is a multidisciplinary quilter and textile artist.
She can take found objects at garage sales
and incorporate them into her practice.
Very much about improvisation.
She never follows patterns.
She allows the fabric or the object to guide her.
She even studied with the quilters of Gee's Bend
and bridges really the heritage of storytelling
and modern techniques.
Outstanding woman.
So we did this fun workshop called Jambalaya.
And this is Christine there at the bottom.
Jambalaya.
And so, she got us together 'cause I've been teaching,
you know, the traditional way of quilting.
Everything lines up, your corners, your triangles,
your seam allowances.
She threw all that out of the window.
And let's make some jambalaya.
And then we cooked jambalaya
and ate it, so let me show you three of the artists' work.
This is the first one.
And to make it go faster, we stretched it onto canvas
so we didn't have to deal with
the traditional quilting and binding.
So we put it on canvas.
And what they had to do once they figured out their design,
they had to go back and embellish.
She is big on embellishments.
So, this particular student had a lot of broken jewelry.
You know, what do you do with your broken jewelry?
You create art.
And that's how she does that.
And so, in there, you can see there's some African--
This is batik, that's batik.
You've got some Hoffman batik there.
And then this was some beautiful piece of clothing
that she had.
So you had to use found objects and things
that were given to you, not something you go and buy.
And then, let's show the next one.
Here's another.
Again, lots of embellishments, some yo-yos.
This was during-- The workshop was at the time
that Marquetta passed away.
And if you all remember Marquetta's work
here at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show,
she always had yo-yos.
So I was thinking of her
and we all started making yo-yos that day,
and a lot of them incorporated it into their piece.
And then this last one is Christine's herself.
While she was there teaching, she was also making
and doing her, you know, typical construction.
She said that she was working at home
and she had this rubber band in her hair,
and it fell out and landed right there.
She said, "Oh, that's wonderful.
Let me just stitch it down." [all laugh]
That's how an improvisational artist works.
So as you can see, she's got some Ghanaian beads
in there that I had given her as a gift
to thank her for doing these workshops for us.
And so, she incorporated that in the piece.
If you wanna flip the back just so they can see, and we,
you know, talk to ourselves,
should we quilt it before we stretch it?
Or can we just put it right on the canvas and quilt it?
It works.
Put it right on the canvas, yep, yep.
So, you put your batting, just a thin layer of batting.
Then you put your piece on top of it,
wrap it around, do your staples,
and then just quilt right through it.
The needle goes down and up beautifully.
Yep, okay.
And then, the last piece that I will show you is mine.
And I call this Cotton Boll.
And you'll see why.
Again, I love cotton. [laughs]
But what's important here is this pattern,
for some reason has been has become called the X pattern.
But it's actually called cotton boll coming out of the Civil War
because it looks just like a cotton boll.
So when I made this pattern,
I thought, "Let me label it and let's go ahead
and add some cotton bolls,"
'cause Christine is about embellishment and improvisation.
Let's add some cotton bolls to it.
So that way, we don't forget it's not just X or Wakanda.
It's the cotton boll.
Mm-hmm.
And this is just a marvelous piece.
There's really not a good use for these leftover.
Once the cotton comes out, they don't get used.
The farmers really just discard them.
Sometimes they'll make it into, you know,
feed for animals, but not really.
Usually, the seed has more protein
or more nourishment than the little, you know, capsules,
but they're hard.
I thought for sure, once we put a drill in it,
they would crumble.
But they didn't.
They turned out beautiful.
And then, go ahead and show the back.
Yep.
And on the back is just an African wax.
[audience murmurs]
So turn around one more time
just to show you a couple things.
Of course, these are all African wax prints,
but I like to include a little bit of silk
from time to time in my work.
I just find that silk and African wax goes really well.
And thank you, Camille.
Let me show you, for example,
and we'll talk about this in just a minute.
So, Kena, who is a marvelous curator of African wax prints.
So if you're looking for a project
and you have a color palette in mind,
you don't know where to go, Kena is phenomenal.
And so, this is a beautiful palette just in and of itself.
But for some reason, I don't know, me and silk,
it just does something, doesn't it?
You see that?
So maybe the yellow's too warm for you.
Maybe we can go a little, you know,
or if that's still just a little too hot,
let's kind of cool it down a little bit.
It does give you some choices.
And you can push the envelope and even pull in a brown.
Okay?
So I do like working with silk.
This is about as much as I have.
I keep small pieces; it's expensive, right?
So, small pieces of silk.
But it does add a little smoogey-smooge to your quilt.
Okay.
All right, the next quilter that I work with is Kena herself.
And again, there's no one that I know that can curate a palette
of African wax print the way she can.
Some people just have an eye for it.
But what I also found, even for myself,
I've been a little resistant over the years
because we don't have access to enough of it
to be able to really curate.
Like, when you go into a fabric store,
you have a lot of choices, right?
So when you have choices,
you're able to curate the way that you would like to,
or they're putting together the little packs
for you to get you started.
Well, with African wax, it's hard to find.
In Pittsburgh, there's none.
There's none.
So unless you live in a major city,
it's hard to get access to that volume.
Kena has a container coming to--
She's out of Los Angeles, she's from Pittsburgh.
She has a container coming over every two months.
So she really can curate beautifully.
Okay, so she did a nice workshop for us.
And I never do other people's patterns.
I don't know what that is about.
Don't ask.
Probably 'cause I'm an engineer.
Like, "Oh, I can make my own," right? [laughs]
But for whatever reason, this pattern spoke to me.
So she came to do a workshop for me,
and we were gonna do a table runner.
And I just love this pattern so much, I had to make it
into a bigger quilt. [audience exclaims]
Yeah, I think you're upside down.
[all laugh]
I think you're going this way.
Let go, this way.
There we go, yep.
Let go, there you go, awesome.
Yeah, okay.
Yes!
So it has the Adinkra symbols from Ghana.
I added in the batik, the hand-dyed batik,
and then, of course, in the center,
I added a little bit of silk.
So we're looking at raw edge.
And you know, for those of you that work with Adinkras,
it is difficult to hand-cut those out.
So what she did was she had a die made
and she can cut them on her cutter.
And this is Woodin.
So this is another-- And I don't want to, you know,
kind of spoiler alert.
The problem that I have with the African wax print industry
is, and with a lot of things,
China can replicate it very easily.
Okay, so a lot of what you're seeing in market is from China.
If you actually talk to the seller,
they can tell you what's not from China.
So this little piece right here is not from China. [laughs]
It's, the manufacturer's Woodin.
And it's beautiful.
And you can tell because it's softer.
So the stiffer the product is, the cheaper the quality.
So keep that in mind, okay?
But it is all gorgeous.
And, you know, personal choice.
But here, as Americans, we do have the power to choose.
So given the choice, ask.
And it really does benefit the designers,
because what's happening is our African fabric designers
are creating the patterns,
and China's replicating them and undercutting the cost.
Okay, so given the choice, ask.
All right, thank you.
And then the other project that I did do
is this one, Broken Dish.
I love those old patterns from the Underground Railroad.
And then, I don't know, I just thought,
let's do something fun with the border in terms of the binding.
I got halfway through it and wish I hadn't.
[all laugh]
But I was committed, so I saw it through. [laughs]
But this is called Broken Dish.
Lots of half-square triangles.
As you can see, I've woven in some silk.
And really, the key is, you pick a color palette,
and then in picking the color palette,
then you allow that to guide you.
Okay?
So don't be afraid of it at all.
And let's go ahead and show the back.
And you know who else looks beautiful with African wax?
Kaffe. [audience murmurs]
Beautiful.
Every time.
Okay, so if you're ever looking for things to complement,
it's probably 'cause of his European design.
And, you know, he's well-traveled,
but he designs in a way
that it really complements African wax print.
So keep that in mind too,
when you're looking for complementary stuff.
So the back is Kaffe as well as the binding.
All right.
And so, we talked about this one already.
The Adinkra, and Adinkra symbols,
for those of you that don't know, they represent concepts
and are used extensively in fabrics,
logos, pottery, alphabets.
If you look closely at some fabric,
you'll see the little Adinkra stamps,
but they're pretty much mainstream nowadays
and getting more and more use and notoriety.
And so, then, I also work with youth.
And so, since I had Kena,
I had five youth that I was working with on this project.
The younger youth that are seven and eight,
as soon as they finished their quilts,
they ran off and I couldn't get them back to show you.
[all laugh]
But the teens were happy to share. [laughs]
When youth are learning to sew,
one of the great things to do is string piecing,
because then everything lines up.
By the time they finish their quilt,
they know how to sew straight.
I use muslin as a stabilizer,
which makes the quilt pretty heavy.
So you saw that with Darren's quilt.
But just to show you a couple others,
this one is Camille's and the other is Darren.
The assignment was to make a nine patch.
That was all they needed to do.
Darren was an overachiever and did a little bit more.
And then Layla, she took it even further with hers.
It's a beautiful piece.
[audience exclaims]
Beautiful piece.
She went a little bit further, add a little something extra
with some raw-edge appliqué of this imagery.
And this, and I forget the story explicitly about it,
but this piece is tied to
the Jewish art that was stolen.
Yep, okay, awesome.
And if you look in closely here, you're looking at some of those,
it's a bow-tie shape from our quilt world.
It's called bow tie in the Underground Railroad,
but it's really hourglass.
It's really an hourglass.
So she had this around her in the original art piece.
And so, Layla submitted this to the Beaver County Quilt Show
and got honorable mention at 14.
[audience exclaims] Mm-hmm, yeah.
And she was juried as an adult, not as a youth.
Yep.
And you want to show her the back?
Kaffe. [laughs]
And they went in, and they shopped
for whatever they wanted.
I was not there to watch.
But she chose Kaffe.
Okay, and I think, yeah.
And the same with the sleeve is Kaffe as well.
It works well.
All right.
And then, the last artist is Ruth Bedeian.
She is just out of this world in terms
of how she collages African wax prints.
She has an affinity for masks in particular,
as well as pictorial art around women.
But she came and did a mask workshop for us two weeks ago,
and so I couldn't bring anything
because everyone's still frantically working
on their masks.
But I do have two of hers to share with you.
[audience exclaims] [TaMara chuckles]
Isn't that amazing?
So this one is called
The Ancestors Through Time and Space.
It's 36x20.
It's small, but you can see, and I hope, and invite you all
to come up closer when you get a chance.
It's all African wax.
And I watched her.
I sat by her and watched her as she was teaching,
and she just had a bag of fabric
and she would pull something out,
and she would look for different shapes within the fabric
and then allowed the fabric to guide her.
And then, let's look at the next one,
which is called Let the Spirits Tell the Tale.
It's outstanding.
And when you're up close, it's, for me,
you know, if I was working this close,
you can't always see the depth.
But when you step back, all the faces shine.
Yep, yep.
Thank you.
So it's also, and lastly,
a privilege to work on a community quilt.
For whatever reason, I've been invited
to participate in three this year.
The first two were on paper.
And when I'm invited, like,
you know, "Come out to this community event
and can you do something quilt-related?"
Right, well, sure I can.
And so, I'll usually, I'll pick a block of some sort,
bring a lot of scrap fabric
and everyone does some collaging on paper.
Okay, and then we lay it out
and we celebrate our creation of community.
But the Hill Dance Academy Theatre said, "That's beautiful,
but we want fabric."
And so, I sent out a call,
and I was hoping to get 54 individuals.
We ended up with 72 and 80 blocks in two days.
[audience exclaims]
Everyone came out.
They all had to sew their own block, age 13 and older.
I didn't want to work with any younger children.
My daughter was the teacher and Darren did all the embroidery.
My husband was ushering people in.
[all laugh]
But they did all the sewing themselves.
And it's very interesting when folks sit down to sew
and they haven't sewed in a long time.
You know, the memories come back.
First there's apprehension because of the machine.
And then, once they sewed the first side,
the first triangle, then they started to open up.
By the third, they're having a memory of sewing with grandma,
auntie, home economics teacher, right?
And then by the fourth, they're sad it's over.
What else can I sew?
And so, that's what happened.
It became this place of community.
People were hanging out.
They were relaxing.
They didn't realize how much they missed sewing
because they had been away from it for so long.
And so, let me tell you,
this quilt has just gotten bigger and bigger.
It's a lot of raw-edge appliqué, pieced blocks.
We added some embroidery.
We do want to add some photos.
The first round of photos that came out
just weren't vibrant enough.
So we have to go back and kind of figure that out.
But when it is all done and we're almost there,
we'll go ahead and throw it on a longarm.
And again, we're looking at quite a few blocks.
Yep.
So her colors are the brand colors
for the Hill Dance Academy Theatre's, pink, purple,
green, and orange.
And so I just selected seven different African wax prints
in those colorways.
And so, the individual, let's say, you know, Allegra,
she got to pick her four and then decided placement.
Which goes where?
Some of them had a whole story, some didn't care.
[laughs]
But the interesting thing about it,
they're making these decisions, and then when folks came back
to see them all together, they realized
that my individual decision really didn't impact
the entire quilt because it then became a part of the community.
And so, that's what you really wanna remember
when you're working with these African wax prints.
And what I love about this one in particular,
when they're small like this,
you can't quite tell what the pattern is doing.
So don't be afraid of it.
But when you come to the bigger triangles around the outside,
now you have a clearer line of sight to the pattern.
Dr. Ayisha Morgan-Lee very much loves Adinkra symbols,
so I did add four, and then we put the name on it.
Camille graciously cut all these letters out on a Cricut.
Took 20 minutes.
I was thinking I was cutting these by hand.
[laughs]
And then, Darren took care of all the embroidery.
Nice, thank you.
Collaboration.
So this quilt will be revealed in October
at their 20th anniversary gala.
So, in conclusion, it is my hope
that quilting with African wax fabrics
invite us to honor our heritage, spark creativity,
and build community.
I ask that you not be apprehensive in using it.
Open up your stash, look what else is in it,
and pull it out and use it, as well as other fabrics.
When I was playing with collage,
you know, I wanted to do some practicing
before Ruth came to make sure I could see.
And so, I did a map of Africa and just went through my stash
and started pulling out different colors
to kind of bring the countries to life.
And in doing that, I realized I don't know much
about the 54 countries of Africa,
but I had a good time putting this together,
and then added a little, a flange just
to kind of give it a little bit of pop.
And then if you flip it on the back,
this is a piece of mudcloth that I got in Ghana
that Esther, Auntie Esther had dyed purple.
And so, my longarm did not like it, but it was fun to use.
And I do want to try to figure that out,
because I do love the texture of mudcloth
and what it does on the back, yeah.
Or even incorporating it in the front.
Yep.
So whether handmade batik or industrial print,
African wax carries stories worth sharing.
And these fabrics belong in the hands of everyone who quilts.
So that concludes my presentation.
Thank you.
[audience applauds]
And here's my information
if you ever want to reach out to me.
Kena, I talked about her and her curation.
Cultured Expressions is another company
that I work with out of New Jersey.
And then, Sew Creative Lounge is out of D.C.
Again, that's who I went to Ghana with.
So when I'm looking for something in particular,
those are the first three places I go to.
Paradise Fabrics is out of Maryland.
They're wonderful as well.
And then Yara and then Ujamaa Collective
is out of Pennsylvania.
So definitely take a screenshot of those
if you're ever looking.
Kena has the most volume.
Okay, I do have in my booth some
Ghana batik that came in on Tuesday.
So we do have a small batch of that
if you wanna take a look at that.
But anything, any questions that you have,
please don't hold back.
Okay, so I think we have time for questions.
All right, all right.
- Attendee 1: What makes mudcloth different?
Sorry, so what makes mudcloth different than your other cloth?
- TaMara: It's baked in mud.
It's literal mud.
Yeah. [laughs]
It's baked in mud.
- Attendee 2: So is it dyed and then baked?
- TaMara: So normally, it's not dyed.
Mudcloth typically is a brown color, a black color.
You see white, but not really white, like a creamy color.
That was the first time I had ever seen it dyed,
which is why I bought it.
I was curious.
- Attendee 3: How is wax used in the prints?
- TaMara: Oh, in the, on the roll, the--
Which one?
Are we talking the industrial?
- Attendee 3: The other one, not the batik, but the...
- TaMara: So it's a part of how they roll it
onto the rollers to manufacture it.
So that's why it's that, it's stiff.
It has a stiffness to it.
There's, I haven't gone around
to all the booths in the show yet,
but the few that I have seen, I did go and touch,
and it's stiff.
It's not a bad thing.
It's just quality.
- Attendee 4: The wax? - TaMara: Yes.
- Attendee 4: Is that a bee's product?
And the second thing is,
does it have a role in protecting fabric
from insect damage?
- TaMara: No, but--
Saihou uses beeswax.
I'm not sure about.
When I was in Ghana, it wasn't beeswax.
And I'll tell you why.
Bees will, when you put beeswax out and you melt it,
it attracts bees. [audience laughs]
There were no bees.
With Saihou, we had a swarm.
[all laugh]
Yeah, he used beeswax and I ordered it, so I did know that.
But I didn't realize that it attracted bees.
Yeah, but in Ghana, they don't use beeswax.
- Attendee 5: Is it harder to sew through the wax fabric?
- TaMara: No, so here's what's tough.
The weave is tight.
So if you're particular about your quilting stitch,
then you might have to do some adjustment in the tension.
If not, you're fine.
So for me, 'cause I'm particular for no reason,
my longarm is threaded such that it has an extra loop in it
so that the stitch comes out a little more even,
but the mudcloth didn't like it,
so that stitch just almost disappeared
where you can't really see it.
Okay, not a big deal, but if you're putting it in a show,
it is a big deal.
- Attendee 6: Hi, I had the privilege
and honor to travel to Africa last fall, and I bought fabrics.
- TaMara: Yes! - Attendee 6: On our travels.
Do you have to treat the wax any way,
or do you just cut and sew?
- TaMara: No, some folks like the waxy feel.
- Attendee 6: Okay. - If you wash it
and put it in the dryer, it's going to lessen.
- Attendee 6: Okay. - It'll become
more soft, feel more like fabric.
- Attendee 6: Okay. - Personal preference.
I do not wash mine. - Attendee 6: Okay.
Do you have to alter your stitch length?
- TaMara: I do not, no.
- Attendee 6: And just... - TaMara: Not at all.
- Attendee 6: Not at all?
And cotton thread? - Yep, or poly combo.
It's up to you.
- Attendee 6: Okay. - Yep.
- Attendee 6: Super, thank you. - Mm-hmm.
- Attendee 7: Do the colors bleed when you wash?
- TaMara: So if you put anything that's vibrant, regular reds
or these, I would always put some color catchers
in the-- I wouldn't take a chance.
The first quilt I made for my grandmother,
when she passed-- I have a rule.
I get it back, it comes home.
And so, it became my daughter's quilt for daycare
when she was younger.
My husband threw it in the wash, turned everything pink,
and then he tried to fix it.
And then it took all the color out of the quilt.
So whatever you do, don't take a chance.
Just use color catchers.
'Cause you just don't know where it's coming from,
the source of it more than anything.
Mm-hmm.
- Attendee 8: What color catchers do you use?
- Any ones I can find.
There's nothing in particular, but I do use a lot of them.
I don't just put one in.
I'll put, like, two or three.
- Attendee 8: Okay. - Mm-hmm.
Yes.
- Attendee 9: What's mudcloth?
- TaMara: Mudcloth! - Host: Can you, yeah, ask--
- TaMara: So it's a loose weave.
When you-- I want you to-- I'm gonna just hand this to you
so you can feel it when I hand it to him, if you don't mind.
Yeah.
But this is not traditional.
I wanna say that.
And I haven't seen any in the show yet,
but like I said, I haven't gotten around to everyone.
So it's a loose weave.
Typically, it's a a lighter color, and then they use mud
that then dyes it or colors it, so to speak.
But you are using mud,
and I do wanna do some projects with it.
I was down in Kansas
and I was talking to the ladies at this one quilt show-- store,
store, rather fabric store
and they had a lot of mudcloth, which was unusual.
And so, when I asked why, 'cause they did this whole series
of projects using mudcloth.
Now, it is mud.
It gummed up their machine, their needles, the whole nine.
It was the messiest thing ever,
because you just typically want to just kind of dive right in,
not try to figure out how to wash it and all of that,
but it is a dirty fiber.
But you got to figure out how to clean it and all,
and I just haven't taken the time to explore that yet.
And I really wanna talk to some Africans about it first,
yeah, 'cause there's got to be a way.
But yeah, they said their machines were a mess.
- Camille: That's what I meant. - TaMara: Cricut.
- Camille: If people don't know what that is.
- TaMara: Okay, so a Cricut is a machine
that has multiple different blades
that you can purchase to cut different materials.
So you can cut paper, cardboard.
You can even do some thin woods
or do some engraving within wood.
Even, like, little nameplates.
You can engrave the nameplates with your initials,
that sort of thing, so it's a tool
that you can buy from Michaels or what used to be Joann's.
They're not very expensive and they're not very big.
They're maybe like this.
And depending upon the blade, you can use it to cut fabric.
So it's really good for letters.
Some folks will, you know,
if they're doing triangles, half-square triangles,
they'll use the Cricut to cut all of their triangles.
You can only do one layer of fabric at a time,
so you have to feed it.
It'll cut it, and then you add the next piece,
feed it, cut it, and go.
It's not like a laser cutter
where you can do multiple layers of fabric at one time,
but it is efficient.
Like, for the letters, I would have died,
but I was thinking that I was
gonna have to cut all those by hand.
So I was thrilled when she came in like, "Look!"
[laughs]
And she borrowed someone else's Cricut.
I didn't have one.
- Attendee 2: Is there any other fabric
that you use for batting to keep it thin?
- TaMara: Oh!
So, so I don't always like a thin batting.
So the Cotton Boll one, that has two layers.
So definitely you wanna--
I'm just gonna pass it around since we're now just kind of...
Here you go, if you wanna just pass that.
So that's two layers of poly-cotton blend.
This one...
And I was trying something new.
This one is bamboo.
And it drapes beautifully.
It's stitched out really well.
I love the feel of it.
They were out of whatever I was looking for.
I think I was looking for cotton, 100% cotton,
and they were out.
"Have you tried bamboo?"
"No."
So I tried bamboo.
Yes, but, man, on black, it just made fuzz central.
[laughs]
That bamboo touched it, it was, oh!
So, that was the only thing I didn't like about it
when working with black.
If it been any other color,
I probably wouldn't have noticed it as much.
But the drape on this was really nice and it didn't get heavy.
Otherwise, I tend to use cotton,
especially if I'm doing it on my domestic machine.
If I'm using the longarm, typically it's a polyblend.
- Attendee 10: So how do you teach children how to longarm?
That scares me, but they're not afraid.
- TaMara: They're not afraid of anything, that's the thing.
They climb up onto the--
Especially the 7- and 8-year-olds.
They climb right up onto the tall chair,
and they sit right in front of the computer.
They went through and picked their pattern, right,
scrolling through a thousand patterns, [laughs]
but they're quick decision-makers.
Like, they don't linger.
My teens linger a little bit,
but the younger ones, they're really decisive,
so they pick their pattern.
And then they have to load it.
So-- And I don't do any fancy loads.
I load with straight pins, old school,
'cause I like to make sure it feels right.
So they have to help pin.
And then when they're done with the pinning,
we'll mark it.
They climb up on the chair so they can reach.
You have to set your boundaries, and then,
they'll narrow down their three patterns.
They'll audition the three, decide which one, scale it,
hit enter, and they have to stay and watch.
They can't run off.
Now it's someone else's job.
It's their job.
Yep, and then they have to unpin it and true it up.
And Darren will tell you,
and then he had to bind it and he was running behind 'cause,
you know, he didn't manage his time very well.
Right? [laughs]
And he had a deadline for the Kelly Strayhorn Theater.
Had to do an all-nighter to get that binding on. [laughs]
His aunt went to bed.
[all laugh]
But, yes, you just do it that way.
Set the expectation.
But they love it 'cause the machine's like,
oh, it's fascinating, it's absolutely fascinating.
And they're not doing a king-size quilt, so.
Yeah, they're small.
- Attendee 11: I received a couple of pieces
of African fabric from Liberia, from our missionaries
that were there. - TaMara: Okay.
- Attendee 11: But I don't have any other African fabric
to make a quilt with.
So is it okay to...? - TaMara: Yes!
- Attendee 11: And how do you--
I just, I feel hopeless, helpless
in figuring out what to mix with it.
- TaMara: So here's what I've learned.
What do you like?
Like, if you work with the quilters of Gee's Bend,
there's no rules.
It's just "I like this.
"I don't know why I like it,
but it feels good and I like it."
And so, you can pair African print with anything.
Anything, something as fancy as silk
and something as simple as Robert Kaufman cotton.
If you like it, everyone will love it.
I love when you all come and you bring fabric. [laughs]
Okay, so first off, you can put this in one quilt together.
Absolutely you can.
This feels like, what, three yards?
Six yards, okay, so plenty.
You have plenty, okay, so a couple things.
So, of course, you have your pink.
So, you don't necessarily need to add another pink
unless you want to add a softer pink,
something a little quieter, right?
But you can bring out the blues very beautifully.
A couple shades of blue, you can go this blue, royal blue,
or go a bit darker, go a little bit lighter.
You can also then, with your yellow similarly,
if you like yellow,
you can bring it forward a little bit more, right?
But then I also see this, like, rusty, reddish kind of burgundy.
I'd play with that as a dark.
So think of it as you want--
These are probably more medium.
So you want to get a few lights,
get a few darks to complement it,
and then bring in a couple other colors.
Solids is playing it safe.
You can do that.
[audience laughs]
You can do that, right, you can--
Or really small print.
So, like, this white is not white.
It's a white on white, okay?
I wanted to add a little something something,
other than just plain white.
Yeah, okay?
But if you look at this, like these are--
Look at-- Let's focus on the greens for a minute.
Okay, so we've got a lime green.
Let's look at the big ones 'cause they can see it better.
Yep, so we've got a lime green.
And I intentionally allowed blue to play
because I knew in the pictures
they would be wearing a blue T-shirt for the event.
Okay, so I was being thoughtful.
Let the blue hang out with the green,
and then I've got green with the little yellow-orange.
And then you got a dark green.
And then I got a green with some pink.
And then I got some-- I don't know what this is.
Green with some purple, right?
It's okay.
It doesn't create too much chaos.
Just enough.
Okay, but they all work together.
You can do similarly with the oranges, right?
If you look at the different oranges, and there's a few.
But I also brought in some yellow with the orange
to bring it a little bit lighter,
'cause yellow can take over something, right?
And then feel too hot.
And then this orange has a little blue in it
'cause remember, the T-shirts are blue.
[laughs]
And then this one, I don't know, the peanuts,
we had some pink in it with a little bit of black,
but I like the color.
You see what I mean?
So allow yourself to be creative,
artistic, and adventurous.
Think about your 7-year-old self with your Crayola box,
you went to town, and you have enough fabric to do it.
This is beautiful. [audience murmurs]
And if you're ever like just, you know,
sometimes puzzled by it, pull out a color wheel.
Pull out a color wheel, find your pink
'cause your pink is your predominant color,
and then see what's next to it,
what's across the aisle from it, and allow that to guide you.
- Attendee 12: And putting those two together--
- TaMara: I would do this all day, and if I had these,
I would have put it in the quilt.
[all laugh]
So feel free to share a piece with me.
[all laugh]
I'll find a home. [laughs]
Thank you for sharing this.
- Attendee 13: So are those more African than these that...?
- TaMara: Okay, so I don't know about a more African
versus less African, okay?
Because we don't know the origin,
the true origin of the fabric, okay?
Unless you're buying a Woodin or VLISCO
where you can identify the actual origin, then you can't.
Here's what's important.
In going to any country in Africa, in any market,
the women are selling the fabric, right?
They're using the fabric as well as they're selling it.
That's what makes it African, not the origin itself.
None of it originated in Africa.
You see that?
So that's what you want to just be mindful of.
But given the choice,
if you're in market and you're the,
you know, the auntie is in front of you,
ask the question, "If you were getting married today,
is this what you would wear?"
[all laugh]
Would you put this on your daughter for her wedding?
And I tell you, back behind the curtain is,
that's what you want, okay?
And as Americans, that's what we can afford.
Okay, so that's what I would say.
But, you know, again, all of this is beautiful.
And they have to live.
They have to live.
The fabric that's behind the curtain is the fabric
they can't afford to wear every day.
Thank you, these are beautiful.
[audience applauds]
- Announcer: Proceeds from The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show
support PBS Wisconsin programming.
Your financial gift helps make this event possible.
Thank you.
[bright music]