African Village Quilt with Dancers using Diamond blocks

I've completed my African Village Quilt with all diamond blocks.  The dancers in the diamond blocks, the bodies of the houses and the borders are all African Fabrics, or African designed fabrics made in Holland.  The border fabric is mud cloth made in Gambia. It is soft and gauzy. It worked well in the borders but the wax fabrics are easier to use for piecing since they have less give. Because the African fabrics were all so different, I washed them before I used them. The wax fabrics were really waxy prior to washing but soft afterwards.  I found these fabrics at the Etsy shop, Tambo Collection.  They had a great selection of fabrics and the prices are reasonable.

Here is the back of the quilt.  The central fabric is Kente cloth made in made in Holland. The tops and bottom strips are Kona Cotton "Cheddar"!

I really like the motion in the Kente Cloth print.  It's great designing. 

In the live and learn department:

If you compare the photo of the quilt above with the pattern diagram below, you'll see that the quilt has 2 layers of "lawn" below the huts while there is only 1 in the pattern.  When I printed the PDFs paper piecing files, I didn't change the print specifications to 100% which is necessary to get an accurate pattern.  I had 1 inch markers on the patterns but didn't check them since they were my own patterns.  I would have caught my error if I had put a ruler on the inch marker.  The pattern on file is accurate but the printing wasn't.  My hut blocks came out 8 inch finished instead of the needed 9 inch.  When I was sewing the huts, they didn't seem any different than the huts on the first quilt I made. But they were slightly smaller.  When I tried to sew the blocks together, they didn't match.  I decided was easier to add to the hut blocks to make them larger rather than re-making the diamond blocks smaller.   

All the paper pieced patterns I've used from other designers have always specified printing at 100% which I've done. And I checked the 1 inch mark too.  I've always wondered if it really matters.  And the answer is:  YES, it does!  When I went back and printed one of the hut patterns with the print setting at 100% and the block measured a perfect 9 inch finished.   Lesson learned. 

African Village with Diamonds Quilt Design

Wall Hanging--Girls Jumping Rope Completed

Here's my completed wall hanging "Jumpers" designed/pattern by Jeffie Johnson.  See my post August 20, 2014 with information about sources for the African wax fabrics and the pattern for "Jumpers".

Here's a detail of the girls' faces, jump rope quilted using a utilitarian stitch (#8 on my Bernina 440) on my sewing machine.  There are stars in the free motion quilting at the top but not in the lower part of the quilting.  The earrings and decorations on their shoes are buttons and the jump rope handle is a bead. 

Detail of quilting

I really enjoyed working on this project.  The designs and colors of the African wax fabrics are amazing.  And of course I love this delightful appliqué pattern!

African Village Step 6--making the back and label

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

The top of the African Village Quilt is done!   Great job.  Now it's time to make the back. 

Back of the African Village quilt

I had left over triangles from the setting blocks and corner blocks from the diamond strips on the front of the quilt.  I also had some triangles which I cut for the quilt and then decided that I liked other fabric better.  So I decided to make a strip back for my quilt. 

You will need a backing that measures at least 48 x 65 inches.  This will give you a 3 1/2-4 inch overhang.  If you plan to send it out to a long-arm quilter you may need it a bit larger.

I used fabrics for the strips that are in the quilt top and I varied the width of the solid color strips  to make the back more interesting.  I also made a few more half square triangles for the strips.  You'll note in the photo above that the half square triangle strips were extended with a piece of background fabric.   If you wanted to, you could just use a couple left over half square triangles and make the strip long enough with other fabrics. 

However you do it, it's all good! 

I really like this back.  It could stand on it's own as a quilt in its own right!

Once you finish the backing, layer sandwich your quilt with top, quilt batting and the bottom. I used a cotton baby quilt batting which measured 46 x 60 inches.

Quilt as desired or send it out to your favorite quilter!   Add a binding once it is all quilted.

And finally make a label.  Here is my label before I wrote on it. I used some selvages from the fabric in the quilt along with a strip from my focus fabric.  It adds a bit more information about the quilt and it's fun!

Selvage label for the quilt

Next post…my finished quilt!

Please leave me a comment to let me know how you are doing! 

African Village Quilt Step 1

The dog trainers I work with are all of African American descent.  One of them collects ethnic art work and she also adores babies. Every time a baby comes in to the training center with a parent (and dog), my trainer lights up.  So when I found this un-named pattern, house brand ethnic fabric at Jo-ann's Fabric and Craft Store I knew I had to make an African Village quilt for her.  

Jo-ann's Fabric and Craft Store Ethnic print

Isn't this fabric delightful?

I decided I wanted to have a village and a river since some of the women are carrying water jugs on their heads. 

Here is the design I created on my computer with the program EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7).  I scanned and imported the ethnic print fabric and the batik I'm using for the river. The other fabrics are in EQ7's stock fabric library and are close approximations of what I plan to use.

African Village Quilt Design 41 x 58 inches

NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

I'm working on this quilt this week and will post new blocks and PDF patterns for them on Wednesday, August 6 and Friday, August 8.

Here are links to the PDF paper piecing patterns for African Hut 1 A and 1 B.  The huts are the same but the door face slightly different directions.  Print out 2 copies of step B, one for each hut.  The 1/4 inch seams are very faint on these PDF files.  Make sure you allow for the 1/4 inch seams around the outer edge of each section.  The unfinished block measures 9.5 x 9.5 inches and will finish at 9 inches square.

This is a great quilt for using your scraps.  If you wish to purchase fabric, here is the estimated yardage.

3/4 yard of the Focus ethnic print fabric

1/2 yard inner red border 

1 yard outer orange border

1 yard tan background fabric for the paper pieced hut blocks

1/2 yard various yellow or similar color for thatched roofs

5 Fat Quarters (Fat Eights should do if you have them) or scraps for the 5 hut walls if you want the all the huts to be different

1 1/4 yards various greens, I recommend getting 1/2 yard pieces if you get more than 1 green

1/4 yard for blue in the river

1/4 yard for the brown in the river section

1 3/4 yards backing IF you have a full usable 42+ inch width and don't mind tight margins OR    2 2/3 yards if you wish to piece the backing if you need wider margins for quilting

Binding 1/2 yard

Let me know if you plan to make this quilt too so I set up a link or place to share your work. I hope you'll join me!