Ohhh I’m sick

But I’m the mummy so I don’t get to crawl back into bed. 

Except I’ve sent off both children to school and the husband to work and for the next few hours, after I have written this post, I WILL be going back to bed.  The luxury!

I live in a small rural area – you know that.  We have loads of different fruits growing in orchards around here, mostly we are a fruit growing area and in the middle of a drought, so you can imagine times are tough.  We depend on the rain and the river for irrigation, and you don’t really want to get me started on the politics of sharing a river with two other states, all with different legislations.

But – our little area does grow almonds.  And when I say grow almonds, I mean GROWWWWW almonds.  There are just thousands of trees around.  And currently, they are all flowering.

My Nan has a close friend who owns an almond orchard, and she invited us out to visit her.  Nan can’t drive so I took her.  We saw rows and rows and rows of flowers like those above.  The scent was heady, and in between all the rows are hives of bees (because they need the bees to pollinate the almonds).  It was beautiful.  The sun was shining, the bees were buzzing, the petals lay on the ground like snow. 

Magical.

On the way there, we passed a canola field. 

Photos don’t do it justice.  Miles of the brightest yellow, up against the bluest sky. 

So after driving, we had tea with our friend.  And she had this on her couch:

Of course, I was immediately drawn to it.  I asked her where she got it from?  She replied – oh you already know the answer, don’t you?

IN THE TENTMAKER’S STREET IN CAIRO!.

Don’t you love how the universe throws these things at you?  You take an interest in something and suddenly, it appears everywhere!  It was great to see it, rather than just look at pictures.  Due to the way the stitcher catches the backing fabric, the stitches appeared almost like quilting.  It was pretty rough in places, and the stitching was coming undone.  I asked her how much it cost, and she said roughly about $10.  For a cushion.  Less than a couple of cups of coffee.  She wanted to give him more but he wouldn’t take it. 

The universe is an amazing place.  I figure this is its way of telling me I must do something like that for me. 

The Tentmakers

As you know, I’ve recently acquired a love of the Tentmakers of Cairo. 

I came across an excellent website from a fellow quilter, and she’s got some DELICIOUS photos of more quilts/wallhangings.  Please go and have a look.

http://multicoloredpieces.blogspot.com.au/

You might need to scroll back to find all her posts.

As for me?  I had an all day quilting day today with my quilting group.  The pool arrived with great fanfare on the back of a very big truck.  Both my kids are sick and my husband is getting the ‘man flu’, so I can feel a pretty hectic week this week.  But I’ve been finishing things, so I’ll take some photos and post them in the next few days.

Hope you all had a nice weekend – till tomorrow,

Suzie

The Tentmakers Of Cairo

I’ve long been a follower of Jenny Bowker, who if you are not into quilting names, is a well known Australian quilter who spent many years as an expat wife in the Middle East.  Consequently, by reading her blog I became aware of the Tentmakers Of Cairo.

Have you seen them?  There are literally hundreds.  Thousands probably.  All different.  All divine.

They are quite possibly the most beautiful things I’ve seen.

Each one is so different, I couldn’t pick a favourite.

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/applique.htm is another excellent place to learn about them.

Go to Google, type in “Tent Makers Of Cairo” and do an image search.  Allow yourself hours.  HOURS. 

I’m in awe.  And these are men, sitting in their shops, with no fancy schmancy tools, no fancy needles, no fancy drawings.  Just done the same way, with needle and thread, that generations have been doing before them.

Sadly, it’s a dying industry.  I’m very pleased that people like Jenny are doing a lot to promote them.  These are works of art, and should be treated as such.

I totally want to do one.

I’ve taken this information from a Saudi website, it’s a very interesting read:

Go to the massive 10th-century gate of Bab Zuwayla, in old Cairo, cross the small square in front of the gate and you are at the beginning of one of the oldest thoroughfares in Cairo - Shari Khayyamiya. Khayma means "tent" in Arabic and here, in the Street of the Tentmakers, the ancient craft of making huge tent pavilions, or suradeq, out of appliqued cloth patterns has been carried on for hundreds of years..

(taken from this link here – go read it, it’s very interesting.   I’ll wait for you.)

Jenny has a very interesting blog/website (sadly, she doesn’t seem to be updating her blog all that often these days – she’s a very busy tutor now).  Looking at her quilts it’s easy to see how her quilting has been influenced by her time in the Middle East.

*updated – I’ve found that the AQS Quilt Show in Grand Rapids, MI - August 22-25, 2012 will be featuring them.  Obviously only worth going to if you’re in the US – let’s hope that they can come over to Australia soon*

I hope you enjoy them.

Suzie