In early 2007, the Quilting Group, made up of many new members, some who had never tried patchwork/quilting before, decided on a joint project as a good way to spend some time getting to know each other while learning from scratch - from a few experts in the group - the “how to” of quilt making. Chantale, an “oldie” of the group and the then president-elect of WBFN had received a bag full of African and Asian materials from Ann Waters returning to DC after a three year mission in several country offices. As few other group members who had been on missions in Africa, or had spouses returning to Africa regularly on short missions had “stashes” of their own, we decided to use these materials as the base for our new project and had it named “African Quilt”. So followed many hours of pouring over books to find the ideal pattern: not too difficult for the neophytes of the group, but still a challenge enough for those of us who had already worn out a thimble or two. In the end we chose the “Stacked Coin” theme, followed by a joint trip to a Quilting Shop to pick out and buy the “between” and “backing” materials - the yellow and the orange batik - as the perfect enhancers to our colorful bands.

Our bimonthly quilting sessions in various members’ houses thus began. First a coffee and “how are you” for half an hour or so, then work for a couple of hours, then a picnic lunch. During the first few work sessions, while making the “patchwork”, we marked and cut out the 2” X 8” coins, spent a session on the floor, and using the yellow batik as a background, and placed the cut out “coins” of African material to form bands in such a way that it pleased our discerning aesthetic eyes. Each of us went home with “coins” to hand sew together, making sure we followed the marked lines religiously to ensure that our quilt ended up nice and “square”. Then in joint sessions, we marked out, cut and hand sewed the yellow bands of batik to the bands of coins. This was followed by another session on the floor to make up the “sandwich”, with the orange batik on the floor, followed by the white “batting” middle layer, and then our completed “patchwork”. This was pinned, then basted, before being marked with our chosen “quilting” pattern: another few hours were spent on the internet and books, by those who knew quilting and those who did not to find the perfect fit for beauty. Our sessions then became weekly: the usual bimonthly Thursday from 10am to 2pm, and every second Tuesday an open house from 1 to 5 pm so we could complete the quilting in time for our deadline: April 22 for the WBFN Book Project’s 25th Anniversary celebration in the MC Atrium, and the sale of lottery tickets to win the African Quilt, by then duly renamed very appropriately “Sunshine from Africa”.

The group changed as the months went by. Some retired, returned home or were sent on other overseas missions. Some returned to DC from other missions. Some newcomers to DC joined us. Some came to make new friends and get vital info on how to survive in DC, some came because they were in between other projects and needed a “sounding board” as they prepared to move on, and some came because they were/are genuinely interested in the art of quilt making. All came because they found people eager to listen and share life’s experiences in a quiet but cheerful environment that is the ZEN side of quilting by hand, of jointly making something beautiful. Some chose to share their experience (see opposite page).

During this time all were encouraged to develop their own quilting project. Some, the experts among us, completed several, some bravely managed one, some of us are still toiling away on our first, some have remained projects on paper only, and some are still trying to decide what to do. All those who are looking for company, or to make friends, and who love to sew by hand and are interested in the art of patchwork/quilting, are welcome to join us. We were delighted that the proceeds from the sale of the quilt -Sunshine from Africa- was donated to the "House of Ruth". The World bank Group has an agreement with them to help spouses in need (www.houseofruth.org).

Vivienne Mordasini