Hey Everyone, welcome back to Coffee Talk Saturday.

So I am not going where the dirt is red and the road is desolate but the quilts I am going to see I suspect come from areas that have red dirt, herds of animals standing around and desolate roads that go on forever.

I am off to London – no not London, England although that would be quite alright but rather London, Ontario. The London International Quilt Festival is in progress and today is the last day. It’s at least a 3 hour trip each way but I have good reason to go and probably a once in a lifetime chance to see these quilts.

The show is featuring an exhibit called Out of Africa. There are close to 200 quilts from many different countries in Africa. The photos that are on the website are simply amazing. Very different from what we see here in North America. I am so looking forward to seeing them all and possibly running into Dena Crain, a quilting instructor from Kenya. I have had the pleasure of taking a class from her in Australia as well as on Quilt University.

As well as these quilts there are also 10 quilts from The Tentmakers of Cairo. I saw some of these quilts when I was at Asilomar earlier this year. Jenny Bowker of Canberra, Australia had a few with her on display in her classroom. They are simply amazing – all made by hand and by men. Extremely inspiring the work these men do.

Here’s a video showing of these absolutely jaw-dropping quilts at an exhibition a couple years ago:

All right I must be on my way, my friend is waiting for me to pick her up and the long, busy road to London is a calling.

Happy Quilting!