My mother-in-law brought this beautiful appliqued piece home from Cameroon in West Africa where they lived as missionaries for some years. The workmanship on it is excellent and I really like the concept. Everyone but the two littlest are helping keep the household running. :-) The way the prints were arranged for the cutting is also interesting.
The Cameroonian lady who made this used heavy muslin for the background and cottons for all the applique and the borders.
Whether these logs are “too big” or not is hard to tell. Some people would be amazed at what Africans can carry on their heads! Some of them must have fantastically strong necks.
Here are a couple close-ups of the work. I couldn’t decide if it was done by hand or machine, but the irregularity of it makes me think it might have been done by hand. However, various African artisans can do amazing things with a sewing machine – even without fancy stitches. My mom saw that demonstrated years ago.
Here is a photo that one of my grandparents took years ago, to show you that Africans really do carry heavy things on their heads. This was taken in East Africa, but it’s the same all over the continent.
That’s a big load of cotton. :-)
I really like that! Beautiful work! :)
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