My New African Quillow

This is my new African Quillow. I have these 5 1/2inch African Fabric squares packs for my original African Quilt (you can see it in the side bar) and I wanted to make another project using just the squares combined with another pack of black, white and red squares. I love the red and white Prints Charming fabric and the black and white orchid design batik especially.
I decided step out of my comfort zone (usually in the red sector) and use the blue and purple border print, but I'm still not sure or completely comfortable with the choice...
I used an African Kanga on the back and lovely bamboo wadding so it washed and dried really soft and drapey.

I love this fabric! I bought this in the amazing Hartbeesport Dam Market near Pretoria in South Africa. My daughter and I went there four years ago now to visit my sister who was living in Pretoria at the time. It was a really wonderful experience! Africa holds so much of inspiration to a creative person. The ingenuity and creativity of the people - everywhere you look there is something clever, beautiful, nifty, unexpected that someone has made out of something else. Then there's the scenery, the history, the animals... Anyway, I saw this tablecloth- like length of fabric hanging amongst the other textile treasures in the market an immediately knew "I could do something with that!" It's nearly finished now. I have a fat quarter and a little bit more left over. (Tip: always cut a fat quarter from any significant lengths of fabric and save it in your stash for future projects.)

This is the quilt as I was quilting it, which I did in a simple cross hatch on my domestic sewing machine. I love the riotous jumble of colour and pattern. Then you can see below the final result of the quilt stuffed into its pillow. I used the left over squares from the fabric packs and a bit of the border fabric to make the little cushion top. But I played around with the idea of an unpieced African fabric, same as I used on the back...i didn't have enough fabric so I followed the old quilters' rule of making use of what I did have.
I am making patterns for the quillow and have fabrics ready cut available from my website.
Now it's time to get back to the re-organisation of my studio so I can make more quilts...