My morning coffee is brewing.

As I look out over the mountains the day is a little overcast but nothing like the cold of home.

My computer woke up without a hiccup, (although I did do all the checks last night) I was up into the wee hours checking and double checking after the  warnings in the media of a world wide crash.

Today I have to finish some illustrations and then this afternoon I have a busy schedule of events.

What does it have to do with quilting  ….EVERYTHING…. art is imitating life and Inspiration is the key.

• Sumi Takamoto, Japan,

Uchiwa (fan) 

• Nomvuselelo Mavundla & Elliot Mkhize, South Africa, Wire Basket Demonstration

Wire basketry was innovated by master weaver Elliot Mkhize  in the early 1970's. (whom we are going to see to day)

Basket weaving is a craft passed down through from one generation to the next. Most wire weavers are women and men who had no previous weaving skills and began making baskets out of financial necessity due to rampant unemployment.

The origins of telephone wire weaving is traced to Zulu night watchmen in urban areas who, to banish loneliness and boredom on night shifts, took to weaving colored wire around their traditional sticks. Soon this technique was adapted to making izimbenge (beer pot covers), the wire plates we have today. This craft now encompasses enormous creativity in diverse forms.

There are stories behind everything creative…  just as there are stories behind our quilts.

Creativity comes from latent necessity and a desire to make something beautiful whether its from telephone wire or scraps from retired clothing.

• Claudio Jiménez Quispe, Peru, Peruvian Retablo 

The term retablo traditionally applies to a broad variety of religious images which are painted and sculpted over much of Latin America. The word is derived from the Latin retro tabula, which means behind the (altar) table, where devotional images were typically placed.

I have a small one of these in my kitchen.