INSPIRED BY THE TEXTILES OF THREE CATS

Among the vast, vast collection of fabric my dear friend tasked me with finding homes for was a large bin of Shweshwe - indigo cloth.  The discharge block printed indigo fabric has a long history, originally printed for commercial use in Lancashire, England and exported to South Africa.  Eventually 4 companies produced this type of material.  Spruce Manufacturing produced the most popular brand name; Three Cats.  

In 1992, South Africa's De Gama Textiles, who trade marked a similar product; "Three Leopards", purchased the sole right to own and print the branded Shweshwe "Three Cats". 

My friend's stash included vintage indigo printed in Britain for the South African market, but also other printed in South Africa, including some difficult to find reds, and brown. 

Much of the fabric is very stiff and requires multiple washings before use and yet some styles are more loosely woven than others and are quite soft.  She owned a large variety of blue tones....from lights to darks, large prints to small prints.  It's been a real challenge to come up with a design that can highlight this special material without it getting lost in the patchwork and companion fabrics.

So....here's what I been working on:

 I've chosen to marry the fabric with a simple white on white print.  After consideration, the color scheme will be all navy indigo prints and I'll save the lighter ones for another project.  So the center square of the right block has now been replaced with a white one.

There were lots of rejected design ideas along the way.....but finally I settled on a very simple plan.....two different patchwork blocks using a square in a square theme.  

 After the blocks were completed it should have been easy to assemble the rows.  HA.....even simple patchwork is not in my DNA....twice I ended up sewing the rows together incorrectly...that's right, even after having it all laid out properly on my design wall.  Geesh.....

I decided it was an exercise in maintaining a humility, especially after patting myself on the back, thinking it was going so smoothly!  The top is now correctly assembled.  Hopefully I can get it sandwiched and the quilting begun this week.  Will update the progress as it happens.

Thanks for checking in with me!