We're back from our "safaris"

Our June safari season was a smash success - thanks mainly to the great turn out of visitors and the wonderful efforts of our hosting quilt groups.

View our "safari photos"

Mileham Safari
Castle Quilters and the good folk of East Anglia made for a great day out for all, which included a Castle Quilters challenge, guest quilter Yvonne Brown, special guest jewellery artist Trish Graham from Ghana and, of course, scrumptious home-baking.

Alva Safari
Another great safari to Alva. Highlight #1 had to be the quilts of the Ashanti Gold challenge, made by the Quilt Diva's of Session Quilters and students of Edinburgh textile artist Pat Archibald. The traders provided impromptu prizes and challenge winner Maureen Dow chose a wonderful Trish Graham necklace. Highlight #2 was the Saturday Boy's birthday cake!

View Ashanti Gold challenge

London Safari
This one-day celebration of 30 years of Marsh Quilters drew a great crowd of quilters and textile enthusiasts for a display of Marsh Quilters' creative work, fabrics galore and, yes... even more home-baking!

Many thanks...
To Castle Quilters, Session Quilters, Marsh Quilters and everybody who came along to support our safaris. See you next June...

18 July - Safari To Quiltessential, Derbyshire

Hosted by my friend Ann Mayner at her patchwork and quilting shop in Arkwrights Mill, Cromford, Derbyshire. 10am - 4.30 pm.

"Asante Sana" - Thank You, Kenya Quilt Guild

I'm just back from an absolutely fantastic adventure in Kenya. I was invited to Nairobi to teach a series of workshops and speak about my work and inspirations to the Kenya Quilt Guild.

I could not have asked for a warmer and more enthusiastic welcome from this talented and diverse group of quilters.

More about Magie's trip to Kenya

COMING UP at The African Fabric Shop

Hooked On Indigo Summer Workshops 2009

Every summer I host a week of Indigo workshops in my garden overlooking the Pennines in Meltham, West Yorkshire.

As of 12 May, these workshops are filling up fast, so if you are at all interested, please get in touch ASAP to avoid disappointment. This is particularly important for group bookings.

For dates and full details, see: Workshops

Open European Quilt Championships 2009:
UK Quilters Win Prizes!

We're just back from the Open European Quilt Championships in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. This show is fast becoming one of our favourites and this year it was bigger and better than ever. The quilts were fantastic and so was the "buzz".

Congratulations to our two UK winners: Pat Archibald was awarded the Trophy For Design and Heather Hasthorpe won Second Intermediate. Hopefully as their success gets publicised in the UK quilt magazines and blogs there will be more British entries and visitors to the show next year.

Why not mark your diary right now - Open European Quilt Championships. 29 Apr - 2 May, 2010.

NEW on the website

Recycled Plastic Beads from Ghana

Nothing gets wasted in Africa and these colourful beads made from recycled plastic cassette boxes and containers are a perfect example!

They're made by a small co-operative of women in Kumasi, Ghana. The "Plastic Bead Ladies" melt the plastic to a toffee consistency, add their dyes, and then twist the beads onto 75 cm long canes.

For mail order, I cut the stalks down to manageable 15-20 cm, about 10 beads per stalk.

Once again, Africa teaches us a lesson in recycling!

View recycled plastic beads

Batik Bone Beads from Ghana

I've also added some wonderful new beads made from batik bone.

View batik bone beads

Just back from Ghana

While I've been busy preparing for my upcoming workshop trip to the Kenya Quilts Guild, The Saturday Boy has been on a shopping spree in the 42C heat of Ghana. The shipment should be with us soon - so watch out for new batiks, new wax prints and new beads very soon.

Glorious Ghana Tour: January 2010

In conjunction with Creative Arts Safaris

As they say in Ghana: "You are invited."

Invited to join us on our first Glorious Ghana Tour, 16 Jan - 3 Feb 2010.

We're teaming up with Fiona Wright of Creative Arts Safaris to take you to meet and work with some of the wonderfully creative artists and craft people we know in Ghana.

The tour will be led by Magie Relph and Bob Irwin. Those of you who know us may remember that we ran African tours in a previous life in the 1980s.

In Ghana, we'll also have with us Trish Graham, a beaded jewellery artist who has lived in Accra for more than ten years.

Fiona, who has many years experience operating creative tours in Asia and the Middle East, will be handling the business and booking side of things.

View and print: Tour Itinerary

More info and bookings: Creative Arts Safaris

About my exciting new website

With secure online shopping basket

The Saturday Boy has been toiling away adding improvements to the website:

• Secure online shopping basket for easier ordering
• Secure easy payment by credit or debit card
• Bigger and better images of my unique African fabrics and beads
• And MORE fabrics and beads to choose from!

Enjoy... And don't forget to check my Events Diary to see where I'll be next.