I Left My Heart in Africa: The Original Map Quilt
This is the quilt I told you about earlier, the Africa Quilt. It took me so long to get a photo up because the quilt is humoungus. When I was busy cutting out all the fabrics for the quilt, carefully collected over the years, one of my friends said “It shouldn’t be called ‘I left my heart in Africa’, it should be called ‘I left my BRAINS in Africa.’”
It was a labor of love. I was still fairly new to quilting, and so unsure of my machine quilting skills that I actually did a lot of hand quilting – I hand quilted 1/4 inch all the way around the continent, I hand quilted a hand of Fatima in the upper NW quadrant, along with a Tunisian tea pot and a caravan of camels going in and out of Ouagadougou.
(When we were at the Embassy in Amman, one of the state-department wives jokingly told me that if you were bad, you got sent to Ouagadougou, and it always gives me a big grin to think of it.)
While making this for my husband, I had to hide it every night before he came home. One night I was still working – he hadn’t called me – and I saw him drive up. I was still desperately trying to stuff it all in the closet when he got home, and he got a fairly cool and distracted welcome, something like “you didn’t call me to tell me you were coming!” which hurt his feelings.
At Christmas, when he opened the quilt, I told him that’s what had happened and we both got a good laugh. He loves this quilt, and he has told me he wants to be buried in it.
We often go to Africa. We love to go there, and every time we go, we sew another heart on. We have been to Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia. Lots of hearts! So we say the quilt is still a work in progress.
I machine stitched in the ditch for the continent, and then did a wave stitch in the ocean, which is actually about half of the quilt. You can see how using a very light blue at the coastline, and then graduating into the darker blues makes the continent really pop out.
Northwest quadrant:
Hearts across South Africa:
This one is entirely 3 inch squares (there is a giraffe fabric that I couldn’t go any smaller, and that drove the size of the entire quilt) and half squares. What was really fun is after getting over being aghast at the scope of the quilt, many friends came up with fabrics for it, especially Egyptian themed fabrics, all of which adds to our joy in using the quilt. I have some fabric bought many years ago in Tunisia with Berber symbols on it which I used in North Africa, and Sudanese fabrics I used in the West African sections. There are a very few pure black squares, in places where truly awful things continue to happen in Africa.
Did I mention we love this quilt? 
momoneymoproblems said,
September 8, 2007 at 1:05 am
Amazing job! I think thats one of the nicest pieces of craft I’ve seen… well done!
Violette said,
September 8, 2007 at 6:02 am
WOW!!! This is fabulous. You are right that the light blue fabrics at the coastline make the continent stand out. How did you determine the number of squares to use both vertically and horizontally? Did you piece the continent first and add the ocean later?
worldquilter said,
September 8, 2007 at 8:06 am
Momoney – Thank you!
Violette – Thank you!
1. Graph paper – that’s how you create the map, and it is how you count the squares and how you keep track of what you have finished.
2. I piece these quilts in quadrants, then sew the north south seam of each quadrant, and then the east west seam. I do it in quadrants because you really need to use a project wall (or nearby curtain) so you can keep track of what pieces need to go where, and so you won’t use two same pieces next to each other.
Click on “map quilts” in the tag section, and it will take you to a long explanation of how to do these quilts. This one was the first.
Darla said,
September 9, 2007 at 12:18 am
Truly spectacular! Well thought out & beautiful…with the hearts & the black spaces & shading for desert areas… How big is the finished quilt?
I’m a quliter as well…& I would never have the patience for something with this much detail, forethought & pieces!
Just beautiful.
worldquilter said,
September 9, 2007 at 8:45 am
The quilt is something like 105 x 110 inches. I’m glad you like it, Darla.
For me, it was fun, kind of like a puzzle. I would rather make a map quilt any day than to paper-piece even one block with more than five pieces! I just can’t wrap my mind around thinking upside down and flip-wise!
The map quilts are all squares and half squares, and fabric collection and fabric selection, so for me, it is easy. We’re all wired a little differently, eh?
Brikebrok said,
October 3, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Beautiful !
worldquilter said,
October 4, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Glad you like it!
paramjeet said,
January 14, 2008 at 7:49 pm
just fantastic
worldquilter said,
January 15, 2008 at 4:40 pm
WELCOME, Paramjeet!
foggyskye said,
September 30, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I stumbled upon your blog today completely by accident. This is one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL quilts I’ve ever seen, but aestheticially and conceptually.
I hope one day my quilts are as beautiful and meaningful as yours.
worldquilter said,
October 1, 2008 at 8:59 am
Foggyskye, you just made my day. My husband totally LOVES that quilt, and wants to be buried in it.
We actually use it on our bed.
DaisyMeme said,
February 9, 2009 at 11:27 pm
What a beautiful quilt! You are a true artist.
Thanks for sharing
worldquilter said,
February 25, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Thank you, Daisy
African Pathways Quilt « World in Stitches said,
March 5, 2009 at 11:49 am
[...] My husband says he loves this one almost as much as I Left My Heart in Africa. [...]
Stephanie A. said,
March 26, 2009 at 1:09 am
Requesting a copy of the quilt. Thank you, SA
worldquilter said,
April 22, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Stephanie, there is no pattern, no copy. I used graph paper and an enormous collection of African fabrics to put it together.
Obscure objects of desire: carto-quilts, map pillows and topo-textiles - limeduck said,
May 28, 2009 at 7:28 pm
[...] searches came up with this amazing patchwork quilt of Africa. Note the hands along the top to get a sense of scale. Those are 3″ squares. [...]