Our splendid summer continues.  We are finally getting a well needed soaking rain–we’ve been not as dry as Africa, but the water table has dropped enough that the cellar no longer floods when it does rain.  How do we count our blessings?  Well, we just had a new totally automatic sump pump installed so except for the occasional monitoring, ought not to have to worry about the flooding anyway.

We are undertaking an internal move of our fabric storeroom area and oh my goodness, treasures are coming to light.  Fabrics of all sorts that have been tucked away in opaque plastic bags.  Mudcloth and other hand-woven tribal cloths.  Kuba cloth.

Yards & yards of gorgeous solid colored damask.  Some  will be added into the already existing fat quarter category, and some onto a page of its own for half and one-yard cuts.  When I get these listed they will be priced to SELL!

My computer crashed recently and I have lost many email addresses of African Fabric Fans.  If you wish to have your name added to my list for web store specials and other noteworthy news, please email me or respond here (I will not post your name to the public) and I will add you to the group.

All Best,

Isa2

I will be present as an adjunct display at the 12th year anniversary of the Museum of African Culture at 13 Brown Street  Portland, Maine.  The celebration takes place in conjunction with the 45th annual Street Festival in Portland, Maine on August 28, 2010 from 9am-4pm, though we plan to arrive closer to noon than 9am due to the drive time and our unofficial capacity.

I will be there as a member of Akadiya a new non-profit organization whose purpose is to collect, archive and disseminate information about the musical traditions of two West African groups. Our presentation will include balafon and kora music and I will be selling Indigo-dyed cloth from Guinea, Gambia and Male,  Mudcloth from Mali, and Kuba cloth from Congo as well as some other odds and ends accumulated on various buying trips.  I will not be bringing the usual yard goods shown at the web store.

I hope to see you there.  Though not located on the Congress Street, Brown Street and the Museum are 1/2 block off the main drag.  Stop By and say hi!

Isa2

I hope the summer is treating you well.  We’ve had splendid weather here in Maine.

I’ve added a few new fabrics to the Wax and Kente Prints sections at the web store www.africanfabricsales.com which I hope you will check out.  Here’s one sample…

All Best,

Isa2

Thanks for looking.

Isa2

Today we’ve started adding Fat Quarters–found in the Remnants and Fat Quarters Category.  What, you don’t know what a Fat Quarter is?  Well, if you were to order a 11/4 yard of fabric at your local fabric shop, the clerk would measure off 9″ of fabric and give you a long narrow strip.  To make fat quarters, the merchant cuts the fabric at 18 inches and then cuts each strip in half again making rectangular quarters–otherwise known as fat quarters.

More inventory clearance, from my point of view, selling off “left-overs” from the days when I sold at quilting and sewing festivals and conferences.  1-9 FQs cost $2 apiece, 10-19 cost $1.75 apiece, and 20 or more cost $1.50 apiece, while they last.  The merchant in question, me, is unable to figure out how to make the shopping cart say that in as many words, so you’ll have to take my word for it that I’ll take care of your discount when I receive your order, also the refund for excess shipping, since what I charge you is what the shipping really costs, not the outrageous estimate produced in the shopping cart.

Hope to see your order soon.

Isa2

I was so fortunate to find and purchase a stash of Natural Indigo Dyed Damask during my perambulations around West African New York.  Six new designs have been added, and unlike the tie & dye patterns that have been the staple of my Indigo Inventory over the years, these are made using the wax block resist technique, and are they lovely!  Take a look, and reread the article about indigo here to enhance your appreciation of this amazing dyestuff!

Ciao,

Isa2

We are in the process of loading new hand decorated cotton damask onto our web store.  The fabric comes in strange sizes–a 3 yard length I purchased turns out, for example, to be 2 yards and 24 inches, that is if it’s not 2 yards and 32″ but whatever.  I’m selling it by the half yard.  The examples here are from the Tie & Dye Category under African Batik Fabric.

So if you are a seamstress or tailor or you make unusual quilts, take a look.  The amounts are pretty limited in most cases, but I hope that this will be the start of an ongoing category, and to add new items regularly.

The next category I’ll post will be African Wax Batik–Watch for it at African Fabric Sales.

Hope your weekend is great!

Isa2

With fresh inventory at our web store www.africanfabricsales.com you can choose from among 18 new designs in the Wax category of African Prints and be sure that there will be enough of the fabric of your first choice to make that dress, shirt or wrapper in which to greet the spring and summer seasons.

Most of the fabric descriptions list the yardage available, and the newest ones are at the bottom of the page, except for the first three–just trying to keep you  on your toes! You may also note that the African Women Silhouette fabric and a couple of others have been transferred into our Clearance Category.

Remember the shipping costs that come up in your shopping cart are estimates.  You pay actual postage plus a $2.50 handling fee.

I’m currently working on setting up the African Batik Page.  I can’t wait until you see these sumptuous hand decorated materials–

Ciao for now.

How can it be that our lovely full month in New York City has dwindled to seven days and counting until we return to Maine?  We have not spent every day in a dead heat of activity, rather have passed many days in a leisurely manner.  As I wrote to my brother from MA recently, who with his wife had spent a hectic 3 days visiting the Grounds for Sculpture in Trenton, NJ and then perhaps 6-7 museums and galleries in Manhattan before returning home without even so much as a phone call to us, some people go on vacation to do things and some people to not do things.   We needed time away from our matrix with few responsibilities–all the worries will still be there when we get home, and some have even come knocking to challenge our equanimity and repose, but we have pursued our goals with time to breathe these past three weeks, and one way and another, have accomplished a good deal.

During our usual madcap visits to NYC, rather more like my brother’s hectic trip mentioned above, we have filled each day and night with activity, slept little, and returned needing more than a day or two of “catch-up” after the grueling 10 hour drive.  This time we will split the return trip into two days, visiting with either friends or family in MA on the way to ME so not to lose the benefits of the time of our relaxation.

As many of you know, I have done most of my shopping for African fabrics on the African continent in the past, when time and money permitted the travel and adventure, but of late, these past three years, responsibility has been rather a heavier mantle, and I have “shopped” closer to home through the auspices of friends traveling abroad, and the occasional forays into African New York.  Here is what I have noticed in my rambles during this month of April 2010.

There are fewer shops selling factory  made African Fabric that actually comes from Africa and more selling African fabric that comes from China and Pakistan.  There are fewer shops overall, and some have moved to less prominent locations or into smaller venues.  The same irregular quality of materials continues, with some fabrics so flimsy as to be scarcely better than heavily starched gauze while one can still find better quality cloth mixed into the stacks of flat folded cottons that line the perimeters of small shops and boutiques.  Surprising items can be discovered if you ask permission to look into the bags and tubs of additional goods that may be stacked up in African Craft shops, and some shop keepers have always only ever bought the best and can show you antique textiles that will set you back a paycheck or two but enliven your home or collection for the rest of your life.

Some stores that used to sell predominantly wax fabrics from all-over, from Cote d’Ivoire to Holland to Nigeria to London or Senegal, now feature a small inventory of cottons from China and Pakistan, but have a large inventory of machine made and hand-cut lace brocades from Korea for fancy party clothes or perhaps  curtains.  These fabrics are usually sold in 5 yard lengths and the sky’s the limit as far as cost is concerned.  We were recently in one store in the Fashion District in mid-town where, on random asking, we were told that one 5-yard length of fabric was $180, a second was $250, and a third over $500.  And that was before having your tailor or seamstress whip up a lovely for you to wear to that must-attend event.  Me?  I could have spent a lot of money there  on fabulous yardage but alas, lack the lifestyle wherein to wear anything made from such fantasy fairy tale fabrics.

Though I was able to find some really nice quality wax prints, I have bought more hand-decorated damask and flat weave cottons–Tchoup–than I anticipated finding, and also some wax block resist Indigo cloth from Guinea the likes of which I have only ever seen from Nigeria previously.   Since I started this business selling the hand decorated and dyed fabrics from the Gambia, this is a nice full circle for me.  I think, however, that I will have to follow through with a new marketing plan, because my customers are accustomed to seeing African prints at the web store and I no longer can tempt you with my displays of fabric at the sewing and quilting festivals and conferences where we used to meet in person until I retired from road shows last year.  Anyone have any good ideas?

Some number of shops sell a surprising array of items from luggage to car parts to wax printed fabrics, so yes, you can expect to see new arrivals here as they accumulate.  Already I have listed 7 new pieces of Tchoup–the hand decorated and dyed cotton damasks from the Senegambia region, and yes, I fervently hope to be able to find more before we return to Maine.

Unusually, I was also able to find the above…2 6-yard lengths of a printed fabric I have not seen for a couple of years, and it too will appear in the wax section of AfricanFabricSales.com We wander the streets, peering into this and that business, and have twice already been to the African Market near the big Mosque on 116th Street.  Here you find many West Africans and their wares, including tailor made clothing and other similar items, jewelry, carvings and more.  I’ll take pictures next time, I promise, and post them right away.

But now, time to pickup the Sunday New York Times and a few croissant and kick back.

All Best To You.,