Girls carrying water

The next thing was to discover an edging. I thought of using the same fabric to make binding - endless desert idea - but it seemed it wanted something.

So I remembered this random muddy brown fabric from one of my not so successful attempts at ice dyeing.

I decided it would look good if I did a very narrow binding.

Next I quilted the landscape and highlighted the detail on the girls. Put on the narrow binding, and voila!

I have called it "Little Blossoms of the Desert". Here is the blurb that I have sent with it.

Brightly clad little Afghan girls carrying water.

For centuries warring in the Afghan area has made the land unsafe and infertile.
How safe are these heavily laden little ones?

Still each drop of water counts.

Will these little blossoms grow and bloom?

Is it just the beginning of their life of toil?

This little 10in x 7in piece will be part of the SAQA 25th Anniversary Trunk show. This is from the SAQA site.

The 2014 Anniversary Trunk Show will premiere at the 2014 SAQA conference in Washington, DC, and then travel all across the United States and around the world. A group of quilts from this exhibition will be chosen by jurors Linda Colsh and Margaret “Peg” Keeney to become a permanent part of the collection of the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky.

So I don't know if I will see it again, but I may use this idea to make a larger work. At the very least I don't think I am done with using my work to raise awareness of issues like this.