Challenge starts in:
A Quilt africa challenge august - November 2026
read the cloth
Where Woven Meets Printed
01. WHERE THIS COMES FROM
At the summit, we've talked about curating your body of work not someday, now. This is how we keep building together, all the way to November.
My mother could look at a wrapper just look at it and tell you its name, what colour it was really doing, what party you'd wear it to. She wasn't seeing fabric. She was reading it. The cloth was saying something, and she could hear it. That's all I'm asking you to do here.
02. READING THE CLOTH
Before you cut anything, just look. Listen to what each cloth is telling you. Because akwete and wax they don't talk the same way.
THE WOVEN | AKWETE
The one that whispers
Somebody sat at a loom and built that pattern thread by thread. It's slow. It's quiet. The maker's hands are all over it. Reading akwete is reading rhythm and restraint.
THE PRINTED | ANKARA WAX PRINT
The one that talks
Wax is printed it's loud, it's bold, it walks into the room and announces itself. Every old wax print even has a name. Reading wax is reading voice and statement.
Put them side by side and you're not just using two fabrics. You're sitting two different voices down at the same table one that whispers, one that talks and making them have a conversation. That's reading the cloth.
03. PICK WHAT YOUR TWO CLOTHS ARE DOING
Don't just throw both in a block and call it done. Decide something first. Three ways to go you only need one.
WAY 03
Handoff
Let one lead. The wax is the star and the akwete is the ground it stands on or flip it, and let the woven hold the room while the wax peeks through.
WAY 01
Tension
Let them argue. Your quiet akwete hard up against a bold, busy wax. The clash is the point when you do it on purpose, it's gorgeous.
WAY 02
Conversation
Let them rhyme. Pull one colour out of the akwete and go find it again in the wax so your eye keeps travelling back and forth between them.
You don't have to tell me which one you picked nobody's marking you. But if you can look at your own piece and say in one sentence what those two cloths are doing together, that is the difference between two fabrics sitting next to each other and something you actually made.
03B. SEE THE POSSIBILITIES
Nobody has paired these two cloths before so here's what it could look like. Not rules, just a door opening.
Tension
A quiet woven panel colliding with a loud printed field. Let them argue.
Conversation
Akwete and wax sharing a colour that bounces between them. Let them rhyme.
Handoff
One cloth the quiet ground, the other the soloist standing on it. Let one lead.
Collage
Something you recognise a face, a figure, a scene built from cloth.
Garment
Any wearable garment coat, cape, vest, wrap.
Tension
These were dreamed up by AI to show the range tension, conversation, handoff, a garment or a collage of something real. Yours will be the first ones actually made. That's the fun of going first.
04. WHAT YOU MAKE
Read both cloths. Then make a finished piece where akwete and wax print are in conversation not just sharing a surface.
Enter as many pieces as you like, in any of these categories:
01.
Art Quilt
24"x24" - 36"x36"
A quiet woven panel colliding with a loud printed field. Let them argue.
02.
Wall Hanging
24"x24" - 36"x36"
A quiet woven panel colliding with a loud printed field. Let them argue.
03.
Quilt
24"x24" - 36"x36"
A quiet woven panel colliding with a loud printed field. Let them argue.
04.
Wearable
Knee Length Minimum
Any wearable garment coat, cape, vest, wrap. Shown on a model or mannequin; lining your choice.
3/4 Rule
The one rule on fabric: at least 75% of the cloth in your piece is the mix we're celebrating akwete and wax print, or other African fabrics. The remaining 25% is yours: any fabric you like, to make it sing. And let the akwete lead — read it first, then choose what answers it. It's the rarer cloth, so we build around it with respect.
Before you cut, decide what your pairing is doing tension, conversation, or handoff. Pick one. Being able to say which, in a sentence, is what turns two fabrics into a made thing. Start with an art quilt if you're nervous; reach for a whole quilt or a wearable if the conversation wants more room.
05. WHY WE'RE DOING THIS
A small finished piece gets you in. But if you've got it in you, push. See if the conversation can carry across a whole quilt.
This is how a body of work gets built not in one heroic quilt, but in a habit. You read a cloth, you make a decision, you finish a piece, and you do it again. By November you'll have a finished thing you can point at and say I made them talk and that piece becomes part of the body of work we started curating at the summit. That's the whole aim: turn three months of small, brave decisions into something that's unmistakably yours.
06. ENTRY AND AWARDS
Entry is $10 a piece the gentle end of what quilt challenges cost, and it keeps the prizes real. Enter as many pieces as you like.
$10
Per Piece
Standard entry. Enter as many finished pieces as you want, in any category.
Available
Fabrics hand-sourced by me
Buy akwete and/or Ankara wax fat quarters — each one chosen by my own eye.
Ask
If it's a barrier
Money should never be the reason you don't make something. If the fee is hard, email us quietly, no questions.
No judging panel. The community picks, and so do I. Every category is celebrated two ways:
VOTED BY YOU ALL
Community Choice
Everyone votes for the pieces that moved them most. One vote per person, per category.
Winner: a free month of BOM 2027
CHOSEN BY MIRIAM
Curator's Pick
The piece my eye keeps returning to — not marked against a rubric, just chosen, the way my mother chose cloth.
Winner: Quilt Africa fabric credit
And across everything: a Best in Show Community Choice (full BOM 2027 registration) and a Best in Show Curator's Pick (a larger fabric credit, and featured across our channels). Every prize keeps you in the cloth — more fabric, more building, more of what brought you here.
07. THE PACE. NO CLIFF, NO RUSH
AUGUST
Play
Pull your cloths, read them, audition colour, make a start. No skill required to begin.
2SEPT - OCT
Build
Carry the conversation further. Share progress in the portal, borrow ideas, finish your piece.
BY OCTOBER 31
Submit
Send in your finished piece — up to four photos. That's your pebble in the pond.
BY NOVEMBER 12
Winners
Community Choice and Curator's Picks announced with room to breathe before BOM 2027 opens in December.
08. HEAR ME ON THIS
There's no judging panel and nothing to be nervous about. Community Choice and my Curator's Pick, that's it. Camera off, one small finished piece, you're here that's the win.
This is how a body of work gets built not in one heroic quilt, but in a habit. You read a cloth, you make a decision, you finish a piece, and you do it again. By November you'll have a finished thing you can point at and say I made them talk and that piece becomes part of the body of work we started curating at the summit. That's the whole aim: turn three months of small, brave decisions into something that's unmistakably yours.
09. GET YOUR CLOTH
Most of you have a stash full of prints just waiting for a reason to be cut. So the first way to start is your own cupboard — or let me hand-pick the akwete for you.
WAY ONE: MY FAVOURITE
Use Your Own Stash
$0 fabric
JUST THE $10 ENTRY
Go shopping in your own cupboard. Pair akwete and wax you already own, read your cloths, make your piece.
This is the whole spirit of it: stop hoarding the good fabric, and cut it.
WAY TWO: JUST THE AKWETE
Mystery Half Yard Akwete
$24
Only missing the akwete? Get a half-yard of handwoven akwete my colourway pick, the mystery cut, chosen by eye the way my mother chose cloth. Pair it from your own stash. Light to ship, easy to start.
WAY THREE: CHOOSE YOUR DIRECTION
Akwete + Ankara Bundle
$48
Half-yard akwete plus three Ankara prints I hand-pick.
You choose the direction — Tension, Conversation, or Handoff — and I curate the fabrics to suit.
WAY FOUR: BUY UP
Akwete By The Yard
$45/yd
Want akwete as more than a feature - a bigger quilt, or a garment with wax you already own?
Buy the raw cloth by the yard, my colourway pick. A garment wants around 3 yards.
WAY FIVE: THE WHOLE CLOTH, DONE FOR YOU
Garment bundle
$120
Starting from nothing, or too overwhelmed to choose?
Everything a wearable needs, in one box: 1 yard of akwete + 3 yards of wax, curated to your chosen direction - Tension, Conversation or Handoff.
Made to order. The whole cloth, decided for you.
A half-yard makes akwete your feature — the band, the border, the medallion — with wax carrying the field. For a whole quilt or garment, buy akwete by the yard or the garment bundle. Handwoven to order: ships in 1–3 days, delivery in 14–21. Particular pieces are limited, but the cloth never runs dry — I'll always source more.
NOTE: All Akwete and Wax Prints are a mystery!
Read the cloth. Cut it.
Build something. Belong.
This is how a body of work gets built not in one heroic quilt, but in a habit. You read a cloth, you make a decision, you finish a piece, and you do it again. By November you'll have a finished thing you can point at and say I made them talk and that piece becomes part of the body of work we learnt how to curate at the summit. That's the whole aim: turn three months of small, brave decisions into something that's unmistakably yours.
In December we open Block of the Month 2027. This challenge is where your next year of quilting begins - come build the habit now.
-Miriam
© Copyright 2026 Quilt Africa Fabrics.