The last time I was in Boquete, my friends and I decided to stop by the library to see the exhibition of quilts.
The top floor of the library had a very nice space for exhibitions. On this day it was full of quilts by the Volcan Quilters. I found their website HERE. The main purpose of this organization is to teach local women to sew and quilt, and give them a skill they can use to earn money. I talked with Sherri Jones from the organization who told me that it is going very well, and some of the women are supporting their entire family with their skills.
I thought it was very interesting to see these quilts – something we have all seen, but here with the artistic skill and taste of these Panamanian women. The first thing that struck me were the bright, vivid colors that made the entire room come alive! There were some more traditional designs, and also a lot of original and creative designs, some I never would have thought of seeing in a quilt. There were quilts to put on your bed or wall, as well as bags and purses, all reasonably priced when you consider the materials, skill, and considerable time it takes to make one of these creations.
If there is a exhibition of these quilts in your area I think it’s worth the time to go see them. And, if you are able to support them, buy something beautiful and/or help them with money or materials. There is an easy donation button on their website, or instructions on how to send supplies on their “about us” page.
The Panama Adventure 
Thanks for sharing Kris. Did you ride your bike there?
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Bike? ha! It was one of my goals to make it up there but then I got to thinking… why? I made it within 5 miles once and it was very hard, and coming back down was the scariest thing I’ve done on my bike so I decided to take that idea off my bucket list.
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These quilts are gorgeous. I want to buy the monkey quilt for my children’s library. Were they expensive?
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I should have paid attention to the prices! The bags and purses were $30-40 if I remember which I thought was reasonable for the work involved. Of course the quilts were more, especially the big ones but rather than say anything wrong it would be better to contact the quilters. The card I have for Sherri Jones says FabricAsArt@gmail.com She told me they will also do custom orders if you have a particular design, colors, size, etc in mind.
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Beautiful quilts. I love all the colors too. And the library is very nice. All those windows let in lots of light. Quilting is very detailed work and it does take many hours of work to get the finished product.
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Yes indeed it does. My grandmother-in-law made quilts and she would work for months to complete one.
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hi Kris!
thank you for this lovely blog about the quilts.
don’t you think that it would be a good idea to send your lovely pictures to Sherri, so she can post them on their website, where they don’t have much!
i’m sure it would help them get more donations!
sorry to interfere! 🙂
regards
heidi
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I was thinking of sending her a link to this post so we’re thinking along the same lines. Thanks for the encouragement and I will definitely do that.
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again anonymous! sorry! we’ll see what i can do about that! 🙂
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Maybe it is forgetting that you are logged in? Otherwise I’m not sure what it could be. One of those hiccups?
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