Janine Sears

Hello everyone.

My name is Janine Sears and I am South African.   For the last 10 years I have found myself living a somewhat International Nomadic existence, which started with 7 years in Dubai, then Cairo for 1 year and now 18 months in Nigeria.   For me it is a great honour to be chosen as the quilter of the month even though I no longer reside in Dubai.

Thank heavens for my interest in crafts and hobbies and my passion for sewing which has enabled me to meet many fascinating people from all over the world.    I also do cross stitch, most embroidery styles, knitting, crochet work, flower arranging etc   I always made my own clothes until we moved to Dubai where it was just too easy to have the tailor do it for me!  

I started sewing when I was about 10 years old and if I do not have a sewing machine near me I get withdrawal symptoms!!   When my sewing machine died on me earlier this year, I was so desperate that I went and bought a brand new sewing machine in Nigeria. As it happens, a brand new sewing machine in Nigeria is a treadle machine. I have now become a master 'treadler'.

I have always had a fascination with quilting and took my first class in South Africa learning to rotary cut and sew with strips.  I made two single bed log cabin quilts after attending that course.   Once I moved to Dubai I started quilting on my own and then I met Jacqui Robertson who introduced me to the Dubai quilter’s guild.   What a pleasure to have such talented ladies around me who were so willing to share their knowledge.   I was constantly inspired especially by the Monday morning Bee sessions where much advice, knowledge and laughter was shared.   I also had the privilege of attending some classes in Dubai and am still working away on my 'Shifting Sands' quilt taught by Cynthia Tomaszewski (One of the side panels went missing during the move to Cairo so now I have to redo two side panels as I have run out of some of the fabric).   I was also fortunate to be involved with the 'Follow Jane' course with the Abu Dhabi guild which took place over the period of a year.    I co-ordinated the Dubai side with 30 ladies from Dubai taking part.   The interaction with the Abu Dhabi guild was fantastic as there are many talented ladies there and we all learned a lot.   It also gave me the opportunity to get to know my fellow Dubai quilters better. At the end of the year we had a fun day which was held at Al Jezeera resort where both groups came together and did a day's quilting, learning about each other and having lots of fun.

My move to Cairo was also traumatic as there are restrictions on the amount of fabric that can be brought into Egypt.   Eventually I solved the problem of my huge stash, by hanging 2 – 3 pieces on a coat hanger and then hanging clothes over that and putting it into the clothes hanger boxes from the moving company.   What I could not fit onto the hangers I threw into the bottom of these boxes and left a reasonable amount out for customs to see.    I was fortunate that it all came through customs as I was having nightmares about losing it (again withdrawal symptoms!!!).    What we will not do to protect the 'stash'!!!!   I did the same again for the move to Nigeria and will do the same again for the move back home to South Africa.   At the moment I have many quilt tops finished but can get no further as there is no batting available here and with limited luggage space I cannot bring any back on my trips.   The biggest problem about living in a remote area of Nigeria is the food supplies and medicines, so whenever I travel my suitcase is overloaded with the goodies we cannot get here.

The fabric that is available here in Nigeria is waxed cotton in the typical African style.   It is very cheap costing about Dhs 44 for a 6 yard piece about 60 inches wide (you can only buy it that size). Unfortunately most of the patterns are large so they would only do well as a backing piece for a quilt.
While my hobby has helped me enormously to get by in remote Nigeria, I really miss the interaction of a quilting group who shares my passion.

To break the tedium of my day I have volunteered to work for a group called Cercopan. There are diverse species of monkeys here and unfortunately most of them are endangered as they are killed for bush meat.    Cercopan tries to rehabilitate young orphaned monkeys into family groups and then releases them into a secure area to try to save them from extinction.    At the moment I am busy data capturing all the focal observations that have been made on 2 species of monkeys that are currently in the secure area in the forest.    This has been a mammoth undertaking as there is 2 ½ years of data - approximately 344 entries per day.    I have just managed to finish 2 years of work and will now complete the last 6 months.

Living here has taught me to be grateful for simple things like electricity, clean water, good vegetables and meat and good communications.    We are fortunate to have a generator and diesel that will run whenever the local electricity supply cuts out (which is the majority of every day).   The electricity supply fluctuates to such an extent that I have voltage regulators on all my electrical appliances and UPS's on the internet, television/DVD/satellite TV and my sewing machines.    When the local electricity supply is on the power is so low that I have to turn off non-essential electrical outputs just so that I do not have the UPS's beeping at me all the time!!!!   Water is not clean here - we use mineral bottled water for everything except showering.   All vegetables bought at the market have to be brought home and first washed in soapy water, rinsed and then immersed in a Milton's solution and boiled filtered water, for approximately 10 minutes before they can be put into the refrigerator.    

We are returning to South Africa in January next year and I cannot wait to get involved in quilting again.   I have really missed my friends in Dubai who have taught me so much and shared so much with me.

Colour Wash Quilt 2001	First Quilt - Log Cabin
Follow Jane 2003	Stained Glass Flower 2003
Shifting Sands in Progress	Teddy Bears For Jamila El Dahshoury 2006
My Son Robert's Quilt	Robert's Quilt
BOM 2002	BOM Dubai 2003
Nelson Mandela's Shirts Dubai 2003

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