Friends of JAMS is raffling a beautiful quilt, “African Garden.” All proceeds will help JAMS expand to serve more students. Supplies are needed, from new bunkbeds and mattresses to new textbooks.

Raffle tickets are $10 each and a maximum of only 400 tickets will be sold. The drawing will take place during “A Taste of Kenya,” a fundraiser for JAMS, on October 12 at Faranda’s Banquet Hall in downtown DeKalb, IL. You need not be present to win.

You can get tickets from Friends of JAMS Board members and volunteers, or by contacting Friends of JAMS through our website at  www.jamskenya.org/contact-us/

The quilt was handmade by Illinois quilter, Rob Stoll.  It measures 57.5″ x 71″. The fabric is an assortment of traditional African Wax Fabric prints and kona black quilting cotton.

It is called “African Garden” because it represents how individuals here and abroad can take what they have and make it grow even in a time of trouble.

In the middle of 2020 and the Covid pandemic, Rob Stoll saw a Facebook post about African fabrics and fiber artists. Miriam Molkwari Galadima-Benson, an architect in Nigeria who had fallen in love with quilting, wanted to share the beauty of African fabrics. She coordinated online events with fiber artists across Africa and offered fabrics that she got from her local market for sale to the world, thus helping local merchants at a time when many were questioning where their next paycheck was coming from.

The African Wax prints in “African Garden” came from a bundle of half-yard cuts ordered from Miriam in Nigeria and shipped via DHL to Rob in Illinois. The pattern was based on one called Succulent Garden by Indianapolis designer and quilt shop owner Heather Givans who in 2020 was rallying quilters in the greater Indianapolis area to help supply local hospitals with masks.

A long-time JAMS supporter, Rob organized volunteers in DeKalb County, IL, to sew masks in the JAMS school colors in 2020 and the masks helped JAMS reopen after the Kenyan schools Covid closure. Rob also sent fabric and the mask pattern so that JAMS students could learn to sew masks. Thank you, Rob, for your generosity!