Today we’d like to introduce you to Aisha Lumumba.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I became interested in sewing as far back as I can remember. I started making doll clothes as far back as I can remember. My aunt who was a seamstress took me under her wing and taught me how to sew clothes. Slowly on our summer visits to her house she added new skills to my repertoire. Several things led me to patterns and my own clothes. Word spread fast and people were asking me to sew for them. My high school years were filled with schoolwork and commissions to sew for other people. I did that until I finished high school and moved away from home. Sewing moved to the back burner but never left my mind.
My itch to sew did not come back to me until after I got married and was pregnant with my third child. The check-up wait in the doctor’s office almost drove me crazy. I picked up some scraps of fabrics, I placed them in a bag, grabbed a needle and thread to take with me to my appointments. The hour or two wait to see the doctor became a time I relished. I started stitching quilt after quilt totally by hand. I loved the pace, the details, and most of all the relaxation.
I kept sewing little pieces together and making quilts. I used the sewing machine so times but mostly I loved the feeling of sewing by hand. Now I do a mixture of both.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
At first, it was easy, I had a pretty simple life. I worked a job, took care of my small but growing family and I made quilts in my free time. By the time we got to our fourth child, the quilting bug had sung his teeth deeply into my arm. People started asking to buy them and the rest is history. I kept my job and sewed in my spare time. Every moment that a wife and mom of three children can find. Finding time for a very very time-consuming hobby in the midst of raising a young family was exhausting. So, it took me hours on hours on days on months to complete one quilt.
As time moved on, quilting became a THING. Everybody was doing it. People started to slowly notice it as an art form. Quilt magazines came on the scene, and I realized that I could put my art student skills into quilting. Finally and slowly I was beginning to tie my love for art (that I went all the way to college for) with my love for sewing, BUT the world was not ready to call quilting an art form yet.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a quilter: more specifically an Art Quilter. I have watched quilting change from just something your Grandmother did to keep the family warm. In my opinion it was always a form of art. I remember being enthralled by the quilts that I saw as a child made from old clothes and other left-over fabric items (ie, tablecloths, used blankets, bits of clothes, etc…)
I specialize in all kinds of quilts. People have been most excited about the quilts that are portraits of famous people, although, I have done all kinds of quilts. I simply love the act of creating them. I think my versatility sets me apart from most other quilt artist. I make portraits, I make patchwork, I make landscapes and abstracts, and I make traditional quilt-block patterns. Over the last few years, more and more quilt makers are venturing into art quilts.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
There is no one kind of advice I would give blanketly. Quilting has so much versatility that people can plug in to various forms of creativity. With that said, I would advise a new person to learn the basics of sewing first. Not knowing the basics will make the journey a lot longer and maybe harder. “Fools rush in where Wise Women tread.” I would advise a person interested to take it slow and learn as much as you can about the art, about yourself and your habits. All of that affects the kind of artist you will become.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.obaquilts.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OBAQuilts
Image Credits
Photographer credit- Jabari Lumumba
