O.V. Brantley

Coffee Under a Blue Kenyan Sky

A Safari to Remember in Kenya

Coffee Under a Blue Kenyan Sky


Recently my daughter and I spent a week in Kenya on safari. It was a different kind of vacation for us. We spent most of our time outside in our open safari Jeep searching for a glimpse of magnificent wild animals. We awoke every morning at 5:30 a.m. in order to be in our jeep by 6:15 so as to find the animals as they looked for their breakfast. Breakfast for us had to wait, so only strong Kenyan coffee kept us going until our morning safari was over. I tried to capture the memory of our trip in “Coffee Under a Blue Kenyan Sky.”

“Coffee Under a Blue Kenyan Sky” is a quilted wallhanging that measures 32x35 inches. I pieced and quilted it on my Janome sewing machine with variegated thread. 

It is an eclectic mix of coffee fabric and African fabric. The blue starry border represents the sky. The brown swirling buttons evoke images of coffee. The quilt is further embellished with an embroidered Kenyan patch depicting a wild cat in a tree and a yo-yo with a handmade paper bead in the center.

The coffee theme of the quilt is carried out on the back of the quilt with a brown coffee fabric. There is a hanging sleeve on the back for easy display and a label that documents the quilt. 

This quilt is one-of-a-kind. I signed it on the front.