Since we came to live on Saba, years ago, I am in awe of the original Saban cottages with their red roofs, white walls, green shutters and especially the beautiful decorative trims in all different kind of designs called gingerbread. The gingerbread dates back to the Victorian era and was brought to the Caribbean by Europeans.

I painted the blue background and cut out two different freezer paper stencils to create gingerbread trims. The fabric was divided in 4 different panels . On two of them I stenciled the trims and made two more panels with Saban houses with painted trims on it. But it was too hard to get a nice composition,  so I decided to change the lay-out and i.s.o. a cottage I added the first original village sign of Windwardside , a painted hummingbird, trees and flowers.

Technique: stenciling, painting, stamping, appliqué, embroidery, machine-quilting

Materials: Cotton, batting, fabric paint, acrylic paint, freezer paper, wool yarn, chiffon.

Thanks to Heleen Cornet for the use of the drawings of her book: Saban Cottages.

Gingerbread patterns and Windwardsign are from F. Brugmans’ book: The Monuments of Saba.