Homeless, homeless Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake
This will be entered into the "Quilt Jam Challenge" for the 2026 Fly-In Quilt Show later this summer. This challenge is to make a quilt based on a favorite song or a lyric. I've got 100 ideas for this challenge!
Here's a detail shot of the moon. It is the reverse (non-printed) side of a piece of scrap fabric that fit the requirements for a moon. I satin-stitched it to the background fabric. There is an extra piece of batting underneath to make it pop out, Trapunto-style.
I shibori-dyed the fabric for the moon's reflection on the water years ago, by wrapping fabric around a pipe, and scrunching it down to get the resisted white parts. It may even have been dyed in the indigo pot I had one summer. I never knew what to do with it -- until now!
This section also has an extra piece of batting underneath, but it is so tightly quilted, that this part comes out flat and stiff. Lesson learned. It still looks cool!
The background blue is a sheer fabric with some sparkle, not usually used for quilting. It was so light that I had to add some fusible interfacing on the back of it to "make it behave."
On the evening dogwalk where I live, we walk down by the lake and often see the moon reflected in the water. This is a common sight on my neighborhood wanderings.
Why is this one of my favorite songs?
Here's the long story ... Paul Simon's Graceland album came out when I was in high school. It soon became one of my all-time favorite albums. There was a lot of politics around Paul Simon's decision to work with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, an all black band from South Africa during apartheid, when the world was supposed to be boycotting South Africa. In my mind, it was the right thing to do. The world exposure helped the band, and it brought attention to what was happening in South Africa, which I believe helped to bring an end to apartheid. I wrote a paper about that back in the day ...
My undergrad degree from many years ago is in African Literature & Languages. At one time I was officially studying the Zulu language and could actually understand these lyrics. ;-) Music is a great way to learn a language, get pronunciation and cadence, and remember vocabulary. We were going to see them in concert in Madison last month, but we got a gi-normous snowstorm so it is to be re-scheduled for a later date.
Here's the live video from Paul Simon's Concert in Hyde Park in 2012.
It still brings tears to my eyes! What fantastic vocals!
Here's the official LBM video without Paul Simon:
If you click to see it on YouTube, there is a nice explanation of the lyrics and the meaning of the song:
This is the official music video of homeless performed by Grammy Award-winning group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo Homeless was released in 1986 by Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
HOMELESS was the first of many hits for Ladysmith as it launched their careers within the international market. The song was on Paul Simon’s collaborative, politically controversial yet his most successful album Graceland.
HOMELESS like any other Ladysmith Black Mambazo songs before and after the Graceland album expressed depth and meaning about the harsh reality of migrant labor, poverty, heavy hearts, family separation, politics, cultural heritage, and broken dreams however homeless is a tale of so much more.
The song also speaks about winning: “Yitho omanqoba (ih hih ih hih ih), Yitho omanqoba esanqoba lonke ilizwi (ih hih ih hih ih), Yitho omanqoba (ih hih ih hih ih) esanqoba phakathi e England....” Meaning that they are winners, they have won all over the world, they won right inside of England...They have managed to win over the hearts of people all over the world especially in England as their “Arrival” meant that they managed to escape the apartheid’s rules and limitations around social and economic exclusion because of the color of their skin.
Homeless
Lyrics from here:
