Two of my favorite pieces of art are these molas from Panama. A mola is made by the Kuna Indians using reverse applique on colorful fabrics. My father bought these for himself and had them framed in Chicago. Fortunately after a few years I managed to convince him to give them to me. The bird and lobster designs seen here are actually much simpler than some I've seen.







They feature embroidery on the faces and the applique stitching is seriously tiny. There used to be a mola store on Canyon Road in Santa Fe and I enjoyed looking through all the designs.







I'm knitting these alpaca mittens in 3 colors - they will photograph much better on one of our rare cloudy days. I need to make them again in wool with a greater contrast between colors.