Friday, April 27, 2018

You May Never Know

Where those tea-time conversations will lead you!

On one morning of October of 2017, over a cup of tea, my husband out of nowhere said, "You have never made a quilt from primary colors."
I looked at him in amusement because he rarely talks about colors. That one sentence made me think little hard. I almost never start a quilt with color scheme in mind. Most of the time it is the mood, some memory of the past triggers the start of a new quilt. 

He was right. I had never made a quilt with primary colors. That afternoon I decided to start a quilt just to honor our conversation. I looked in my stash that was available to use. Knowing it was his thought I was honoring, I wanted to work with solids and keep it clean. I had to look really hard for few scraps of these three colors. 


I found few shades of yellow to get started. Red was not a problem but I also wanted to use less red since t would be easy for reds to take over in my quilts. Blues were real issue since I don't work with that color much. I found one of his shirts he had put in a pile to discard. That made the cut. That old denim shirt was reversible.. I got to work with two shades of blue. I wasn't trying to create  a masterpiece but it still needed that jazz. Something was a miss.



In came the navy blue! I was happy. It now had the contrast I like and definition. 
 

I basted that quilt right away. I was headed to Houston for the IQA cruise to the Caribbean and needed a project to work on in my spare time.
 

And so it began. I thought I will hand quilt about an inch apart and turn it into a quick finish.  


It was interesting to find the colors of my quilt as we boarded on the ship.


 I got plenty of spare time on the cruise. Did you notice my idea of quilting lines an inch apart did not have a chance. I quickly realized that for a quilts made with just solids needed more texture to be interesting. So I went to my normal heavy stitching.


On the way back from the cruise, I couldn't help taking this shot.


During next few months, this quilt got lot of stitch love. I made sure to stitch on it the day son and daughter in law shared their good news.


It has come a long way. Slowly but steadily it is inching towards the edges.
 

Sometimes these stitches remind me of the sad in the Caribbean and oher times it reminds me of all the chain of events that happened in past few months.


I have overcome my fear of blues. No guarantee I will start using them more anytime soon though unless they are men's shirts.


 Uneven lines and stitches remain a reminder of constant change we go through, whether it is our creativity or life in general.


Hand quilting keeps me focused through it all and I wouldn't give it up unless I absolutely have to. 
 

Now I have two quilts with blues.. 
 

Some day when it is finished (hopefully soon), it will serve as a nice backdrop in our apartment in San Diego.
 

Happy Quilting!
Sujata

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

I am still here!

This morning as I was sipping my tea I thought of this blog once again. Well, I often do but today I feel like writing a few words. Six months is long enough break.. I think.

Looking back at past six months..

Amy and I had the best time in India. If you follow either of us on IG @therootconnection you must have seen many pictures of our amazing trip to India. I took hundreds of pictures but here are few just for today.

Trip to the local market

City Place - Lord Krishna Room

Sharing our life stories with new friends and making art

Traditional henna designs with local artist

At the end of a shopping day

A birthday celebration

I love this girl!

Evening light at the fort
Tie -Die Turbans on our stunningly beautiful models

life stories wrapped on mala beads in one afternoon

At a textile museum - I want to go back to this moment!

Friends reunited

A photo I could not resist

we gained friendships of kind and sweet staff

and were touched by their generosity

we experienced kindness

unforgettable moments were captured when least expected

our emotional goodbyes

I am sitting here in our rather empty San Diego apartment. We have pretty much every basic things we need to get by. Sometimes it makes you wonder how little we really need on day to day bases.

Among few basic things, a plant and a quilt made the list.

A good start of a new life
I started this quilt in fall of 2017. I was hoping to finish it before leaving for India but glad it was unfinished. Now I get to stitch down our move to this southern most city of the west coast.

Most important news of last few months - On Thanksgiving day my daughter in law gave us the best news yet. We are going to welcome our first grandchild soon!
It's time to make the baby quilt and I feel I am already running out of time!

:0

That's all for today.

I hope you all are sewing something good.
Sujata
  

Enter to Win Bernina 455 QE Kaffe Edition

Hey everyone! It has been a while! I have to share some great news! I have some great giveaway announcement!     Alex and Ricky at TheQuiltS...