Spring Kawandi 2023

 

Seems like it has been a slow start to this year when it comes to creating new works. I have hardly worked in the studio lately. It has been months since I finished my last quilt. Yet, the way time is passing by, something tells me I am extremely busy. I better sit down and really think about where it really goes. 

Here is the last Kawandi I finished early this year. This one started out as wanting to take a break from my usual palette of colors and needing to work with texture. The choices of fabrics were random because I always want to achieve that scrappy feeling in my quilt. I do have lots of fabric in my stash and I could spend hours curating fabrics for a new quilt. Sadly, most of the time would go into pulling out fabrics and then refolding and putting them back again. 

Who wants to do that? 

So I pulled whatever was in front of me and got it going. Initially I thought I was going to mix solids and prints.  

 

 

But once I started stitching the patches on top, creating contrast with prints alone made more sense. So I added small prints, large prints and everything in between. Some of the fabrics were really easy to stitch through and some were quite thick as I was using shirts and dresses from the goodwill store just because I like some of those prints. After all these years of quilting, I still see some fabrics show up in multiple quilts and I can't seem to get rid of them. I must really love them!

 

 

Here is the shirt from the Goodwill store. I loved that print and wanted to make sure it got perfect spot in the quilt.

 

How about that hot pink? That was a vintage mini dress I picked up in San Francisco Goodwill store. I love the way it pops off of all other prints.

 

 

I am not sure If I am completely sold on a Kawandi with all prints. I spend so much time stitching on them but because of all the prints, the stitching gets lost.

The reality is, no matter what I plan before starting a Kawandi, it really doesn't follow the direction I want to give it. It has mind of its own. I just put one scrap next to the previous one. Is it mindless sewing? I don't think so. If anything, it is pretty mindful. I am engaged in making decisions, enjoy every stitch and the way it evolves. 

When it comes to those last stitches in the center, game time is on! I better be able to stuff all of that quilt in my left hand so I can stitch with the right. It somehow gets done. The last stitch is taken and for the first time I really can see it in its full glory. 

A fascinating process that teaching me so many lessons of life itself. Being in the moment is the biggest one of them all. This one though, I think it told me to take a break from flowers for a while. 

Sujata
 

UFOs

UFO - A word widely used in quilting community but I checked, I have not. Not that I am aware of.

It's not that I have stuck with all my projects from start to finish but they do get finished one way or the other. At times I have used a quilt top as a back and considered it finished :)

So why am I thinking of UFOs today?

I have been invited to be a featured artist at two local guilds in 2019. It will be really nice to be able to see some of my old favorites hanging with my current quilts.

Usually when I am presenting or teaching, I am there to explain my journey as a quilter. When the show goes on for three days; I want my quilts to speak for themselves, guide the viewers from the beginning to end and so it is important to have those tops finished into quilts.

I began quilting this old quilt just a few days ago. Organic piecing lines blending with slow and steady organic hand stitches are making quite a splash in not so perfect way.

I have also decided to enter these three quilts in an upcoming quilt show in Pacific Northwest. We will have to see what the judges think of them.

Speaking of shows, if you haven't read my dear friend Judy Martin's post today, you must check it out. Her work and words both inspire me so much. 

With that I am going to get back to my stitching to add my day to this quilt.

Have a wonderful day!
Sujata

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

To walk in their shoes

Is it even possible? 

It is not easy to walk in someone's shoes. Neither is to think like someone else but in 2005 in my workshop, 'Inspired by the quilts of Gee's bend' my students and I did just that. I challenged them to make something by re-purposing old clothes that no one wanted. While some students had hard time investing their time is something ugly and old, I decided I will stick to the original plan. I made a trip to our local Goodwill store and bought few clothes.

My rules:

• tear the clothes - not cut

• sew without a specific seam allowance

• when needed use scissors instead of rotary cutter 

• incorporate materials varying in thickness and fabric content

• stick to a limited number of clothes to mimic the 'make do' ways of quilting to achieve simple, bold and graphic quilts.  

The idea was to experience what women of Gee's bend would while making a quilt. I tried all of the above elements along with my students.. I made the top by using old, overly worn-out corduroy which felt like a card-board and men's shirts made with blend, rayon and cottons. I tossed in strips of my husband's shirts and my dress to emotionally connect with the piece.

We chose to make the housetop blocks to avoid trimming and wasting as little as possible. To waste pieces of fabrics was not an option. I had also set the limit on how much of each garment we could use and use every last piece to make the most out of what we had.

I ended up with this top. I thought I had achieved my goal really well. I made a quilt top that looked similar to the one in the book. I felt pretty proud of myself for attempting to understand them or to be in the similar mindset of the quilters of Gee's bend.

I thought I understood it completely but not quite. I spent last couple of weeks hand quilting this old top. It was part of my slide show presentation in Ithaca but I wanted to carry it with me as a finished quilt to my next presentation.

The process of hand quilting turned out to be phase two of getting in the mindset of the quilters of Alabama.

My thought process went something like this -

What if winter was approaching and I had nothing to keep us warm?
 I would finish that quilt in a hurry!

Would I worry about the perfection in my stitching?
No time to think about that in low light and late in the night after all day's work.

Would I spend time undoing so they all look perfect?
It was going on a bed not in a show or on a wall in a gallery.

Would I have time to find a quilting pattern suitable to the quilt?
I see plenty patterns all around me to follow.

Would I run to the nearest store that was miles away to find the thread I just ran out while I was in the middle of quilting it?
No.. No!

I would just stitch away at the end of the day, every chance I get, with any thread I had in my box.. I would just finish the quilt.

My theory on all this is  - Learn many things by just doing it.

Here is what I experienced.

Having various materials on the same quilt, my stitches varied all through out. It was so hard to hand quilt that beaten up, old cardboard like corduroy material. I could get somewhat perfect stitching on the finer fabrics like my husband's shirt and my dress but some corduroy with spandex was difficult to needle through.

I do understand those quilters now. The feel of the quilt varies from block to block and it is the warmest and heaviest quilt in the stack of wall quilts. 

In spite of tearing the trips on the grain, they stretched every which way according to their fiber contents.I left the edges as they were and used binding on bias to finish the quilt.

The last thing remained was to see what it would look like if it were to hang on the clothesline in one of the southern states. So I went out this morning and took few pictures.

It's rugged and cozy quilt. If I were to machine quilt this one, it would have broken a few needles.

I was pretty happy that the quilt was ready in time for my presentation at Calico Cutters Guild last Wednesday. It was the guild's first event at the new location in West Chester, PA and what a great experience for me as well. Thank you, Calico Cutters Guild members who made it out there to listen to my talk and see the quilts.

Thank you for reading this post! 
Sujata

A finish!

It was back in summer of 2012 when I started this quilt. My first post said, ''I will have what she is having''. Click here to read about it.
  
It took me almost three years to finish this quilt! My plan was to finish hand quilting before going to India and have the binding ready so I had something mindless to work on after coming back.  But as they say, plans don't always work out... I did not get to it until the middle of March. 

I am extremely happy the way it turned out. It is warm and soft and quite colorful as you can see. Makes me think of spring and summer even though the lawn is looking quite wintery.

Painted Zigzag is entirely made with women's clothing from the Goodwill store. I liked the challenge of making something bright and beautiful with used clothing. It was fun seeing those prints together. Each block was like a new quilt. Once the blocks were finished it was even more fun to arrange them on the design wall and work on the layout. I chose to keep all the backgrounds in blocks.

 

What's this picture doing here? I will tell you about it at the end of this post.

Moving along with Painted Zigzag...

I hand quilted it with Valdani Variegated Pearl Cotton threads I bought when I was in Houston. They were a dream to work with. Went through the layers like butter.

I stayed with the obvious lines of the zigzag pattern. Seams were pressed toward the darker fabrics so it made sense to quilt on the lighter zigzag. At some point, when I had basted this quilt, I was thinking of machine quilting but, what can I say? I am a chicken when it comes to quilting a huge quilt on the machine. My shoulders just don't care for all that stress but if every evening I hand quilt a little at a time, at some point it gets done.

On March 20th when it snowed, at first I was thinking NO!!! But there was just enough snow on the ground to make me run out and use that clothesline again.

Can you see the binding? I ended up using all the leftover bindings for this quilt. I like how it extends the scrappy-ness of the quilt.

For the back, I used up some of my pink fabrics.. I am generally not a pink person but had enough to put a queen size backing together! I must have liked them at some point.

 And now on to another news..and about that picture...

I taught a class at Burkholders Fabrics yesterday. Windmill is one of my favorite quilts from the book. I took plenty of samples to show my students. 

I have taught this pattern few times before but this was my first time teaching a class after becoming an author. As an instructor, it is always refreshing to see work in progress by students and watching them enjoy making the blocks. It was nice to meet everyone from central New Jersey to Harrisburg and places in between. Victoria from The Silly BooDilly was also in the class. I am looking forward to their quilts.

I answered many questions regarding my fabric selections and inspirations. How I see myself as a quilter and what I expect from myself as a quilter. It was fun chatting with each and every one of them. 

Here are few more dates and places I will be presenting and/or teaching a class in 2015.
 
1 May - I will be speaking at Tompkins County Quilters Guild in Ithaca, NY and also teaching a two day workshop. If you live near Ithaca, I hope to see you there. I will have lots of quilts with me.

13 May - Presentation at Calico Cutters Guild in West Chester, PA

I will be also speaking  and teaching three classes at Mid Appalachian Quilt Conference at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. I blogged about it earlier. If you missed it, please click on the link.
http://therootconnection.blogspot.com/2015/03/mid-appalachian-quilt-conference.html

10 July - Presentation
10 July - Workshop - Windmill 
11 July - Workshop - Hourglass Twist
12 July - Workshop - Peppermint Pinwheels

14 August - Presentation - Thimble and Thread Quilt Guild of Greater St. Louis
15 August - Workshop - Thimble and Thread Quilt Guild of Greater St. Louis

13 October -  Presentation at Brandywine Valley Quilters, Concordville, PA

Phew! This was a long three posts in one!

Have a great weekend with family and friends.

Kavita is coming home this weekend... I am excited!
Sujata

 

A little bit of India

I thought a week and half in Seattle had faded away most of my memories of India. But then yesterday I transferred my pictures into the computer!  The trip was an incredible learning experience on many levels.

Most encouraging part of the trip - Seeing quilts in person which validated my point of view in the book and meeting with the people who make them.

I had the opportunity to meet with a family who earns their living making quilts. Families of three brothers living in one farmhouse.

Farmhouses in the region of kutch, Gujarat are clusters of one-room mud-huts with a large open courtyard in the center. People were so warm, they smiled ear to ear! They were happy to show off their homes and offer us food fresh from the wood-burning stoves, also made with mud!

Here is the picture of a quilt made for personal use. It is finished with thousands of little stitches, made with most humble fabrics - The fabrics most quilters in the west would probably think are not worth the time. 

But for the villagers in Gujarat, India it is an absolute necessity. Desert cold can be brutal. Wood burning stoves and fire pits are the only source of heat for most of the rural homes. Each member of the family must have quilts to sleep on and cover themselves with.

If the thin sari fabric wears out at some point in time, there is always a plan B!

Patch it up and make it part of the quilt. New layers of  thin saris are added as old layers wear out and quilts get heavier with time.

The reality is, they make beautiful quilts with the mix of new and old fabrics. To improvise is not a style, it is a way of living. They must use the fabrics they have for personal quilts and purchase new fabrics for quilts worthy of consumer markets all over the world to earn the living. As beautiful as that indigo quilt is, I was sadden by the fact that the quilt looked perfect! Perfect in placement of fabrics, colors and stitching.. One look at it and I was done seeing the whole quilt!

As far as future of quilting in India goes, conversations with quilt making community were a mix bag of happy and sad.  I must write all that down before I forget.

I so badly wanted to buy one of their quilts and bring it home. I asked if they would sell one to me.. The one with all the mistakes and imperfections, one I could use as my inspiration board forever!

The answer will surprise you.. A flat out "NO" with tremendous pride!

The explanation was simple - Quilts for their personal use were either given to them as wedding gifts or were made for future events like wedding in the family or birth of the child. A 65 years old woman showed me the quilt she had brought with her when she wedded her husband.

They showed us stacks of personal quilts neatly folded and stored under a large sheet. They were for the relatives and guests who often visit from other villages. To keep them warm, to show their respect and to show off their artistry.

The real truth for not selling the quilts, this woman explained, "Our ancestors said to never sell Godharis."  

I came away with a beautiful experience. During our seven hours' car ride to the city, all I could think about was when will I return next.

Three hours with them were just not enough, but they gave me a lot to ponder over.

Sujata 

By the way, if you missed my earlier post, I will be lecturing and teaching at MAQ this summer. Click on the link below for more information.
http://therootconnection.blogspot.com/2015/03/mid-appalachian-quilt-conference.html

Quilt on a Clothsline - Basket Quilt

We took Kavita to college last Friday. She is settled and ready for her academic year. I could write an entire post about it but I would rather talk about the basket quilt on the clothesline today.

I used to subscribe to Better Homes and Gardens magazine for as long as I remember. I loved the ideas and inspirations for home and garden. I don't quite remember which year it was but it was soon after I had finished my house quilt, I found a basket quilt in the magazine. Black prints of basket blocks sparkled against the background color I thought was orange but later found out was called cheddar.

Once I had changed few details in the house quilt pattern, I thought, I could make this entire quilt without a pattern by just looking at the picture. There was no internet and charts that would tell you how to configure the half square triangles.. But I have a mathematician/engineer husband who helped me with the measurements. I followed the picture and made one just like it.

This quilt still is one of my favorite quilts. I hand quilted with crosshatching 2'' squares. 

Most of the off white fabric was leftover from the previous quilt. I think the navy blues were also leftover fqs from Jo-ann fabric store back when they cost only 69 cents.

Here is the back of the quilt. I may have missed a few spots of quilting.

details...

Isn't it funny how some colors never leave you? This mandevilla has been a non-stop bloomer this summer.  

Basket quilt has been hanging above our piano as long as we have had a piano..which was when our pianist was very tiny and in second grade. This picture was taken the day we took her to college.

Funny how I had not thought of that orange quilt in the magazine for such a long time! Fall is near.. may be I will make an orange quilt.. Who knows, it might be with basket block.

My plans for this weekend include basting a quilt and starting a new one. How about you?