Block Prints Quilt

Ever since I came home from Sisters, I have spent a lot of time in my sewing room. There are quite a few unfinished projects lingering in my head and in my studio. It is time to pay attention to those and make progress. 

"Block Prints" began in the classroom during Quilters Affair 2023. I always like to do live demo, give pointers and tip as I go along about the technique. After making a few blocks, my head kept going back to Jaipur, India, where the idea of making this quilt originated. 

I took the liberty to follow my own belief and decided to relieve myself from worrying about looking for perfection. I embraced the irregularities and imperfections that come along in this abstract interpretation of a block made with triangles. 

Before the book was published, I wanted to arrange the blocks in this setting but I chose the other way. So this was easy to decide. The picture you see here is the one from 2012 when I was making the quilt for the book.

I love how abruptly the triangles get cut, how they create a movement within the block and then somehow also create the rhythm going upward. 

This time around, I chose the colors and fabrics inspired by my experiences in India. The Pink City of Jaipur has left a lot of great memories. Watching  the block carvers and printers do their magic right in front of your eyes is something I will never forget. 

The colors on the buildings - shops, temples, homes, in old city are painted pink. They were painted in honor of Queen Victoria who visited Jaipur but the City Palace walls remained light gold. Ever since then, the buildings get the pink wash every now and then and so the city is known as The Pink City.

 

For this new quilt, I did not have to pull these pictures out to collect my fabrics. I rely a lot on my memories of places I have been and sites I have seen. Memories and conversations ultimately drive the creative process of making a quilt.

I finished the quilt top last night. It has been a long time since I made such a large quilt. I amused myself. It felt so good to be in the studio with the music on, picking and choosing fabrics in the shades of  terracotta, peachy pink walls and different shades of clay and dirt. In the village of Bagru, and surrounding areas, freshly block printed fabric and/or indigo dyed fabric is laid on the ground to dry and set with the heat of the Sun. The colors of dirt was important. I had also visited potters at the time and clay was important part of the blend.

 

 At the block printers, you can find variety of blocks in size, patterns, and designs.

So here is the quilt top. It took four years from my last visit to India for this to happen and 12 years since I had thought of making this quilt. 

 

 

I hope you are sewing something fun!

Sujata

 

Super Bowl 2014

About a week and half back I had my quilting friends over for a sew day.

Kelly was working on her applique class sample she will be teaching at out local quilt shop. Terry and Stephanie worked on their applique. Christine got some cutting done for a new quilt and all I did was talk!

I decided to sort my scraps while we chatted away. I had brought couple of my bins at the table to iron and cut as I go. My friend Terry was curious on how I organize my scraps.  The fact of the matter is, I don't always have them in boxes. It all depends on the mood I am in. Sometimes I have only one way to organize them and that is to toss them in bins until I have enough to make a quilt. If I was organized by nature, I could learn a thing or two from many quilters. I have tried that in the past. Look at the side bar.. that handkerchief quilt is still in the making. I did add few blocks to that pile. Mostly, I do like the unpredictable nature of scrap quilts and so I just dive in and see where it takes me.   

After they left, the bins remained on the main floor of the house. I was determined to not take them back in the studio until I did something about that explosion of colors in my dining area.

The following weekend was the Superbowl Sunday. 

I am not a football fan but have always been interested in the commercials. This year the Seahawks were playing! Needless to say, I paid less attention to the commercials (they were not impressive anyway) and watched the game. As unexciting the game was, I did have fun watching it with my husband and over the phone texting with my kids. I should also admit that I am just starting to 'get' the game. 

Next day, almost 10 inches of snow dumped in the tri-state area of PA, NJ and NY which also followed by freezing rain the following day. I felt guilty for even having the power when most of my friends were without heat and electricity. If it wasn't for my dear husband being sick with flu, I would have had everyone for camping at our house. I don't think anyone of my friends would have appreciated being sick in this bad weather.

While this all sounds like The Root Connection Channel news, believe me, I do have a point.

The snow storm brought everything at stand still except for my sewing machine! I have been busy with my scraps like a kid in a candy store!

Here is what I did with what I found in the bins.

A Seahawks victory quilt. Would Domination be right name for this quilt?

Super Bowl 2014

It looked a bit smaller when I thought it was done.

So I added few more pieces.

Once I got going there was no stopping.. Sorting of the scraps was quickly replaced by sorting and making of the quilt at the same time.

Or should I say quilts?

Here is #2 with an Amish theme. Don't know if I should hand quilt or machine quilt.

Can't decide which way it looks good either. I guess I will wait until it's done make that decision.

You can read about the process behind this quilt here.

And to answer Terry's question, Since I don't have any specific method, I keep working on multiple projects at a time. When it comes to dark scraps, I piece them together into strips. Eventually they all will get put together in a lap size quilt. To keep it a true scrap quilt, I resist cutting up new fabrics and keep adding new strips made from scraps to already existing WIP. It's a slow process for some quilts but I am not in any hurry.

This quilt is going to be a copy of my confetti quilt but I chose to put all the dark fabrics together instead of brights.

And lastly, I found some large chunks of large floral prints and some 2 1/2'' squares. I am going to have to look into cutting some yardage to add more to this.

This should be fun.
Few 4 1/2'' x 8 1/2 '' or/and  4 1/2'' x 10 1/2'' strips paired with 2 1/2 '' x 2 1/2'' squares, all randomly sewn into long strips. Long enough to cover a twin bed. What do you think?

Back to the news, last I heard, few of my friends are still without power. There is another ice storm on it's way and it is snowing at this moment as I end this post.

I am leaving you with a teaser.. I almost never do this but for this quilt, I want to wait for a full reveal until it's all finished.

I have got my machine well oiled and bobbins full. After a long break, I feel like I am back in the business of making quilts!

Thank you for being interested in what I do.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

 

House Top and Pine Forest

 A perfect beginning of the holiday season! 

I finished my very first Christmas quilt this year before I began decorating!

I made this quilt top last year and blogged about it here but had decided to hand quilt so it had to wait until the time was right. 

 

It is lightly hand quilted with white Perle Cotton, bound with pieced bias binding and hung in the hallway ready to greet the boys when they come home this holiday season!  

 This is how I decked the hall this year. 

Hanging in the far end is my 'Confetti' quilt.

I included my quilt 'Cranberry Sauce' for some photo fun!

  Scraps were from the basket. I was cleaning and sorting out the scraps and decided to make a red and green quilt, my way. 

Nine blocks include fabrics from so many quilts I made in the past.

It is a true scrap quilt.

It will brighten up the hallway for many more years to come.

Time to start a new quilt for next year!

This past week or two....

 

 Another quilt inspired by a Ralli from India.

The quilt top was sewn during the fall of 2008. I call it my two inch love affair.
After two years, I finally finished stitching on the borders!

Back in 2008-09, I had moved back to Seattle with my two kids for the academic year so they could finish their high school and Jr. high. (Our big move to PA from Seattle had back fired a bit for our teenage kids)

Knowing that we will be spending for two homes, I shipped the fabrics from my stash. I did not want to buy even an inch of fabric while being there. Since Fall was just around the corner, I had picked up a box with Kaffe fabrics and dumped them in the shipping box.
I stayed true to using what I had for this quilt. Not an inch of fabric was bought. I know it is quite saturated with colors but it is quite meaningful to me.
I just found the border fabric in another box!

I designed the pattern with  blocks made with 25 two inch squares.
There are six different configurations of 25 square patches.
(does that make sense?)

It was a lot of fun making this quilt in the little apartment I called home for an entire year.
Being single mom for that year.. Not so much!
I have great respect for all of those single parent out there!

I finished the 'Confetti' quilt and hung on the wall by my sons' rooms to welcome them home. 

( In four days... but who is counting? )

I learned something new about hanging quilts on the wall. I used to use about one or two inches wide sleeve  on the back and insert 3/8" dowel to hang the quilts. 

For this quilt I made a four inches wide sleeve.

What is the difference, you ask? 

The quilt hangs away from the wall. The extra inches of the sleeve allow the quilt to FLOAT off the wall. 

Without the binding in natural light.. this one made it on the Explore on flickr!

I really am happy with this little quilt. 

The back looks like local farms covered with fresh fallen snow. 

Before quilting it looked like it was never going to lay flat. The experiment of  "quilting my way" was quite fun and pretty rewarding. If you click on the picture, it will show you how 'unflat' the quilt top was!

 

After getting inspired by all of you who have been working on Christmas quilts, I started a new project with no deadlines in mind. Bunch of red and green strips playing on the house top!

The stitching on the Confetti quilt has made me want to do more hand quilting. I think my red and green quilt also will get embellished with some heavy stitching.

Another slow project!