Winds of Change

I started this quilt in October of 2018. I was hoping to gift this to my daughter Kavita as a Christmas present but as you can tell, it is still here.

This quilt has gone through many changes. It evolved from a plain and simple Kawandi quilt to what it is right now.

Winds of Change 23" X 41"

I made the background from pale fabrics because I wanted to challenge myself with light and soft shades. Well that did not work out as a quilt in itself but they worked very well as a background.

I used every shade of red plaid I had in my stash to make the "table" for the pot of flowers.

 

They were layered and stitched like a Kawandi quilt. 

The pot was little difficult to stitch because that grey fabric is a piece of my pants. I machine pieced the rectangle pot and then hand stitched on the background. 

I love the use of large prints for the applique. It makes it easier to have a great impact with simple and bold design. One piece applique takes out all the trouble of registration of patterns. Gwen used to say, "Folk art applique used to be simple and then they made it complicated." I love simple so here it is!

I did use the freezer paper to make sure the leaves fit the background. I also wanted an oversized, organic shapes. The only way to get that was to not worry about prints, patterns and where the branches and leaves end up on the back ground. Because it was spontaneous, it evolved throughout with every step of stitching. 

  

Last step was deciding the shape and color of the flower. My basic instinct was to go for red and teal blue solids. 

This is what I had in mind but the fabrics were too thin and somehow for the first time in my life I thought, solids are not working. They were overpowering the entire quilt design. I chose blue and red prints in the end and changed the shape of the flower. I think the flower could have been the same as here but you learn as you go. 

This was another option but somehow I decided to go with the flower. I added lots of extra stitching for the feeling of winds of change that is blowing through my life. 

The quilt measures 23" X 41". It has layers of fabric as batting. It is stitched entirely by hand other than the construction for the pot. 

I will continue adding the "wind" for a while until it all settles down. 

I am also adding this quilt as a workshop sample for future workshops and retreats.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend and have a great week!

Sujata

The Show

I had to put the uandu quilt to the side for a short while. A lot is going on right now and there are only so many hours in the day.

I am going to be the featured artist at PVQA annual quilt show this weekend. Past couple of weeks I have been busy sewing hanging sleeves on my quilts that has never been hung before. Those are some very large quilts so you can imagine the time it has taken to make them show ready.

Today I am grouping them as they will hang in the show to make it easier on the the volunteers who are working there.

It is even nice to see them hanging side by side in my house on this bedroom where light is always bright.

I also have some Ralli and Siddi quilts from India made with old saris and other scraps. Most of the quilts I have are two sided quilts as they are when you make do. It was hard to decide on which side to attach the sleeves on. If they were visible from both side, I would have taken a different approach but only one side is going to be seen. I thought I would post here both side of this particular quilt so you can all see the quilt.

I am calling this the front side since the other side ended up with a sleeve.

Wouldn't you agree the sleeve looks really tacky? I am going to remove it as soon as I get it back. This quilt weighs a lot with old clothes being used as "batting". I appreciate the old Indian ways of quilting and curious to use thinner fabric layers as batting in my next few quilts.

Interesting observation of the day is that quilts in the first picture were made many moons ago. I bought this Siddi quilt last year. To see them all side by side in this blog post confirms my thoughts on how our mind works as artist. I can never take India out of my head. Although, it has been 33 years of living in the United States, I drift very easily between minimalism and maximal-ism when it comes to quilting and designing. One thing remains constant is the use of colors and textures of India in my quilts.

Here are the close up pictures of Siddi Quilt.

Organic EVERYTHING!

If you are local, please stop by and say hello. The lecture is at 2:00 PM. Quilts will be hanging in two different buildings.

Here is the link to the show.
https://pvqa.org/2019-pvqa-quilt-show/

Hope to see you there!





  

2019 - A Year of New Quilts and Classes

 I have been looking at my latest quilts lately and wondering.

http://worldofquiltstravel.com/Alaska19.htm

If I am floating between the spaces. It is easy to do when I go down the memory lane while stitching away.

Primary Colors

They are mostly paved with million little stitches. Each one gets me closer to the space I am trying to reach.

https://www.quiltnthings.com/

 Most of my favorite quilts have had humble and spontaneous beginnings.

https://pvqa.org/

 They surround me with brightness just like the Sunlight in every nook and corner of this home.

They brighten my evenings like that ray of light at the end of a gray day. 

No matter where I am headed with quilting, my past remains with me. Not a bad thing to be attached to if you ask me.

https://sbquilting.com/

These are the samples of my classes for 2019.  Come away with me!

Click on the link below each picture to sign up for the classes.

Here is the link to all of 2019 schedule.

Happy Quilting you all!
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

New Quilt with Primary Colors

I must be in the zone! It has been three days of non stop sewing. The pink quilt is still relatively pink.

I haven't changed it much since you saw it here in the previous post but I found another project in the "Lost and Found" bin.

It is calling for attention but it will have to wait because I started a new quilt just yesterday. 

In the morning over the cup of tea, my husband asked, if I have made a quilt with primary colors.

Did he mean with yellow, blue and red?

Yes, that's what he meant!

Silly me!

After thinking for a bit I realized, I hadn't... made a quilt with primary colors.

It sounded like a good idea to take on as a challenge. So I went looking for three colors in my stash of solids. Guess what? I have literally used up most of the bright colors from my stash. 

I did find some pieces of yellow and red and little yardage of blue, decided to throw couple of pieces of his old shirts and that was enough to get me going.

humble pieces making powerful statement in unity

As you can see, I am not doing a great job on keeping it straight or flat. I also want to acknowledge that none of that is important to me. What I do want is to focus on colors and composition of this piece. As I continue to work, it is making me pause and think about the gentle curves and the movement they create. I am also making a mental note of every decision I make. Do you ever do that? I mean something like why you choose one shade of color over the other?

I love the simplicity of this housetop block. It is still a work in progress.

At this point, I am also very curious on where it ends up. 

Talk about a morning conversations! You never know where they will lead you.  The truth is, you don't need much of a push when you mind is already charged.

I am definitely in the zone. Hope you are too!
Sujata


 

S words

 

Sewn with small salvaged scraps. 

Squares and rectangles and few long strips.

Confetti, 16 1/2'' x 18 1/2''

Stitched with Perle Cotton thread.

Sewn with salvaged bias strips for binding.

Had some serious fun while shooting pictures.

"Spring is around the corner" they say...

 I don't care what the weather is like today. 

Original pattern by, Jeanna Kimball

I am stitching away...

Keeping my thoughts aligned with my stitches.

As far as I am concerned... 

Spring is here!