Siddhi (City) Quilt November 2020 (A Covid Quilt)

When Natima and I get together for a sewfest she always has something creative waiting for us to do. This time it was a Siddhi (City) quilt. She told me that the women in the markets in India sat in the middle of the quilt and sewed the pieces on by hand working their way around in the quilt from the outside to the inside. The photos above and below show the process.  You actually start by doing all the corners first then work around the outside.

Here is the process at the beginning of the quilt. The wadding (cobbled together leftover pieces) is laid out and backed with old sari silk folded over the front a few inches and then tacked onto the front to hold it in place. Tassles are roughly made by folding  squares into  triangles stitching them together and attaching them to each corner. I'm told the quilt is not finished unless this has been done.

Here is the finished product. It has all been done by hand with a running stitch and by folding over and ironing two edges of each piece of fabric. The running stitch which joins the pieces also serves the double purpose of quilting the quilt. I think it would also be very easy and much quicker to sew the pieces onto the wadding by machine. However I did enjoy this small hand stitched project very much. Hand stitching has its own kind of rhythm and pleasure.

I chose to have a theme of "rich" colours

Here is a closeup of the result. This quilt makes me feel happy because the colours give me pleasure and because it's a scrap quilt.
 

Christmas Wreath quilts - Wallhangings or Tablecloths November- December 2020 (Covid Quilts)

I have been helping some friends make the Xmas Wreath too. These have been done in traditional Xmas colours

 

Christmas Tablecloth September 2020 (A Covid Quilt)

 I have made a number of these pretty Christmas cloths. This is the first I have made in blue and white and I like it the best. Cutting out all of the pieces is very timeconsuming and tedious but the end result is worth it. I did not quilt this as it is not to be a wallhanging but a tablecloth.

Evan's Quilt August 2020 (A Covid Quilt)

 This is a baby quilt for a new baby. The brief was "cats, bugs and blue". It was a great opportunity to use my extensive collection of cat fabrics and was really a fun quilt to do. I've put up a photo of the whole quilt and a selection of closeups so you get the idea. The binding was done by piecing together scraps of leftover fabrics. It's one of my favourite ways of doing the binding and really doesn't take much longer to do than using one fabric.

Above: A secret applique for a child to find. Of course it had to be glued and then sewn on VERY firmly.

Embroidered label: luckily I knew Bubby's name

Above: a shot of the label with back fabric

Above: closeup of bugs and cats

Above: another closeup of bugs and cats

Above: closeup with partial shot of my foot!

Above: the whole quilt. I chose a very simple pattern because I am not fond of overly complex pieced quilts. This pattern was a free one from the internet called "Zoo Dwellers" and had many quite large blocks to highlight the beautiful fabrics and enable me to use some of my bigger prints.

Prayer Flags for Global Piecers in Rainbow Colours June 2020

I belong to a small group of piecers from many different places: Scotland, England, America, Australia and New Zealand. We do exchange fabric swaps and small projects for one another. This year's challenge was  five prayer flags in rainbow colours. These flags are hung in the garden and blow in the wind which is supposed to enhance their power. Prayer flags are used in Buddhism but have been adopted by many religions. I used mostly silk scraps for mine and a lot of lace, braids, buttons and silk leaves. I did a very small amount of embroidery.

         Green, red, yellow, orange and blue prayer flags.

The Making of Masks for Social Distancing April/May 2020

I've been making masks for friends and family during these strange times. I suspect that even when this time of the virus is over we'll be using these a lot more.

Mila's Baby Quilt April 2020

Mila has her quilt! Just in time for winter.

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 Above: This quilt was made for the first birthday of Loretta's first great grandchild, Mila. Photo of the whole quilt. It's a scrap quilt made from the squares of a fabric club I used to belong to. 4 inch squares made into ninepatches.

 Embroidered label for provenance plus it makes quilts look classy

Close-up of the fabrics, mostly pretty florals.