BuDa workshop -Part III-Behind the Scenes

The BuDa Folklore quilting workshop was so fun and I couldn't not share it with my other quilting and non-quilting friends.

 WARNING : The following post is over-running with pics. If you do not like pictures of crazy random people doing crazy random things, stop reading HERE. 

1.Day 1: Thats me, waiting to meet up Suzanna, another participant, after fixing up (over phonecalls) with her for a car ride to the venue. Its amazing how many people will stop and ask you for directions even when you look very much a stranger to the parts, with your baggage strewn around you!!

2.We, Suzanna and I, the enthu-cutlets (over-enthusiastic people, in local lingo) that we were, reached an hour early. The minute Savita, our host, showed us the guestroom (MY room!), we were in love with it. We set the camera on timer and practically jumped onto the bed/quilt. First shot - I didn't quite get there on time..

3.Second shot - We were laughing so hard with childish glee, we couldn't get a proper shot..

4.Suzanna took pity on me and offered to take a decent shot of me in MY room :-). I think I made a friend for life in that moment! See the gorgeous quilt on MY bed?

5.Since we reached early, Suzanna and I offered to help with the pictures that Savita wanted to display of last year's workshop.

6. Carol, we had a great time looking at your pics!

7.Thats Nirmala-akka getting ready for the workshop. Ten minutes of polite smiling and then we started sign language conversations :-). Didn't stop till we waved goodbye 3 days later!

8.All of us chose a spot in the spacious hall and hung onto every word of Savita's introduction..

9.And when we chose a spot, we really really chose a spot! Like li'l doggies, we refused to move our butts from our sweet spots :-)

10.See what I mean? A li'l lifting of the butt maybe, but shifting?, No ma'am!

And so the workshop began. We got by with a smattering of languages, wild hand gesturing, some helpful translations by Savita and Rekha (another participant), but mostly with show-and-tell and lots of laughter.

11.Day 2: Nirmala-akka must have realized we were too attached(!) to our spots, so she came around to each participant, gently correcting and guiding us..  

12.No, regardless of how it looks, Nirmala-akka is NOT trying to hit me out of frustration at our slow pace and awkward stitching. She's pointing out how the corners of the quilts need to be reinforced with diagonal back stitches..

13.Like so...

14.She also taught us to waste not a single inch of fabric...

15....Or thread..

16.She taught us how to sit on the floor and since no frames are used, how to  anchor the quilt WIP with our feet/toes/thighs,knees,butt. Thats Mridula, who 'sat' best :-)...

17.She also taught us to run the needle periodically thru our hair, so it jabs thru the quilt layers better. It actually works! (Go figure!) Thats Suzanna, who 'looked-the-part' best..

18.Lunch times were always fun. It would be pot luck and we'd sit around this delightful pool of fish and strange flowers, swapping home-made food and stories...

19.Savita, the ever-gracious host, would keep us happy and hydrated with multiple cups of tea. And Bhargavi, also of Buda Folklore (Bless her!), came up with this great idea of making us a caramel pudding in Savita's kitchen..

20.The pudding was excellent and was polished off in no time. Though Bhargavi was not very happy with how it looked (!), the unanimous decision was that the ONLY way it could've been any better was if there was more of it ! :-)

21.And so we sewed...Here's a mother-daughter duo - Mridula(on the right) and her mom, Raji..

22.Even Li'l Avanti (Mridula's daughter, who tagged along as school was closed that day), seemed to have caught the sewing bug. She made garlands by stringing bits of scrap together.

23.By the end of the day, my back had given up and I moved to Savita's kitchen counter..

24.It is a good idea to periodically turn your work over to take a took at the back..heh heh..

25.Day 3: Last day. Tension mounts. We are worried if we can finish our quilts. Everybody is sewing furiously (except Suzanna, who would get up and wander about every once in a while, sipping water and shooting stuff with her phone. She has a very good eye for composing shots.)

26.It was upto Nirmala-akka with her eyes always dancing with mischief to break the tension by good-naturedly poking fun at our stiching and gently prodding us on! Every once in a while she would offer to do a few stitches for us, saying the poor quilts were complaining of pain at our clumsiness :-)

27.Not everybody looked tense. Here's Raji at her usual spot, sitting very elegantly as always, and sewing away...

28.And here's me, at MY sweet spot, sewing away..(I still havent quite got the knack of anchoring the quilt using my body parts!)

29.As our quilts neared completion, Nirmala-akka explained to us the quaint custom of feeding the quilt. The quilt is going to be a much-loved part of the family, and before closing its mouth (sewing the last piece down), it is to be fed something. All of us assumed it was a symbolic offering and so, Suzanna, who finished first, settled on a freshly harvested papaya to feed her quilt..

30.Turns out, the quilt needs to be ACTUALLY stuffed with a small bit of food so it may never go hungry!! When Nirmala-akka heard of Suzanna's papaya she burst into laughter and I think all of us are scarred for life - everytime we see a papaya we are going to be thinking of Sue's quilt pregnant with papaya!! Anyways, she fed her quilt a small bit of chappatti and closed the mouth with great reverence , before going off to shoot her favourite motifs from Nirmala-akka's quilts..

31.Speaking of motifs, here's one of my favourites..the 'aama' (turtle)..

32...And another one...the 'Champions' (champions!)

33.Mridula's quilt is fed by her daughter, Avanti...

34..and Raji's quilt is fed by HER daugter, Mridula...

35.Whee...

36.Wheeee!!!

37.Rekha's turn at feeding her quilt...

38.And then mine...I fed it a small bit of chappatti..

39.But Nirmala-akka is not happy with that. Says the quilt is still hungry!! So she places a grain of cooked rice on my finger tips..

40...and guides my hand deep into the quilt's belly!! :-)

41..before closing its mouth. Did anybody notice I used some cheater fabric to give the impression of more scrappiness?..

42.And then Savita brought out this HUGE quilt of Nirmala-akka's and our eyes nearly popped out at its beauty. Sue couldn't resist it and HAD to dive under it to get a 'feel' of (quilting) it..I told you she looks the part!

43.Of course, the rest of us couldn't let her get away with that! So we dove in too!!

44.Workshop's over..quilts are done..

45.We say goodbye to Savita and Nirmala-akka with hopes of meeting again..

Whoa, thats 45 photographs!! I'm sorry folks, but I can't resist this unique opportunity to make it a 50-pic-post, so I shall go ahead and post some pics of motifs!

46.Krishnar thottil (Krishna's cradle)

47.The beehive

48.Ther (Temple charriot)

49.Balli (Creeper)

50.Bharat jhanda (Indian national flag)

I have numbered the pics so its easy to comment on a specific one, should anybody like to :-).

I'm done. So is my back.
Jai Hind!!

BuDa workshop -Part II-Eye Candy

Like I said in my previous post, I just HAD to do another post on the BuDa Folklore Quilting Workshop. But first, lets feast our eyes on some eye candy..

In one of my earlier posts, I had mentioned that India is a non-quilting country. That is not true. What I really meant was that India has no history in the Western style of quilting. However, there are many traditional styles unique to various parts of the country. The Jaipuri Razais, The Bengali Kantha, The Himachali Khind, The Kannadiga Kaudhis, and many more. The sad thing is that these styles are fast dying as commercially mass made quilts become easily available and we are losing precious indigenous knowledge of these crafts in the bargain. 

All traditional Indian quilts (whatever the style) were hand quilted and made primarily with the object of using up every square inch of spare/used fabric and converting them into highly functional bedding. The craft was passed down from mothers to daughters and motifs were drawn from their daily lives and folklore. 

At the BuDa workshop we were taught to make a 'Kaudhi' (quilt) and all the rules, conventions, etc. that normally apply to the Western style of quilting had to be left at the door. The differences in the two styles were alarmingly glaring! Exact opposites, in fact!! To mention a few...

1.First off, no scissors, no rotary cutters! Fabric is snipped and then ripped along the grain turning the scraps square or rectangle shaped. Not an inch of fabric is wasted.

2.No rulers, no measuring! In western styles, precision cutting of fabric is recommended along with agonizing decisions on design and colour. Here, the design keeps evolving depending on the size/shape/colour of available scraps. Eyeballing is good enough for alignment and symmentry in design.

3.In western styles, the top is pieced first, then assembled with the backing and batting. Here, the backing and batting are first laid, and then the top is simultaneously pieced, sandwiched and quilted!

4.Quilting lines are not stitched from the inside out. In fact, the border is first bound and quilted all around and then the quilting progresses inwards!

5.In western styles, the motifs are first appliqued/pieced and then the quilt assembled. Here, the motifs are also appliqued simultaneously along with piecing, sandwiching and quilting!!

Whoa! That was a lot of 'unlearning' and 'relearning' I had to do. Lucky I did it all at the perfect spot on Earth - Savita's house :-) !! Savita, the inspiring lady behind BuDa Folklore, graciously opened up not just her beautiful home to us for the workshop for 3 days, but also her lovely guest room for the outstation participant - ME !! Ah bliss! More eye candy, take a look...

 

Hats off to you Savita! (pic above) May the Force be with you!!

(Oh yes, I'll do one more post on the workshop :-))

My first quilting workshop!!

Good things lead to more good things. Soon after finding the India Modern Quilt Guild (IMQG), I find BuDa Folklore, an Organization run by the fiesty Savita Uday, started with an aim to understanding and recording native language, oral tradition and folk culture in and around Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka, India. It promotes experiential learning, preservation of traditional knowledge systems and sustainable development of indigenous communities and the environment.

So what's this gotta do with quilts? Well, BuDa organizes workshops, internships and study tour programmes, and, as luck would have it, they had JUST announced a 3 day quilting workshop in the traditional quilting style of the local communities of Honnaver. Serendipity! 1.Its a quilting workshop. I've never attended one..only been (darkish) green with envy reading other peoples experiences on their blogs..yay!! 2.Its in the traditional style..what a superb opportunity to learn this fading art and that too from Nirmala-akka who is probably the best in the world at this..yippee!! 3.Its a 3 day thingy at Bangalore..I could do with that break..yay yay yippee yippee!!

And so I went. And since I am dying to show what I made, here it is :-)..

We were 5 participants, with day jobs as varied as an advertising professional, a software engineer, a corporate lawyer, a manager and a businesswoman. 2 were total newbies, 2 had some experience in embroidery and sewing, and then there was me. Suddenly, I was the most experienced person in a group at quilting!! Barring our teacher, the sweet sweet Nirmala-akka, of course, who's been making quilts for the past 20 years :-). So with a small puja, we started our endeavour to learn this unique form of hand quilting from an unlettered lady who did not even speak our language (and mind you, between the 5 of us, we knew at least 9 languages!)

To give you a brief idea about this quiltform, it is made exclusively from used scraps of cloth and whatever is at hand. Used cotton sarees are used for backing as well as multiple layers of the same for batting. The sari border is first separated and the backing and batting-layers arranged to the desired size. The border is then attached all around this topless sandwich with small, even running stitches. The quilting lines are spaced 1/2" apart and go round and round and round and round the square/rectactangle sandwich. Kubbis (sparrows!) are attached to the four corners and give the quilt an instantaneous, joyous look.

Typically, a Gali Patta (Kite) motif is made on a white background on all four corners of the quilt. This motif can be adapted to be huge or tiny depending on the size of the quilt.

So the corner white cloths, the colourful scraps, AND the motifs are all quilted simultaneously with each progressive row (round?) of stitches. And stitch by stitch, row by row, round by round, magic happens...

Holy Scrap! Aren't they beautiful? Magic, right?

I think I shall do a couple more posts on the workshop. There's still so much more to tell. And show. So, until then,

Happy quilting!

January IMQG 2012 challenge

It was a happy day a month or so ago when I stumbled upon The India Modern Quilt Guild. Wasted absolutely no time in signing up. Was the 26th member and was sooooo glad to find there were 25 other crazy people who found messing with fabric absolutely normal. Lack of supplies didn't seem to be too great an obstacle to these brave (and crazy!) women and I was in la-la land to be part of this group :-).

When Shruti, the founder-member of IMQG and a fab quilter-blogger proposed a monthly challenge, all of us jumped at it. Here was our chance to do what we loved to do, not all alone, not all by ourselves, but with a group of yes, thats right, with a group of brave and crazy women (56 at last count) who spoke the same language. True, its just a virtual group right now; true, the members are from varied backgrounds/ cultures/ countries, but what a sense of belonging! I haven't had this much fun since school! :-)

Anyways, the rules for the January challenge were simple and straighforward - Use only warm coloured solids. I added another straighforward but not-so-simple rule for myself - NO fabric buying. Determined to work only from my stash of scraps, I pulled out all warm coloured solids, threw in some neutrals and unsheathed the rotary cutter.

Didn't plan much, just cut out as many 5.5" and  3" squares as I could from the available scraps. One look at the no. of pieces and I knew I'd have to scale down the project from a double bed spread to single. Not sure what these blocks are called, but 3 days of piecing them and I'm ready to scale it down to a tablecloth!

So thats what I made. A tablecloth. Though it still beats me why I bothered to add the batting if it was going to be a tablecloth!

Started with a darker centre and progressed outwards with lighter colours..Browns, maroons, reds, hot pinks, oranges, yellows. Alternated light and dark neutrals.

Quilted straight lines through the block centres. Lesson learnt : Do NOT use variegated thread when quilting straight lines. Its no point. Unless the lines are very close together I guess.

Backed it with blinding red fabric. Yes, from my stash :-). And hand bound it. A first for me.

(Oh, I did further scale it down to an octagon coz I was a bit strapped for time, heh heh!)

So that's my entry for the Jan IMQG 2012 challenge. Best part? The leftovers :-)...

So waiting for the Feb challenge. Bring it on I say!

One last look?

Did I say one last look?

When did I say one last look?

:-). Happy quilting!

Shutting up and wiggling

I rather like Leah's Mantra - 'Shut up and quilt'. So without further ado, here's my second attempt at shutting up and wiggling..

(Here's my first if you want to take a look)

I wiggled up and I wiggled down and I wiggled all around. I found myself agreeing with Leah on...
-my machine feels better with the feed dogs up
-my hands really ARE better at certain curves than others and I need to practice getting my machine to match that
-I tend to get lost/stuck with random wiggling and prefer some method in the madness instead.

Now that I had wiggled a bit, I felt tempted to do the same with the leaf pattern that I was trying to learn as part of the 2012 FMQ challenge...

Leaves? Heart? Butts? Never mind :-). I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it. Now all that I need to do is perfect it :o).

Linking this up with Quilt Along Wednesdays on Leah's Free Motion Quilting Project. Loving it!!

Its a bird! Its a plane!..no, its FMQ!!

Now why isn't this....

...looking like THIS?....

Yup, more practice needed. But whats practice without some play? :-)

Now that looks kinda cool I think. Maybe this is how I'll make my final block for the 2012 FMQ challenge this month. (button on the right --->) Of course, AFTER I practice some :-).

Happy playing!

And I thought I was ready

Its Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts and unlike last time, this time I'm all ready and waiting.

Or so I think. Ha!  Now they tell me I can also showcase my entire year's finishes if I like!! Like? I would've loved to do that but I absolutely refuse to not use my mosaic of December's finishes! Yes, the one that I had already prepared a day in advance and was all ready with!! Anyways, here it is :-)..ta-da...

Ok, ok, that's a cheat mosaic. Its only actually two quilts. On the left is First among Equals and on the right, Bundle of Joy.

This year, I seem to have bitten off more than I can chew. Yet again. I have signed up for three (or was it four?) monthly challenges, so am hoping to learn a lot and have many more finishes for my 2012 Fresh Sewing Day mosaics :-).

Happy sewing!