Rainy Day Quilt

I've been a bad girl. And I haven't updated my blog in a while. Like someone recently remarked, "I love chaos. Till it tires me and then I love routine. Till it bores me and then I love chaos" ! Story of my life.

Well, here's my latest finish, The Rainy Day Quilt, which quite obviously had its beginnings on a lovely rainy day a year back. (Yes, a year back!) After some starts and stops over the past year (mostly stops), it finally made its journey from the UFO to FINISHED pile. Am happy to report that even as I type, its on its way to the recipient, a dear friend's mom whom I call Aunty.

Too bright you say? Well, I did call and ask my friend what colours her mom would like only to be told that Aunty wears only very muted and soft colours. So I tried putting together a very low volume palette for her. But something inside screamed, 'wrong, wrong, wrong'. I should tell you a bit about this lady in question. She is an amazing woman in whos path Life has tried to throw every kind of googly. She has dealt with each blow with quiet strength and amazing grace, qualities I admire HUGELY. But I think that the sadness that such tragedies bring to our lives, somehow seeps into our daily colours and I wanted something bright and absurdly happy for her. So.

What, not bright enough you say? Well, I did try to mute it a bit by adding a border of tiny pastel roses and a not overly bright backing. Just in case, you know :-).

Did some FMQ, outlining the fussy cut roses and doing some leaves and tendrils on the chequerboards.

Ok, ok, I TRIED some fmq. The odd shapes make me smile :-).

Did some waves on the border..some hot pink binding..

..and bundled it off with lots of love to dear frail-looking-but-super-strong Aunty to be used as a pick-me-up in hard times and a superwoman cape in others.

Spread the love people ! Hot pink rules !!

Btw, did you know good girls go to heaven? Bad girls go everywhere.

Happy Birthday !

Its a year since I started my blog.

Life goes on. Some seeking True North. Some not.

I shall go have some chocolate.

Star of Africa Bee Blocks

It was May's turn to be Queen Bee of the Star of Africa Bee of which she is also the founder bee. May, who blogs at 'Confessions of a fabraholic', wanted a block in pinkish tones representing anything from your country that one would be likely to shoot pictures of. Ha Ha easier said than done ! Everything here looked tired and commonplace :-(.

I once read somewhere - To travel, you don't need new places, just new eyes. True dat. So I got myself a pair of new eyes and looked around to see what would May find interesting enough to shoot here. And sure enough, even ordinary day-to-day things and places took on a new and interesting life when viewed with a fresh pair of eyes. She said pink and I thought of the lovely latticed windows of Jaipur, the pink city, intricately and lavishly carved out of pink sandstone. So, here's my block for May - 'Jali' window of Jaipur, with clear blue skies beyond.

Its been sent off to Germany. I hope you like it May.

Btw, time flies. Like an arrow. In case you didn't already know. Soon it was time for Jen's block. Jen, who blogs at Quilter in the closet, came up with an interesting idea for her blocks. She wanted animal blocks (real, made-up, whimsical, any sorta animal she said) which she was then planning to turn into a picture book for her 3 li'l kiddos. What a fab idea I thought. Kids love animals. Put them in jars and they love them even more! The animals, not the kids. So I made three bug jar blocks for Jen's kiddos framed with the brightest solids I could find. Added a bit of gold 'zari' for the ledge. We Indians love our gold zari borders on our silk sarees. Even today, the best zari is made from drawn silver, covered with gold and then woven with silk.

So, here are my blocks for Jen. I reckon every kid absolutely needs an egg juggling rabbit, snorkeling frogs and some grinning geckos.

To repeat, Time flies like an arrow. Maybe I should put the Time flies in a bug jar too?

Bee Desi

In case anybody's missed me, I've been a bit caught up with my fabulous quilting group, Desi Quilters. By some lucky happenstance, a group of highly talkative excited and talented women have found each other through the world wide web and there's been a lot of sharing and caring, both quilting and otherwise. The action happens in our 'drawing room', the Desi Quilters' facebook page. The group has a lot of activities going on and  one of them is the BEE DESI. Its a bee of 12 members and I am one of them. Have enjoyed making blocks for my fellow Desi Bees the last 2 months.

For Vidya2

For Veena

The popularity of the BEE DESI can be inferred from the fact that even the 2nd one is full and registrations are now on for the 3rd Bee. Do join our group if you'd like to participate in a quilting bee.

Btw. here's a block I made for my very first bee elsewhere, but unfortunately, that hive didnt last:

So, life'great..everything's buzzzzing ! Enjoy !

Happy Independence Day !

In commemoration of India's 66th Independence Day, the rules for the August challenge on the 'funnest' quilting group Desi Quilters were:

- Make a mini not larger than 12"x12" in the tricolours of the Indian Flag, using pieces not larger than 1.5" finished.

Ever since  fellow DQ Madhu has been showing off her miniature blocks, I've been wanting to try out a mini.  Also been wanting to try out her (supposedly) easy method of making multiple HSTs in one shot. This then was the perfect opportunity to do both. Madhu also very generously shared tips for first time mini-makers like moi :

1.Rough calculation: 12x12 block =144sq inches.
1.5 " maximum size piece if square =2.25sqinches.
Therefore, minimum 64 pieces in a 12x12 block. If the pieces are not square, numbers go up!
Therefore: Plan your block size accordingly, ladies!
Therefore: Don't think, " It is only a mini"

2.Stitch big, cut down to size!

3.you can trim your seams to less than 1/4" before pressing. Reduces bulk.

4.Very very important to press ( just press, not move your iron along the pieces, beginner quilters) before joining the next piece. It is difficult to press later - can distort the block.

5.Do not use soft, limp fabrics. Very difficult to work with. Edges fray. Use starched fabric.

6.Very accurate measurements are a big blessing. In small pieces, small errors in measurement look huge! The beauty of a mini- quilt is its perfection

7.Take your time over it! Go slow! Challenge yourself! Even if you have to join a 100 pieces in 30 days, it is less than 4 pieces in a day!

8.‎6x6 is doable - it is just 36 sq inches. 7x7 becomes 49 and 12x12 is 144! Another thing I should have added: you'll be cutting your pieces bigger and trimming them down to size, right? Press them BEFORE you trim them down, not after. So that any distortion during pressing is taken care of.

9.English paper piecing works great with miniatures. As does paper foundation piecing. Perfect blocks every time!

10.Btw, true miniature artists use a trick for accurate length of seams: they count the number stitches! So 14 stitches may be the length of a particular seam! 

So, armed with her tips and a blank clear head, I pull out some pieces of saffron, white and green fabric. I do not yet have an idea of what I am going to make, but then, when has that ever stopped me from doing anything? 96 pieces and each li'l square of 2 HSTs not more than 1.5"...after some this-ing and that-ing, here's what I came up with for my entry for the DQ August '12 Independence day Challenge..

Started with a 2" grid on fusible paper fused to 3 pieces of roughly 6"x12" fabric..

Paired them and sewed on either sides of the diagonals..

And chopped them up..

And I have still have no idea where this is going. I know I need to sew back all those li'l HSTs, but how? Random piecing or planned? Random? Or planned? Random? Planned? Aaargh..!!

I try a li'l random..

A li'l planned..

Then settle for this..I love it btw

Some straight line quilting around the pinwheels and some fancy stitches along the diagonals..

Some hand sewn binding..

And I'm all done !

I chose the lotus design for some of the quilting lines, lotus being our national flower and all..didn't think it'd end up looking like the BJP flag!

Love it all the same. So does Max.

Happy Independence Day folks! Jai Hind !!

Of Bees 'n Blocks

There was once an online group that formed an online bee. All was well the first month or two. And then the hive broke and the bees scattered. But not before I got my share of the honey. Lucky me, yes.

Taking a cue from Marianne Haak (of The Quilting Edge), an enormously talented and fun quilter, I decided I too want to play with shot cottons. Even more so for this, right here, is THE land of shot cottons. We call them Kanchi Cotton here as this sort of weaving originated in Kancheepuram, a small town not far from Chennai. Yes, same place where the world famous Indian Kancheepuram silk sarees come from.

Not happy with just a cue, I decide I want that Marianne Haak look too. I ask Marianne for permission and she very kindly agrees. So I send my bee members scraps in 5 assorted, randomly put together colours with the only instructions being...hop over to 'The Quilting Edge', get inspired, and make me a block! :-)

And make they did! Thank you ladies. I love them ALL. And thank you Marianne, from ALL of us. You have been a great source of inspiration.

Vidya1

Vidya2

Shilpa

Veena

Sandhya1

Brinda

Shruti

Sandhya2

Madhu

Lucky me, yes? :-)

Star of Africa

Anyone remember the time I made gecko soup? Of the lovely comments I got, there was one very mysterious and intriguing one. It said..Love your geckos!! Where on earth did you find this fabric?
Please hop over to my blog, there might be something to interest you :-)
http://maylifeonline.blogspot.de/2012/05/star-of-africa.html .

So hop I did. It was an invite to be part of a very unique bee and I wasted not a moment in signing up. It sounded less like a quilting bee and more like an adventure..a road trip. It is loosely based on the board game Star of Africa. Long story short, I am now one of 16 members of the Star of Africa Bee, my first international bee. We are from different parts of the world and will be making one block each month that is representative of the place we come from and yet stays within the specific requirements of the Queen Bee of the month. This is going to be very exciting. Thanks May, for inviting me over.

 The queen bee of the first month was Patti of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. (She made us say that thrice! Really fast!!)  She was fine with any block, any size, any colour. You wanna make people motionless, give them lot of choice! Nobody moved. They were too petrified I guess, of the vastness of possibilities. So started a barrage of questions to poor Patti who soon realised she had to get a little specific if she wanted the constant questions to stop :-). She narrowed down her block requirement to 8.5", warm colours, dotted border. Whew! 

This is the block I made for Patti using needle turn applique and some simple embroidery. The peacock being our national bird and saffron, white & green being our national colours, I hope this block is representative of India in some small way. I really really hope she likes it and that it will sit well with the rest of her quilt. 

Do checkout the blocks of the rest of the bee on flickr. 

Life is a game. You get to play it just once. So play hard and play well.
Happy playing!