This quilt started out as a panel for a bag at a workshop with Jean Stetson. Once I had made one girl I wanted to make another and so the bag became a quilt, and the quilt grew in size!
It was my son who said he didn’t like the figures with blank faces as they looked dead, so each one was brought to life! This quilt combines machine and hand quilting.
“Myomi And Her Sisters†was made in 2003.
The fabric for this quilt was dyed at a workshop with Nicky Perrington, using a brights palette and lots of plastic bags!It was my first attempt at dying fabric and I was really pleased with the result. I think the design looks like a church window and the colours are really jewel-like. The tassels on the corners are made from hand spun variegated yarn.
This close up of one of the tassels, shows the hand stitched head with the coloured slubs in the thread pulled out for effect.
“Colours to Dye For†was made in 2002
This is a double sided quilt using a combination of hand block-printed fabrics which I bought in India, and some commercially printed fabrics which I hope complement the beautiful hand printed fabrics.The original inspiration for the design is from a window in the council chamber at Meherangarh Fort Palace at Jodhpur.The above picture shows the side of the quilt inspired by the windows.The quilt is sited in the exit doorway of the council chamber and features strong use of blue because the view from the top of Meherangarh Palace overlooks the area of blue painted houses of the top priestly caste of the Brahmins, which also gives Jodhpur its name of The Blue City.
This side of the quilt uses predominantly Indian block printed fabric which we were lucky enough to see in production.Some of the hand held, carved wooden blocks are about a hundred years old and the patterns look as fresh today as they ever did.
“Block Prints From Jaipur†was made in 2006.
This quilt is in true quilter’s style in that I am using up the bits left over from the making of a previous quilt.The design is taken from a back issue article in Fabrications magazine August 2003″Flying Geese Wallhanging†by Julie Hodges.The fabric was dyed at a day workshop with Nicky Perrington.
“Geese to Dye For†was made in 2003.
In 2006 I visited India, which was probably the most life-changing experience for me since learning to sew on an electric sewing machine! My focus on colour and pattern became the most important feature of future projects. The quilt Rajastan was an immediate response to my visit and this quilt was featured in “Fabrications Magazine†issue 44 2006. It features shisha mirrors made from compact discs and trapunto style relief stars, surrounded by dense machine embroidery.
This photograph shows a closer view of one of the padded central stars and the dense free motion quilting and machine embroidery.
The label incorporates a photograph taken in Rajasthan of two ladies using a hand sewing machine on the floor!
This photograph shows the quilt as it appeared in “Fabrications Magazineâ€.
I made a cushion with the left over scraps and as you can see both quilt and cushion are put to good use in our garden.
