Tuesday, March 12

The Patchwork Project

 I'm working with a group of women in a village in north Karnataka developing a line of throws and maybe extend it to quilts in the future. The women make patchwork quilts for their families with old sarees and scraps of cloth called Kaudi.  The glorious tradition of recycling and reusing which I'm happy to say is alive and still thriving in India makes this whole endeavour possible.  
 The first sample. A reversable throw 60"x40". Patchwork top in earthy Tussar silk in earthy colours and for contrast a solid royal blue cotton silk fabric on the reverse. A thin cotton muslin is sandwiched between the patchwork top and bottom of the throw.  
Detail of the hand quilting done with white cotton thread. The colours of the Tussar silk I chose but the manner in which they were arranged was left to the women.i was delighted to see they have a pretty sophisticated sense of colour and composition. Must get a picture of the whole throw and I need to figure out a binding for the edge of the throw.
Four more throws are in the works. This is exciting.
How is your week going? Exciting I hope.

5 comments:

Marta Brysha said...

Absolutely gorgeous. Just takes my breath away!

Jennifer said...

Wow! It's stunning.

pumpernickel said...

Looking great!

Thread Born said...

An amazing piece of work! I love all that stitching and the arrangement of the beautiful patches of silk.--Julie

Margaret said...

What a wonderful project! I am assuming the scraps for top (and back?) are hand pieced...or is it piece-as-you-go by applying to the thin middle layer? How much wonderful community and learning must take place around these pieces!

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