Tuesday 14 May 2013

Stash Buster BOM on Just Us Quilters Step 1

After a few months spent in the cold I'm back to hot, hot Poona. The heat has meant I'm indoors all day, and therefore on fb and all my lovely quilting groups. Just Us Quilters announced a Stash Buster BOM........and that was just the excuse I needed to go fabric shopping !!
I convinced myself that the fabric I bought in America ( enough to fill a whole suitcase ) was not quite the right kind !



 It had to be "Indian" fabric....Ikats, shots, block prints and hand woven stripes. I knew exactly where I could get all these but there was an indefinite Traders Bandh ( a strike ) so shops were shut. For two days I dreamt of nothing but fabric and hoped the Bandh would be called off. It wasn't. 
I went anyway to the shop hoping they'd be open since they operated out of an apartment and weren't in a shopping district. Lucky for me they were open and I could feast on the most beautiful, colourful fabric. 
I started off with a grey and white Ikat that I fell in love with, then picked blues and greens and more greys . But a bright yellow print caught my eye and then of course the reds and oranges followed. 
I had to smuggle it into the house and take it straight to my sewing room so nobody noticed.
This morning when everyone was out I laid out the fabric and drooled and decided I had to first get my sewing room tidied before I even started ironing and cutting the fabric !


So the big task of cleaning up a room that had been left shut and unswept for over 3 months began. Many were the times I was tempted to just clear a small area and start on my block, but I've held out (pat on my back ).
Hopefully I'll have the room cleaned and tidied today, then another day of rearranging stuff and I'm ready to go.......

Monday 6 May 2013

A Quilt for Thabiby

I had to make a quilt for "Thabiby"...and I had to hurry up about it. But let me tell you who Thabiby is...
In November Miss T found out she was going to become a "Big Sister" soon...and she talked incessantly about her baby brother. She even asked Santa at Macy's to get her one. When asked what she was going to call her new brother the answer was always "Thabiby". It was this mysterious name that had me foxed: Thabiby ? The name didn't sound Indian or American , nor did she have any friend who shared that name so I couldn't figure out how she had decided on it.
One morning Miss T was getting her baby doll into the stroller so they could go to the park and I asked what she had named the doll. This-bibi. So I asked what her brother was going to be called and she said, "Thabiby" !!! Mystery solved....so Thabiby he is till he arrives and gets a brand new name.
But I was writing about the quilt for Thabiby........
As soon as we found out it was a boy I started looking for fabric in blues (I'm an old fashioned girl) and went on a buying spree with no plan or ideas on what the quilt was going to look like. No pattern in mind but lots of blue fabric. Then there was a lull in my enthusiasm to make the quilt because I couldn't decide on the pattern. Finally a simple log cabin type block seemed the simplest and quickest. Time was running out. The blocks were pieced and the quilt sandwich was ready but I couldn't decide on how I wanted to quilt it !! Again the lack of time took care of that decision and I quilted around the blocks. Soon the quilt was ready and I was happy, ready to pack and leave for New York in a week.


But when I showed it to my daughter and Miss T on Skype,  Miss T wanted one too !!
With hardly any time left I had to rustle up something that matched her room,  and could be got ready in 2 days with fabric I had in the house. That's when Nicola Foreman's posts (nicola foreman quilts ) on FB came to my rescue ! I knew I could copy her design with the scraps I had at home and get Miss T's quilt ready in time....The 1/2" apart lines I quilted took forever but look so good.
Madhu Mathur and Brinda Crishna had posted tutes on binding and finishing that week which were ever so useful and saved so much time !

So not only did Thabiby get his quilt but so did Miss T.

Kaffe Fassett and a new groupie, maybe !

I was hell bent on going to see the Kaffe Fassett Exhibition at the Museum of Fashion and Textiles in London. But I was returning home after three months away and so really wanted to get back as fast as possible. Luckily I could book my flights so I got a long break in London.
My flight into London from New York was delayed so by the time I showered, ate breakfast and was ready to go it was past 1 pm but had no idea how to get out. After spending close to an hour wandering around wondering if I really was the educated well travelled person I imagined myself to be, and after thinking I was trapped forever in the Departure Lounge I found my way to the Immigration queue. As always I seemed to be in the slowest line and when it was finally my turn at 2 30, I was dreaming and had to be pushed by those behind me.
The Immigration officer wanted to know why I was going out for just 6 hours so I told him all about Kaffe and his work and how I had to see it. It worked. Stamp, stamp and I was out.
Then to the Underground and to Green Park Station, walked what seemed like miles to change to the Jubilee Line and then to London Bridge Station.
Another long walk, up 2 sets of excalators and out in the fresh air again...an hour later !
Since there was no information desk in sight, I asked a woman ticket checker if she knew where the F and T museum was.....she yelled to a colleague, " Hey Jimmy, you knows whare the Fashion Mosayum ees ?" And he just grunted back with a nod "some where that side" ! She repeated "Som whare around, you'll find it!"
So I started in what I thought was the direction grouchy Jimmy had nodded..asked some construction workers if they had any idea.Thankfully, they did !!

I had to go thru a tunnel to get onto Bermondsey St where the museum is located. But when I got there I saw shops, glass blowers, pretty buildings but no museum. Since I had come all the way I was going to walk another mile and if I still couldn't find it, turn back. Suddenly I saw a splash of colour....Found it !

The exhibition seemed a little small when I first went in, but when I thought about it and realized it was all one man's work it seemed much bigger.

Needless to say it was beautiful. A riot of colour used in the most amazing ways. There were muted combinations with sudden bursts of bright and some very, very bright work.




My absolute fav was a vignette of Kaffe's blue china 


...though the wingback chair with veggies and fruit came a close second.
And this quirky chair on the wall was just perfect !!
I dreamt all the way back to the Airport of the beautiful quilts, tapestry, knitting and paintings I had seen and wondered if I was becoming a bit of a groupie in my old age ! My children thought I was nuts going off on my own, between flights, to see something that I could wait to see somewhere one day. My DH said it made better sense to stay put at the airport and get some rest, but he suspected that wasn't happening ! I'm just so happy I went and saw at close quarters how wonderful Kaffe's work is.