World Traveller’s Blog

Quick and Easy Place Mats.

Quick and Easy Place Mats.

Quilt Group Demo

Supplies

1. Light weight sticky interfacing
2.  A selection of fabric scraps in floral and solids
3. Basic quilting supplies.
4.  Draw a 7×10   grid made of 2 inch squares on the non-stick side of the interfacing.

Fussy cut the floral fabric into 2 inch squares.

Cut the matching solid fabric into 2 inch squares.

Lay the interfacing on the iron table with the sticky side on top.

Arrange the fabric squares on the sticky side of the interfacing, corresponding to the grid, two rows at a time.

Fold the interfacing sandwiching the squares in between and stitch on the non stick side with 1/4 stitch margin.

Cut open the stitch in between and iron flat. Finish the rest in the same way and add batting, backing and bind place mat as desired.

Exotic Turkish Textiles

Yesterday on January 17,we  at KTAA had a great presentation by Deniz Cerinan Al-Ghawas on Exotic Turkish Textiles. “Secrets from the Sultan’s Harem”

This presentation and fashion show took us on a journey through time to a world of Sultans, Princesses, and the Splendour of an Ancient Empire.

It was good show and the models were extremely beautiful and poised.

Foundation paper pieced quilts-2012

Foundation Piecing is one of the full proof methods of obtaining very accurate pieced blocks.

Paper or fabric foundation pieces are used as foundations, which provide stability to all kinds of fabric.

To paper piece, trace the pattern or copy using a copy machine.

Ordinary printer paper can be used(If it is difficult to get the special paper) but better results can be obtained by using tracing paper.

Place a piece of fabric larger than the lined space on the unlined side of fabric in no1 position

Place piece 2 right sides together with piece 1 pin on seam line.

Stitch along the line on the lined side of the fabric.

Trim to ¼-inch seam allowance and finger press the piece flat on the backside.

The design will automatically form in the backside of the printed copy.

Foundation Pieced Book Marks

Materials -Assorted scraps of fabric,Fusible webbing,Buckram or any hard backing.

Bahrain

An unexpected trip to Bahrain

It all happened when we were unceremoniously dropped from a overbooked  ‘Gulf Airways’ flight to Delhi from Kuwait,   in Bahrain.No warning, no sorry,  we were  left out  of the connecting flight and  just given a  ‘B’ grade hotel and a boarding pass for the flight next day. The  flight  which we held a confirmed ticket ,left    with out us. –Watch out ‘Gulf Airways  flyers”- It can be you –Next time.

Heartbroken as we had   to miss the cock tail party of Neha’s wedding by reaching   a day later, ended grim faced in the hotel.

But, after  a while realising,  brooding won’t help us reach any faster to Delhi, decided to get the best out of the situation of getting a free visa to Bahrain:)

Necessity is the mother of inventions

The ‘mantra’ of travelling light had made me carry absolutely no hand luggage and there we were with not even a tooth brush or comb. Needed to take a bath but how to tie the hair up? What the heck, a length of toilet paper, rolled and twisted to a rope solved that problem.

Bahrain

Bahrain is an archipelago of 33 islands, the largest being  Baharin Island.A taxi costed only 7BD for two hours city tour.  The first stop was at the Al Fateh Mosque also known as the grand mosque.This was constructed in the year 1990. The most beautiful mosuqe I  saw for a long time.Although Al Fateh Mosque in Bahrain is a place where followers of Islam go and offer their prayers to Allah the almighty, any person belonging to any religion and anycommunity is welcome to enter the mosque. So said our guide/driver.

Al-Riffa old castle was the next stop. Riffa fort  is one of the prime attractions of the city. Riffa was originally the center of power till 1869. The fort was built in 1812. The interior of the fort is quite spacious and divided into chambers.

The national Musuem of Bahrain complex covers 27,800 sq meters and consists of two buildings.  The Museum was officially opened in December 1988 to become one of the latest and largest museums in the Middle East.

Quilts from Middle East-’Arabic Inspiration’ Bermingham 2011

International Quilt Festival Bermingham 2011

Mabrook! Kuwait

My quilt ‘Mabrook Kuwait’  was part of the middle east  group quilts “Arabic Inspiration” in International quilt festival 2011  at Bermingham.  I could not attend but lucky to get the images from Penny and Joan who  took care of our quilts from Kuwait.You can see a better coverage of this exhibiiton ina vid cast form Bonnie Mccaffery-http://bonniemccaffery.com/vidcasts/062.html

Penny Armitage

Jennine Ibbini

Kathi Ewen

Miriam Ali Mousa

The ‘Mandala’-Rangoli

Recently I  moved into a new apartment  in India and as is the custom we had a”pooja” prayer as part of the entry to house.Over the years I have been admiring these things as spiritual as well as artistic view points. The “Pooja’  is very elaborate and colourful.  The  main thing in this particular devi pooja  is the “Mandala” or the rangoli.Freehand drawing done  with each line  drawn according to the size prescribed by   scriptures creates perfect ‘Mandala”. I have been admiring the dexterity in which  they  freehand draw the whole “Mandala’. As a quilter it is interesting to see these designs and color combinations and the thought which is attached to it. Every design has a deeper meaning than just pleasing to the eye. I have been thinking a lot about these things as I plan my quilts. Things need to be more meaning full,thought provoking than just popular ideas . I have been working in these thought process for some time now.’ Popular design ideas’  or ‘thought provoking ones’? is the question I ask my self and without any doubt I choose the second option.

The ‘Durga Namaskar puja’ is a puja prayer to Goddess Shakti to lift us from the shackles that limit us on our path  of progress – spiritual and material.The Goddesss is invoked in the diya (lamp) Before we invoke Her, we invite her entire retinue to take their seat in the rangoli mandala ,the design & size of which is as prescribed in the scriptures – and the 5 colors each signify one of the 5 elements – red (agni-fire), white (vayu-air), black (prithvi-earth), green (jal-water) & yellow (akash-sky). We light 5 lamps – again to signify this. Panch Durga is then invoked in the central lamp.

The whole mandala was done by the priest on  chosen part of the clean floor in the house without any prior drawing. Design was created freehand and colors were filled by powders made of natural ingredients like turmeric,rice, etc.Black color was obtained by coal by burning of few particular things.It is amazing how the whole design comes to life .  Flowers were laid later on the “Mandala’ which is main way of worship.

Once the pooja is over all the things used to create the mandala are  disposed  by  placing them under any big  tree bed   to be mixed with mother earth.  A natural way of keeping the environment clean.

Commercial fabrics as block prints are repeating many of the traditional designs of rangloi. Many of the designer clothes have the traditional  pattern designs embroidered on them.None of these embroideries are from computerized machine patterns but the artisans freehand do it in very basic machines.

Thread Painting

Just finished a workshop  for thread painting.  There was no specific designs or a project achieved in the class but  I had as much fun as the student in trying different possibilities.It was a open workshop with fun and play kind . Took five hours and still I was not as tired as I should have been.

Metallic thread  is a tough cookie and specially a cheep quality. But recently I have been trying all sorts of threads and not  getting  fooled by the drama my Bernina  machine creates in accepting them. I tried to fool the machine by making cheep thread   feel  good by mounting it up or dropping  it down to give it the extra weight age or pull it needs. It works:)

Taking a pencil sketching course can help a lot in thread painting.   I still have to finish a proper piece  for this workshop  which I have started and  hope it will not end up as a UFO.