DQ Nov-Dec'13 Challenge

Though the DQ Nov-Dec'13 challenge was announced on the DQ Facebook page, it was not put up here. So, for those who missed the rules of the last challenge of 2013, here they are:

1.Make a pieced and/or quilted Toran/Toranam (traditional Indian welcome bunting?)

2.Email 3 pics (1.of the full front, 2.of the full back, 3.close up of the quilting) of the finished item to desiquilters@gmail.com. Please do not send more than 3 pics as the admins do not want to have to choose. And please conform exactly to the pic requirements or you risk disqualification.

3.Please include title, dimensions and a short description of your entry.

4.Please mention if the entry is an original work or inspired. You can share your inspiration once the names are revealed after the voting.

5.Please send in your entries by the midnight of December 30th, 2013

Do NOT post here since we are still following the anonymous entries format.

For more details on the format.. http://desi-quilters.blogspot.in/2013/01/jan-2013-challenge.html

The winner gets

1.A gift voucher for Rs.1500 from Bernina India, redeemable against purchases of sewing, quilting, patchwork notions, thread, etc. from the 'Bernina Creative Center' (BCC) or Bernina or Bernette machines or accessories




and

2. A set of 4 co-ordinated Fat Quarters from Quilts of Love

Best of luck DQs ! Happy Diwali ! 

Manju's Circles-Drunkard's Path QAL - Part 2

Manju's Circles-Drunkard's Path QAL - Part 1

Here's the second and final part of the lovely QAL. Do share pictures of your work with us and we'll be happy to add it to our gallery.

Manju's Circles-Drunkard's Path QAL - Part 2

Manju's Circles-Drunkard's Path QAL - Part 1

Desi Quilters was founded with the idea of providing a platform for sharing and adding to the collective knowledge of the art that is Quilting.Taking the idea forward, we have with us another delightful Quilt-Along (QAL), this time from the delightful DQ Manju, a lady who is all elegance both in her self as well as her work.

So do join us in this journey along the drunkard's path (er..that didn't sound right, did it?) and try your hand at this deceptively simple QAL.

Manju's Circles-Drunkard's Path QAL-Part 1

Aliya's Seminole Patchwork QAL#3

Aliya's Seminole Patchwork QAL#1
Aliya's Seminole Patchwork QAL#2

Aliya's Seminole Patchwork Part 3

Vani's Faux Chenille QAL - Gallery

For those who missed Vani's wonderful QAL on Faux Chenille, here it is..just click on the below.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 4
 

And here's a gallery of projects and WIPs of those who did follow the QAL and added one more technique to their quilt kitty

Sabine

Tina

Nikhat

Ranju

Nirmala

Nikhat again

Ranju again

Uma

Gayathri

Madhu

 

Ranju yet again :-)

Tina again

..and the Chenille lady herself..Vani ! *applause*

Thank you Vani, for the superb QAL !

DQ March'13 Challenge - Winner

The winner of the DQ March'13 Challenge is the lovely DQ Manju ! She has beautifully captured the essence of Pipli art in her beautiful entry.

"The Pipli inspired wall hanging is 26” by 22” in size. It is a Jaggannath ji image with a border of Pipli triangle applique …with a twist.

Usually the Pipli triangles are a layer upon layer of individual colours; I have mixed it up a little bit to give my own interpretation.

The area around the image is covered with fmq.

Usually the Pipli art form uses rick rack around the images for applique, but since I did not find any here in the width and colour that I wanted, I used the gold lace instead. " ...Manju.

She wins 

1.A gift voucher for Rs.1500 from Bernina India, redeemable against purchases of sewing, quilting, patchwork notions, thread, etc. from the 'Bernina Creative Center' (BCC) or Bernina or Bernette machines or accessories



and

2. Rs.500 gift voucher from Quilts of Love





Congratulations Manju! We love your work .

A year and 300 !!

Its going to be a year since Desi Quilters came into existence and we have, today, reached the 300th member milestone! This calls for a jumbo celebration !

To double the celebrations of this double milestone, DQ Chumkie of 'My Favourite Things' is giving away these two fabulous fat quarters all the way from Michigan..

To enter the giveaway, here's what you have to do:

1.Hit the 'follow' button on Chumkie's blog
2.Hit the 'follow' button on the DQ blog (look here ---->)
3.Leave us a comment below saying you've done both

Easy as pie. So don't just drool at the FQs, ...enter the giveaway and lets clink glasses ! Yayyy!!

100th post and a Giveaway !

On 22nd June'12 we published our first blogpost and its already the 100th today !

Friday, 22 June 2012

Namaste and Welcome!

Welcome to our Desi World. A place where we share lives, forge friendships, and oh, quilt. We are a group of happy people, here because of our connections...quilty connections, desi connections.

We hope you find this a fun place to learn, share, inspire and be inspired. Or just chat.

So come on in and make yourself at home. Bring your quilts, grab a coffee, share some gyan and maybe pick up a tip or two.

Namaste  _/\_

To mark this milestone and celebrate it in true desi style, we are happy to announce a special giveaway by Indusgully !

"Indusgully is an art, photography, and quilt shop. We are based in Ahmedabad / Bangalore. We hope to showcase our Indian sensibilities of color and beauty through our work.

Our quilts promise two things: top-notch quality and vibrant color. Made with 100% cotton backing and 100% cotton wadding, each Indusgully quilt is unique and original. Contrast and chunks of saturated color define our style.

We showcase our quilts at:
http://indusgully.com/quilts/
Connect with us through our facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/indusgully/ "

Indusgully is offering this amazing book as a giveaway...

...and for a chance to make it yours, here's what you gotta do:

1.Join the Desi Quilters
2.'Follow' the DQ blog
3.'Like' the Indusgully page on FB
4.Leave us a comment here saying you've done the above

So what're waiting for? Say cheers!

Sunny Bee Sunita's Sunny Logs

HELLO PEEPS,

Alas I am the new queen bee. Super excited and so looking forward to my blocks from all you talented girls. I have been very fortunate to be a part of DQ since my quilting journey began from here. Also lucky to be part of sunny bee as I literally love the sun and so much so that I have it tattooed on my arm. I love bright colours, a sunny day, very many blooms in my small balcony garden and above all I love cutting fabric and then putting it together.

I have chosen super easy scrappy log cabin blocks for my quilt. The specifications are as below:

You can use any colour cotton fabric but try using the sunny bee colours so we can stick to the theme. Make it as bright as possible.

The center square is 1.5 inch unfinished (1 inch finished )
The stripes are also 1.5 inch unfinished (1 inch finished )
The completed block will be 16" finished
Make sure to square it out well before sending it to me

FYI, I will be adding a common border for each block before joining them together. There is a lot of liberty here, do as you choose, but please do a neat job on the front and the back. After adding every strip, please press the seams down on one side and press the front flat. When finished and while trying to square it out into 16" square, if the square is a bit wonky it is fine.

If needed you can check out any tutorial for a log cabin on YouTube

Have fun with this easy peasy one. Promise to show you the finished piece within a week of receiving the last block. Will be making this one without batting for my black and grey sofa. Thank you.

Sunita

First Quilts - DQ Rashmi

(Guest post by DQ Rashmi, the 10th in our series of 'First Quilts')

This story has a happy ending. I must say so first because the beginning is a bit eerie.
It starts with a dead bird in my fridge. Yes.

Alright alright. There was cooked chicken in my fridge that day—that very day when my mother-in-law chose to make her weekly visit to our house from the other end of the city. It wouldn’t have been a big deal otherwise but that day it was, because the poor, cooked, bird got accidentally discovered by my very vegetarian south-indian ma-in-law, who, until then, firmly believed that my husband and I were also vegetarians like the rest of the family, thereby obeying centuries of vegetarian law in the whole community.
I am sure some of you understand the magnitude of the situation but for those of who don’t: it was akin to having discovered cannibals in the family! 
Drama of all dramas ensued. There was silence. And there were storms. And then Something Good had to be done.
What?
What?
What?
Was the question.
I decided to make a quilt for her birthday. 
So sweet! You would say. 
Even I was teary-eyed at the thought of my own magnanimity!

So I began to quilt.  I had made two baby-quilt-tops before that, but not a finished quilt.  I just decided to cut lots of squares first. Time was crucial. Then I cut the squares randomly into two pieces and tried to make some design out the whole mess by keeping white as the base color.
With each block it looked uglier than ever. My husband stopped looking at me because I had a permanent pathetic look on my face. One row and then another and then another. Hmm. And then the top was finished. I had to call it Tedha-Medha (Wonky-Bonky!?).I began chewing nails waiting for mails for the DQ cotton batting. I haunted Tina and Veena whichever way I could. 
I am telling you doing Something Good is no small task.
But was one quilt Good Enough? After all, Something Good had to be Good Enough.
I decided to up the ante. I would not only gift her a quilt.
I would gift her sister’s daughter a quilt too. I had a job and a kid and yet the unfinished quilts somehow pitied me and went through the sewing machine without much ripping.

In a week everything was ready and packed.  The day came and I opened up my surprise. 

The quilts did what was expected of them by completely flooring my mother-in-law! The memory of the dead bird was washed away. The broken age-old laws were buried in favor of familial love and peace. Something Good, though not stunning, polished, or perfect, finally accomplished its goal. 

Happy endings, I tell you, always, if there’s a quilt in the picture!

-Rashmi

First Quilts - DQ Prajakta

(Guest post by DQ Prajakta, the 9th in our series of 'First Quilts')

A Tale of Four pillow covers and half a bedsheet 

As a kid I remember doing lots of things with my grandmother As her first grandchild I had all the liberty to do anything and everything in the house even as child. I vividly remember our first experiment, a cake (more mine then hers ) and also the look on our maid's face when she saw the kitchen. We moved on to knitting, embroidery and then stitching; but when it came to school craft projects it was always she who used finish them for me while I used to be out playing.

Vacations were always fun reading books and learning something new from my granny till one fine day just before my Class Ten exams my father picked up all my craft stuff ( other than the school stuff) and threw it all away since I was always seen either knitting or embroidering than studying, which in his eyes was a crime.

It has been a long time since then and it was only after moving to Bahrain that I again started indulging myself in my hobby with no job ( since i recently resigned) and 5 hours of metime in the mornings when my daughter goes to school and also due to "DESI QUILTERS" . It felt like "bliss" and to add that the October challenge rules which actually pushed me to do the quilt and to add to it my loving hubby's" katkat" Why have you bought so much fabric? Why do you want to buy more fabric ? We always have to pay excess baggage when coming back after holiday to India because of your fabric shopping?

My first quilt can be described well as " A tale of four pillow covers and a half a bedsheet" . When I started, I had no plan in mind, since it was to be a strip quilt and it could be hand quilted .I wanted a bright quilt as I was tired of the dominance of PINK in my daughter's bedroom so I choose her second favourite colours green and orange . It took me a week to finish the quilt and during that time my living room and the dining table looked like a battlefield , but the effort was worth it. I made a lot of mistakes as I did not plan the quilt layout, which I want to overcome in my next quilt ( for my brand new nephew). 

I did miss my grandma's critical comments on my first quilt since I lost her a few years back, but thanks to my first quilt I relived my childhood with a trip down the memory lane to enjoy those precious moments which I had with my grandmother. 

Happy Quilting DQs!

-Prajakta

Sunny Bee Nikhat's Fiery Sun

Hello Sunny Bees,

My turn to be the QUEEN BEE :-)…well don't you worry, will not take you to task but will just 'Raise the bar' as Tina mentioned, a wee bit.

The theme SUN or SUNNY SIDE UP, for me  literally or figuratively is the fiery sun itself in all its glory.

Googled big time to see an apt image or tute for the image I had in mind and finally settled for this one…

FABRIC AND COLOURS

 100% cotton- small prints of sunny colours, shades of red, orange and yellow only

 100% cotton- Black  (please test for colour fastness for all fabric)

OTHER TOOLS

 White sheets of paper or fusible web

 Gluestick

 Scale and Protractor

 Pencil

 A pair of scissors

Cut out templates as shown

A - 4 nos.

B - 5 nos

C - 1 no.

D - 1 no.

E - 1 no. 

Place the templates A, C and D on the black fabric and stick them. Give a 1/4" seam allowance all over and cut the fabric.

Similarly, place templates B and E on the printed fabric, stick it and cut leaving a 1/4" seam allowance.

The link below will help you...

http://www.connectingthreads.com/tutorials/Freezer_Paper_Piecing-overview__D62.html

Sew the triangles together and then attach the centre arc.  Trim and iron.

 The radius of the arc should measure 13".

Thanks!

- Nikhat

First Quilts - DQ Manju

(Guest post by DQ Manju, the 6th in our series of 'First Quilts')

My First Quilt

My mother used to sew beautifully and do a lot of fine embroidery and I grew up seeing a lot of clothes being stitched and a lot of patchwork quilts being made. Sewing always fascinated me and I got a chance to play with it when I grew up. But the quilt bug caught me only after we landed in the USA about twelve years ago.

Quilting is big time over here and the different blocks that you can create just amazes me. The art quilts … ah! One of my big dreams is to make a half decent art quilt !

So a bit after settling down in our new home I visited a fabric store and they were starting a fresh quilt group for newbies…a block a month. You take a packet, they give you instructions to make the block, you show your completed block the next month and they give you the next block. So in twelve months we learnt to make 12 different blocks and they did give another class for binding and finishing the quilt, which I unfortunately missed!

So the first quilt I ever made was a sampler quilt with the American colours – red, white and blue. Adding my touch to the quilt I did a bit of satin ribbon embroidery on the border.



This quilt is gifted to my first born and I think it has been pretty well used. The quilting part is not well done on this one as I neither knew how to do it nor how and where to get it done so brought it back to ‘apanee Dilli’ and the local razai walla made a hash of it.

Though I did make it about 10 /11 years ago my quilting was lying dormant for a number of years and it has come out of hibernation only recently!

Also I love belonging to my Desi Quilters group and airing my quilting urge.

~Manju

DQ Oct'12 Challenge - Winner

The fact that there were a record 18 entries for the DQ October 2012 Challenge brought much joy to all Desi Quilters. Along with it, it brought much confusion and dilemma as it became increasingly difficult to choose and vote for only three entries for the final round. After much consideration, the votes were finally cast, and due to a tie, we have not three but four finalists !

Manju

Tina

Damayanthi

Madhu

And the winner picked by the random number generator is...(drumroll pls)..DQ Manju !

Congratulations Manju ! You get these lovely goodies from BERNINA India :

A BERNINA ' Pin Holder '...




... alongwith a BERNINA ' Magnetic Bobbin Holder '...

..and a current issue of the BERNINA ' Inspiration ' magazine, full of creative inspirational ideas and DIY projects..



Congrats once again, Manju ! Thank you Bernina !

First Quilts - DQ Poornima

(Guest post by DQ Poornima, the 5th in our series of 'First Quilts')

First of all, Thanks for putting my first quilt as the cover page! Truly a motivating gesture for an upcoming quilter! This group is really inspiring!

Making my first quilt has been an exhiliriating experience. But also it has been the most challenging... yes, one needs a LOT of dedication to finish it! I am so happy that I actually finished it!

Let me share with you how it happened. When I decided to make a quilt, the first thing thing for patterns on google. I found some really good ones, the pretty ones, the large ones, the smaller ones, the colorful ones, the simpler ones, the complicated ones...and finally I was confused and exhausted! Google is very helpful, but at times it throws up more information at you than you actually need. That is when I decided to visit Desi Quilters on Facebook and the Desi Quilters blog.

Desi Quilters are the most active quilters in the world! Everytime you log in, there is something new to look at. There is enough information (read inspiration) for a new quilter. I went through a lot of the pictures, tried to understand the patterns, fabric, colours, variations, most importantly measurements and also read a lot of posts/write ups from the members. At the end, I felt all geared up to create my very first quilt.

The first and foremost challenge for me was the measurements. Yes, it was very difficult for me because, I am not that good with numbers! In quilting, my measurements have to be precise if I want to put the pieces together at the end. I wrote my pattern and the measurements on a graph sheet. I erased and wrote again, and again and again - It took me two days to finally settle with a pattern and measurements. Then came the task for measuring the fabric. Again, I measured and remeasured and finally cut the fabric and got all the pieces ready. Sewing the pieces together felt like a cakewalk...until I realised that I have taken the wrong measurements! That's when I "slightly" started to feel that deciding to quilt was a wrong idea. I came back to Desi Quilters - saw more pictures - different patterns, colorful fabric, quilted pouches, quilted handbags, what not! That reassured me that I can really get this quilt together!

I re-did the measurements and cut the fabric. Once you get the peices ready, like I said, sewing is really a cakewalk. I cut the batting material and the back piece, and finally finished the quilt. It took me a week to finish the quilt. Finally when I showed it to my family and gifted it to my niece, it was a great experience! It gave me a high and inspired me to create more quilts (now that everyone in the family wants one!).

Creating a quilt is not a cakewalk, but you really feel like you have eaten a big piece of cake once your quilt is finished! I am hooked on to quilting. I can't wait to create more!

Thanks to Desiquilters!
-Poornima

Bee Desi with Nirmala

The Queen Bee for November is the ever-so-sweet DQ Nirmala who always always leaves an encouraging word on every single post on the DQ FB page. Over to Nirmala...

Hi I am Nirmala, very happy to be a member of 'Desi Quilters'. We began this bee in July and having a wonderful time with it. We have very very talented members in it where the exhibits are awesome....I am the queen bee of November and being a Chennai memeber, we are having monsoon season....Some ten years back we were at Nandanam near Adyar river and during the monsoon ,the river wall broke and we had to cross our street by boat..... had excellent time...So I chose the theme SAIL BOATS.

I have referred the pattern from About.com - http://quilting.about.com/od/babyquiltpatterns/ss/sailboats-baby-quilt-pattern.htm. I just completed one block and here is the picture....




Please USE ANY FOUR SOLIDS ONLY as printed is not that attractive.

Since I want the size around 12'' to 12.5'', pls use these measurements for cutting:

You have to cut 4" squares for the HSTs
8 x 4 " for the 2 side panels
4 x 12.5 for the boat and sea

Love to see your blocks soon!!!!!!!

-Nirmala

First Quilts - DQ Chumkie

(Guest post by DQ Chumkie, the 3rd in our series of 'First Quilts')

My First Quilt

Here is my first queen-size quilt, made in my first quilting class. The pattern is called Sunshine and Shadows. The squares adjacent to the white squares have some red in them, which the camera didn't pick up, so it isn't completely monochromatic.

It took 4 weeks to complete the top. I took a follow-up class to learn how to pick and piece a backing,  layering and basting the three layers, and took another class in hand quilting.

I initially started out machine quilting it, but since I was working with an old, old sewing machine which didn't have a walking foot, I gave that up in a hurry! It took me 3 years to complete hand-quilting this quilt!

There was enough material on the back of the quilt which allowed me to fold it over to the front to simulate binding.

This quilt was started in March 1991 and finished in September 1994. It was a very challenging first quilt and my advice to beginner quilters would be to start small because there’s no greater satisfaction and inspiration than to walk away from a class with a finished quilt.

This quilt was gifted to Son #2 a number of years ago, is used daily and still covers his and his wife’s bed.

- Chumkie

The Forgiving Quilt

(We are happy to have a guest post by DQ Rama sharing her very moving experience of the buDa traditional quilting workshop) 

=======================================
THE FORGIVING QUILT

I came to Nirmala akka's quilting workshop with some apprehension. I have been so urbanized in my approach to work and people that her mere photo was a challenge. Would I be able to connect to my rustic and earthy nature; was the question. My apprehensions were uncalled for. The place where the workshop was to be conducted, the hostess, the facilitator and the teacher were all so natural that I was calmed at once.

The process of quilt making was grounded and rooted in it's simplicity and complexity. Luckily Nirmala akka and Savitha broke the process into tiny bits and fed us over 3 days like a mother breaks the meal for a baby into tiny mouthfuls. When 3 days were up, we were all equally amazed at how we had succeeded in creating  what seemed a mighty art piece.

The second day was an intense experience for me as the quilt started taking form. The steps are linked until the very end, and, from the very beginning. Every step takes the lead from the previous one; the continuity spoke to me. The flow and the connect could not be missed. And the more my urban culture was determined to make every stitch perfect, the more tedious the process became. So I simply gave in to the process and got into the flow, fumbling and struggling and caring the least at spots, and diligent, conservative or simply plodding along at others. Midway through, I had tears in my eyes and the threads and colors blurred into a psychedelic haze. So very much like life...so very much like life was all I could think! Once the quilt had spoken it's secret to me, I was child like and trusting and laughing and garrulous. 

My respect for Nirmala akka grew. Whether she was a rural woman who made home sewn quilts from bits and pieces or she was a budding entrepreneur, I simply saw her as my teacher and as one who had helped me discover a gift from within myself. A person who had travelled a long way in her innocence and trust in life.

How ever each one of us blundered through the process, the quilts were beautiful at the end of the day. Quixotic, ethereal, flowing and loving, an extension of each one of us. And in the final pic, i couldn't see the flaws, the fumbling, the struggling; all that shows is the flow, the magic and the depth of it.

As forgiving as the great mother earth, the FORGIVING QUILT. As demanding as the great mother, the INTRINSIC QUILT, as psychedelic as mother nature, the MAGIC QUILT.

love

Rama

A Wee Bit Of Stash

A Wee Bit of Stash

We are fabric hoarders and proud of it. And to further encourage the growth and spread of this obsessive compulsive addiction, here's a peek at our stash, which, in the goodness of our hearts and our belief in our purpose, we are willing to share with you either thru a swap or sale. Open only to 'Desi Quilters' cult members. So, if you think you are a soul-sister (or brother) join our Face Book Page. For a bit of initiation, check out our blog at http://desi-quilters.blogspot.in/. Undying loyalty to the dark craft of quilting is a must.

Swap/Sale Etiquette:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/514140215267871/doc/514157378599488/

Unsheath the pins, needles, blades! May the tribe grow! 

Chumkie's Cathedral Windows QAL - Introduction

DQ Chumkie, who blogs at My Favourite Things , is leading a Quilt-along (QAL) on Desi Quilters on Cathedral Windows in an attempt to demystify the technique and entice newbies as well as pros to try their hand at this beautiful, beautiful block. She will be showing us the traditional way of doing it as well as modern adaptations of the same. Over to Chumkie...

Introduction

Get ready for some fun! Starting the third week in July, we will learn:

• 3 techniques for constructing the Cathedral Windows block:

1. The applique method.  This is probably the simplest one of all with no fabric wastage.
2. The dimensional one-seam Flying Geese method.  There's some fabric wastage here.
3. The dimensional Square-In-A-Square method.  There's less fabric wastage in this one.

• how to construct Star Windows using the applique method, a variation of technique #1 above.

• how to Quilt-As-You-Go where the top, batting and backing are layered and sewn in such a way that machine quilting is much easier to do because it's done in columns rather than trying to manage a whole, big quilt at once.

We will be making a cushion cover for each of the techniques described above.

For an easy to understand tutorial on the modern method of putting together a traditional Cathedral Windows quilt viisit http://hyena-in-petticoats.blogspot.com/2007/08/cathedral-window-quilt-tutorial.html

How To Assemble a Cushion Cover

Note: To make your own cushion insert, take a look at Gayathri's tutorial at http://gayathrisartscraftsspot.blogspot.com/2012/07/diy-cushion.html . She makes it look so easy to do!

Cut a square fabric the same size as the quilt top. Sew this to the quilt top with a 1/8" seam. This is the backing for the quilt top.

For the back of the cushion cover, cut two pieces of fabric each measuring the same width as the quilt top. As to the length of these pieces, one should measure 1/2 the length of the quilt top plus 5" and the other should measure 1/2 the length of the quilt top. On both pieces, fold a ¼” seam and fold again. Sew down these 1/4" seams on each piece, making sure that there is at least a 4" overlap between the two rectangles.

Two back panels

Place the pieced cushion cover, face up, on the work surface.  Place the longer rectangle on the cushion cover, face up, aligning the top edges.  Place the shorter rectangle, face up, on the cushion cover, aligning the bottom edges.

Cushion cover assembly

Pin all around. Sew around the four sides.  Snip the corners. Turn the cover inside out through the overlapping panels and insert the cushion.

Front of cushion 

Back of cushion 

- Chumkie