Kaffe goes to the Temple

I have a finish!!!

Finished!!!

Yes, I am finishing with a BANG!!!

But let's start at the beginning. The mission was simple - Use up 124 HSTs left over from making Clay's Quilt.

Clay's Quilt in progress

I turned to Pinterest for ideas. There were a few that appealed to me.
Arrange 120 HSTs 10 by 12, sew and call it a flimsy.  Some design is bound to emerge. Right?

Leftover HSTs

I liked the idea of simple. I wanted to get it done.
Bernie and Mari had warned me that if I let them sit too long they would become a UFO.

Meh!

Quick and Simple. Who does not want that?
But it does not have that spice, that lure, that attention-grabbing, passionate tugging at my heartstrings effect.
Have you had that moment when you are so consumed by it that you forget almost everything else.
I was not getting THAT feeling.

Blah!

One Saturday morning, Paul asked me to accompany him to Chick-Fil-A. No, not exactly a date but he had a coupon for a free breakfast sandwich. Oh well.
Me: I want to sit near the window
Paul: It is too bright
Me: There is no such thing.
Paul: Are you a sunflower?
Me: Am I not?
Paul: Hmmm.
Me: You must be a vampire, seeking the darkest corner.
Chick-Fil-A employee - We do not serve blood.
Laughter

I also got something to eat. Did not care for it. Can you believe a breakfast place that does not serve hot tea? I mean it is just hot water. It is less work than coffee. I was feeling trapped and restless while Paul lovingly lingered over his potatoes.

Boredom can be a beautiful thing. My mind drifted back to the 124 HSTs waiting for me at the ironing board while I was trying to eat bland eggs.
Here is some salsa, Paul offered. I glared at him but accepted the salsa.
My thoughts drifted again. This time to a beautiful pink/orange quilt I had seen at allpeoplequilt.com a while ago. Composed of HSTs, what was its name - Ships something.

Found it.

What if?
I have a lot of little HSTs. So if I made a few larger ones (one large for every five small ones), I could make this block.

And then what?
Let's sketch.

Sketch

And then that feeling came - like a thief that is so close to the treasure that his fingers begin to tingle.
Now, I had to drop everything and make it.

Large HSTs, using Kaffe Fassett Solids

The first blocks

The first quadrant

Coming together!!!

I still had leftover HSTs. A border of HSTs? Maybe. But they have to fit right.  This required an internal border.

Gold Border and 4-patch blocks

And cornerstones, and tiny 4-patch blocks in the middle of the borders to make sure that everything falls in the right place.

Cornerstones

Almost There

The flimsy was complete. Well, almost. I added a skinny background border to make sure that the binding did not eat up the points of the HSTs.

Starting from that one block (1 large+5 small HSTs), the rest of the quilt came together, almost effortlessly, in a round robin fashion.  It is as if the quilt just made itself.

I chose a this green print for backing. And the binding contrasts beautifully.

Backing and Binding

Here it is!!! My 20th finish of 2017.

Hello Beautiful!

Can you see the sliver of background  between the binding and the points of the HSTs? 

I am in love!!!

A little dusting of snow made for a perfect backdrop.  But I had to take a break in the middle of the photo-shoot. I came inside to regain sensation in my fingers before venturing out a second time.

Ooh love the binding!!!

This quilt reminds me of the bright tents (shamiyana) at a traditional Indian wedding.
The colors are so much like my traditional jewelry set - green, gold and red.  These colors are also reminiscent of India's Temple Silk sarees.

Temple Silk and Jewelry

Going to the Pooja

The pattern is like a Rangoli, made at Diwali to welcome the Goddess Lakshmi.

Rangoli

The flying geese units are circling around the larger HST clusters.

Parikrama

Distilling all these thoughts and ideas, I have chosen to call it Parikrama.  Parikrama is the path that devotees follow, going around the temple to mark the end of the worship.

Labelled

Binding & Backing - Perfect Together

Parikrama finished at 46" square.

Scrappy and Spicy

Gold is Bold

It seems fitting that I end the year with this quilt, just as a devotee would end the worship with the parikrama of the temple.  As usual, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I will be linking with all my favorite linky parties, listed on the sidebar. Also linking with Sandra's Dreami.

Hope you stay warm and I wish you all a very happy new year.  

Winners!!!

Animal House Giveaway winners are comment numbers 84, 87 and 3.

Each winner will receive 20 five-inch squares, including at least one square of their favorite print.

 #3 - Alison likes cats on the green background.

#84 - Cathy likes the foxes.

#87 - Sheila like the cows.

Emails have been sent to the winners.  As soon as I receive the addresses, I will send out the bundles of cuteness. Thank you so much for playing.


Happy Holidays to you all!!!

MeToo

I grew up in India. Eve-teasing was common. You learned to ignore it. You tried to be careful. You stayed alert at all times and avoided traveling alone.

Many times, things happened so swiftly and/or left you in such a shock, that there was nothing you could do. If a passer-by on a scooter/motorbike made a lewd remark, whistled, stared, or made suggestive gestures, I could neither respond nor take him to task. I had to ignore it - pretend that I did not hear or understand.

Being touched or groped was harder to ignore.
There is one incident that I remember clearly.
I was traveling (alone) in the local bus going from the ISBT (interstate bus terminus) to my aunt's house. The local bus had two rows of seats, with four seats in each row - a window seat, and an aisle seat, on either sides of the aisle. I sat on one of the aisle seats, so that I could keep one hand on the suitcase placed in the aisle, next to my seat. The window seat was vacant. I was surprised when this big burly man came up to me. He expected me to move to the window seat. I did not.
I got up so that he could take the window seat. He sat with his arms crossed over his chest.
Shortly thereafter, I felt his fingertips touching me. I shifted away and turned to look at those fingers. They were still moving trying to make contact.
I hesitated for a minute or longer, but then I stood up. I do not remember exactly what I said but I lashed out at him.
Who do you think you are? What do you think you are doing?
He mumbled something, got up and left. 

I never told anyone about this incident. I did not have to. I handled it.

Another day, another bus - my friend Nina was traveling from work back to the hostel where we lived. Someone pinched her bottom. She turned around and slapped the guy behind her. He was taken aback. Said he did nothing. Nina was not taking it. She gave him a tongue-lashing too.

You are stronger than you think. Do not accept mistreatment of any kind from anyone. Speak up.

Mahishasura is a Sanskrit word composed of mahisha meaning buffalo and asura meaning demon, or "buffalo demon". As an Asura, Mahishasura waged war against the Devas (gods), as the Devas and Asuras' were perpetually in conflict. Mahishasura had gained the gift that no man could kill him. In the battles between the gods and the demons, the Devas were defeated by Mahishasura. Dejected by their defeat, the Devas assembled in the mountains where their combined divine energies coalesce into goddess Durga. The new born Durga led a battle against Mahishasura, riding a lion, and killed him.

I may be a tiny droplet but I believe that I am a droplet of the Goddess Durga, the Goddess that embodies the combined powers of all the Gods. If I am cornered, I will summon and channel the goddess to raise my voice and fight the evil till it is completely destroyed. You can too.

And kudos to all of them who did just that, who broke the silence, who said - Enough!

Usually I do not buy magazines.  This one is an exception.

Here is a clip that I encourage you to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkR8GY2YBAU

Power to you. Power to us. Because we are together in this movement.

Animal House and a Giveaway

The quilt was completed on Sunday but taking good pictures was a challenge due to limited daylight hours.  And then snowy or cloudy weather AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHH.
I am dying to show this one.  Here is the flimsy.

A beautiful day

Here is the back story of the quilt.
You know that Angela Walters is the queen of FMQ. Since I do not FMQ, (not even to save my life), I had not dived into the pool of Angela worshippers but admired her beautiful work from the sidelines.

But when Angela Walters joined forces with Craftsy (I am an affiliate) for the Midnight Quilt Show, I could not resist her awesomeness any longer.

In May, Angela did this show - Scrappy On Point Triangle Quilt. It is a free pattern.
I did like the pattern, but it seemed incomplete.

Scrappy On Point Triangle Quilt Pattern

The blocks looked like a cute roof, but it seemed that the house was missing. Just my opinion.
Angela had built castles in the air. It was up to me to put foundations underneath. The question was who should live in that house.

Chapter challenge

About the same time, my quilt guild announced the Chapter Challenge for the next Quilt Show - A quilt with Animals.
And I had this AHA moment. I knew what I had to do. I had to take Angela's roof blocks and place them over animal houses.

OK, I did modify the pattern, so that I could use jelly roll strips for the background. 
I started with 1.5" fabric strips. Sew two together along the length. The resulting combined strip set will be 2.5" wide. Placed RST with the 2.5" white jelly roll strips and stitched on both sides to make a tube. The rest of the pattern is the same to get the roof shapes.

Strip set

Making a tube

I did that with several strip sets. Made several roof blocks.

Assembly Line

Now comes the fun part - the houses and their adorable inhabitants.

Black & White need not be boring

Foxy!!!

Scary!!!

Time to put them together!!!

So cute

Holy cow!!!

Heard the buzz?

Oh design wall!!!

Rows of houses and the quilt top comes together.

Coming together

Yes, crabs have a house too!

So cute and so cheerful. I am calling this one Animal House.

Finished Flimsy - Happy Dance

I chose a crabby fabric for the backing. Why not? Let's take the animal theme all the way.
Quilted it using my walking foot, obviously. Just lines. I believe that is breeze - Houses in the Breeze.

Finished

The bright orange binding makes everything pop and matches the backing too :-)

Orange Binding Pops

How many different animal fabrics are in there?

Did you see the hedgehogs?

Not all. But a lot of them. There are several that did not make the cut.

Owls are a hoot!

So many owls. What a hoot :-D

The cows and the monsters are my favorite. But the cats have so much attitude. Shall we say Catitude?

Under the Tree

The finished quilt measures about 44" by 61". I am that after a wash it will shrink to under 60" along the length. It needs to be under 60" to qualify for the show.

Bundle of Joy

They may not be measuring each quilt, but I'd hate it if a small technicality kept this bundle of cuteness from making it to the show.

Paul, the model

Here is a close-up of the quilting.

Walking foot quilting

Labelled

I love it!!!

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And if you love a good sale, Connecting Threads is having a sale - all solids are 40% off.
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But if you are done spending money, here is a giveaway for you.  I started this blog four years ago. I know time flies, especially since I have been having sew much fun.

To celebrate this anniversary, I will share with you my 5" squares of cute animals.  There are three prizes - 20 squares each of animal cuteness.

Sample of squares in the giveaway

If you'd like to get your hands on these adorable, darling fabrics, please leave me a comment, telling me which animal fabric is your favorite.  If you follow me, leave me a second comment telling me how you follow me.

If you are a no-reply blogger, please include your email. Or better still stop being a no-reply blogger. Here is how http://www.sewathomemummy.com/2013/01/are-you-no-reply-blogger.html

This giveaway is now closed. Winners announced here.
I will announce the three winners on Christmas Day.  
Wishing you a joyful holiday season.
I will be linking with all my favorite linky parties. See the full list on the sidebar.


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