Life's Embrace

Holi is the Indian festival of colors. It marks the welcoming of Spring. People play Holi (smear each other with colors and douse each other with colored water) and eat festival foods till they are sick. By late afternoon, everyone is exhausted from playing and then scrubbing (attempting at least) to get themselves clean.

Yummy Scraps

Growing up in India, I hated Holi.

It was an excuse for just about anyone (male/female, young/old, familiar/stranger) to touch you, on the pretext of playing Holi/smearing you with color. The colors were not good for your skin. Some would not be washed away for days later. It was messy and filthy and I hated it.

I would lock myself in my room and not come out till 4:00 in the afternoon, when the “playing Holi” was officially over.  I actually enjoyed the Holi foods, though.

Now that I am away from the forced mingling and should stay away from most festival foods anyway, the big question is – how do I celebrate the festival of colors???

…With Fabric, so much yummy fabric. Playing with colorful fabric scraps is like Holi. But it is so much better.

And that is exactly what I did - played with colorful scraps.

Elongated 4-patches

With lots of 2.5" scraps left over from Grape Salad and A Walk in the Park, I started to play. I cut up the scraps into rectangles - 2.5" by 4.5" and played and played till I was exhausted and Paul admonished me to go to bed.

Playing with Color!!!

The pattern came to me in my sleep. It was the "Phoebe's Flower Box" Pattern (Thank you, Jenny).  As I started putting the blocks on the design wall, Paul suggested that instead of using white sashing, I should use black. It stands out more, he said. What do you think?

Sashed in Black

Jewel Tones

All things bright & beautiful

I had 100 blocks. I could make either a lap size quilt or two baby quilts. Hmm, two quilts - spread the joy!!! Right?

As I was sashing the colorful batik blocks with the Kona black solids jelly roll strips, I was listening to Bollywood music, as I often do when I am sewing. Sometimes, nodding my head, sometimes singing along and occasionally I will translate for Paul the meaning of the song, in the hope that he will “try” to learn the language. Silly me!!!

So Simple and Stunning

One such song is “Ae Zindagi, Gale Laga Le. Humne bhi tere har gam ko gale se lagaya hai, hai na”

Translation – O Life, embrace me. I have embraced all your sorrows. Haven’t I?

Love love love this song/lyrics. It is as if Life is another person. The writer/singer is conversing with Life and saying that since I have accepted you, O Life, with all your troubles, won’t you embrace me too? Show me some love…

Finished!!!

The finished quilt is about 43" square. The batting is Warm & Natural.

Walking Foot Quilting

I am naming this quilt – Life’s Embrace. 

Life, because it is colorful with its myriad hues, lights and darks and mostly because even our happiest moments are tinted with sadness (Batik) and the saddest moments may have something to smile about. 

Embrace because the black sashing embraces the colored rectangles.

I used this super adorable fabric for the backing.

Pink Elephants

Is this too girly, I asked Paul. No, it has animals, he said.

Orange Giraffes (Note the flowery tail)

I quilted it using a decorative stitch on my Janome, in almost straight lines. The binding is a pale orange and it matches the backing - Love when that happens.

This time, I did something different. Instead of using the squiggly stitch to secure the binding to the front, I used a straight stitch. It worked!!! it was faster too. I guess, that my sewing has improved (even if slightly) that I don't have to hide my imperfections with the squiggle.

Binding, from the front

Binding, from the back

This will be henceforth my go-to style of binding.




And finally, here is the label - Life's Embrace. This is my 7th finish of 2015 and I am so happy with the way it turned out.

Hope it will inspire to play with fabric scraps and have loads of good clean, non-messy, fun with colors!!! Happy Spring to you all!!!

Whispering Window

It is tax season. Gathering the documents, filling out the forms, checking and rechecking, and finally filing the return killed two precious weekends. No sewing, no quilting, and absolutely no blogging happened.

Original Scraps

Taxes are now done and that is a relief. I am back to quilting and blogging while I wait for the refund!!!It is a tiny amount but it is that unexpected aspect of it that makes it so yummy.
Yes, that is why I do the taxes - so that I can claim the refund. Paul agrees. If I do the taxes, I get to keep the refund!!!

Thinking of the refund as the scraps left over after you've made the quilt, takes out some of the sting associated with taxes. Scraps, like the refund, are a little bit like that unexpected bonus.

Yumminess!!!

A few months ago, I received some scrappy goodness from a quilter friend. I picked out a few of those scraps, added white yardage and arranged the rectangles into a window-pane shape. I wanted all four panes to be different to create some visual interest!

Layout

Top Left

Top Right

Bottom Left

Bottom Right

The batting is Warm & Natural. For Backing, I used a pretty purple striped fabric with pops of yellow, red and green that just matched perfectly.

Quilted with my walking foot - straight lines in the white part and slightly curvy in the window portion. I think it conveys the effect of rain falling on the windowpane - rainwater running into rivulets on the glass. The variegated blue thread came from Connecting Threads and I love it.

Quilted!!!

Rain on the Pane...

Variegated Blue Thread :-)

Quilting Detail

The binding is a lighter/brighter shade of purple. Stitched to the quilt back, brought to the front and stitched in place using my favorite squiggly stitch.

Matched!!!

The finished quilt measures 40" by 42". And here is the label...

Label

Few more pictures

Back with Label

Sunny & Rippled

Slanted Angle - just because...

Whispering Window

This quilt was not on my to-do list. I saw the scraps, I asked for them and just played with them. See the result? Well, I am very happy with this little gem of a quilt.  I guess amazing and magical things can happen when we dare to go off the script and live spontaneously.

Do you agree?

A Glimpse of Sylvia

Paul's grandma, Sylvia passed away last month.  She lived next door from Paul's parents. I had met her only a few times - once every year since Paul and I have been married. We were not close. Then in 2012, when I discovered sewing/quilting and my mother-in-law (MIL) and Sylvia learned of my new passion, there was a dramatic change.

Vintage Fabrics

"Welcome to the family", my MIL exclaimed. The sewing family, she explained. Immediately, I gained access to the inner circle and was allowed to not only visit the fabric room, I was even allowed to pick fabric from their stash.

Simple Rail Fence Blocks

Sylvia gave me white fabric with red hearts, some red/silver yardage, some pieced strips, and an assortment of vintage scraps from her stash. I was giddy.

My favorite Floral print

Last Thanksgiving, Sylvia was sick and we did not see each other. When I heard of her passing, I felt the need to relive our short time together - the only way I could. I pulled out the pieced strips that I received from her stash. As I cut and pieced, I could not help think - So this is how a grandma's quilt feels - homely and comforting.

Berry Border

The border fabric is also from Sylvia. I just love this color - rich, dark, pink/violet/berry and gorgeous. I am glad it matches the binding so well.

Come snuggle with me!!!

Arranged into a simple rail fence, the blocks finished at 6", the border is 2" and the finished quilt is 40" by 46". I used Warm & Natural batting. Quilting is a simple stitch over the ditch and the dusty rose binding is pieced.

Dusty Rose Pieced Binding

The soft floral backing came from Debbie - a cousin of my father-in-law (FIL). When I met Debbie at Thanksgiving, we talked about sewing and quilting, and then she invited me into her sewing room. Then she generously cut out yardage from this beautiful bolt of floral fabric and gave it to me.

Backing - Inspired by a Painting?

By including Debbie's fabric with Sylvia's fabric, and giving a new lease of life to her fabrics I am hoping that this is more than just a quilt. It is a family's way of celebrating, remembering and cherishing Sylvia's life.

Backing & Binding match!!!

I will give this finished quilt to Paul's dad when I see him next. I hope he can feel Sylvia's love in her fabrics. I have decided to call it "A Glimpse of Sylvia"

A Glimpse of Sylvia

I hope I have done some measure of justice to Sylvia's fabrics and able to capture her memory.

Blush & Bashful

Finishing Joyce's quilt was such a big deal for me. I wanted to take it easy for a bit.
I did not want to start anything new. But a quick finish will be oh so good. So, I picked up the pink (not UFO) blocks that I mentioned here.

Beginning Blocks

There were a total of 81 blocks. I could arrange them 9 by 9, add a border and have a quilt top in no time. Nothing wrong with that.

Initial Layout

But how about I add a little something more to it. Like a few solids. These pink and purple solids were screaming to be used. I agreed to give them a purposeful life.

Solids to add a bit of Oomph!

I added a strip of solid color to each block so that each block went from 4.5" square to a 4.5" by 6.5" rectangle. I fiddled with the arrangement and chose this one.

Final Layout

Once again, as I was piecing the quilt top, I wondered - what shall we call this one? It has a lot of pink. It is very floral too. Bet, it reminds you of spring.

Fresh Snow on top of Stale Snow

But then, when you are in the dead of winter with 6 inches of snow that melts only slightly to refreeze into ice, just about everything reminds you of spring.
Does it  not?
No, I did not want to give it a spring time name.

Spring Tease???

Pink, like blush.
Blush...
And then, I had this aha moment. I remembered a scene from the movie - Steel Magnolias, where Shelby describes her wedding colors. "Pink is my signature color", she says. Her wedding colors were "Blush and Bashful"

Paul, the Model :-)

That is it. I decided to call this quilt - Blush and Bashful.  I chose this chocolate and pink dotty fabric for the backing.

Backing

Bright Pink Border

The finished quilt measures about 40" by 58". I used Warm & Natural Batting. As usual, the binding was done using the super quick - stitch to the back, bring to the  front and stitch down using the squiggly stitch!

All done

A quick finish is so gratifying. I hope it will make some little girl very happy.

Quilt #4 for 2015

This is Quilt#4 for 2015. Looks like it is going to be a great year!!!

How is 2015 going for you?