But first here's what I made to enter into the quilt.
The theme of the competition was "Tell a story" and we were urged to be as Indian as possible.
Here's my story and my quilt!
My Story : I was overjoyed to have the opportunity of participating in the first of India's very own Quilt Competition.
I have been quilting for almost 5 years now. Being a self taught
quilter, and due to the non-availability of proper training here in
Sangli, I gravitated towards do-able quilts - Modern quilts. I love
colour and most of my quilts are bright, colourful and strikingly
modern. For this competition I wanted to attempt something that I had
never done before. That's when I got out my bucket list.
My bucket list - the ever growing list of quilts I want to
attempt some day - includes quilts like Wedding Ring, New York Beauty,
Cathedral window and many more traditional quilts. It also had one item
that I kept on going back to again and again - A white on white Trapunto
Quilt.
Pensieve is my take on the traditional Trapunto. I am more
comfortable using the sewing machine, and hence I decided to make it on
my sewing machine ONLY.
It was a long, tiring yet rewarding process that started with the design itself. The inspiration came from a Mandala
colouring page. I had a few of them from my pre-quilting days when I
used to be an Architect. I remember I had referred to them for
inspiration for flooring design. I combined 3 designs - my favorite of
the lot - to make this one. I did the initial designing on AutoCAD - the
designing software I'm most comfortable with. Then I got it printed to
actual size.
After that began the slow process of precisely tracing out
the pattern on my top fabric - Kona Snow. I used a Pilot Frixion pen for
it. I basted the top fabric with a thin batting, and stitched along the
design lines using a water soluble thread.
Once ALL of the design was stitched, I started cutting away
the batting from places where the quilt would have dense quilting.
Again, it was a slow, tiring and this time - painful - process. My
fingers were sore forever from all the cutting, using the thin manicure
scissors.
Glad to be done with the cutting, I then basted the top once
again, this time using a high loft cotton batting and once again a Kona
Snow backing. After this I spent more than 50 hours doing the
super-dense quilting. I used 5 and a half spools of 500 m thread in the
top and an equal number in the bobbin! And at last after a lot of work,
which I am sure will be considered as aerobic activity, the quilting was
done.
I was so happy it was done, only to realize that the quilt
was so stubbornly uneven that IT JUST WONT LAY FLAT! Time to block the
quilt!
I got my pin up board down from my living room wall
and soaked the quilt - I had to soak it anyway, white on white quilts
become dusty white on dusty white with all the handling - and tugged and
pulled and stretched and pinned till the poor thing was forced to lay
completely flat! I then dried it in the sun, that's about the only time I
was happy that it was summer - since the deadline was looming at a few
hours!
As soon as it was dry - I bound it using the same Kona Snow and it was ready for the photo session!
I
named it Pensieve. For all those who are not familiar with the Harry
Potter vocabulary, a Pensieve is a stone basin used to store and review
memories. Covered
in mystic runes, it contains memories whose physical form is neither gas
nor liquid. A witch or wizard can extract their own or another's
memories, store them in the Pensieve, and review them later. It also
relieves the mind when it becomes cluttered with information. Anyone can
examine the memories in the Pensieve, which also allows viewers to
fully immerse themselves in the memories stored within, much like a
magical form of virtual reality.
The time I spent
quilting this quilt is a time I will never forget. It gave me a lot of
time to think about myself and where I am heading in my life. As I took
every stitch, I sorted through the memories that came back to me from my
childhood, my college days, early days of courting and the last 9 years
of my marriage. I reviewed where I stood on my Career front, I wondered
about the future of my 7 year old son, and i dreamt of growing old with
my wonderful husband! It took me on a awesome trip through time and I
enjoyed every moment of it. The grrrrr of my machine as I worked on it
provided just the white noise I needed to filter off unwanted sounds! I
sat at my table near the window watching little birds flit about on the
trees in my garden, I watched cats chasing squirrels, I watched my son
ride his bicycle, I watched my family come and leave the house. All
these memories will always come back to me when I will look at the
quilt!
Quilt stats
Name of the Quilt : Pensieve
Size : 36" x 36"
Fabric Used : Kona Snow
Thread : Calypso Off White - #0000261
Technique Used : Trapunto