The White Rainbow!!!

Here's my recent finish. and by recent I do mean that as I'm typing this, I have only finished putting the last stitches on the binding of this one!

It is a quilt that has been in my mind for a longer time than at my machine!

Sometime in April, as i was browsing the "SALE" section of my local book store I saw this one

And thats where this quilt started taking shape!!!

In that book one of the four sisters, a painter, looses her sight in an accident. The other 3 sisters decide to stay together in a single house to help her get back on her feet.

The part when the girl realizes that she cannot see any more prompted me to think what would an artist do without sight! It would be disastrous!

Even for us quilters, colours play a very important role. What would a quilt be without colours? And I mean ALL of it - the value, shade, etc. Not just one aspect of it.

Then I began thinking of what would colours mean to someone who has never 'seen'? How would a blind-at-birth person see them? How would they feel them?

That is when I decided to make a tactile quilt.

This quilt is what colours 'look' like to those who have never seen them.

The dots that you see are the names of the colors written in Braille.

I used the machine trapunto technique to give them the thickness so that you can actually feel them when you touch the quilt!!!

Here are the first three : Red. Orange & Yellow



And here are the next three : Green, Blue & Violet. (Can I tell you a secret? I forgot Indigo!!!)



I quilted it with almost straight lines using the BSR on my new machine (which I just remembered I haven't introduced to you guys yet). I used Aurifil 50 wt White thread for 99% of the quilting, which is super dense (< 1/8th inch apart). I also quilted just 3 lines in each row with the colour I have written so that you can see which one is which!!!



Making this quilt was a wonderful process. It is a quilt that also prompted me to donate my eyes! I filled an online form with the EBAI (Eye Bank Association of India) and am awaiting my acceptance email!

I have put in more thoughts in the design of this quilt than any other that I have made. But in the end I'm very happy with my work!!!



Quilt Stats
Name : The White Rainbow
Size : 36" x 50"
Material used :
Fabric :White Bella Solid, a little bit of the rainbow fabric by Anne Kelly for the binding.
Thread : Aurifil 50 wt - white for most of the quilting. Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue and Violet for some.
Batting : Pellon Fusible Fleece for the dots and Cotton batting overall!
Technique : Trapunto
Experience : Heartwarming!

Do you like my white rainbow?