Monday, November 9, 2020

Siddi Quilt Start

Soooo. After all these months, I took my first remote quilt class over the weekend! It was Siddi Quilt, taught by Sujata Shah of The Root Connection. I had been fortunate to hear Sujata speak at a Seattle MQG meeting last year or so, but had yet taken a class from her. When I began seeing folks post about their Siddi quilts more recently, I knew I wanted to learn to make one too, and jumped at the chance when it materialized. It was so interesting, all history, words, and techniques I was not familiar with, and of course, hanging out with Sujata for a few hours was a pleasure.


So I'm not sure quite how long it's going to take me, as it's all by hand, so I thought I'd document the start of it by giving you a couple of peeks. Rather than totally use scraps, I dug into my modest Anna Maria Horner stash, much of which was floral, as well as some that was thinner than quilter's cotton - lawn maybe? I do expect I'll be adding some scraps, and definitely some other prints and solids, but the AMH Loulouthi you see in the for corners - the "pillars" - is where it all began.

So those pins are only there to keep things in place while I moved the piece to my evening-stitching seat - don't tell Sujata! ha. And that little corner bit? A "fula." So far, I'm finding the sewing to be most enjoyable. I'll be back eventually with an update!

16 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great class and I look forward to seeing how this evolves!

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  2. Fun hand stitching and colorful mix of fabrics! Perfect fall project.

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  3. well this is new to me! I can't wait to watch your progress

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  4. Some interesting hand stitching underway here, looking great! Roughly, how big is your piece?

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  5. Thanks for sharing this. I have spent most of my day, as I am in isolation, researching this technique. Unfortunately not many clear tutorials. Do you press 3 of the 4 edges of your fabric before hand sewing? Will be trying it when I get close to my fabric again.

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    1. You turn under only the edges you need to as you go.

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  6. Yours is going to be very pretty, Debbie. Isn't this hand-stitching relaxing? I'm trying to not use pins, but I've found it helpful to place an old TV tray on my lap (purchased from a thrift store) to use as a surface for finger-pressing (using a wallpaper roller to press - don't tell!) and to keep the pieces flat as I stitch. I don't always want to sit at a table to quilt.

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  7. What are the little triangles at the corners for?

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    1. Sorry I don't have your email, Jan. And unfortunately I forget what Sujata said about those! But I did find this online: "The final step is to sew at each corner of the quilt one or more folded square patches, which form a multi-layered triangle called a phula, or ‘flower.’ These serve no specific function, but they are regarded as essential to a properly finished or ‘dressed’ Siddi quilt. A kawandi would be regarded as ‘naked’ without the phula."

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  8. Can you explain what thread you use please.

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    1. Certainly. I used one Sujata suggested and love it: Spagetti 12wt Egyptian Cotton Thread in Ecru from Wonderfil Specialty Threads

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  9. So great to see the phula added at the beginning. My first one was very small and all sewn by hand, but I couldn't work out how to add the phula after the corners were done. I will definitely add them as I go this time. a tip I was given somewhere was to cut the phula as circles to reduce the risk of fraying.

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    1. Interesting to cut them as circles. I just did as my teacher suggested, but good to have options. Enjoy making another!

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