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?

The HOVER Quilt

This is my first commissioned work! and now that the quilt is received, I'm free to write about it!

Okay the order was placed by my brother, but that doesn't make it any less!

After being blown off by the iQuilt, my brother wanted me to make a quilt for one of his clients.

Hover Inc

Here's what their logo looks like

They convert 2D elevation photos into 3D objects. So that's what I decided to do with their logo.

It was a long time since I had been in touch with the architect in me!

It was during having my morning cup of tea that I made my first sketch!!!

I was running on a tight schedule. I had more than a week when I started, but then we planned this long weekend trip just before I was scheduled to leave to spend some time with my parents! So I was left with just 4 days to start and finish the quilt.

The fabrics were pulled. I made my brother buy and send me the blue fabric so that I would get the colour right! So while he went shopping - 250 km away - I worked on the appliqué words!

I chose to appliqué rather than piece it so that I could finish it faster. I knew I would need 2 full days (And I mean about 10-16 hour days) just for the quilting! So I had to finish the appliqué without waiting for the background fabric to arrive! I appliquéd it on a light weight interfacing. I then appliquéd the entire thing onto the backing fabric when it arrived!

Day 2 post lunch saw me basting the beast! It was pretty big then, but I later trimmed it down to 60" x 38". It took me more than 30 hours to straight line quilt it. Little brother wanted the quilting to be dense to make the quilt stiff! So densely quilt I did... Want to know how dense?

Thats how dense it was!!! 95% of the quilt is quilted that densely!!!

At the end of Day 4 - well ACTUALLY  the end of - I finished my work at 12.30 am! The quilt was ready!!! I was happy with it. Needed to be sure that Little Brother was too!

When I gave it to him, he was overjoyed! And I got a quick hug from him, which told me a lot more than words would have. :)

Quilt stats :
Name : Hover
Size : 60" x 38"
Material used : Fabric - Bella Solids White, Gray, Etchings and a local solid cotton similar to Bella solid Bright Sky. I have used a Bella Solids Black for the binding.
Thread : Aurifil 50 wt thread in white, Slate Gray, Charcoal, Light Blue and Sapphire
The shadow under 'O' has been done with Fabric Crayons
Technique used : Appliqué, Free Motion Quilting.

Did the guys at Hover Inc like it?

They all posed for a photo with the quilt for my blog!!! Isn't that awesome?

That's my little brother sitting on the extreme left! "They went Crazy" were his exact words!!!

I'm so happy!!!

BTW, I have something to show you guys!!! But that HAS TO BE a separate post!

I can give you  sneak peek though...

Can you believe me if I tell you it has been home for more than a week and I have not opened it?

Well, its true. But its also true that though it has been home, I haven't!!!

So wait for my full post later this week!!!