Tuesday 28 January 2014

More hand stitching

 At last!  The Banjara is finished - I think that it took me about 20 hours of stitching in total.  I added traditional details (cowrie shells - cheaper to buy a bracelet and snip it than to buy loose drilled shells for the number that I wanted), mirrors and plenty of herringbone stitch.  The needle threaders added around the edge were instead of coins.  Increasingly valuable to me, though, as my eyes get older!

Once it was finished it was time to start on my Kantha sample.  Pictures of that next week, perhaps, once its a bit more worked on.
 Whilst researching these 'geographical quilting' genres, I came across the phrase 'slow cloth'.  I guess that there are lots of ways of making these cloths, usually re-purposing old cloth into new items by layering them and reinforcing them with running stitch.

It made me go back to a couple of  mindless stitching items that were incomplete in my 'pick up and go' stitching pack.

Just like the sashiko, banjara and kantha stitching, layers of cloth with running stitch.
Unlike the other forms of stitching, much less precise, just playing with the form of the running stitch to make little patches of colour.

The stitches are all formed from ends of threads from other projects.  Some of the fabric left over from other projects too.  Real 'economy' but without having a utility at the end of the process - these pieces are only about 6" x 4".

I guess that I need to think about how best to use them now!

6 comments:

  1. These are lovely ! I'm not much if a quilter, especially not hand quilting, but I'm getting on with. *that* project: hand quilting in the different colours, and I am enjoying it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love these stitches on cloth! the colors are great, too. Banjara is so beautiful and colorful and natural looking! hugs, Julierose

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Plum love those slow clothes they look like so much fun just randomly making stitches using up old thread, they really appeal to me. I also love how The Banjara turned out. CHeers Glenda

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful! I especially like your Kantha sampler, what a good idea to try different quilting methods

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your work is really nice , Plum. Wonderfull.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving a comment! I always appreciate it and will try to respond.