betukbandi

The ‘Totally Mads’ Nearly Insane Quilt —Completed!

This quilt, popularly known as the ‘Nearly Insane’, is based on the 1860s quilt by Salinda Rupp, with 98 blocks measuring 6” square. The block patterns are available on my store patchworkofmylife.

Continuing to update my blog with the quilts finished over the last few years, comes the one that drew me to quilting in the first place.

This quilt was the background theme of my quilting life for over ten years, before I finished it last year. So after yet another year, here finally are the pictures of my completed quilt. Also enjoy some trivia about the original quilt, made by the Pennsylvania resident, Salinda Rupp in the 1860s, which came to be known as the Nearly Insane Quilt and which launched a thousand quilts!

Do you know that this quilt (not mine, but the original Salinda Rupp quilt) actually has at least two poems inspired by it? One of them you can check out here. Despite all my research on the net, I could not discover who wrote the other, titled ‘The Geometry of Grace’, so am not sure if it would be fair to share it here.

As for my quilt, which I call ‘Totally Mads’ , the colours were inspired by Jaipur blue pottery.

Jaipur blue pottery ( image not mine— from the web)

The average number of pieces in each block are between 35-40

It has over 5600 pieces, including the borders and sashing!

The most intricate block has 229 pieces in a six inch square!

Most people prefer to English paper piece it or piece it by hand, because the pieces are so tiny. I decided to draft patterns to foundation paper piece it by machine.

When actually quilting it, I used the quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) method, best suited to my sit-down Husqavarna Viking Topaz 30. Because the squares are on-point, I had to be innovative about the panels. I decided on a total of nine panels, but had to add four for the borders because of the way blocks joined up…

The quilt back! The centre blue square actually has 5 QAYG panels. The four yellow corners are again separate QAYG panels.

The original quilt finishes at 88” x 88” but I added and extra border to increase the size.

The extra border and the flanged binding.

I have used a double batting, one a bamboo and the other cotton. The quilt weighs a ton now! Lesson learnt— never again, especially for a quilt where the top is already so heavy because of the enormous number of pieces. (This also explains why I have no full frontal picture of the quilt!)

The other thing that irks me ( but I refuse to do anything about it) is that the borders are not as heavily quilted as the rest of the top, so they kind of ‘hang loose’.

This video might give you a better look at the quilt.

A closer look at the quilt…

Hope you enjoyed that!

P.S I have realised that my block-wise record of the quilt was also not completed, so I shall do that in subsequent posts, for those of you who want to jump into this extremely soul-satisfying (and yet at times exasperating) project.

Like I mentioned, the patterns are available on my store!

Falling in Love — A Portrait Quilt

A portrait quilt—all in colour—of a joyful young couple, using fabric collage against a pieced background, with lots of thread-painting.

Last year, a dear friend entrusted me with the task of making a wedding anniversary gift for her daughter (whom I shall simply call A). It was to be a portrait of A and her husband, to be called, what else, H!

I chose to combine two pictures, taking the gorgeous couple’s faces and figures from one and placing them against a background of a yellow maple tree during fall. The couple had met and fallen in love in Canada, so this seemed only appropriate!

The quilt which turned out to be much more difficult than what I had envisaged. For one, both of my subjects were smiling broadly!

H’s smile Falling in Love portrait quilt

H’ s eyes were behind his glasses and getting that shading right is always a problem.

H had a delightful dimple, but how do I portray that in a fabric collage? Not to forget getting that beard right.

Then there was A’s beautiful long shiny, silky hair with highlights in reds, auburn like the colours of fall around her!

Let us not forget the clothes and the accessories.

Details of A’s leather jacket with its zipper

The maple tree in the background was not easy!

The maple tree in fall—I appliquéd some branches and leaf cut-outs randomly on the pieced background

I wanted to show some sunlight peeping through the tree, to reflect the joy on this couple’s face.

The sky peeps out from between the yellow leaves.

Despite the long, long hours it took, it was all worth it and I had quite a sense of satisfaction and achievement when it was finally done! ( I do not recall exactly the dimensions of the quilt, but I vaguely remember it was about 32” x 40”)

So I now leave you with a couple of videos of the quilt.

Falling in Love— the gorgeous couple! May they continue to smile together lifetime after lifetime!

I hope A and H love the quilt as much as I enjoyed making it.

The Poncho Girl – A Portrait of Tana

A Portrait Quilt

I am overwhelmed with emotion when I try to write anything about this portrait of my daughter…I will try to just stick to photos of how it was done!

This photo, so quintessentially my Tana, was my inspiration for the quilt! I started working on it in January 2022, about a year from when she passed on.

Vectorization done on the Vector Q app

The collage came up pretty quickly!

What followed were a couple of trips—one exploring Rajasthan and another one in to Gujarat! Finally got back to working on it, hoping to finish it by her birthday in April!

Sadly, didn’t feel quite done on her birthday. Needed a lot of more quilting to add depth to it!

( Note that I am trying ‘contour quilting’ quilting on it, where the quilting follows the face contours)

This looks better, right? But I don’t like the way some of the lighter threads stand out against the darker areas! Gives it a harsh look! Not for my gentle darling, it wouldn’t do!

I used Inktense pencils to reduce contrast in the in-between areas and darken some stitching lines so that the threads matched the fabric!

Tip: A bit of Cadmium Orange or Burnt Orange does wonders to soften harsh contrasts in portraits, especially with our Indian skin types! It is great for lip-colour too!

A close-up of her smile

See the Inktense at work!!

The hair…

Were those the most beautiful eyes in the world that mirrored the purest soul that ever lived?

I cut out a poncho I had made for her and used it to dress her! The flowers and leaves were also cut out from the poncho.

The quilt was mounted on a ( mounted) canvas, which makes it easy to hang. It now lives in my living room where I can look at her while watching TV…

…or touch her, talk to her, smile at her every time I walk past her!

She smiles right back!

So that is my Tana in her poncho!

Lost Treasures

I have not shared anything here for a long, long time, I know. Initially this blog was meant to be a record of what I create— painting, sketches, poems, short stories and, of course, my quilts! A sudden loss of some of my work reminded me that I do need to get back to maintaining this record, so here I am!

When I am visiting my son in the USA, I cannot quilt for various reasons that include a highly inquisitive grandson who turned three this year! So I sketch. It is much easier to gather a few pencils and a sketchbook and hide them when the mischievous imp appears!

The sketches are al on Strathmore Grey using a 2B and a 2H pencil.

So this year, I started a sketch of this old puppeteer that I had photographed a few years ago in Jaipur.

Jaipur Puppeteer Photo drawn 7 September 2024

The sketch was half-finished, when Grandson saw what I was up to!

“Draw me, Amma,” came the command. Obviously, Amma put aside everything else and started on a sketch of the baby, from a photograph taken when he was two!

Advit Photo 23 July 2023 —drawn 8 September 2024

As I had only two pencils—a 2H and a 2B to work with, I decided to put this away and start on this sketch of my daughter. To be completed when I got back home to India!

Tana 13 August 2017 —drawn 30 September 2024

When packing for India, I removed the sketches and wrapped them up in some sheets of paper and got them home in my carry-on luggage.

And then, when unpacking, I forgot what those white sheets were all about, and threw them away in the garbage with all the packing material (or that is what I presume I did, because they are not to be found anywhere)! I have hunted high and low but no sign of the sheets or the sketches.

Well, they do say, enjoy the process when creating art and forget about the fruit of your labour! In any case, these would most likely have gone into the garbage after me. So be it. A lesson also, perhaps, about the transient nature of this world!

Whatever it is, I am glad I have these photos and some close-ups which I am adding here, to come and look back at, whenever…

Perhaps I shall do a quilted portrait now using this photo! I am less likely to throw that away by mistake!

And here are some process photos of the sketches of the puppeteer!

Getting the features down in place

Bringing in the values

Blending…and more blending!

After about 8 hours!

And finally, a close-up of a pair of eyes which can change from innocent to naughty in seconds…

The Dreamcatcher in the Morning Sun

As I flung this Dreamcatcher at Dusk on my bed today morning, the sun streamed in from the windows, creating its own patterns and textures on the quilt…and I fell in love with it again!