Category: My Quilts

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!

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!

When the sunlight creates its own patterns on my Dreamcatcher!
Southward Bound?
The Sun-Moon Dreamcatcher from which this quilt, made in the colours of dusk, got its name.
Was my least favorite block when being sewed! Everything that could go wrong…did!
Love the texture on this one…
The Diamond displaying its fire
The tiny hearts quilted into the wedding ring…love is everywhere!
The gloriously fiery oranges and reds of the sun set off the cool blues of the evening
…and the geese return to the pond to roost.
One las look at the sun as it sets…

Wouldn’t you agree it is lovely in the morning sun too?

Nearly Insane Quilt…Blocks 53-59 Row 9

More Insanity recorded!

How I have enjoyed piecing this quilt, originally made by Salinda Rupp in the 1860s! Salinda’s quilt is not all perfect and symmetrical like other quilts of that era! Whimsical blocks and use of whatever scraps she had in hand make this such a lovable creation.

So, here comes Row 9 in my series of posts on  my version of Salinda’s quilt, which became popularly known as the Nearly Insane Quilt. The blocks are all set on point, with 7 and 6 blocks in the alternating rows.

The blocks are 6″ square and, except for a few, foundation paper pieced by me.  I drafted all the patterns for FPP on the free Quilt Assistant software, based on patterns in Liz Lois’s book, which contains only line drawings of the finished blocks.

Most of the fabric used is Summer Breeze 3, with a fat quarter bundle of matching solids by Moda Fabrics, and the Dutch Garden 2 Collection by Boundless Fabric. I also used a couple FQs in blues and greens plus a jelly roll of yellows I had in my stash.

Nearly Insane Block  53

Number of pieces: 29

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)

Nearly Insane Block  54

Number of pieces: 41

Level of Difficulty:  Another easy one. Looking at it now, I wish I had used fussy cut flowers for the other two cornerstones in the centre too!

Technique: Foundation paper pieced

Nearly Insane Block 56

Number of pieces:  72

Difficulty Level: Easy! Squares in squares and flying geese become really pretty, with sharp points and also simple to piece when you use foundation paper to piece them! The centre pinwheel is made with regular piecing.

Technique: Foundation paper-piecing and machine -piecing

Nearly Insane Block 55

Number of pieces:  49

Level of Difficulty:  I think Salinda used up all her scraps to piece this one! Probably one of the last ones she pieced.

Technique: Foundation paper-pieced.

Nearly Insane Block 57

Number of pieces: 49

Level of Difficulty:  Easy, but so pretty! This was one of the first blocks I pieced!

Technique: Foundation paper pieced.

Nearly Insane Block 58

Number of pieces: 48

Level of Difficulty:  intermediate, with lots of points to match, unless you do FPP, like I did. This is one of the blocks that makes Salines’s quilt so special! What went on in her mind? Did she decide to just use up all the extra HSTs she had at hand to sew the centre?

Technique: Foundation paper pieced

Nearly Insane Block 59

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 59

Number of pieces: 36

Difficulty Level: Easy. I made the centre 4-patch first and then built the block around it. The corner triangles were foundation paper pieced.

Technique: Machine-piecing and foundation paper-piecing.

Here are the links to the previous seven rows!

Row 1 ( Blocks 1 to 7)

Row 2 (Blocks 8 to 13) 

Row 3 (Blocks 14 to 20, with a couple missing)

Row 4 (Blocks 21 to 26)

Row 5 (Blocks 27 to 33)

Row 6 (Blocks 34 to 39)

Row 7 (Blocks 40 to 46)

Row 8 (Blocks 47 to 52)

The Foundation Paper-Piecing Patterns for the blocks of the Salinda Rupp Nearly Insane Quilt are now available on my store!

The Just Takes 2 Quilt That Just Took Ten…

Begun in 2012 as a Block-of-the-month by Gay Bomers of Sentimental Stitches and finished in 2021, this quilt taught me almost all I know about quilting!

Last year, my Just Takes 2 Quilt (pattern by Gay Bomers of Sentimental Stitches) finally got quilted, nearly ten years after I began it!

Tina Katwal of The Square Inch did a fabulous job and the quilting is nothing short of exquisite! Here is a gallery of some of my favourite blocks! I included some pictures of the back; zoom in to see the quilting.

Here goes the sun…
The lights come on as the sun is ready to go down…
What is there not to love?
An eight-point star I made the wrong size and added the border to make it up to 6″
Framed in yellow!
More needleturn…
Another Favourite Block
Like that little yellow airplane?
Some very well-loved traditional blocks…
Yet another pretty one!
…from the back
Textures!
Gorgeous Textures!
And intricate blocks…
Another look at the back…
Lots of points there to match
One of my top favourites!
Sweet!
Just love this!
I like how the golds brighten up the proceedings
So proud of this one!
This was my first-ever bit of applique!

The colours so remind me of the monsoon evenings at home in India, with the red of the sunset playing hide and seek with the charcoal grey, water-laden clouds! The original, incidentally, is in red and white. Here is the full quilt!

The Just Takes 2 Quilt

Such a sense of achievement finishing an UFO! What have you been doing-creating more UFOs or finishing up the projects in hand?

Nearly Insane Quilt…Blocks 47 to 52 Row 8

If you are as entranced by tiny piecing and antique quilts as I am, you have got to have seen the Salinda Rupp quilt! I have been brave enough to attempt to recreate the quilt and am sharing my version here!

The blocks are all done and the quilt is now being quilted. However, after an absence of several months, I decided to update the record of the blocks. So here comes Row 8 in my series of posts on  my Nearly Insane Quilt,  based on a 19th century quilt by Salinda Rupp...  The blocks are all set on point, with 7 and 6 blocks in the alternating rows.

The blocks are 6″ square and except for a few, foundation paper pieced by me.  I drafted all the patterns for FPP on the free Quilt Assistant software, based on patterns in Liz Lois’s book, which contains only line drawings of the finished blocks.

Most of the fabric used is Summer Breeze 3  (with a fat quarter bundle of matching solids) by Moda Fabrics, and the Dutch Garden 2 Collection by Boundless Fabric. I also used a couple FQs in blues and greens plus a jelly roll of yellows I had in my stash.

Nearly Insane Block  47

Number of pieces: 36

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)

6" Salinda Rupp Nearly Insane Quilt Block by patchworkofmylife
Block 47 Nearly Insane Quilt  (wrongly captioned as 84)
Nearly Insane Block 48

Number of pieces: 29

Level of Difficulty:  Another easy one. Doesn’t all the fussy cutting make it pretty?

Technique: Foundation paper pieced with handle of the basket appliqued.

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 48
Nearly Insane Block 49

Number of pieces:  108

Difficulty Level: One of the more difficult blocks to piece, especially as the borders have pieced rectangles instead of squares.

Technique: Foundation paper-piecing

49

Nearly Insane Block 50

Number of pieces:  29

Level of Difficulty:  One of the more difficult ones, but was not as complicated as I made it! First I cut the diamonds in the wrong direction and then I joined one of the yellow oblong pieces wrong. And then all those points…

Technique: English paper-pieced. This block would be impossible to piece otherwise.

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 50
Nearly Insane Block 51

Number of pieces: 37

Level of Difficulty:  Easy, but so pretty!

Technique: Foundation paper pieced the centre strips and English paper pieced the stars.

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 51
Nearly Insane Block 52

Number of pieces: 30

Level of Difficulty:  Easy! Salinda was also trying to use her leftover scraps, just like me. Makes the block look busy, but…

Technique: Foundation paper pieced

Salinda Rupp Nearky Insane Quilt Block by patchworkofmylife
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 52

And here are the links to the previous seven rows!

Row 1 ( Blocks 1 to 7)

Row 2 (Blocks 8 to 13) 

Row 3 (Blocks 14 to 20, with a couple missing)

Row 4 (Blocks 21 to 26)

Row 5 (Blocks 27 to 33)

Row 6 (Blocks 34 to 39)

Row 7 (Block 40 to 46)

Breaking News! The Foundation Paper-Piecing Patterns for the blocks of the Salinda Rupp Nearly Insane Quilt are now available on my store!