A Journey to India

At our January meeting we were whisked away on a magical journey to India. Well... not quite, but almost! Jean S shared with us some tales of her journies to India and best of all, showed us many of the wonderful silks and other fabrics she has purchased there. She kindly passed many of them around, allowing us all to indulge our "quilter's desire" to fondle and pat, and enjoy the luxurious textures. She also showed her sari and explained how it is wrapped and worn.

Besides fabrics, Jean has also collected numerous pieces of Indian embroidery and needlework.
Of course different regions of the country have different styles and patterns. In the north, in Rajastan they are famous for their mirror work and Jean told us just about everything is decorated with shisha mirrors stitched into patterns.



























 Beading and sequins are an art form and are used in many ways, on beautiful ornaments, clothes,
wall hangings and of course saris.

























 Block printing seems to be popular in northern Maharashtra where Jean visited this time.  The art of block printing is quite labor intensive with colors printed over each other and some beautiful saris have individual block printing  and are one of a kind.








Wedding Saris are usually in red and gold and have 5,000 threads running across the width of the fabric which is 5 meters long.  Kamchapuram silks in Tamil Nadu are the finest and people travel from miles to buy there; this is where Jean's sari is from.

It's always exciting to see fabrics and needlework from another part of the world. Thank you Jean, for this inspiring textile journey to India. It was a very special evening and we will be anxious to see what you create with these beautiful fabrics.

By the way, if you haven't been in to Government House yet to see the wonderful display of hooked rugs by the Fredericton Heritage Rug Hooking Guild, you only have a few days left! The display finishes this Friday, Feb. 1 at 4p.m. Better hurry! You'll be sorry if you miss it.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! Our January meeting is only a few days away now - January 15th. It's a little early this month. I hope we will see you there. Have you been sewing lately? Now that winter is really here with its cold days and colder nights, I bet many of us are "hibernating" in our sewing areas... Bring along your Show and Tell to share with us. Don't forget to measure the perimeter of each piece for the Stitch Across Canada Challenge.
Speaking of challenges, have you started your Guild Challenge yet? Remember we've all been challenged to do something that's "out of the box" - in other words, out of our comfort zone... I have mine planned, but not yet started...
Many quilters start the New Year off with a tidying/sorting/cleaning of their sewing area. I came across a really interesting blog post the other day and thought you might like to see it too. It's from the Blog Sew Many Ways... She has a very well organized sewing and crafting room and I bet you will find more than a few ideas here you would like to try... Click here to read her blog post.  There are lots of photos and many great ideas! I bet you'll try at least one ...
See you Tuesday the 15th.