First Quilt in Pure n Raw Silk

First quilt made in Pure n Raw Silk

Have you ever experienced while gifting to someone dear that you wish to give something very precious, something unique, some part of your own? I have experienced this. Any “hand”-made project would serve the purpose, but I found a priceless solution for this dilemma through quilting. There could be so much value addition beyond what I could have expected! The present quilt has a story addressing this thought (I just love this … every quilt has a story that is unique to it).

 

Surabhi is the youngest pampered lad of our family and when she was to leave Mumbai n go to Chandigarh for her post-HSC education, I wanted to gift her something that will not only have utilitarian value, but also a piece that she would treasure.

Story cut to quilting journey ….

I had the fascination of making a quilt in pure n raw silk. (Thanks to Jaya Parker for sowing the seeds. Of course, Jaya is an accomplished pure n raw silk quilting artist of another level). Had read her articles on how to tame the naughty silk fabric into a well-behaved boy. So wanted to give this a try.

I also was inspired by the concept of subtle quilting. I desired to try that as well someday. Also I wanted a varying type of quilting into different sections of the quilt. So was keen on quilting it myself (till date have not found a solution for getting hand-quilting done in Mumbai Itself. I need to depend on Nasik for that).

I get fascinated by modern quilt as much as I like traditional quilts. I am still in the process of learning the various concepts under the domain of modern quilts, but wanted to bring in at least some features of a modern quilt. (I am aware that modern quilt police will NOT term this as a modern quilt as it has a border).

As I am a die-hard fan of using fabric thrash. So dreamed to make a quilt from the material that was collected from what the local tailors dispose off. (One would not believe the kind of material the professional tailors throw off in scrap. I term that as gold-mine). So that was the thought I wanted to keep in mind in this quilt.

Since Surabhi was going away from all of us I wanted something from each one of us (the rest seven, or rather eight) gets contributed to this piece.  

 

Thus the process began with all these thoughts and this is what was done ….

1.      Central portion of the quilt:

a.      The entire central portion is in pure and raw silk. The printed part was the leftover fabric from one of my tops about 12 years ago. All the plain pieces were selected as per the broken down colours from this printed fabric pieces. And all these pieces were from the trash collected from the local tailors. The this was entirely in pure/ raw silk every inch of it was fused with fusible interface to bring in ‘paper’-like characteristics while piecing. Because of this paper-like nature it became comparatively manageable to maintain the shapes and even easier to match the corners while piecing.

b.      Generally when one makes a specific design in a quilt while working with scrap, then there is a wastage of fabric to some extent. Since silk is a very expensive fabric(though I had got it for free), plus efforts to fuse the pieces were put in, the concern was not to waste the fabric. Thus, the design emerged from the dimensions in which the pieces were naturally occurring. Only one rule was followed … no adjoining pieces will be of the same colour (which I suppose has been achieved to 99% area).

2.      Border: The entire border is of pure cotton from thrash of some lucknowee fabric. You may not believe this, but the black portion of the entire border is made from a single thrashed piece. This is an indicator of how much fabric is disposed off by the tailors. There were a few gray coloured pieces of some khadee-like texture. (That had amazing texture to make one fall in love with). So accentuated the border with those pieces.

3.      Quilting:

a.      White thread: This was mainly used on black n gray pieces that were in cotton. A few pieces of silk were also quilted with white thread, but I was nto very happy with it (the little rough texture of white thread n delicate nature of silk were not jellying well together).

b.      Subtle quilting: This mode was used in most of the plain (silk) pieces. Tried to quilt in geometric shapes. As the threads for this category were chosen as perfectly matching with the fabrics, it helped in creating the ‘non-quilted’ look for those plain pieces. Not typical hand-quilting thread, but multiple strands of the normal sewing threads were used for this.

c.      The printed pieces: These pieces had many colours and I did not want to spoil the look by a contrasting-coloured thread passing over the fabric part. Hence used black-colored thread for this quilting and ensured that the quilting is attempted only on black portion of the print.

d.      The game: Wanted to add a fun element to the quilt. Hence this was added so that Surabhi may use this for playing game.

e.      Brownie: The colour chosen for this was mustard as Brownie also has golden coat.

4.      Contributions by all the other family members:

a.      Aajee (Surabhi’s grand-mother and my mother-in-law): Two of her cotton saries were put as batting (= the layer of fabric that goes in between the top n the bottom layers of a quilt).

b.      Ajju (Surabhi’s grandfather and my father): A sturdy part of his old shirt was used for creating label for the quilt (unfortunately missed taking pic of that label)

c.      Nilima (Surabhi’s mom and my sister-in-law): Her old discarded top’s fabric was used for creating that “S” on the quilt (this attempt was also for the first time for me)

d.      Abhijit (Surabhi’s father and my brother): The entire binding of the quilt is made from his scraped silk kurta due to fading in some areas.

e.      Vivek (Surabhi’s uncle and my husband): Vivek was instrumental in having the chakar game in quilted form on one of the black pieces. He conceptualized it and helped me in designing it on the quilt actually.

f.       Manasi (Surabhi’s cousin and my daughter): When the brainstorming was going on what could be brought in from brownie, (considering my limited or zero drawing skills) I had thought of a simple body outline of Brownie, which will be quilted. When I was running short of time, Manasi was requested to pinch in n draw that simple outline. She drew only face, but tried to bring in her criterial attributes (that’s how she had perceived Brownie).  

g.      Brownie (everyone’s apply of the eye): Brownie had done everything at every stage in this quilt right from sitting on the fabric pieces when one is auditioning the fabrics n colours, rolling over the pieces laid on the floor to inspiring us to have her in the quilt. The quilt would have been indeed incomplete with her being there both in the process as well as in the product.

h.      Myself: As mentioned earlier the printed fabric was from the leftover of my dress material many years ago. Plus one of my silk saries was used for backing. I got a lot of scolding for this as this sari was in good condition and was already in use. But then Surabhi preferred this over the other options.  

 

Such a bad time management on my side for this quilt … when Surabhi was to leave for airport at 3 pm, I was completing the quilt till 2:45 pm!

All in all it was a great learning experience. I could create something unique through this quilt and also take my quilting journey to the next level. I know that it is not the perfect product, but one quote is very popular amongst quilters “Finishing is better than perfect” and I swear by that. I have always loved speaking, discussing about quilts n the process (both thought n method) of making quilts. That is why I have also loved writing about the same. Thank u Surabhi for giving me the opportunity to do what I love to do. It was so therapeutic!  

 

Technical Details:

·        Material:

o   Main body: pure n raw silk

o   Border: cotton

·        Main technique used: Fusing

·        Dimensions: 60” by 90”

·        Date of completing: November 07, 2021

Ti   Time taken: Roughly 3 months