Central Plateau, North Island

Central Plateau, North Island
View from a friend's farm

Sunday 29 January 2012

Silk Fabrics in Bright Colours

Silk fabric from Bangalore, India

  A few years ago our younger daughter was in India, at Bangalore, for her work.
Not far from there was a wonderful place where you could choose silk, the colour, the pattern, and it would be made in your own design.
These shades were “on the shelf “ and I’m sure  such a small selection of  what was available.
The colours seem perfect for the FMQ challenge for 2012.
I choose the cinnamon one, and bound the square in gold. I used  a viscose/rayon thread, with  clear Gutterman in the bobbin,
on the Bernina I threaded the bottom thread through the hole in the bobbin holder.The needle size was a 70, and  i had no problems with either thread.
The silk does fray easily, and was sewn up with a 1cm seam.When the 12 blocks are done, they will finally be sides on either square containers
for my sewing shelves, or pockets on bags.
The January challenge was to do a FMQ leaf pattern. After several trial blocks on cotton, this one went well.
Close up of a leaf with a vein. A friend who is a cabinet maker, of superb furniture, looked at my trial blocks and his comment" The lines on the veins are not together!!! " WOW, I will wait till I have the next one past a trial stage before I let him near it.
2012 FMQ January block

I might have to put this on Facebook also, will need to read the details.
Some of the blocks on the Facebook page for this challenge  are beautiful, but for a newbie at this, I am happy!!!
Which colour will I use for the February one??
photos below courtesy of the Internet. Silk fabrics by the metre
 and torn silk strips... Would these be from  selvedges, or across the
fabric? And what would I do with them??? Plaited handles? Woven
over a plain fabric?Used for strippy squares? I know if I had them here, they would be used
in all their glorious colours.
Colours, so many to choose from, maybe better that I do not visit there.
Bangalore-Silk
strips of silk
Quotation of the day, author unknown
“ Life is like a rainbow:; you need both the sun and the rain to make its colours appear”
Cheers from Jean

3 comments:

Razzle Dazzle Quilter said...

Hi
Your quilting is looking very nice.
Well done you!
Cheers
Linda

Nancy J said...

Ta Linda, after some trials on scraps, and then another 3 full squares, with cotton, I decided on the silk. my Bernina has the BSR foot, and that makes it a lot easier.So the next one in February will be a different design, or type of stitch, 12 through the year.all at the SEWCALGAL site.Cheers from Jean

Shirley Goodwin said...

Lovely silks, Jean, and your square is just fine as it is.