More Kawandi Placemats

We often think of joy as meaning "without pain," or  "without sorrow" - which our consumer culture has us believing is a state of being that we could buy.... What if joy, instead of refuge or relief from heartbreak, is what effloresces from us as we help each other carry our heartbreaks?

~Ross Gay

Quilting

Occasionally Ocean Waves gets a few minutes of quilting but most of the time it's too hot. Instead, several household tasks called my name. For example, I replaced an older set of napkins with new ones. 

We’ve been traveling most of the month so I mostly worked on a second set of Kawandi placemats. Being handmade of small, random rectangles, they are a great project for trips or afternoon visits. My first placemats (and plates) are more multicolored. I thought a monochromatic set of mats might give the eye a place to rest. So this set will all be light blues... mostly.

The backing is basically a fat quarter. I cut each batting 15" x 19" because it will shrink a bit when it's washed. With all the seams on the front, each placemat takes about 3/4 yard. Here's the start although the fula ended up a bit too far in. 

After one round it looked like this. That first round of quilting is always the hardest going through at least four layers of fabric and batting/filling. There's even more layers when a new fabric is introduced. Stab stitch is my only option for getting the sewing reasonably close together.

 

Here's a detail of the end of the first round of quilting/start of the second round. From here it's a simple "squared off" spiral and  the quilting itself becomes much easier.

One placemat down, seven more to go. Since this is a monochromatic color scheme, my fabrics are a bit larger than most. I'm repeating that pink flower on light blue several times in each mat because I have a yard of it and I hope it will add some coherence to the result. 

Kawandi placemat

Sujata gave me some lovely Indian cotton including the piece in the top left. It's very fine, like Madras plaid and sews much easier than my cloth. At least I know not to include tightly woven batik. 

FUR (Fabric Use Rate)

September finishes took 7.25 yards for a total of 47.25 yards this year.

Reading

The Correspondents
by Judith Mackrell

The Correspondents by Judith Mackrell relates the stories of six women who covered the European theater in World War II. Barred from combat zones and battling prejudice, they fought their way to the front. Englishwoman Claire Hollingsworth first broke the news of the war. Martha Gellhorn, second wife of Ernest Hemingway, stowed away on a Red Cross boat to the Normandy landing. Sigrid Schultz reported on the Nazi regime from its inception while hiding her Jewish identity. Helen Kirkpatrick became the first woman to report from the front with equal privileges of men.

Enjoy the day, Ann