I have been working on an A3 piece today to do with cross stitches. I have done the machine stitching but am still deciding as to what colour thread I will do the hand stitching in. I am working it on lutradur which allows me to pull quite big thread through .And as I look at the photo i think I like th eorange thread better.
I also wanted to share some photos of Palestinian women who quilt. Jenny Bowker went to Ramallah a couple of years ago to teach a group of women the basics of patchwork and quilting and you can see photos of this on jenny's website- which i have linked. When I went to Ramallah I had asked to meet with the group of women to see how they had continued on with their patchwork and asked them to bring some work for me to see. As you can see they have put their skills ot good use , making cot quilts, table runners and childrens quilts. They told me they liked making the things to decorate their houses and to make individual quilts for their children.
When I go back to Ramallah I hope to work with these women and some new ones in order to further their skills and hopefully teach them free machining. One of my challenges for the next few months is to find 4 good machines that will free machine which I can leave with the women to use for the future. My aim is to get 4 good machines that will free machine happily and possibly also have some other decorative stitches.So any bright ideas will be appreciated! At the moment these women only have access to 3 machines in the In'ash Al Usra Centre which has to be shared amongst a large group of women. Jenny told me when she taught there a few years ago they had 3 machines plus one she had taken with her- and that the women worked in groups of four- one ironed, one cut, one stacked and the other sewed and they took it in turns in order to learn each skill- now that is teamwork!
I was bemused that one woman had made a Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.Who would have thought that women in the Middle East would find Sun Bonnets appealing?
2 comments:
I am impressed with your committment to helping these people. The quilts on Jenny's page were quite amazing but when you look at their costumes you can see that they are talented artists just working in a different medium. THeri colors are incredible. Keep up the good work!
Hmmmm. Is it possible that the Sunbonnet Sue, with the face that is perpetually covered by the bonnet, is meaningful in a new way for women who also keep themselves at least partially covered? Might be interesting to see how the pattern evolves as they make it their own.
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