Barefoot in the park

Many months ago, I took part in a Christmas cottage swap held by Nanette and Terri. That’s when I came to know about Stephanie’s blog ‘Loft creations’ and was instantly smitten by her attention to detail… her Christmas cottage was one of my absolute favorites. As the days passed we became good friends and I continue to be smitten by her creative ideas and her kindness.

In the meantime she’s been a busy bee and designed many many beautiful bags. Now I’m thrilled to see her designing quilt patterns too. Last month she introduced her very first one called Barefoot Park, a cute name for this fun packed picnic quilt.

Stephanie did hers inspired by Soul blossoms which were inspired by Amy Butler’s visit to India and I in turn was inspired by the name of the pattern… I imagined Red riding hood strolling barefoot in the woods thick with dogwood flowers and berry creepers.

don’t look too closely at her boots ;)

My friend Thanu gave me “Hello Betty” charm pack a while ago and I was saving it for the right pattern to come along. I did add some odd pieces that are lying around other than the charm squares to make it more interesting. I used Denyse Schmidt fabric from "DS Quilts collection" for the border to repeat the diamond shapes that are in the center.

I was hoping to do it as a picnic sized quilt like the pattern suggests but later realized that the background I picked won’t be enough. So I made a baby quilt.
It’s going to be a while before I quilt it because of the long list of things that is becoming longer by the day!

Thank you, Thanu, Stephanie for these sweet presents! I had so much fun putting them together ( ' u ' )

Thank you for allowing me to borrow your pictures, Stephanie. I wish I could borrow Abby for a day too!

~ Red riding hood fabric is "Tokyo it girl" by Homecraft co., Japan.
~ this quilt measures 47" square.

from Rajasthan with love

During an earlier visit to India, I came across hand block prints in a shop in Gurgaon (close to Delhi). They were a rare find for me. So I set about to preserve them in a quilt. I also wrote a bit about these prints and the quilt top in a blog post. You can find the post here.

It took me all this time to do something about the neglected top. It must be the flowering season that got me thinking about this quilt again.

The backing is cotton linen which I wanted to use for making kitchen curtains. But the stream of sunlight in here is so awesome in the mornings and I love the shadows it casts on bare walls like paintings without picture frames and also how nicely the sun warms up the room and makes it quite cozy all year round… so no curtains for the kitchen windows after all!

So the backing… it has a row of pretty flowers running the width on one side. Although the width was just right, I had to piece a Kona bone to get it to the right length.

But the resulting seam was looking odd on a plain fabric. So I took cotton lace and weaved a folksy ribbon through the loops in the center and attached it to hide the seam. I chose this ribbon for the colors it seems to pull from the front while still keeping it simple.
(I missed quilting a line. Have to go back and do that!)

Recently I came across a beautiful short film on the process of block printing by West Elm.
It transports us to slower times and to a place which seem so far fetched.

Chutki and I would love for you to have some of these petal soft fabrics.
One is a bundle of fifty 5 ½ inch squares with an assortment of prints,

and the other one is a set with varying lengths.

Please drop a line in the comments if you are interested in either of these. Chutki is very excited about this little play with you and looking forward to drawing names on Friday.
Have a great week! ( * v * )