I’m looking forward to trying one of these hand-stitched quilts, called Kawandi. They are built up gradually from scraps, starting around the four edges, with the middle wadding and backing already in place, turning up the backing raw edges to be covered by first row of fabric and stitching.
Next you start by stitching with an embroidery thread through the three layers using a small running stitch, spiralling in towards the centre with stitching lines of a finger's width and folding in raw edges as you go. No real planning - apart from theme maybe - very random!
The one shown here was made by my friend Val Nadin, in which she used her scraps of African fabrics. Although coming from India, the quilting process seems to be a blend of Indian and African processes transported to India by emigrants from Africa. The name is of African origin. Below that there’s also one made by Val using scraps of Indigenous related fabrics. So vibrant and exciting. Cool hey! Check the technique out on Google!
