Christmas Kawandi - Joanna Henson November Meeting 2023

This month's workshop was led by Joanna one of our own members. She arrived with ideas, fabrics and enthusiasm ready to lead our members through making a Christmas Kawandi. [See above.]
 

A close-up photo of the stitching above shows that it can be either hand or machine.

Joanna demonstrated the technique of arranging the small pieces of fabric from the outer borders, gradually basting them, and covering the background fabric.

She showed different samples of her work, following the style of the Siddi women.

Members began working on their pieces and all the bright, cheerful colours of Christmas began to emerge.

Once the background fabric was covered members began to hand stitch with a neutral perle thread, working running stitch to hold the fabric pieces in place.

The stitching was running stitch, similar to kantha, but with Kawandi the running stitches work from the outer edges into the middle.

It was a very enjoyable workshop and members took home their Kawandi quilts to complete the stitching at home and then bring them to the Christmas meeting in December for the Competition.

A big thank you goes to Joanna for introducing us to Kawandi quilting, telling us a little of its history and making it topical by using Christmas fabrics.

We all look forward to seeing the completed mats in December.

A thank you to Janet for the photographs.