Carly's Home!

It seemed like Carly was only gone a few days, but it actually was a little over a week!
She brought the most gorgeous Indian silk quilts...real works of art...the beading and the stitching and the colors are magnificent...
We had them in the shop for only a day...which was time enough to examine the wonderful workmanship and see the colors close-up. They capture the flavor of India beautifully! There are also several cotton ones...with some wonderful primitive embroidery designs...(she also brought us sumptuous silk throw pillow shams in rich colors...personally, I love it when Carly travels...we always get fantastic souvenirs!!!)

Click on the photo of the Taj Mahal on our front page to see the quilts in all their glory!

More from India

Dear quilting friends,

A last note from India! This country is a quilter’s paradise. Wherever you look, at the women’s clothing, the flowers in their hair, the many temples and even at the crazy traffic, there’s an abundance in color we don’t see in the US and Europe. The designs in the silks, the famous carpets, the cashmere wools, I have never seen such a richness in fibers and I think I have travelled a lot.

Kaffe Fassett has been in this country and I can see why he fell in love with it as well. The Indians are using colors everywhere and they mix and match it with a lot of creativity. I have admired all the women in their traditional saris and the variety in styles and color combinations was so beautiful! The few cottons you can find here are all what Kaffe would call shot cottons, the loosely woven solids and hazy stripes. There are some other, but not many more options in cotton. And most of the cotton is not suitable for quilting. Prints are extremely hard to find in cotton. I have met a few quilters and they told me the Indians are very proud of their textures and find the idea of cutting a beautiful piece of textile into smaller pieces and sewing it again into a bigger piece a little weird! There are some quilts and they have been born with the same idea as the first American quilts: utility.

However I also found some quilting and patchwork techniques here that are very close to what we would call art quilts. Intense use of beads, different threads… I have purchased 2 more gorgeous quilts from local artists and also 3 quilts from the Kashmir region (Northern India), all made out of wedding dresses. Next week the pictures will finally be online and the quilts will be for sale….. Wait for the show and tell!

News from Carly!

Hi Kerry and Bolt Talk readers,

Greetings from India!

I’ve been spending all day long looking at fabrics in Bangalore, India. Today, I visited with my fabric guide, Vassanthi the Khadi India Market 2009, a place filled with fabrics made in India. Everything related to fabrics was there. It was so wonderful and so new. In India, quilts are hardly known. As a matter of fact, cottons are not that important. Silk is the fabric of the country. I have admired all the design and colors, but can’t help to love cottons better! I was able to discover 4 all handmade Indian quilts: one of them is a quilt block in silks, very hard to find. The other three are cotton quilts with a very local flavor. I took some pictures for a later show and tell as I don’t have all the necessary cables!

So more will follow later…

Fabric ...fabric...fabric...

It seems like a long time since we've posted a Bolt Talk...but I can tell you, we've been in a whirl-wind at WebFabrics! We've been trying to get Carly set for the Hampton show in late February, make bundles for Dena Crain's "That Darned Quilt" classes and Carly's gorgeous Batik Bundles.

That doesn't even take into account the fabric lines that have come in..Twiggy from Moda which has such lovely colors...the very classic Cambridge Square from Northcott...that and Brown Bear sold out almost before we had finished cutting it for kits and bundles! I also have been looking closely at Earth Spirit...a really unique set of fabrics. It is so hard to keep up!

I have been enjoying my free time. With all the holidays over with and weather thankfully keeping me inside near my cutting board and sewing machine, I've been having some lovely guilt-free sewing days! I have 5 quilt-tops done and started playing with printing on organza and transferring my photos to fabric for some fun and different art quilts. And the endless hours going through my quilt books and "re-organizing" my stash...what fun!

What have you all been up to? With more time for "Me", as Carly calls it...February is fast becoming my favorite month! Send us a photo or just a description of how you sew away the Winter blues (or the Summer heat, Aussie friends!)

As ever,

Kerry