Kantha Inspired Quilt with Sashiko Machine

Have you ever heard of Kantha? Kantha means "Patched cloth" and is a type of embroidery performed in the eastern regions of India and Bangladesh. It is often used to make simple quilts with a mix of old saris and other discarded pieces of fabric. The rich history of Kantha traces back to centuries ago! I have a Kantha quilt I purchased years ago and what I love about it is the bright colors and big stitches running through the quilt. Kantha does not have batting in them, but it is very soft and perfect for summer nights. The art of Kantha reminds me of Sashiko, which also has a very rich history of its own as a type of traditional Japanese embroidery or stitching used for the decorative and/or functional reinforcement of cloth and clothing.

Kantha and Sashiko were both created by people who were trying to be frugal; repurposing the old cloth, but at the same time those women created something beautiful to enrich their lives.

I marvel at how the human brain works and makes us innovative. India (and other parts of east asia) and Japan are separated by sea over thousands of miles. There was no TV, books, or internet to know these things centuries ago, but somehow we have similar beautiful crafts. Isn't that interesting?

I always wanted to make a Kantha quilt, but I have so many other projects I want to work on. I thought why not use modern technology (meaning my Baby Lock Sashiko machine to create a Kantha inspired quilt!

I have a stash of beautiful fabrics (Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Tula Pink and Sandi Hendersen!) but some of them are big scale fabrics and kind of difficult to incorporate to some quilt projects. I love the fabric design so much that I hate to cut them into small pieces and lose their original beauty. You should see me in my sewing room pulling them out, admiring them, petting them and putting them back on my shelf. Haha. I bet many of you have the same problem as me. I know that this project is perfect for those fabrics waiting to be used and shine!

* You will need ~ finished quilt size 63"x 75"

Several large scale fabrics with bold colors and designs, Several fat quarters and cut by the yard fabrics
Batting ~ Actual Kantha quilt doesn't have batting, I decided to use batting
Fabrics for backing ~ I pieced my fabrics for backing
Thread for piecing and quilting

* How to
1. Some of you may not want to hear this, but to piece this quilt, I just went with the flow. To start off, I cut several of my fat quarters in half to create rectangles and lay them out on the floor to see the placement of the colors and scale balance. The wider rectangles are about the width of the fabric which is about 42" to 44"wide. They are about 7" to 17" high. I pieced narrow columns and wide columns separately, then pieced the two columns together.

2. Baste the top, batting and backing together. I wanted to use the Sashiko machine, so I went with pin basting. If you are machine quilting with your regular sewing machine, this step is the same. If you are hand quilting, I recommend hand basting the quilt with large stitches.

3. I set both the stitch length and stitch spacing to 5 on my Sashiko.

4. I used 4 different colors of Aurifil threads. I love Aurifil threads for quilting, they don't break like my other threads and I can always depend on them. The space between the quilting is 5/8".

5. Cut the excess.

6. Sew bias tape around the quilt. I normally sew the bias by machine and hand sew in the back, but I finished it off with the machine this time.

Time to enjoy!

I pieced the backing.

I love looking at gorgeous stitchings

Now the Kantha inspired quilt is all ready to be enjoyed. It is almost winter, but I love bright colors and bold floral design. I could imagine myself, wrapped up in this quilt with good books in front of the fireplace and dreaming of a warm spring day.

Baby Lock Sashiko Machine

At the end of last year, I received a Baby Lock Sashiko machine. It is no joke, the Sashiko machine has always been in the back of my mind ever since I discovered its existence. This is such a unique and innovative machine; it can create a hand stitched look. I started out as a hand quilter several decades ago, and I still love doing that, but it would be nice to have an option to quilt with a machine and get the hand stitched look. You can see what I mean...

WHAT!? Right? Isn't it pretty amazing? I used smaller stitches, but you can easily adjust the stitch length and spacing too. I inserted the quilting bar (guide) that came with the machine and quilted the borders. A little accessory like this makes the quilting process more simple and quick.

To tell you the truth I was a bit nervous about using the machine. It is a completely different type of machine than my other sewing machines (and I don't like reading manuals!!), but I was able to learn through Baby Lock SEWED online classes. Also my friend Evy Hawkins have several how-to videos out on Youtube. When you start going through her videos, you will find out that there is so much more you can do with a Sashiko machine.

It is quilted and bound. I made the hourglass blocks for this baby quilt with scraps from another project. I was going back and forth with white or gray background. I am glad I chose gray even though my usual choice is white. The bright colors against gray look pretty nice.

My daughter helped me to take this picture. She wanted to experiment staging the quilt and take a picture. Didn't she do a nice job?

I am far from being an expert on the Sashiko machine, but I would love to keep learning and experimenting with it for sure.

Finished Quilt and Many More Projects...

I bought a pattern for this quilt, but I cannot find it anywhere in my house and I don't remember the name of the pattern either. I just wanted to make sure that you know this is not my design. When I saw the sample quilt on the wall I fell in love with it and really wanted to make one. It is rare for me to buy a pattern for a quilt, but this one I had to! I pieced this quilt right away which was years ago but I didn't know what I wanted to do with it after words. It was just sitting in my sewing room. I hand quilted for years and years but there are so many quilts I want to make and there are not enough time to do hand quilting for all the quilts I make. Also, I was too afraid to do machine quilting. I felt like I spent all that time invested in piecing the quilt top, and that I would ruin it by machine quilting it myself.

But... one day I just did it. I thought to myself, "you gotta start somewhere!" It was not the prettiest quilting; there were uneven and skipped stitches all over, but I did it! I am learning and because I don't do it that often my progress is slow, but it is getting better.

I have a few more quilt tops that need to be quilted in my closet that I pieced years ago, and I want to complete them this year! I am trying to clear out my sewing room and finish the projects that I have started. It feels good to complete them and move on.

Because I am a girl with (too) many interests, I have refashioning, jewelry making, painting and sewing projects in progress all the time. It is almost scary to think about how many projects I should be working to finish. How many projects are you working on? Have you finished something lately that you are excited about?

Experimental Scrap Quilt

Do you remember these quilts that I shared last spring?



Well, last year before I started getting a series of procedures (so around September), I was getting antsy. I wanted many projects done and have some projects ready for me to do in bed... You know, those type of things. I pieced five quilt tops that time, and I just finished quilting one of them over the weekend.


It's rather funny looking huh? Here is the reason why... I used up all the scraps from the boy's quilt to make this. I had absolutely NO design plans whatsoever. I just kept on piecing, adding fabric here and there and if there were parts that were too long I simply cut it to match the length.

I have a love for traditional quilts, but I have been mesmerized by modern style quilts too. I wanted to see what I can come up with, with leftover fabrics. So, it was sort of an experiment.
Because it was an experimental quilt, it was also perfect for me to practice machine quilting on. I didn't have to worry about making it so perfect.




I know I still have a lot to learn, but actually machine quilting is starting to become fun. I am not so scared anymore!


There are a couple other quilts that I basted and am thinking about quilting soon. It is so hard to decide what kind of design to go with it. I can't wait to get started though. :)

Diamond Quilt

Over the weekend, we visited family, and had a nice time. I was particularly excited that I was able to finish a quilt. A quilt I pieced so many months ago, but afraid to machine quilt and walked away from it for a while... I wanted to give it to my brother-in-law as a house warming gift.

I stayed away from my usual colors and flower patterns(giggle), and went with darker colors and plaids. I used a 60 degree diamond ruler to cut the fabrics (I bought my ruler at Joann's with a 50% off coupon, by the way). Cutting and piecing the fabrics went pretty quick. Can you imagine using different fabrics to make this diamond quilt? Ah... did I hear Amy Butler? Woo, I am so going to...

He gave us a tour of his first place he purchased, and I was soo excited that the color of the quilt actually went with the couch and the chair he had in his living room!


Do you know what else I was so excited about? I. Machine. Quilted. It!!


I mentioned that I wanted to practice machine quilting more, but I was really worried that I would mess it up. But, you know, it actually wasn't so bad, I just did loops all over the quilt and it turned out OK for a machine quilting apprentice. :)

Apprentice at Machine Quilting

I am trying to tackle my ever growing "to do" list lately. There are so many things on that list in different categories. Home & family, sewing & craft projects, personal growth, etc... one of the things I have been trying to be better at is machine quilting. Don't ask me for how many years I have been saying that.

I feel like this year's it! I am going to get better at it, well I have to. There are so many quilt tops waiting to be completed on my shelf.

I have machine quilted some of my quilts in the past, but I can see all the mistakes and unevenness of the stitches. I am not really happy with the results.

My friend told me to use felt, the kind you can buy by the yard. I didn't have felt, but I had scraps of fleece and such and I have been practicing with those. Also, the people at the quilt shop that I go to, and where I bought my sewing machine, gave me some helpful tips for machine quilting (Thank you!). It has been really fun practicing and I think I am doing OK.

The true test will come when I am working with a real quilt. It is much harder to move around a big heavy quilt and to be consistent with the size of the pattern. If you are a quilter and have some tips to share I would really appreciate them!


Just a reminder that the giveaway for the $100 gift certificate to Olive Garden is still on! Go here to see what you need to do enter for the chance to win. :)

My Saturday Afternoon

I had a really busy week, since the kids are back in school, everything is in full swing. Usually it takes time for me to get used to the new routine. I slept in and had a slow start to the day (which is very rare!). By the time I fed kids lunch, I was back to myself, I had an itch to sew.

There was a quilt top I put together a few weeks ago (remember the Liberty of London fabrics?) and I was kept going back and forth should I hand quilt(I am in my comfort zone), or ignore the fear of machine quilting and just try it (which would put me way out of my comfort zone).

Guess what?! I decided to try machine quilting! I have done machine quilting before, but I used straight lines on a much smaller quilt. This time I wanted try "loops". Ok, it doesn't sound difficult to do, but when I think "what if I mess up?" I just didn't have the guts to do it.

For some reason, I felt like I could do it this afternoon. What happend to "What if I mess up?" well, that attitude became... "Nah, it's ok, I have to start somewhere and practice, I will just do my best."

So, I did it! It took me 7 hours(including the time to cook and feed my family a dinner) and like I predicted, it is nowhere near perfect. The loops and stitches are not equal in some areas... but I feel ok! I did it! I hope this is the start of many more machine quilted quilts. I have several quilt tops that are waiting to be quilted, I hope get a chance to practice more and get good at it someday.



I will share the picture of the finished quilt when I am done with the binding. Have a happy Sunday everyone!

Rachel's Babies' baby quilts

My daughter Rachel is one little busy girl. She has 3 baby dolls to take care of. When I make a quilt and have left overs, I make a baby doll quilt for her to play with. Last time when I was working on this quilt, there was some left overs, so I made a third baby doll quilt.



This quilt is 17" by 19". This is my second attempt at machine quilting. I just have to keep practicing.



While I was working on it, Rachel kept asking, "Is it mine?" I'm so glad that she gets excited when I make something for her. I hope someday she will pick up sewing and we can sew together. Wouldn't that be fun!