Indian square dance

All things Indian still inspire me and I am constantly thinking in layers due to the glimpses behind the jali screens, the last piece Woven stories also involved the idea of a fine screen and I decided to develop the idea further in this piece.

Continuing to use the weaving technique of squares to create a piece which is re-arranged, ie I have used the same fabrics to weave my base but I have woven them in a different sequence. It was a great opportunity to repeat a piece of work but in a different way. Reflecting my thoughts of jalis I wanted to have two distinct layers. I have outlined the resist flowers but in blue rather than white to make them less dominant and the emerald green lines of the silk have been overstitched to give more depth of colour. I wanted to quilt the whole, so using a fine metallic thread I have used the resist print as the quilting motif which ties the whole piece together and creates a decorative but subtle jali in front of the woven strips. The inclusion of the silk strips adds a different texture and breaks the blue and white so it seemed right to bind the piece with the silk to to make it a little more dominant.

Fabrics were woven together and then machine stitched to hold them in place. Hand embroidery/quilting was added using cotton threads and then a metallic thread.

Detail to show the fine quilting with metallic thread over the background quilting.