With a lack of urgent deadlines in January, it seemed like a good idea to work on the colourful Purdah quilt, the one that is behind ALL of the layers. I had a vague idea that I wanted hexagonal and pumpkin seed motifs like the carved stone Purdah screens from the Amber Fort in Jaipur. After the outlines were sewn on the longarm, I decided to use a decorative triple stitch on the Bernina 710 to highlight the motifs. In case you ever need to know, Bernina stitch 1353 makes 7 back and forth movements which you need to count carefully as you near each corner to ensure that you get neat turns!
It is a pity that I am not good at hand embroidery since that was kind of the look I was after. In future, I will consider using a thicker thread and try quilting twice around the drawn lines. I spent a very long time triple stitching, listening to several radio plays, and still have not entirely decided what additional quilting will fill in the gaps between hexagons. It gave me time to think that this bold quilt in the Purdah series will also need some woodblock stamps, shisha mirrors, probably more embroidery and possibly even some sparkles.
I am wondering how much longer I can indulge myself working exclusively on a whimsical show piece before I feel obliged to make a start on a customer quilt. Considering my dwindling bank balance, I would guess around the middle of next week…!
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