Wouna le Roux

As a source of inspiration and to keep us both motivated and accountable, my sister and I decided to each make a quilt by slow stitching.  It will not be a joint project where we work together on one quilt, but rather each creating their own. When you live in the opposite corners of the world, it is a bit difficult to collaborate physically.

My sister managed to secure off-cuts from a curtain-making factory, mainly Indian-type fabrics, while I am using either gifted off-cut fabrics or opshop bed sheets and duvet covers in an attempt to not have to buy any new fabric.

I’ve stitched many a piece of fabric together to make patchwork blankets, quilts if you will, but up until now it has always been done using a sewing machine.

The long-form slow stitching of this project will keep us out of mischief for a while. We went through various iterations of what we should set ourselves as a target to achieve each month. Initially it was to create a 300x600mm block stitched and quilted. Then we changed the specified size to ‘any sizeable block’ to allow a more random patterned quilt, and finally we decided to just work randomly as we please, but to commit to producing something to share each week.

We started at the beginning of November and will be updating each other on our progress every Friday. I’m hoping to create an update entry in this journal every week. There wil be trial and tribulations, no doubt, as I’ve never done something like this before. But I’m super excited about the project.

I have no plan other than it will be a random design (making it up as I go), contemporary, and the colours will predominantly stick to an earthy palette: browns, beiges, and creams with some red and orange and a little bit of black to spruce things up.

I started this week by using a flat sheet as a base on which to attach the pieces of fabric, and decided to weave the first few strips of fabric. It might be the last strips I weave on this quilt, but time will tell. While I’m also working on other things, this is all I managed for this week. Hopefully next week will see more work done on the project.