Stitch By Stitch, The Finish--post 4

 

Lots of sort of straight lines

This project was inspired by the book: The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. The book is about how one women helps her six siblings survive and thrive when their parents and older brother leave Afghanistan during the first Taliban takeover.

More diagonal lines

I began the quilting by quilting in the ditch. This is tedious; but, it is a good way to secure the layers. My goal with quilting this piece was to add texture and to keep it "modern."To that end, I quilted a lot of sort of straight lines. I used a thread that matched the background.

Oval motif for background; vertical lines on letters

I repeated quilting diagonal lines in several areas of the quilt. The diagonal lines represent how the women were "allowed" so few areas to be out in public. Of course, they had to have a male member of their family with them. If not, they were subject to being beaten.

View of the various quilted lines

Vertical lines on the letters represent the strictness of the Taliban. The oval motif in the background of the letters represent the decorative stitching the women did one the higher end dresses.

Cotton and polyester monofilament threads completed the quilting.

Thread used to quilt project

The horizontal lines in the piece represent what a women wearing a burka can see. The area is small, two and a half inches by about five inches. I can't imagine not tripping over the hem or an uneven sidewalk let alone picking out food from the market with such a narrow field of vision. 

View after completing the quilting

I made a quilted facing for this project. I used bias tape from my grandmother's stash to finish the inside edge of the facing. 

View of the back

I removed a seam from a pieced pinwheel that I didn't use on the front. I put one half of the block on each side of the label. 

Label

There was almost enough fabric for the hanging sleeve; but, not quite. I found a strip in the green chunk drawer that was large enough. This piece is 41 by 58 inches. I used four yards of fabric for this project. This brings the total net fabric used from stash to 45 yards this year.

Finished front

Previous posts were: Strings from a Scrap Bag; It's a Flimsy; Piecing the Back. Goal number six on my October list was to document the finish of this project.