Ralli Quilts on Sale: 25% Off!

Dimensions: 82" long x 59" wide
Metric: 208.5 x 150 cm
Ralli #95, $140  (discounted to $105)

I have posted quite a bit about ralli quilts in this blog.  If you would like to learn more about them, click here to see the past posts.  Made in villages throughout India and Pakistan, ralli quilts have been a big favorite of mine and I buy them when I can.  Mothers have handed the designs down to their daughters for generations and finishing off a ralli is a communal event, much like our historical quilting bees.  Women sit around the unfinished piece, stitching the long rows that will hold it together.  I love the uneven squares, the sometimes odd choices of fabric, and the multi-functional role these pieces have served:  bed quilt, wall hanging and even as a door in the village huts...

I have five rallis left in my Etsy shop.  You can see all of them on this page:  click!  Two are simple whole cloth quilts, priced at $60 and $75.  The discount would bring them down to $45 and $56.25.  The one shown at the top of this post is the biggest one, in very good, usable condition.

This one is my favorite and the most expensive one I have ever carried:

Dimensions: 62" long x 43" wide
Metric: 157.5 x 109 cm
Ralli #93, $350  (discounted to $262.50)

Small and fragile, this ralli would have to be used as a wall hanging or as a decorative throw such as on a guest bed.  It would only cover the foot or middle of a bed.  The applique and color choices are lovely!

Another favorite is this wonky checkered ralli:

Dimensions: 78" long x 50" wide
Metric: 198 x 127 cm
Ralli #94, $135  (discounted to $101.25)

Yes, it is narrower at the bottom...  The quilt does not hang well, but it looks great thrown on to a couch or bed.  What I like best about it is the feel of the fabric.  I can't figure out what it is and assume it's some kind of polyester, but it is soft and worn and feels like silk.  Maybe an acetate?  Normally, I despise polyester, but whatever this is, it is cool, soft and pleasing to touch.

These are your five ralli choices!  All 25% off through November 24th.  I normally give free shipping on orders over $100 but will not be able to do that during the sale.  When you are through shopping, type in NOVEMBERSALE as your coupon code and Etsy will add the 25% discount to anything that is in my shop.

Wrap yourself in a ralli! 

Ralli Quilts on Sale: 25% Off!

New Arrivals! Pakistani Remnant Pillows

Remnant pillows from Pakistan

 I listed 12 new pillow covers in my Etsy shop a couple of days ago.  The pillows are made of vintage textile remnants, couched with a thick black cotton in between the pieces.  Gorgeous textures and rich colors!  I got these from a dealer at a good price and kept the prices low, passing on my savings to you!  We used to sell these in our gallery for $48 and I have them at $18 in my shop!

 

All of them have cowrie shells sewn on them, an element that I don't particularly care for on these fabrics.  They are easy to remove if you also think they might be too heavy for the delicate embroideries.  Only in the last 20 years have remnants become valuable and I just love it when odd bits and pieces come together to form a new whole.  Think of all of the labor that went into each hand embroidered part!

The backs are all a black cotton with a zipper enclosure.  Mix and match to make sets.  I think these are a great gift for college kids going off to school.  Give them a piece of dazzle to spruce up their dorm rooms!  These pillow covers are 14" square, an easy pillow form size to find in hobby and fabric shops.  

You can see all of the pillow covers in my etsy shop here.

Enjoy!

New Arrivals! Pakistani Remnant Pillows

Ralli Quilts: Customer Photos and Newly Listed!

If you follow this blog, you will know that I carry ralli quilts in my Etsy shop.  I fell in love with them a couple of years ago and have been buying them whenever I can.  As a quilter, I appreciate all the work that goes into them.  I also really like textiles that have an organic, handmade feel to them.  I like mistakes, repairs that don't match, stitches that are crooked, imperfections in dyes...  That doesn't mean that I like sloppy work.  No.  But, many of the tribal or village crafts that I am drawn to have a bold, rough finish to them that tells me a story of a way of life.

So, the other day, a ralli quilt sold in my Etsy store.  I didn't realize that it was the last one I had in stock.  Here is a photo:

 Ralli quilt that sold on Etsy.

One of the things that fascinate me about the rallis is that they do not use any patterns.  They are handed down from mother to daughter.  The quilts are stitched completely by hand and some patterns become popular in a certain village so that experts can take one look and know where they come from.  Several people might work on stitching the blocks and then when it comes time to quilt it, it becomes a quilting bee, with many women helping it go quickly.  I can just see them all sitting in a circle, chatting away about local gossip.

My customer was kind enough to send me some images of how the quilt looked in her home.  How fun it is to see a "product" become a part of an environment!

 Ralli quilt used as a table cloth.

Doesn't it just look great in her home?  I never would have thought to use it on a table like that, but love the effect!  The white walls work perfectly with the quilt.  And, notice how the grey works so well with the light green in the other room.

The effect is both joyful and serene.  Truly lovely!  I really appreciate her sending me the images.  It's a nice way to show how these quilts can be incorporated into contemporary homes.  If you have bought things from my shop in the past and would like to send me some images, I would be happy to post about them, too!

So, that sale meant that I had to get busy and take some more photos and get more rallis back into the shop.  I just got several listed last night.  Click here to see what is currently in stock.  Two of the best quilts I have ever bought are in this new batch:

 Vintage ralli quilt with applique.

Both are done with cutwork applique blocks, much harder to find than the more simple pieced ones.  These are both kind of pricey, around $350, but they are gorgeous and estimated to be from the 1950's.  I also listed less expensive ones, ranging from $42-$160.  

Jump on the ralli wagon and get one for yourself!  They will cast a warm spot on your bed, couch, wall, or table!

For more ralli quilt posts on this blog, click here.

Ralli Quilts: Customer Photos and Newly Listed!

Six New Ralli Quilts on Etsy!

Ralli with an unusual black background.

If you have been following this blog for awhile, you will know that I really love ralli quilts! Partly, I suppose, it is because I, too, make quilts so I can appreciate all the time and effort that goes into them. But, I think that what I really like is the organic quality most of these quilts have in their design. Completely hand sewn, one piece might have had several different women working on it. That might translate into inconsistencies in the stitching and even choice of fabrics used. Normally, one woman will make the top, but the quilting will be done by several women who will in turn get help in finishing their tops.

A ralli quilt with simple construction but almost Amish looking in the colors.

While many ralli quilts may have simple designs as in the one above, the color choices can be very interesting. The colors in that one remind me of Amish quilts, although the border is a signature for ralli quilts. Patterns are handed down by experience, from mother to daughter. While simplicity worked beautifully in the quilt above, the one below is an example of complex patchwork construction. Hundreds (thousands?) of tiny triangles show that the flying geese patterns are also found in Asia.

Ralli quilt with intricate flying geese pattern.

Again, the border, traditional to ralli quilts, places these geese firmly in the minds of Sindhi women. Sindhi women seem to be drawn mostly towards bright fabric colors and bold contrasts. The black fabric in the first quilt of this post is an unusual departure from the more common color palettes. The two quilts below show more common block and color choices. Both have become soft and worn with use.

Traditional ralli blocks, surrounded by the signature borders.

Bold diamonds or a large X are often preferred as a design choice for ralli quilts.

Finally, some villages specialize in cutwork applique. The quilt below is a simple example of this technique, probably made by a young girl or older woman. Appliqued designs can be exquisitely detailed and fill the whole surface of the broad cloth used as a background.

Ralli quilt with cutwork applique.

Ralli quilts are wonderful as wall textiles or draped over a bed. I have kept several for myself and am happy to share these with you!

Visit my Etsy store to see my current selection. I have written several posts in this blog about these quilts, so if you would like to learn more and see more photos, click here.




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Six New Ralli Quilts on Etsy!

New Arrivals: Knit Mukluks and Mittens from Afghanistan!

My best sellers on eBay: Mukluks!

I live in these all Fall, Winter and Spring. Mukluks keep your feet warm, are comfortable and soft. Dancers love them, too!

Knit Mukluks from Pakistan and Afghanistan

I get the mukluks, mittens and gloves from my former gallery partner, Abdul Wardak of Afghan Tribal Arts, who imports them directly from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Hand-knit out of recycled sweaters, refugees from Afghanistan began making these for the Western market in the 1970's. Today, knitting remains a vital source of income for many low income families and women.

Mukluks are available with leather soles and without.

I get two kinds of mukluks from Abdul, with and without leather. The leather soled ones will be selling on eBay for $18 and the ones without for $16. The photos here are pretty representative of the colors and quality of most of the mukluks. I haven't started photographing the new ones and am hoping that some of you out there will want to buy them sight unseen. This will save me a lot of time, effort and cost (eBay fees just keep going up!).

So, here is the deal:

Order in quantities and get the following discounts:

• 1-5 pairs, 10% off

• 6-10 pairs, 15% off

• 11 pairs +, 20% off

Tell me what your color preferences are and I will get as close as possible. Most of the mukluks come in two colors, usually a light and a dark one. You can say blues, reds, pink, black, or be more general like pastels, earthy, bold or bright. I bought a shoe sizer, so this year I will have an easier time at that, too.

Same thing goes for the mittens and gloves, which are $7.50 a pair. The mittens are traditional and run on the larger side, fitting most adults.

The gloves are fingerless with an attached cap. The photos below show an average pair:

Fingerless Knit gloves from Afghanistan and Pakistan

If interested, either leave a comment or use the contact me link at the top right hand corner of the blog. Purchases of these help support Abdul's business and all these wonderful knitters! Afghanistan's infrastructure is a mess, so any income the women can make through their handicrafts is definitely needed income! These make great Christmas gifts, too, so hopefully the discounts will encourage you to buy in quantity.

New Arrivals: Knit Mukluks and Mittens from Afghanistan!

Baghdad Burning, A Powerful Quilt by Donna Hussain

Baghdad Burning

When I first became a quilter my quilts were traditional geometric patterns that required only basic quilting skills. By taking advantage of classes sponsored by my quilt guild and local quilt stores, I have learned many advanced quilting techniques over the years, which I try to incorporate in my quiltmaking. Recently I have been sewing pictorial art quilts, like Baghdad Burning, an artistic stretch for me.

I drew my inspiration for Baghdad Burning from a number of sources: my respect for my husband’s Muslim heritage, my appreciation of the beauty of Islamic art, architecture, and décor; my interest in the lives of women throughout the world, and my despair over the war in Iraq. But how could I express these feelings in the fabric of a quilt? For several months I wrestled with this problem before realizing that the quilt should have symbolic images: a tiled mosaic or tapestry to represent the culture of Iraq, a fire to represent the devastation of battle, and an anguished woman to represent innocents whose lives are ravaged by war.

The first steps in construction of the quilt were to design the pattern for the background mosaic on graph paper, then shop for fabric and a pleasing color palette. With luck I immediately found a decorative fabric of gold swirls on a green background which shifted gradually to gold swirls on brown. Green scorched to brown. Perfect for a fire. This one fabric turned my “perhaps quilt” into a feasible working design. I then found matching fabrics, a blue for the background, a soft purple, and golds for the quilt that that looked well with the chosen scorched green.

Scorched green fabric

The unburned mosaic quilt blocks were easy to sew: the burned sections were the challenge. I spread all of the fabrics from my stash onto my bedroom floor to look for pieces that could be used to represent smoke damage.

Burned and unburned sections

I frequently use interlacing designs made with bias tubes for my quilt borders. In Baghdad Burning the interlacing border needed to be damaged on the right side of the quilt. I first tried to dye a section of the border for the burned portion, but the lacy trim would not absorb the dye. Instead I changed the color of the bias tubes and background, then covered the burned section with two layers of black tulle.

Burned interlacing border

To help me draw templates for the appliquéd flames, I looked at photos of forest fires on the internet. That is where I got the spiky shapes for my smoldering flames and hints about the color of fires.

Flames

For the major focal point of Baghdad Burning, the woman’s face, I adapted a technique I learned in a class with the quilt artist Sandi Cummings. Sandi makes stunning colorful quilts with dot-matrix black and white photos for the heads of her quilt figures. I clipped a small face of an Iraqi woman from newsprint, enlarged the face on my computer, and printed it on lightly-colored fabric. In order to run the fabric through my printer I had to first iron the fabric onto freezer paper for stability.

Face

The woman had to be a large figure in order for her facial expression to be seen. But how could I give her all black clothing visual interest? My solution was to make a pleated three-dimensional skirt, and to quilt heavily the fringed shawl with parallel lines of stitching. Unfortunately, photographs of the quilt do not show the contrast between the two blacks that are apparent to the eye when viewing the quilt on display.

Baghdad Burning has not been a prize-winning quilt, but it draws the attention of those who pass by at quilt shows. I would very much like to know your reaction to the quilt. Please leave me a comment at the end of this blog.

Baghdad Burning has been juried into the International Quilt Festival in Houston, October 30-November 2, 2008. If you attend the show you can see the quilt in person.

Note from Rachel: I saw Baghdad Burning at the AQS show in Paducah that took place here in Paducah this past April. I was zooming down the rows of displayed quilts, saw Baghdad Burning and stopped in my tracks. This quilt led me to find Donna and invite her to become a regular contributor to Fiber Focus, which she graciously has! If you attend the Houston show, do make the effort to find this quilt. It is powerful!

California quilter, Donna Hussain, has exhibited in major quilt shows around the country, authored books, and is a regular contributor to Fiber Focus. Click on her name to see all of her past articles.

The photo shows Donna with her husband, Pascha.

Baghdad Burning, A Powerful Quilt by Donna Hussain

New Textile Stamps In! 10% Discount Offer on Direct Purchases

Every few months I get a big bag of new textile stamps. I buy them sight unseen and just got my newest order. Usually there is a whole range of sizes, but this time, most were in the medium range, around 5" or 13 cm square. I've been offering first dibs to my regular customers through my website, but now that I have this blog, I'll make the offer public.

I photograph the stamps front and back and write the number and price on the back. The discount saves me labor and cost by not having to spend time or money on the listing. Dimensions are not given. Those of you who are familiar with the stamps will know that very small ones are about 1" in diameter and go for $5 and the biggest ones are up to 14" wide and go for $25 or $30.


This is how it works: Go to my website and look at the thumbnails. I just loaded 60 new blocks at the top of that page. I will list another 60 or so in a couple of weeks when I have the rest photographed. E-mail me back with the numbers you are interested in. Because there is no shopping cart, all hell kind of breaks loose in the beginning. I go through the requests as they come in, notify of availability, buyer confirms what she or he wants, then I send a paypal invoice. So, although an image might be sold it might still be there. I try to clean them out as quickly as possible, but it gets kind of crazy.

Returns: You can return any stamp you don't want for a refund on its price. I do not refund shipping.

Shipping: I use the USPS flat rate envelopes and boxes, which really save a lot of money for these heavy blocks! I can usually fit two or three of the medium ones in a $5 envelope and can fit quite a few in a $9 box. Shipping overseas can be pretty expensive, but usually does not go over $40. Fortunately for those of you who are shopping in Euros and Pounds, you are getting an extra deal with dollar being so low... (sob, sob...)

Further Discounts: Purchases in the United States over $100 get free shipping. I will cover the first $20 in overseas orders that are over $100. You can combine other purchases from my stores on eBay or Etsy to reach that $100 (and you don't have to stick to just the stamps), but you do have to go through their check out processes. If you go through them (I have a bunch of stamps listed in both stores) and are charged shipping fees even though your purchase total is over $100, I will refund your fees when I print the shipping label on Pay Pal.

Textile stamps are new to you? Don't know what to do with them? Well, they are wonderful objects in their own right, but also great tools for fabric, paper and clay artists. The stamps can be inked as a regular stamp (with dye or acrylic paint) or they can be pressed into clay or paper pulp. Read my past articles to learn more about them and to see images of how they have been used. The Zucchi Collection is also a wonderful site with historical information on English textile stamps. Here are a couple of books that might also be inspirational:

I have several of them around my house as objects. My fantasy is to tile a whole wall with them!

These stamps are old (20-30 yrs or more) and have been used in workshops in Central Asia. Some are used as borders, others are focal pieces. All of them show signs of wear, have nicks or imperfections. These can be repaired with wood filler, but most of the artists I know like using them as they are, achieving a distressed effect. The stamps are carved out of pear wood, have been smoked and dyed with black ink. Be sure to clean them well with soapy water and a scrub brush before using them on your fabric or paper!

Are you using textile stamps in your work? Leave us a link in the comments below so we can see what you are doing with them! And, now.... let the madness begin!

New Textile Stamps In! 10% Discount Offer on Direct Purchases

Wrap yourself in a ralli quilt!

Ralli Quilt #71, Front and Back $160

Those of you who have been following my blog for awhile know that I have a special place in my heart for ralli quilts. These vintage Indian and Pakistani quilts captured my attention awhile back and I have invested everything I could to stock my stores with them. The more I have, the more I want! Hopefully, this is a contagious virus that can be caught through this blog and you will get the disease, too... (Heh, heh) So far, I've succumbed to keeping three for myself while the rest are on Etsy and and in my little store in Paducah (212 Broadway).

Ralli Quilt #69, Front and Back $90

I just finished working on the photos for a new batch that I will be listing soon. If you act quickly, you can purchase these directly from me at a 20% discount from the price listed. Once I have listed them on eBay or Etsy, you will have to go through that store's shopping cart. I also photographed lots of other new things and it will take me several days to post everything, so you have a little bit of time.

Ralli Quilt #70, Front and Back $82

Click on the photos to see larger images of the quilts. I have five photos of each. I'm showing the front and back of each one here and can send the other three to those interested. Leave a comment with contact information and I'll get them to you. The quilts are all about a single bed size. They are functional and can be used, but also look great as wall hangings. The backs are often as interesting as the fronts. All of them have flaws (or they would be much, much more expensive!). I also quilt which might be why I have the disease so badly, but even for the non-quilter, these quilts have some of the folk art qualities that make "naive" art so interesting. They are often crooked, use bizarre (to my eye) color combinations, and carry a history of use in their stains and imperfections. Prices are based on what I paid for them plus quality. Shipping is free on purchases over $100. Feel free to add other of my items on Etsy or eBay to take advantage of that offer.

Ralli Quilt #67, Front and Back $140

Haven't heard of ralli quilts before? Read my other articles for more history, other photos and a review on the book Ralli Quilts by Patricia Ormsby Stoddard.

Ralli Quilt #68, Front and Back $42

All of the quilts are filthy when I get them. I machine wash them in industrial machines to both clean them and test them for durability. Most of these quilts are probably from the 1960's and 1970's.

Ralli Quilt #65, Front and Back $140

Brighter quilts often have a silk content, mixed with poly blends. The earthier ones are cotton which were dyed with cheap, commercial dyes that have faded over time. They are my personal favorites, although I like the bright ones, too. I originally thought that they had been dyed with veggie dyes, but Stoddard's book set me straight.

Ralli Quilt #66, Front and Back $148

I accept Pay Pal, checks and money orders. I will give further instructions on how to pay to those serious about purchasing a quilt.

Ralli Quilt #42, Front and Back $75

For purchases under $100, the quilts fit into a flat rate box that ships for $9 in the United States. I recently shipped a quilt to Denmark and that one cost $35 in shipping.

Ralli Quilt #64, Front and Back $140

That's it! Hope you come down with the Ralli virus as seriously as I have. Sorry, there is no antidote except for growing your collection...

Wrap yourself in a ralli quilt!