100 Day Project - Day 11

 

The Hundred Day Project - Day 11

deconstructed serendipity diary

Kantha quilt scraps

Vintage kantha quilts are made of three to seven layers of cloth, no batting, held together with kantha stitching: lines of running stitches, hundreds upon hundreds. One of my favorite things to do is to discover those hidden textiles. Usually, they are worn, stained or patched, living another life as  warmth-giving layers.

 

When I remove the stitching to get at them, I never fail to take a moment to think of the anonymous hands that put together the original quilt, that threaded the needle, that made those lines and lines of  tiny stitches.

I've begun a practice of taking a small square of a kantha scrap, deconstructing it, and stitching each piece to a backing in the order in which it was stacked together. 

This is the record of three kantha quilts. The top and bottom pieces are the seen layers. The middle pieces are what was hidden inside. It's all random, what appears on the inner layers, which part of a pattern, the colors. Serendipity.