If you are like me, you may forget to take care of yourself sometimes. Most of us have heard that in order to support others we need to take care of ourselves first. As cliché as that may seem, it is true! We need to feed ourselves with some love. That love can be anything that makes you happy. Bring joy to your life and it will flow over into all those you meet.
So what are some of your favorite things? Coffee or Hot Chocolate on a cold morning? Sitting in the sun watching the clouds go by? Catching up with friends and sharing stories? I love all of these but the thing I love to do most is hand stitch quilts. I know, I am crazy. This may be one of the most difficult things for some people but I love the rocking motion of the needle and Zen like state I feel while I am sewing.
For those who wish to try this at home, I have a supper simple Kantha Quilt you can create.
This is a 44" x 44" throw quilt. You can use any fabric you like. The fabric I chose is handmade "Block Print" cotton from India. I also used two colors of embroidery floss for the stitching, white and lavender. (You can use any combination of colors to make yours bright and beautiful.) And I used "Warm & White" batting between the the fashion fabric, but you can use anything you are comfortable with.
Kantha quilts are from Southeast Asia and have been around for thousands of years. Usually, women would recycle old Sarees to make this light weight blanket. Sarees are usually 6 to 9 yards of fabric, cotton or silk. The ladies used any fabric for batting, like pillow cases, other sarees, or left over flannel from flour sacks.
They lay the fabric fashion side down on the ground and place the batting evenly along half of the fabric. Then, the fabric is folded over the batting with fashion fabric up as well. (I used three yards of fabric to make my blanket 44" x 44".)
Now all you have to do is stitch! A simple whip stitch along the edge of the quilt is used to enclose the batting. Then straight stitching the rest of the way.
The best thing about hand stitching this quilt, it doesn't need to be perfect. You can use any size stitch you want. The lines can be far apart or close together. If you can't stitch straight, that's okay too. If you want to use a fabric pen to pre-line the fabric that is totally fine. You only need a general idea of where you want your stitches to be. You can use a hidden knot or let the knots show. Really, this quilt is best for a quick pick-me-up project.
Send us pictures of your Kantha quilts and we will show them off here! Sometimes the best love you can give yourself is a pat-on-the-back when you have completed a project!
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