Sadiya
36”x 42”
Our trip is long over, the tastes gone from our mouth, the smells disappeared, the noise in the distance. All we have left are our memories.
Our journey to Egypt and Turkey this summer was beyond memorable. I am so glad that my last minute decision to bring sewing supplies resulted in this special piece. I’ve been sitting with all the memories as I stitched it. Opting for hand quilting/embroidery in all the blocks meant I’ve been sitting with it nearly daily for a few months. Bit sad to be done, really, because that means the trip is truly in the past.
Make sure to check out the post I made right after the trip with block and trip details.
To see details of the stitching on each finished block, I made a reel that you can see here. It was a lot of fun to pick stitches and patterns to both highlight block elements and sometimes reference the original block inspiration. I played around with thread weights, brands, and colours. Not to mention, a collection of stitch options!
While the back of the quilt is not a perfect reflection of the front, I did try hard to be as neat as possible. This meant thinking through my movements as I stitched, burying knots, and a constant aiming for consistency. Oh, and a pick a busy print to give yourself a break!
The binding was a special experiment. Inspired by ancient linen seen in the Grand Egyptian Museum I wanted a fringe element. Knowing that linen frays so nicely I embraced this instead of fighting it. Stay tuned for a tutorial on that.
In our house we have a no quilts on the wall rule. Considering that vast number of quilts here, I think it is a pretty fair rule. But even my husband agreed we could break it for this special quilt. Now to find the perfect spot to hang it so we can all smile at our shared memories. Oh wait, I guess I have to sew a sleeve on it first!
In case you missed it, here is the small quilt I made with the scraps from this one.