Kehoeta

A friend of mine is bringing some fabric back from her trip to India this month. It's cotton, but has quite a nice sheen to it, and some has metallic embellishments.

Has anyone ever made a quilt with this type fabric? Any suggestions for patterns - to show off the unusualness and asian feel of it??

mom-6

You might like the blocks we used for the asian fabric block swaps last year. Someone else will have to do the links as I don't know how.

Lori S

My Mom just got back from India .. she said so many fabrics are of mixtures we don't see here ... like cotton and silk blends are quite common. Do pretest all of your fabrics for color fastness and reaction to water.
Peggy Toole a fabric designer for Robert Kaufman had a line of fabrics called "Jewels of India" it is spectacular...The Kaufman web site shows patterns for using that line, and might provide some inspiration.

Here is the link
http://www.robertkaufman.com/fabrics/jewels_of_india/

CQMadhatter

A friend of mine brought me back some fabric from India...I used them as the fabric that I framed in "framed Hexagons". If you are unfamiliar, see Kiwi quilts site.

patchsamkim

My sister in law brought me some fabric back from Africa. So far I just look at it and admire it, but haven't decided what I would make with it. It isn't as firm of a weave as our fabric is here. She brought me 2 large pieces. I am thinking of using one in a quilt, and the other maybe for something wearable.

Cheshirecatquilter

My kids brought me back a few pieces from their India honeymoon trip. One of the fabrics bled like crazy, and still has a funny smell to it, probably the dye. It's very pretty, but I won't use it in anything that I expect to be washing.

Holice

If the fabric is metalic print then I will use it in wall hangings or items that will not be washed.
If cotton and no metalic then I will wash it well if going into a quilt. Once the dye is washed out then I find it ok to use it in quilts. The threads appear strong and should hold up. The fabric should be strong as the folk in India and other countries give the fabric hard use. I use it for crib quilts for a more ethnic look as all babies ate not blond haired and blue eyed.

toadmomma

I have some that was brought back from india, it is so beautiful I havent cut it yet.I also got some thread from India from Ebay it is incredibliy beautiful, waiting for the right project to use it.

Momyar

I just came back from India last week and had no idea where to go to buy any fabric. I did see some in a shop but it wasn't anything that I wanted.

Only place I ever saw that said the word fabric was on a building we were passing on the other side of the street just a few hours before we left. Unfortunately, I only had a friend of ours (a man) be able to take me shopping 1 time. Otherwise, I was in the hotel while hubby worked.

Hugs!

LadyElisabeth

Good point, if fabric has no metalic threads, WASH, WASH,WASH, I'm not sure they set their dye well