Siddi/Kawandi

Yesterday I attended a workshop with Sujata Shah. We were beginning a piece informed by the Kawandi quilts of the Siddi African diaspora community in India. I am using some of my batik sample pieces bought in Kuala Lumpur from the Cottage Patch shop. The owner (Mr Chang) was a big fan of local fabrics and had bought up discarded samples when factories shut. Closely woven, they are quite hard to stitch through by hand. The web page describes it as a family run shop and indeed it was with his wife on the till. "Auntie" measured and priced every one of these pieces and would supervise the young son's homework. Mother was out the back in charge of the kitchen. I visited every week right from the other side of the city.