KARACHI: Fabric, lace, ribbons, threads, embroidery, piecing, patchwork, appliquéing, sashing, batting, fusing, sewing ... These are just some of the things they use and do to make a pretty quilt. But the most important thing in it all is the dedication with which they keep on with it, bit by bit like putting together the pieces a jigsaw puzzle.

Samiah Ahsan says: “The best time to do it is in the evenings, when watching television or while waiting for someone maybe.” Though she was taught appliqué work and quilting by her mother several years ago when she was a young girl, Samiah really got into this hobby of hers some 15 years ago in Abu Dhabi. Of the 80 pieces on display at the Karachi Quilt Show, organised by the Piecemakers’ Guild at the Alliance Francaise de Karachi on Wednesday, Samiah had 15. The show had some very talented women exhibiting their work. Another one among them was Samina Qureshi, who received the judges award for ‘Best of Show’. An artist initially, later she took to quilting.

“I started making quilts 13 years ago when I was living in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. This Lebanese lady there had been inviting me over to her place for coffee for a while as she wanted me to see what she had been up to and having a small child then I just couldn’t find the time to go there. But when I finally did I saw the quilt she was in the process of making and liked it very much. I returned home with some fabric of my own and I started work on my own quilt. Now I keep sending her pictures of my quilts and share with her my works in progress through Skype, too. She is so proud of me,” Samina says.

Samina met Samiah through a mutual friend and they got together here in Karachi to gather more quilting enthusiasts and to teach others this art. That was how the Piecemakers’ Guild, Karachi came into being in October 2008.

Heer Sharif, its current chairperson, is a textile designer so fabric is second nature to her, she says. Commenting on the various pieces on display labelled ‘not for sale’, she smiled and said: “Well, its labour of love. You can’t put a price tag on it. If I don’t make a quilt for my own home, then I make it as a gift for maybe a friend who is unwell or a child or baby. But I don’t sell my quilts.”

Among the many colourful quilts at the exhibition there was one that stood out from all the rest. It was the memorial quilt made by mother and daughter Ayesha Khalid and Salma Khalid for the martyrs of Peshawar’s Army Public School (APS). “We live in Kuwait but we have nephews studying here at another APS. It could have easily been them,” Ayesha, the mother, said.

The red quilt with 151 patches carrying the names of all the martyrs including teachers, gardeners, other staff members and the students. “Half of the quilt has the names of class eighth students as most of the children belonged to that class. The 151st name is of Ishaq Ameen, who succumbed to his injuries just three weeks back,” Ayesha Khalid said.

“Each patch was digitised by me before being machine embroidered. The names of the martyrs are in red and the names of their fathers are in black underneath,” pointed out the daughter. “We will take this quilt back to Kuwait to display in another exhibition there in the last week of April and then we’ll bring it back here to present it to the school where they can put it up to never forget these brave individuals,” said Salma Khalid.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015

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