O I am having such a wonderful time making these simple tops. Bosna #3, 65" square.
And finally I am seeing the pile of colors reducing. I am out of red-orange! So I will be attempting to work without it. ha!
Primaries are so energizing, but the first three are pretty much using those, so my challenge is to find other colors to excite me.
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| Bosna #1 |
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| Bosna #2 |
The Bosna Quilt Workshop was founded and carried out in the Caritas Refugee Home Galina, Vorarlberg, Austria in 1993. The quilts, which were designed by the Austrian painter Lucia Feinig-Giesinger, are thin covers imaginatively stitched and seamed by talented Bosnian women. I am kinda disappointed that the designs didn't come directly from the quilters. I shoulda known, since they carried a similar theme throughout.
Hi Melody!
ReplyDeleteI am from Austria and as a former quilt magazine publisher I know the Bosna Quilts pretty well. The idea behind this project is a really great one. In 1993 during the war that splitted former Jugoslavia into different small countries many refugees came especially from Bosnia where this war was extremly cruel.
Some families (about 15 I think) lived in Vorarlberg and Lucia Fenig-Giesinger, a painter, got in touch with the refugee women trying to get them occupied with something meaningful in their spare time. So she designed the quilts and the Bosnian women did sew them using mostly donated fabric and Lucia's design. Then they hand quilted the quilts using entirely their own designs. For quilting the used crochet yarn which is thicker than quilting yarn. This gave a very 3dimensional appearance to the quilts. The quilts were then sold. For this Lucia used all her contacts in the art world. And all the money went directly to the Bosnian women. In rather short time the women earned more money than their husbands. After the war the families went back to Bosnia where they still sew and quilt - now using their own designs which still consists of large plain parts of fabric heavily hand quilted - and they still sell it to make a living. And of course they pass on their new skills. Oh one more thing: none of the refugees knew what a quilt was or how to quilt - there is no tradition in Bosnia for this. So it was a new skill to all of them.
I hope you find the story behind the Bosna Quilts interesting. Have a great holiday season and thank you for writing this great blog. Gabi (from Vienna, Austria)
Thanks Gabi for that background. Melody, are you piecing these or fusing?
ReplyDeleteLaceflower
I pieced them.
DeleteMerci de m'avoir fait découvrir cette partie de l'histoire, c'est très intéressant mais n'oublions pas que c'est la guerre qui a permis cette création, alors!!!
ReplyDeleteJ'aime beaucoup votre travail et vous lis avec plaisir