I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Jutta Hellbach and attending her workshops at the BERNINA Creative Center  in Mumbai! It was 3 days that really changed the way I think about quilts.

I have been quilting for a while now. And all those who know me, also know that I need an adventure! A new challenge all the time! It has been a while since i have been dabbling in Modern Quilts, but what Jutta taught us, really changed the way I look at quilts now!

The first day was Paper Lamination! It was SUPER exciting. The possibilities of where you can take your work are simply limitless. All the women attending the workshop were bowled over. I could actually hear my head buzzing with ideas.

In the afternoon, Jutta showed us some of her work – Art Quilts in particular. They really opened my mind about using different material in quilting. She has used canvas, paints and organza to create art quilts!!! Isn’t that amazing?

Here’s what I finished by the end of the day.

Never actually intended it to look like a skyline. But after screen printing the background fabric, thats where the quilt was going so I just went along and made – “Manhattan – Feb ’15” to remind me of the wonderful time I had with my friends in New York earlier this year!

The next two days were even more fun! We did the Jelli Printing and made our fabrics into Tote Bags.

For someone like me who quilts the life out of their piece, stopping so soon was quite surprising. But it was so much fun too.

It was unbelievable how each persons bag turned out. Each seemed to have a mind of its own.

At the end of the second day the bags were ready to be taken home!

Aren’t they all amazing? Here’s mine. The ‘Orange-Yellow’ Side

And the Red-Blue Side

Jutta is not only a wonderful artist but a great teacher too! There were some students who needed a lot more coaxing than the others and she did that with grace and poise. She was open about sharing her knowledge and discussing even more possibilities with the techniques. She was also a lot of fun!

We did have many moments where we were out of breath with laughter.

But the best quality I saw in her was her warmth and sensitivity. And I’m glad to have made another awesome friend on the other side of the world! Thank you Ajay Gupta of BERNINA India for giving us this opportunity.

Looking forward to seeing you back again, Jutta!!!