Fattoh and Sons Tentmaker Applique

Just for ya'all I got special permission to post pics on my blog of one of my favorite tentmaker shops. I could have taken so many more pics, there's so much to see, but I had to draw the line somewhere. I did get pics of the four main types of applique designs: traditional, islamic, pharoanic and rural.

This is Fattoh and Sons. I believe it's Hany that is pictured here, proudly showing one of the appliques he made. My friend bought this one - it's a beauty, isn't it. They all are, I know. The work behind his head has lovely detail work - embroidery around the edges of the pieces to give them definition. It's an unusual design as well.

Remember the bird that I showed you that was formed out of arabic letters? The boat with the rowers there in the middle right side is made the same way. The marketplace scene above it is embroidered and painted to give such incredible detail.

This islamic piece in orange and reds with lettering in it is just georgeous and fiery looking. I just love the deep colors in the piece below it.

Some more traditional-style appliques. The top one was just stunning on the wall. Very few colors but very dynamic. There are actually orange butterflies in each of the corners, but I could only tell that by looking closely.

And how about this incredible large work up on the wall with the lattice border? So stunning. Not my colors at all or I'd have been in trouble.

This is a pharoanic design on top - a recreation of the Day of Judgement, a very famous scene recreated in papyrus and on temple walls. The dead person's heart is being weighed against a feather. Look at the recreation of the heiroglyphics. My friend LJC bought one similar to this, but hers has turquoise cobras along the top.

Along the bottom are rural appliques - depictions of musicians and a whirling dervish.

And here's a close-up. Remember Thoth, the ibis-headed god? That's him writing down the results there on the right.

Fattoh and Sons is located at 29 El Khayamia St in case any of you are in Cairo. Their email is hasmo95@hotmail.com - I expect you could work out arrangements with international money orders and Fed Ex to make purchases...

small tents

I'm not sure these small tents have any particular use other than as playthings for children. Maybe they're mock-ups to give people an idea of what a full-scale tent would look like. My friend thinks a tent would be cool to hide the kitty litter box, but I don't know about that.

All of this fabric is printed, not batiked.

Two Blocks Done, or is it Three?

I've finished quilting terms into two more of my single fabric blocks. Actually, wait, I just remembered I quilted our name, location and the year into a longer strip. Never mind that.

This is what it looks like in the upper left corner.

I'm thrilled with how the Baboo block looks. I like the contrast of the quilting on the fabric:

I wasn't sure about the Screwball block from the very start. Is that purple floss to strong here? Too obnoxious? I can read it, but it's not very soothing. This was testing red colors of floss on the block (looks better in the picture than it did live). I think red would be legible and wouldn't fight with the fabric so much.

I decided to go ahead and put all the terms in anyway, in the color I started out with. Figure I'm going to give it a chance. If I get to the end of the embroidery floss quilting and it's still too obnoxious I'll take it out and redo it in red or else leave it blank.

Tentmaker Street

Life got hectic on me this week. A friend in town only briefly, a sick husband, and a new jewelry making class. Aiyee. Hubby is better and off to work, so this is my chance to play catch-up.

My friend LC and I visited Tentmakers' Street on Tuesday. It's located in a very old part of Cairo known as Islamic Cairo. It's also not too far from the Khan al Khalili, the giant souq/bazaar I've told you about previously. This time I was paying attention, so I can actually get back there without a guide - hurrah.

This is the mosque that is located at one end of the street. You walk through the gateway there on the left to enter the street unless you come from the other, less picturesque, direction.

The shops are pretty small and narrow. Each of the appliques hanging on a door indicates a different shop. The street itself is narrow (and, unbelievably, not closed off to traffic) with a wooden "roof" stretching across to block out the sun somewhat.

The latest trend seems to be making miniature tents - or at least I'm now paying attention to them. The one on the lower left is made out of a material printed in the style of the old, typical tents. Back then it would have been appliqued. These are traditional colors: the reds, blues and yellows.

Isn't this one a beauty? I didn't crop the photo so you could see the rest of the shop. There were a couple of very tempting pieces in this shop - I might have to buy one the next time I'm down there.

Quilting started

I started the quilting on Terms of Endearment yesterday. Decided to start with the one area I was absolutely sure of - that big orange square in the lower right. I wanted to put all our names and the year in, but ran out of room. My sweetie's name is above mine, just respecting his privacy some by not showing the close-up.

Ran out of space for our last name and the year, but I'll fit them in somewhere. You can still see some of my chalk marks on here - I had to re-apply the chalk for the lower letters a few times.

I started out using the stem stitch with size 8 perle cotton but quickly discovered that was going to be a pain in the ass with a quilt this large. That and I didn't like the look of it. Switched to all 6-strands of embroidery floss in purple. Very happy with how that looks. I did have to redo the "i" in Lily because I hadn't left enough room between the dot and the rest of the letter and it just mooshed together - combined with it's placement with the "L" it just looked like a deformed "U."

Now I'm not quite sure what to do with the rest of the terms of endearment I'd like to put on there. Do I do them large as well? If so, I'll have to put them on sideways to make good use of the long rectangles. Still to be determined.

Told you my friend is back in town. We're going to go out playing - looking at carpets - so I think that's it for me today. Cheers.