Whether in the genteel drawing rooms of the English aristocracy, around the outdoor cooking fires of remote Southeast Asian hill tribe villages or in community halls in regional towns and urban centres around the world, women have always come together to sew.
Catching up on news, swapping sorrows and joys while stitching and – in the case of collaborative projects such as quilts – sharing the workload, are all reasons for gathering with needle and thread in hand.
While the equipment for hand-sewing is essentially the same everywhere, the techniques and reasons for sewing vary greatly between geographical regions, countries and social groups.
Originating in the Bengal region of India, kantha stitching has been practised for centuries by women of all classes and generations to transform old
