Bengali White Quilted Kantha
6th April - 15th July 2017

In the past, Bengali women did not have money to buy new materials for making kantha so they put together layers of used white saris and dhotis and stitched them into whatever patterns they liked using colored threads pulled out from old saris. They finished the kantha by quilting the white background with fine ripples of white stitches, thus making the piece more durable. The finished kantha were spread on the floor for guests to sit on, or used for ceremonies, the husband would take it as a blanket on his travels, and a soft one was used to wrap a baby. Thus a kantha was useful and at the same time an expression of a women' s creativity, devotion, and love. We will exhibit approximately 40 examples of kanthas.