Hamsa Time

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These fabulous paper-pieced hamsas are part of my newest quilt. I’m so very excited to share them with you. I bought the pattern from a wonderful Etsy site called Joe, June and Mae. They carry some great paper piecing designs and even donate to good causes like NAACP. The pattern cost me $8.16 and is easy to use and comes in two block sizes. I chose to use the 10″ x 10″ hamsa pattern so far, but I’m getting inspired now to try the 12″ x 12″ one too.

All three hamsas play nicely together, which was my goal. I didn’t want them matchy-matchy but they feel unified rather than too scrappy.
What is a Hamsa you ask?  A Hamsa hand is an ancient Middle Eastern amulet that symbolizes the Hand of God. In all faiths it is a protective sign. It brings its owner happiness, luck, health, and good fortune.  It is also identified as the Hand of Miriam, Aaron and Moses’s sister, and the Hand of Fatima.  Hamsas can be made of metal, fabric, beads, clay or anything.  They can be worn on clothing, jewelry or hung on the wall.

My plan is for the quilt to be plain squares with a few hamsas mixed in here and there. I don’t know how many hands to scatter around but they are becoming a passion already! The first Hamsa below was made exactly as the pattern is written. Note those tiny little triangle pieces around the eye. Yes, they are small indeed. I chose orange and red fabric for those zigging and zagging pieces because I didn’t want them to stand out too much. Yes, I could try another one using more contrast in the fabrics, but let’s see where this goes. In later versions, I’ll drop those triangles and the results are just as nice.

It’s not a perfect execution, but I’m pretty proud of my ability to stick with all those tiny triangles around the eye. They vary in size, but some are much smaller than a half inch in length! It took awhile to complete this one, but it was fun nonetheless.
This is my 2nd hamsa and I was able to fussy cut the parrots. I wanted to vary the design somewhat so I dropped the tiny triangles. Here, I tried something more modern around the eye shape. I adore this combination of jungle-type fabrics.
My 3rd Hamsa was my attempt to use stripes around the eye. I fussy cut this Tula Pink yellow fabric with some success. Though you can’t really tell, the pupil of the eye is dark green surrounded by beige. I like how this one came out. It feels a little Frida Kahlo to me which is a bonus.

I am anxious to get this quilt going but I’m not using the sewing machine today. Instead, it was my day off to take care of a son who had shoulder surgery yesterday. Lucky for him, the management of pain is going o.k. thus far. Since he’s doing so well, I had time to rip the papers off the backs of each hamsa. I also baked chocolate chip cookies, interviewed 2 potential contractors for a bathroom remodel, watched the boys power wash our white fence and wrote this blog post! While not a sewing day, it was still quite productive!

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3 responses to “Hamsa Time”

  1. Pingback: Elephants, Tigers and More | That Fabric Feeling·

    • Thanks. I’m still figuring out the design. I’ve now made 5 or so more hamsas. It’s getting to be time to stop and plan the layout. I’ll keep everyone posted.

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