Shruti Dandekar – Quilting and Beyond

Founder and CEO, 13 Woodhouse road; Brand ambassador, Bernina India; and The Digital Women’s Award 2018 Winner- Shruti Dandekar is a former architect, who took the quilting world by a storm, to say the least!

Shruti took a break from her career in 2009 when she contracted Chikungunya. While on bed rest, she used her grandfather’s sewing machine to upcycle the fabrics at home. Gradually, her designs started to attract a lot of people. She employed 40 workers from underprivileged societies. She did not think of this as a business venture until 2013-14, for her, it was just a hobby that brought her solace.

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Shruti started her blog –  13 Woodhouse Road, to share her journey with the world. It attracted a lot of like-minded people. While launching her E-book, she was turned down by a lot of publishers until she finally decided to take the reins into her own hands. Magic happens when you don’t give up! She put up the E-book on her blog and a US-based quilt shop noticed it, which they later started to sell. This was a major milestone in her journey!

Unless you open yourself to new things, you can’t find what you love. She is a self-taught quilter, specialising in portrait quilts. Her quilts, like the “White Rainbow” and “Apsara Aali”, are exhibited and acclaimed internationally. Her phenomenal 256” X 96” “Shivrajyabhishek Quilt”, is one of her commendable quilt works.

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. It was not easy for her to pursue this art. For one, quilting was not very established in India and thus, the shops selling the required materials were meager in number and not very well equipped. She had a big setback in 2019 when her studio flooded, and a lot of fabric and notions were damaged. She had to move whatever little was left to her home and work from there. Soon enough, as the pandemic dawned over the world, her work as a travelling quilting instructor came to a halt. She upcycled and donated a striking 12,000 masks to the entire district police force! This filled her lockdown with a purpose, something we, at India’s Karuna Quilt, admire and can resonate with.

From starting her blog to now being one of the most sought-after names in the quilting world, Shruti Dandekar has played a prime role in our blissful quilting world!