TAST Knotted Buttonhole Band

As I type its begun to rain, really pour yet the setting sun is still shining bright. How strange.

The unprecedented traffic on this blog because of the Take it Further Fiber book has proven to be good for my creativity and has spurred me on to plunge into fiber book making in a big way.

The TAST(take a stitch tuesday) embroidery samples of which the Knotted Buttonhole Band is the latest one to be completed are being made into a two volume set of embroidery samplers. Volume one has been sewn together and is waiting for its cover, volume two is in the process of being assembled as the samples are completed. So next week I plan to show you how I go about making my fiber books.

The second bit of news is that I'm participating in a fiber page swap with fourteen other participants to create a unique fiber book at the end of fourteen months. The Story of the Traveling Pages starts in January 2010 but it already has its own blog where you will get to see how the pages and books are created. This is the first time for me and needless to say I'm all charged up and excited, the theme for my book is leaves, by the way. Click here to read about the other participants and what their themes are.

Looks like I'll have to give BJP ( Bead Journal Project) 2010 a miss again this coming year or should I take the plunge and make a small little book with beaded pages the size of an ATC ?Need to give this some serious thought.

Have a great weekend, mine involves Goan food so R tells me.

My Cup Runneth Over

Million Little Stitches has not seen the type of traffic witnessed in the past five days ever before.

Last night I was surprised to see on maploco that 1605 people had viewed my blog from 987 places.I had to wake up R so he could see this phenomena. Wow! Almost all of North America and Europe have disappeared under scores of blue dots.

27 comments for a post is another record and followers up to a magical 77 makes my head spin. I'm going to be replying to those comments and visiting your blogs in the next couple of days.

I'd like to thank Mr XStitch and Craft zine for featuring the Take it Further fiber book on their respective sites and for this cup runneth over state I find myself in. Thank you.

Take it Further Fiber Book

The Take it Further fiber book is finally complete. My first fiber book, I'm over the moon.
The cover is felt which I've embroidered and it opens to reveal the page above.
Flipping through the pages. One for each month.
That's the last page. The free form Cable chain stitch is an attempt to imitate the end papers in very old hard bound books which are marbled.
The edges of the pages have sugar beads at intervals. You can see I got carried away.
Click on the months to see each page of the book.

January,February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

On to making more fiber books. The Take a Stitch Tuesday samples will be made into a sampler book as well. I need to start assembling the pages but there will be no extra embellishments like sugar beads along the edges of pages (what got into me to do that I wonder!).

There's The Bead Journal Project for 2010 which I shall join. Last year I had already committed to Take a Stitch Tuesday on Stitchin fingers.

There's a discussion on at the Fiber book group at Stitchin Fingers about a fiber book page swap. That could be interesting. A book compiled on a particular theme, with pages contributed by different people in the group. I think I must participate.

So what do you think of my first ever fiber book? I hope all who visit have a great weekend.

Happy Diwali

TAST Square Boss Stitch & Rice Stitch

I think I've gone ahead with TAST. Fifteen stitches, fifteen weeks to go before TAST ( Take a Stitch Tuesday) is completed. So early next year I'll begin the process of sewing the samples into a fibre book - my second.

TAST Cable Chain Stitch

I quite like this stitch and I'm going to use it on the inside back cover of the Take It Further fibre book.

TAST - Portuguese Knotted Stem Stitch

Sea Glass

What do you get if copious quantities of beer is drunk in a tropical environment which boasts of sun, sand and a rocky shoreline? Fabulous quantities of Sea Glass.

Waves pounding rocky outcrops work a certain magic on beer bottles and turn them into sea glass and this is the perfect setting. I regret not having made my own offering of empty beer bottles to the sea and at this particular rocky outcrop in an attempt at making it a sustainable process. Putting back what I was going to take out so that those coming after me would be enchanted when they discovered sea glass. I don't think I need be overly concerned in a place like Goa where the liquor flows all year round.
You need a sandy beach like this even if its just a tiny crescent where you can go down at low tide and start the process of beach combing. Be warned this sport requires a large reservoir of patience, walking slowly and great hand and eye co-ordination because at times you have to be quick to spot the sea glass and pluck it up from the sand from amongst the pulverised sea shells, pebbles and some other undesirable stuff like plastic garbage, before the next wave rolls in.
Sea glass is like treasure for me. Two evenings on the beach above netted me a jam bottle full of the stuff. The sharp edges and the entire surface is worn smooth like a baby's bottom. The pieces are of varying opacity or translucence and no two pieces are the same shape or size. Each one unique.

This is the base of a glass which i found wedged between the slippery rocks near the rampart. The largest piece of sea glass in my collection.

Read about Freebirdsing's celebration of sea glass here.

I've only ever looked for sea glass in Goa because the conditions are perfect.

Are you a sea glass collector?

Which are your favourite beaches for gathering sea glass? in India / the world.

What do you do with the sea glass you collect? I've incorporated some tiny bits in a page in the Take it Further fibre book and I know its used for jewellery which I'm considering trying out.

For more about sea glass go here and here.

TAST Shisha Stitch

Shisha stitch is one of my favourites.For the sample above I couldn't find any mirrors in my stash so I decided to make do with what I could find. Beer bottle tops flattened out, a one rupee coin and a button.Shisha stitch is also used quite extensively in certain regions and communites in India. So I thought I'd include some images of Shisha stitch done on garments and samplers in my collection.
The women of the Lambani tribe uses mirror work or shisha stitch extensively on their highly embellished clothes.
Examples of shisha stitch on a sampler which Lambani women created for me. They inspired me to use other embroidery stitches around my own explorations and samples of shisha stitch. You can see more pictures of Lambani embroidery here.

I bought a beautiful skirt in Jaipur two decades ago and the picture below is of the border.

The weekend began yesterday in India this week, because October 2nd is Gandhi Jayanti.