June CQJP

Got the CQJP journal pages done for June. Yipee!

The Crazy Quilt page. The Transit of Venus was big but it was a cloudy morning in Bangalore and I didn't see it. :( 

The journal page for June combined with explorations of stitches from TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday). In June there was buttonhole wheel, cable chain stitch and palestrina stitch. 

Here's the journal page up close and personal.

Some catching up to do for the CQJP. Have the CQ block done for July, now I have to embellish the seams while recording the happenings in July in embroidery on the journal page.

Happy Janmashtami  to those who celebrate, we've been invited to a puja this evening.

Go with the Flow

Go with the Flow is the third  scarf in the Traveland maps collection.

Dark blue cotton silk treated with bleach and embellished with buttonhole stitch and black sequins.

The current is strong and I'm being swept along so there's no other option but to go with the flow that's my life at present.  

Have you noticed the new blinkie in the sidebar advertising My Memories scrapbooking software? Well if you are into scrapbooking then you might want to check it out and if you decide to buy then use this promo code STMMMS64309 on the shopping cart page to save $10! Please copy and paste this code to avoid errors.I'm going to be exploring this software this weekend to design invitations and probably an album for a nephew's wedding.Will show you my explorations in a week or two and I'm planning a giveaway at that point.  

Have a great weekend. 

A Textile Letter

Karina invited me to exchange a textile letter with her and I created an embroidered one for her. That's the whole long letter, sorry for the hazy picture but its a cloudy day and I didn't want to use the flash.    

Here are closeups of sections of the letter.  

A tear in the fabric becomes a part of the letter.

All pictures enlarge if you click on them and give you a chance to take a closer look at the details.

Bits of silk appliqued to the letter with running stitch, button hole wheels, feather stitch and cable chain stitch are part of my letter writing vocabulary. 

I've appliqued a list of traditional Indian snacks which were listed on a snack packet. Click on the picture to get an enlarged view.  

Signing off.

Click here to take a look at the letters Katrina has received from people all over the world. 

Urban Sprawl

Urban Sprawl is the second in the collection I'm creating based on the theme of maps and travel.

The scarf is a cotton silk one with running stitch, sequins and applique. 

Urban Sprawl has been interpreted as growth of a town into a city , its organic growth which is not planned.

Its a collection of little towns which have grown and got connected by roads and buildings which are now recognised as a single city but these localities and areas still function as self sufficient eco systems.

In a lot of ways its a reflection of Bangalore where I live. The urban sprawl continues to expand growing upward and outward at a scorching pace, turning a city into a metropolis and very soon to a megalopolis.

Where do you live? village, town, city, metropolis or megalopolis. 

Participate in this event and have a little fun today.Cheers!

Button Holing

Buttonhole stitch is going to be the star of my next stole- Land of Lakes. This little damaged fabric which is part of another little project inspired Land of Lakes.
Land of Lakes is the third in the collection based on the theme of Maps and Travel. The collection will have 7 - 10 scarves and stoles and I'm finding there are enough hours in a day! Help.
I have yet to show you Urban Sprawl which I finished last week.

Caterina is hosting a rose giveaway on her blog La DolceVita. You have until July19th to put your name in the hat for the lucky draw.

Here's something I find absolutely delightful.

Etsy

Created by: www.MBAOnline.com

Is that a cool or what? Fantastic example of infographics.

Click here to check out  the Million Little Stitches shop on Etsy.

Kicking off the weekend with a movie tonight - The Gangs ofWassepur. Have a great weekend.  

Gypsy

Gypsy - a reversable hand pieced  patchwork tussar silk scarf.

Running stitch adds texture andholds the two layers together. Blanket stitch is used to finish the edges of the scarf.

The reverse of the scarf is a whole cloth patterned with kantha stitch squares of different sizes. 

The soft colours of the patchwork which shine through when the scarf is held up to the light.

June has slipped by,and all I remember are the many nights spent watching the Euro 2012 and the finals last night was simply fantastic. La Roja are the best.

May CQJP

Keeping up, just about. Here's the crazy quilt block for May. I've used a collection of mother of pearl buttons. The square one and the one which looks like a flower are part of the giveaway I won on Pat's blog. The three tiny round ones are from a Zara top which belonged to my sister.

The top right hand corner is a piece of fabric I experimented with tea and rust and the fabric in the centre is a Shibori experiment with tea and a cast iron vessel.       

Here's the CQJP and the journal page which accompanies it.

The journal page for May.

Must get started on the CQJP for June. I need to have seven blocks done by the end of August if I want to continue to have a page on the CQJP 2012 site. 

Have a good week.

Navaratna

Navaratna or Nine stones for the Magic Feather Project.
They will be winging their way to Jude tomorrow.
Read about the Magic Feather Project here and you could follow its progress on Facebook too.

Did you witness the transit of Venus? Cloudy pre monsoon morning in Bangalore didn't permit me to see this much talked about spectacle.

Book Making Workshop

A two day book making workshop and the venue was a hop skip and jump away which was great.

Aditi Babel of Babel Books who conducted the workshop with the artists books she has created.

Discussing the intricacies of book making. 

Precision is the key. An accordion book made by one of the participants. 

All manner of accordion books. Should have asked the peron who made them to open them up before I photographed them.

I explored the concept of a flag book .The theme was Maps - a storyboard for my next collection of scarves.

Detail of the flag book. 

I must go buy some paper in colours drawn from my colour palette which is more earthy  and create an artists book on the theme of maps. It would compliment the collection of scarves. OMG  a light bulb moment! probably prompted by the Johnnie Walker Diamond Jubilee story which I read about in the Mint this morning. 

Here's a little excerpt

'Each of the bottles comes with a pair of Cumbria Crystal glasses engraved by Philip Lawson Johnston and a commemorative artifact book, hand bound by Laura West at her Isle of Skye bindery and personalized for each owner by Sally Magnum,calligrapher by appointment to her Majesty.'

Which means each of my scarves would have a little artists book to go with it.Such grandiose plans, lets see if I can make it happen. Have to set myself high standards :) 

Have a great weekend. Will you be watching the IPL finals on Sunday night? Which team are you rooting for? 

Million Little Stitches now on Etsy

Its been a week since I opened the Million Little Stitches shop for business on Etsy.
So won't you pop on over and take a look.
The excitement got me creating a page for Million Little Stitches on Facebook as well so I'm going to be well and truly chained to the computer updating and checking activity on blog, Facebook and Etsy.

In other news I was delighted to see my April CQJP block featured on Needlework Craft Gossip. Thanks Denise. 

I'm all excited about a book making workshop I'm participating in over the next two days.
Have a great week.

April CQJP

The Crazy Quilt block for April is a celebration of Summer.The use of orange is because of  The Flame trees/Gulmohar's which burst into bloom in April and the orange ice candy from Nandini which fills the freezer compartment of my fridge.  I decided to use a crochet sample which I found in a bag of scraps and incorporate some figurative embroidery with the windmills of Chitradurga. 

The Crazy Quilt block and the accompanying journal page.

IPL has us in front of the television watching cricket. In April we finally made the journey to Hampi and were impressed. We can't stop telling our friends to go and stop postponing. I finally got to use one of the big gold sequins to represent a gold coin for Akshaya Tritiya.    

We've devoured seasonal fruit like the nungu, and watermelon to beat  the heat. Have you eaten Nungu? its the fruit of the palmyra palm.and nungu is the word embroidered in the Tamil script.

Thank you everybody who voted for Origami on the Reader's Choice Top Five on Feeling Stitchy. It was close and as the seconds ticked by  it was a nail biting finish. Final count -  Narwhal with a tattoo scroll 82 and Origami 79. Read more about it here.  

Hampi

The amazing rocky landscape in around Hampi. 

Coconut palms, mango trees and banana plantations thrive in between rocky outcrops. 

The rocks are the building materials for the beautiful monuments and structures that dot the landscape.

A line of evenly spaced holes on a rock is evidence of a simple but effective method employed to cleave enormous boulders and rocks. The holes were plugged with wooden pegs and water poured in. When the temperatures fell in the night the pegs expanded and over time the rock split. 

Rough hewn rocks to build high walls and gateways. 

    Cut with precision these rocks have been used to make this beautiful stepped water tank or pushkarni which was discovered as late as 1984 and had no stone missing.

The building blocks for the creation of monuments like the Lotus Mahal above and the Queens bath below.    

A stone picture book .The outer walls of the Hazara Rama temple brought the story of the Ramayana to life for the devotee as he circumambulated the temple.  

The stone chariot at the Vithala temple complex. The chariot is a shrine for Garuda - Vishnu's vahana and the wheels rotate.

The Vitthala temple.

In the Mukha mandapa are a series of slender stone pillars which when struck with the bare hand in a particular manner will produce the sound of a musical instrument - one set of pillars produces the sound of drums another the sound of bells. The temple has exquisite carvings.  

  

Stone also became the medium for recording the activites which were a part of daily life many centuries back such as the trading in jewels, gold and horses. In a frieze on the plinth of the Vitthala temple are carved Portuguese and Chinese traders with horses.

Hampi must have been a vibrant and spectacular place in its heyday. Today we have the temples and monuments made and carved out of rock to piece together what life was like in the Vijayanagar Empire.  

On a different note I have a favour to ask. Once again I need you to vote for my suggestion which has made it to the Reader's Choice Top 5 on Feeling Stitchy.

My suggestion for the Reader's Choice Stitchalong next month is Origami. The poll is at the top right hand corner of the blog - Feeling Stitchy. Please vote for Origami. Thank you. Polling is open until Wednesday evening, 10PM US Central time.