The Elephants at Hampi

R and I decided to drive 400kms to visit Hampi in Bellary district which was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire and is a place of religious, mythological and cultural importance as well as being listed as a Unesco World Heritage site.Its the height of summer and temperatures are close to 40C but we like to visit places when its off season and there are less people around.  

I'm going to do a couple of posts on our trip to Hampi but I'm going to start with the elephants which were accorded great importance then as they are now and are depicted on so many of the monuments.   

At the Virupaksha Temple we bought bananas to feed the temple elephant but we ended up feeding the cows instead because the elephant had gone down to the river to bathe.

The plinth of the Mahanavami Dibba has depictions of elephants in various moods. The sculptors were keen observers of the form of the elephants and their moods. I wonder how they recorded their observations.No 16th century sketch books lying around. 

A procession of elephants in the Hazara Rama temple.

The Elephant Stables.

Elephants were mainly used for battle but there were eleven special elephants which were used during the Dussehra festival and had their own stable and keepers who had their quarters close at hand near the Zenana Enclosure.I haven't heard of this much importance accorded to elephants in any of the other dynasties which flourished in India.  

Must go back to Hampi to record the elephant in all its various moods which are depicted on all the monuments. That would probably require a life time or more because the excavations continue in Hampi.  

Patchwork

My next scarf is a hand pieced patchwork of tussar silk in earthy tones.Each patch has a paper foundation. Usually both sides of the scarf are patchwork but in this one I'm thinking of using a whole cloth on the other side. 

While cutting the silk for the pieced patchwork I have bits and pieces left which I keep and use for Crazy quilting but I decided to create a 'boro' of sorts with these odd shaped bits. I'm connecting them using running stitch.

The back and front of my boro experiment are visually different. The hand pieced patchwork is all about clean straight lines while the boro is more organic.
My weekend was a heady mix of a lovely birthday lunch, an evening watching the IPL matches with friends, a wedding reception and trying to keep cool during the massive power outage on Sunday. The week ahead looks quiet with a sprinkling of excitement.  How is your week shaping up?

CQJP March

March is spring in the garden city, all the trees burst into bloom. There's yellow, pink and violet of the jacaranda. So the colours and forms of flowers came to bloom on the crazy quilt part of my journal for March.  The printed patch is from my sister's shirt and I went out and got myself some floral laces, two of which I used and I've included the Barred Chain stitch and Running stitch which were two of the stitches in March for TAST.   

 That's a look at the CQJP and the journal half of the double spread for March.  

The journal page for March.
I spent a week with my parents so I could be there for my mum's birthday. Winning the Cleosara giveaway on An Indian Summer was exciting.
Great sense of achievement in being able to make super soft idlis. I was given this little steamer by a women's group in Kerala because I wanted to steam my natural dye experiments.From rice idlis I've moved on to Ragi idlis.
The first quarter of 2012 is over and I have three CQJP pages done so I've decided to start assembling the book.  Shall show you the progress in my next post.

Mineral

Mineral is a dark green reversable tussar silk scarf.  

All four edges have a fringe like raw edge. One side has applique and running stitch and on the quieter reverse there's a hit of sparkle from the sequins.   

Two sides of the same scarf.
Happy Easter to those who will be celebrating. I'll be treating myself to a sinful sweet treat after the period of abstinence. :)
Early this morning I folded a cute origami bunny box made with the excellent video instructions by Leyla Torres which can be found here and here's another.

On a separate note - I've become an affilate of Amazon and Flipkart. You will see the banners on the side bar. Should you wish to shop online I would appreciate it if you could click on the Amazon or Flipkart banners/buttons and make your purchases.Amazon and Flipkart will pay me a small percentage of the value of your transaction without increasing the cost for you by even a cent. Thank you and happy shopping.

Cleosara

An Indian Summer had a giveaway of these earrings from Cleosara and I won!
It was such a pleasure to open the little parcel and find the sterling silver earrings set with semicircular mojave stone which was so beautifully packaged.

February CQJP

The February CQJP. Hearts - a predictable element because Valentine's day is in February. I crocheted the white little hearts. Got the patterns online - the little hearts were made following a great tutorial found here.  and the pattern for the bigger heart can be found here. 

Here's what happened in February.Clearly got carried away with the chain stitch which was one of the stitches for TAST in February.

Pic to give you an idea of how the Crazy quilt block and journal part are oriented. 

I wanted to embroider a Valentine quote on the Crazy Quilt block and this one by Schultz was perfect.

'All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt'. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

One Blue Bit Short

One Blue Bit Short is the latest creation.

Black tussar silk.Fringe like raw edge along all four sides and all the usual suspects - blanket stitch, running stitch and sequins.
One Blue Bit Short is elegant if I say so myself. Will be available at Plantation House this week.
My next scarf is going to be a hand pieced patchwork one, haven't made one in a long time. I also want to see if I can move from squares to hexagons or may be octagons which means I'll be marking and cutting a whole lot hexagons or octagons out of cereal cartons which I've been saving for just this.
Here's an update on the Little Houses Project and here's a moving account by Joni of people trying to rebuild their lives a year after the earthquake,tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan.

Trek

The trek in the Himalayas inspired this scarf. We were advised to put one foot in front of the other and take small steps, a bit like the embroidery on this scarf - one small stitch at a time.   

The cotton silk is soft and fine and this is what I saw while folding up the scarf so I had to have R hold it up with the light shining in from the back so I could photograph it. 

Its amazing what blogging has given me in terms of interactions and learning in all these years I've had this blog.I have to thank all those who choose to stop here and all those who follow Million Little Stitches to read/view what I have to say. Its led to many collaborations and exchanges which have enriched me. Recently there's been a group ( you know who you are) who have reached out with an exciting idea which is still gestating but I'm happy  and excited to have been invited. It's much too early to say anything about this venture but I hope I'll be able to tell you all in the very near future. Small steps I guess can get  you to exciting places.

The Little House I made for this project has reached Japan. :)
Its going to be a hectic couple of days but I hope to have the CQJP pages for February ready to show sometime next week.
Have a great weekend.  

The Little Houses Project

The Little Houses project is the brainchild of  Jo Ebisujima who felt it would be a wonderful gesture to send the survivors of the Tohoku Disaster a little gift of a handmade house and notes of encouragement to let them know they haven't been forgotten a year after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Jo is hoping to have a 100 houses by February 21. I want to encourage you to participate. I took less than a day to make the little house in the picture and it was fun to decorate it. I wrote a little note and put it in a little origami heart box, the instructions for which I found here. 

Click here to get all the details for the Little Houses Project. Jo has created step by step illustrated instructions and here's an update with pictures of some Little Houses which people have sent in.

           

Capturing Craigmore in Watercolours

Its February and I haven't got around to the post about the two weeks spent in Craigmore in the Nilgiris painting watercolours. This was the second part of the assignment, this is part 1 and here is what was done.  

I developed a horrible dry cough just before leaving on this trip but the weather was fabulous in January and the sun kept me warm and comfortable while I sat and painted. 

There are a number of bungalows on the estate and this one is Bear's Hill Bungalow. There must be bears on that hill though we didn't see any. There's an ongoing project to record the wildlife on the property  using camera traps in collaboration with WWF, India.    

This is the Woodland Small bungalow, the Assistant Manager for Woodland Estate gets to live here.

Here too the occupant of the bungalow was away on annual leave so we didn't get in the way and we still got to use the rest room because his butler was there. Its only on the estates that one finds butlers, cooks and bungalow boys, its like living in a different period altogether but things are changing and the butlers and a good cook is difficult to find.   

Little temples are dotted about the estate and are an integral part of the workers lives .

Close by were houses for the estate workers a number of whom have come all the way from Jharkhand.

The Chairman's bungalow.This bungalow has the most amazing garden with some very unusual plants and shrubs and some fantastic specimens of the monkey puzzle tree, weeping willow and jacaranda. Four or five gardeners toil daily to maintain it. This is where we were put up for the duration of our stay. 

Most of the estate roads are lined with poinsettias which were still in bloom in January, its such a pretty sight.  The Jacaranda trees were just beginning to bloom, in another month it will be an awesome sight to see hillsides clothed in a purple haze and roads carpeted in violet blooms.

Trees are bursting into bloom in Bangalore too, right now its the pink of the tabebuia rosea next it will be the turn of the tabebuia aurea  which is yellow. Spring is here and summer is fast approaching because the days are hot. Hot enough to go for a swim in the afternoon.  

Have a great weekend.  

Completed CQJP & Journal page - January

Here's my first CQ block completed for the CQJP challenge, just in time as January draws to a close.Embellished with stitches from TAST. I'm still working on the journal part of the page.
Update - 4th Feb
I decided to update this post with pictures of the journal page for January which I completed this morning.

This is how the two pages look side by side. 

This then is the journal part.I was looking for a cross stitch pattern of a Dragon for Chinese New Year and when I came across this free pattern here  I simply had to make it a part of the page although it extends a little beyond the page and I had to do away with the pattern at the top.

Its a busy weekend. I have to start on the CQJP and journal page for February and there's a certain scarf that I'm making very slow progress on - I need a longer day if that's possible to do all that needs doing.    . 

CQJP Block for January

I've finally got the basic crazy quilt block done, for the January page of the Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP).
I've used pieces of solid coloured tussar silk, the colours are those I associate with the five day trek up in the Himalayas. I'll be drawing on things I saw on the trek to embellish the block too.
The block is 6" x 6".
My CQ (Crazy Quilt) blocks are going to be the illustration in a manner of speaking for a fabric journal of things, places and events which I participate in or are of some significance to me during the coming year.
Now to begin embellishing the seams of the CQ block. Should be able to show you some progress in a couple of days. I've given it some thought and decided to combine TAST ( Take a Stitch Tuesday) in this fabric journal rather than creating a separate fabric sampler. Two stitches  Fly Stitch and Blanket Stitch for the first two weeks of January have been announced. Got quite a bit to catch up with.  
Hope your weekend was good. I cooked up a storm for our annual Pongal brunch which was so much fun. Our guest list is constrained to ten because of the size of the vessels I have but the guest list is threatening to grow which means I'll have to invest in larger vessels.
Hope your week is good, I'll be tackling watercolours later this week during the day and embellishing a certain CQ block and scarf during the evenings.

-5 and Breathless at 9,000ft.

Glimpses of our trek in the Himalayas. 2012 was ushered in silently at 9,000 ft  high up in the Himalayas while we slept or tossed and turned in our sleeping bags at -5 degrees C.

Frozen fingers didn't stop me sketching on the first morning of the new year, had to set the right tone for the rest of the year. The tents at Manjhi and a frozen stream between the tents. 

  Gathered around the fire to keep warm and drink tea. L and going clockwise - Nabeen one of the mule drivers, Amit, Ramesh, Charu, Vamsi and Indu with her back to the camera.

Water heating in a large vessel. Everything was cooked or heated on a wood fire so the drinking water and food had a smoky flavour to it. There were two Nepalese cooks on the trek - Dipinder and Kamal  who took such good care of us. 

Frozen doesn't describe how cold we were. Nothing like a fire to warm you up, thermals and three or four layers don't work quite like a wood fire. 

Agoda village clings to the mountain side.The older houses are made of stone and wood and the roofs have slate tiles but the newer ones are made of brick and cement and have cable television. 

The women in the mountains are a hard working bunch.They walk kilometers in the mountain to gather and carry heavily laden baskets of firewood and fodder for their animals  like the woman in the picture above.. 

Vasu Dev Rawat our guide. His encouragment and patience made it possible for me to do this trek. This beautiful dog found us at Manjhi and accompanied us down the mountain, all the campsites were closed for the season and we were the last ones down from Dodital and Manjhi. He belongs to no one and accompanies groups of trekkers up and down the trail.  

 Pathways strewn with boulders and rocks which wind precariously along the mountainside connects villages and people. These narrow paths are used by man and mule to transport everything from the towns in the valley,  there are no motorable roads. Don't want to think what one would do in an emergency.  

Walking down to Bebra.The grass and shrubs on the mountainside are burnt. I like the colours in this photograph and I'm going to use the same colour palette for the first page in my Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP).  

Don't you like the illustration of that trekker?  

Bridge over the stream at Bebra. The water was icy cold and froze in the pipes at night..

Snow dusted mountain tops.The weather was unpredictable, sunny one moment, cloudy and windy the next.  

Devi or the goddess is worshipped in the mountains. This tree we passed had one rupee coins wedged into the trunk of the tree and flags and cloth trimmed with tinsel were tied on the tree. Our guide told us pujas were performed at the base of the tree for the Goddess Durga. Elements from this picture like the coins, tinsel and colours are going to find their way into my CQJP page for January.   

L to R. Charu, Vamsi, Ramesh and Maya. Tired with sore feet and wobbly legs but with a great sense of elation and achievement. We did it! It was a tough five days with many a first but we got there and back in one piece. Hurray for trekking, we plan to do shorter treks in South India. Vamsi and Amit are talking about this trek .It would be very different.Cheers! to a more active 2012 then.