Making of a Diary Quilt - 2

Getting on with the Making of a Diary Quilt - Part 2.

Day 9 - Making yo - yo's or Suffolk puffs.

I made seven yo- yo's because there are seven stars which make up the Saptarishi Mandal or constellation also known as the Big Dipper in the Western World.

Day 10 - Applique the yo - yo's onto the quilt top.

There is an interesting story about the Saptarishi Mandal, which you can read here - The Story of  Vashishtha and Arundhati. 

Day 11 - Connect the yo - yo's with running stitch.

I chose a yellow silk for the yo - yo's because these yellow Angel's Trumpet flowers release a beautiful fragrance at dusk and the night air is beautifully scented.

I suspect the flowering has something to do with the cycles of the moon as well.

Day 12 - Improv patchwork. Make it as large or small.

I decided to represent the many moods of the Nilgiri sky.

The brilliant blue winter sky, which is all blue with not a single cloud in the sky, the moody monsoon sky with dark rain clouds and the cloudscapes which will have one day dreaming for hours.

Day 13 - Attach the improv patchwork anywhere on the quilt top.

Day 14 - Hand yoga.

Day 15 - Choose a piece of fabric, trace the outline of a familiar object and applique it  anywhere on the quilt top.

I used this fabric which I got in a giveaway. It matches the teal blue of my phone cover.

Day 16 - Trace the outline of a familiar object and embroider it.

I wear a gold chain with a gold sovereign or coin given by my paternal grandmother, so that's what I placed on the quilt top and traced the outline of and embroidered.

Day 17 - Onto a piece of fabric, trace out a part of your body and applique it onto the quilt top.

Decided to trace out my foot. Symbolic of the all the walking I do in the garden.

The fabric is Shwe shwe fabric from South Africa. 

Thank you Helen van Zyl for all the shwe shwe fabric swatches you sent me when we had a fabric page swap.

Day 18 - Embroider or appliqué a piece of clothing. The size is left to you to choose.

These are my  patched black trackies.

I have two pairs which developed holes because my cat Gin has a tendency to dig her claws into my legs when she wants to be fed.

The track pants are of knit fabric and I patch the holes with the fabric from old panties.

These trackies are boros in the making, one patch at a time.

The quilt top is slowly filling up.

I think a third part will be required. Shall have that up in a couple of weeks.

I hope you have a creative weekend and get to indulge yourself making , messing around or learning something new.

Making of a Diary Quilt - 1

I was fortunate to discover the #dailypracticeqal being lead by Heidi Parkes on Creative Bug.

It was just my thing because it asked for the use of fabrics found around the house and upcycled materials.

For the quilt top I used a piece of cutting waste and I got a 3 feet × 3 feet piece.

Day 1 - the prompt given was to make a running stitch doodle in the top left hand corner of the quilt top.  Use an embroidery hoop and make the doodle within the hoop.

I don't have embroidery hoops because I never use them so I made the little doodle using running stitch to represent my walks in the garden accompanied by Blackie, my pet dog and Gin the Calico cat.

That's Blackie and Gin. They love their morning and evening walks with me. It's become a ritual. They wait for me to say - come on let's go for a walk.

Day 2 - Running stitch doodle - left hand side of quilt
Choose any colour thread and make another running stitch doodle - make lines of running stitch - exploring how many stitches you can make gathering the fabric on your needle and making one pull of the needle . Then move to the next row.

The lines of running stitch in green represent the tea estates which surround our property. That's a picture of the hill opposite our property. Amidst the tea stands an Indian Gaur, commonly called Bison. They are wild and roam the countryside in herds, they have adapted to living close to human habitation, that's the reason the two women tea pluckers are walking past the bison which is in such close proximity.

Day 3 - keeping to the left of the quilt top once more and using running stitch make a geometric shape and fill it in with running stitch.

I chose to represent the passion fruit for the prompt on Day 3. It grows wild in the garden and the purplish fruit turn a lovely orangish yellow when ripe and we love it.

Day 4 - on the lower half of the quilt embroider with running stitch any organic shape. 

I chose to embroider a bird, not just any bird but the Malabar Whistling Thrush or Whistling Schoolboy as it's know. It wakes me up list mornings with its inimitable Whistling call. A small bird with  beautiful shiny royal blue feathers. 

The quilt top with the first four prompts completed.

Day 5 - on the lower half of the quilt applique a small curved shape or shapes.

That's raindrops which I've appliqued onto the quilt top.

There are light showers all through the year which is good for our gardens and for the tea. We get the North East monsoon in November when it I wait for the sun to make an appearance. I like the sunshine more than the rain.

The quilt top with the addition of some appliqued raindrops. 

Day 6 - applique a large curved shape in any corner of the quilt top and attach the shape with running stitch.

Day 7 - hand yoga

I cut out a large piece of a floral block printed fabric from a top which used to belong to my mum.

It's a representation of all the various flowers which grow in my garden.

I know I've got carried away with so many pictures of flowers. I should have made a collage of these pictures but I hope you enjoy them as much as I delighted in discovering them blooming in my garden and snapped a picture to delight in their beauty in the future.

Day 8 - long skinny strip to be appliqued anywhere on the quilt top.

I appliqued a piece of a printed batik border from a sarong.

The colours and floral motifs remind me of the shola forests which are border our property. The trees grow dense and it's quite dark. The sunlight struggles to filter through the thick canopy.

I'll be back with the next installment of the making of the diary quilt in a couple of days.

Take care and have a good week.

International Nature Journaling Week 2023

 International Nature Journaling Week this year was from the 1st to 7th of

 June.

This year the theme was - Sensory Safari. The exploration of nature focusing on one sense each day.

Day 1 - Colour

The view of the tea gardens and shola trees from the deck.

A textile and fiber artist at heart, so what could you expect.

A patchwork of greens which I see from my work station on the deck.

Day 2 - Texture

Bark of the Silver Oak tree.

Silver Oak trees are planted at intervals in a tea garden to provide shade for the tea bushes.

The leaves are dark green on top and a silvery pale green on the reverse and hence the tree gets its name.

Day 3 - Aroma

Angel's Trumpet or Brugmansia.

When it blooms especially the yellow one, the fragrance is intoxicating.

I used watercolor pencils for my illustrations.  I've had these colour pencils for the last 25 years. Still going string.

An incredible sight. At dusk the flowers release their fragrance as does the Raat ki Rani or Cestrum nocturnum.

The garden is a delightful place to be at night when these plants in bloom.

I have pink and white Angel's Trumpet growing in the garden but the yellow one has the strongest fragrance.

Day 4 - Song

There are so many birds in the garden.

It's been interesting learning to identify the different birds by their call. 

My Journaling at the end of four days.

Day 5 - Flavour

Summer in India is all about Mangoes.

This year we ate plenty of our favourite variety - Imam Pasand. We tasted Sugar Baby or Chakkra Kutty for the first time when a dear friend brought us some. Bite sized and sweet.

I made a Gujarati pickle - Chundo and a particularly sour Baganapalli was made into Mango fruit leather.

How many varieties of mango have you tasted and which one is your favourite?

Day 6 - Movement 

Where I live, the natural world is abuzz with activity be it night or day.

There's quite a bit of wildlife too.

Day 7 - Heart

Nature is slow and we too try to live a slow life which enables us to appreciate nature.

The changing seasons, the moon as it waxes and wanes. To appreciate the interconnectedness of everything in nature.  

 

The Sensory Safari I took.

Must continue to journal, probably use fabric and embroidery to do the Journaling.