Covered in Stitches is about embroidering the cover for your favourite book. It may be the existing cover illustration/image you choose to interpret in stitch or you create the cover illustration. 
The Woodlands Big Bungalow was built in 1830 or so.
Engifer the family cat at the home of the Managing Director came to inspect my progress.
There's a stunning garden in front of the bungalow with a beautiful lily pond and weeping willows. Bison are frequent visitors and can be found sitting on the lawn chewing the cud early in the morning.
The Manar Bungalow
Elephants come to eat the Jackfruit when the tree at the back of the house bears fruit. There's a lot of wildlife on the Craigmore property. Bison can be seen grazing in the tea fields at all times of night and day, camera traps set up by WWF to map the flora and fauna on Craigmore have captured leopards and panthers. Tiger has been sighted but has not been captured on film.
The Halashana Bungalow
A large garden umbrella was found to protect me and the sketch from the unpredictable weather so I could continue my sketching unhindered for two or three hours at a stretch. Garden umbrella, folding chair and table became a part of the standard equipment which were loaded into the Scorpio every morning.
The Craigmore Tea Factory. R's first visit to a tea factory to see how Orthodox tea is manufactured.
I sat in the tea fields under a garden umbrella, listening to my ipod while sketching the factory. Inspite of the garden umbrella I got sun burnt. 
This is where I currently reside. Its temporary but absolute bliss and I'm soaking it all in - fresh mountain air, sumptuous meals which I don't have to whip up, beds turned down at night, a bell to ask for more green tea.... I can go on and on. Its the most luxurious assignment I've been on to date and I'm getting used to it at an alarming rate, I have to keep reminding myself its temporary.
The assignment is to make pen and ink sketches of bungalows and factories on Craigmore tea estate and paint watercolours of the stunning landscape. Craigmore has been in existence since 1884. The Chairman's bungalow is the first in the series of pen and ink sketches and I've photographed it on a red oxide floor which is characteristic of old estate bungalows. Someone decided to walk all over my sketch, can you spot the centipede or is it a millipede? 
Partial view of the verandah and the garden. The trees are grand and gorgeous, all a part of the quaint lifestyle on a tea estate. I'll be sharing more glimpses of this life in posts to come.
The cotton silk stoles I embroidered for the commission I mentioned in my last post was inspired by Bokeh.
The vision I had was of a person photographed wearing my stole in such a manner that the sequins of different sizes stitched at random would be transformed into bokeh in the photograph and make the person appear to be bathed in bokeh.
I hope the ladies who are gifted these stoles will derive immense pleasure wearing them and garner plenty of compliments too.
I was in Kerala at the beginning of the month conducting an embroidery workshop for thirty women. I usually get the participants to start a sampler on the first day so I can assess what embroidery stitches they know, their skill level and its a surface for them to practise the stitches I introduce to them. This is my sampler. It was a good workshop and I don't get to say that very often.
There's been a lot of travel and time with family. My teenage nephew has educated me about the electric guitar and rock music which he's extremely passionate about. Did you know there are people who would list guitar tech as their profession? I didn't know. My ignorance regarding all things related to electric guitars was shocking to say the least but Z was kind enough to show me YouTube videos to explain a technique or demonstrate them if he could. Shredding, Floyd Rose the Wah Wah pedal and Steve Vai. Glimpses into a whole different world. Amazing.
In my last post I wrote of a path I was exploring but I now find I'm exploring more than one path simultaneously. One such path which I would like to call Embellished Fragments has begun with this first piece.
Would you buy something like this? You might ask - what purpose Fear Less serves? To which I would answer - its a fragment - frame it, incorporate it into a quilt or just keep it in a drawer or folded and kept in your purse so you can touch, read and ponder the meaning of the words embroidered on the fragment. 
Tussar silk stole, dyed with tea, silk applique and sequins.
Got two shades of tea. One edge of the stole was dyed with tea boiled in a stainless steel vessel - the resultant shade was more golden, whereas the edge dyed in a cast iron vessel with tea resulted in a more dark nut brown colour. 
I'm going to be exploring a new path which has opened up rather unexpectedly - excited, curious and just a teeny tiny smattering of butterflies in the tummy. Wish me luck.
Splash is a small square cotton silk scarf the sort you knot at the neck or wear as a head scarf. Bleach helped create the splotchy effect and running stitch which covers almost the entire surface provides texture.
The process of creating Splash got me thinking. Getting up, getting dressed and showing up has been the mantra R and I have followed for the past year. Clouds promising rain gather on the horizon and then melt away..... like Splash which was not planned but evolved I'm hoping both our actions and choices are in preparation for the splash in our life which will be monumental. I just need the grace to live in the moment until then and I can't wait to look back and see the pattern and texture which we created which enriched us and got us to the next level.
Detail of the applique done with silk cotton fabric and sequins.
Soft folds of pashmina
Diagonal lines of blanket stitch and sequins enhance a midnight blue pashmina stole.
Both stoles are now available at Plantation House.
