Book Page Swap 2013

There's a group of us on Stitchin Fingers who are doing a book page swap this year. Each of us has chosen a theme and every month each participant creates a page for another participant on their chosen theme. At the end of the swap each of us will get to compile the pages into a fiber book. My theme is Tea.     

This page is for Shelly whose theme is Vintage Bird.  

Detail of the page which is 8" x 8" and has a pocket on the reverse.

I must draw your attention to a collaborative art project being curated and exhibited by Danish artist Hanne Bang. The art project is called In a War Someone has to Die. Read more about it here or on facebook

I have to go buy a couple of handkerchiefs and get people to do some Malayalam and Tamil translation for me.

Won't you join in and embroider a handkerchief?

Looking for Roy G Biv 2 - Orange

Not much orange that caught my eye this month.

This picture is from my archives. Shot this last month on our way up to the Nilgiris.

The Tigers need to be saved in doing so we save an entire ecosystem. Have you seen a tiger in the wild? I've been lucky to spot a majestic male tiger just once.   

There's a great big flame of the forest by the main gate of the apartment complex where I live and  its in bloom like a lot of the trees in Bangalore at this time of the year . I photographed these fallen blooms on my morning walk.
Strangely both pictures this month have the same paving blocks in them!

Azul

Azul is a cotton silk sarong. Discharged globular forms embellished with running stitch and transparent sequins create a border along one edge of the sarong. 

Azul is destined for a store in Goa. I'm sending a tiny collection of my scarves and a couple of sarongs to this beautiful store in an old Goan house later this week.

The Patchwork Project

 I'm working with a group of women in a village in north Karnataka developing a line of throws and maybe extend it to quilts in the future. The women make patchwork quilts for their families with old sarees and scraps of cloth called Kaudi.  The glorious tradition of recycling and reusing which I'm happy to say is alive and still thriving in India makes this whole endeavour possible.  

 The first sample. A reversable throw 60"x40". Patchwork top in earthy Tussar silk in earthy colours and for contrast a solid royal blue cotton silk fabric on the reverse. A thin cotton muslin is sandwiched between the patchwork top and bottom of the throw.  

Detail of the hand quilting done with white cotton thread. The colours of the Tussar silk I chose but the manner in which they were arranged was left to the women.i was delighted to see they have a pretty sophisticated sense of colour and composition. Must get a picture of the whole throw and I need to figure out a binding for the edge of the throw.
Four more throws are in the works. This is exciting.
How is your week going? Exciting I hope.

Printing

 I'm introducing textile printing and resist dyeing techniques to a class of Fashion Design students this semester.
The students get to explore and create samples of stencil printing, block printing, screen and transfer printing. Its a happy mix of ancient techniques and modern ones. Stencil printing one of the simplest and earliest forms of printing gets an edge when the students get their stencils cut using a laser cutter or they try and combine block printing with heat transfer printing.

 For a generation who's understanding of printing until now was to give a print command once their documents and presentations were created with photoshop and power point, I hope I can get them to learn to recognise, appreciate and value fabrics which are hand block printed.

In the meantime for all your printing requirements of business cards, return address labels, invitation cards and more, check out Vistaprint coupon codes which has some great deals on offer at the moment. They are in India too, click here to  see what services are on offer.