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.   

A Joyous X'mas and a Marvellous New Year

I hope your Christmas was a jolly affair if you celebrate and you're holiday season is filled with good cheer. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all the 243 people who have chosen to follow this blog and anyone else who might stop here, an awesome 2012. I wish each one of you a year of happiness, good health and boundless energy and inspiration.

R and I are off on a five day trek to Dodital,Uttarkashi. Its going to be an adventure which has us so excited.
We'll be ringing in the new year in what promises to be a winter wonderland.
Stay safe,stay warm and I'll catch up with you in the new year.

Graffitti

 The elements which define Graffitti -  skinny cotton silk scarf, appliqued with tussar silk, chain stitched, tea dyed ,running stitch details, a raw edges finished with blanket stitch and tassels  .

 A soft feel and a primitive appearance characterises  Graffitti.

This scarf is the first in a series exploring the representation of circles. The circle is a recurring element in my work ( like you never noticed) so in the next couple of scarves I make I'm going to explore embroidery and sewing methods/techniques to create a circular form and circular patterns. This is one of the techniques I'll be trying.

What's Cookin?

What's cookin'? The Christmas tree is up and decorated. I like the ritual of decorating the tree and remembering the story behind each ornament. I also like to add at least one new ornament each year, this year's addition is a pretty enamelled bauble decorated with poinsettias and holly which was given by my sister. 

2011 is drawing to an end and I have been scouting for projects to be involved in, in the new year. I've signed up for two projects TAST 2012 and Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012 . If embroidery and creating heavily embellished surfaces interest you. You might consider signing up for these two challenges. The Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP) will document events and milestones in each month of 2012 and will be compiled into a fabric book eventually .I think I'll make flowers the theme and incorporate silk ribbon embroidery (SRE) flowers .SRE is going to be another first so I've signed up for tutorials .

What project or challenge are you contemplating taking up in the new year? Cathy Cullis has thought out and discussed at length how one can go about choosing a project.   

With embroidering scarves, Crazy Quikt Jourbal Project and Take a Stitch Tuesday its going to be a packed schedule but when I came across this blog during a blog hop I couldn't help but wonder if I could devise a similar project which would help me recyle flyers I get in the newspaper most mornings and improve my origami skills. I'd like to do something similar, any suggestions?
If you're wondering about the pictures in this post, this is what's currently cookin' - a scarf I appliqued, tea dyed in a cast iron vessel and am currently embroidering.
Drop a line, I'm off to make a cup of tea and browse the net.

Pebbles

Pebbles - a silk cotton scarf

 Circular forms of different sizes stitched with running stitch.The random placement of the circular forms reminded me of pebbles scattered.

Colours used are browns, greys and a space dyed black and white.

Pebbles is now available for sale at Plantation House which has moved into a larger space on level 1 at the Leela Galleria, Bangalore.

Embellisher needs your votes!

The shortlist for the Covered in Stitches Contest is out and my embroidered interpretation of  The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency has made the shortlist.

 I need your votes dear readers. Please click on this link and vote for The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency by Embellisher. Voting is open until 22nd November 12 am CST.

Stupendous embroidered creations were entered into this contest which can be viewed here.


Update - 24th Nov.2011
The Winners of the Covered in Stitches Contest have been annouced - read about it here .
Thank you for your votes, it was a fun contest and it was wonderful to have ones work make the shortlist.

Namma Metro

Bangalore has a metro service and we took a ride on Sunday night. 

 

 From Vivekananda road to M.G. Road.

 Shared a pitcher of beer and a plate of fries at a pub on Church Street before taking the last train back.

It's a great addition to the city. Can't wait for the network to grow and expand and become like the NYC Metro which I simply love.

Entrapment

 Entrapment. People must wonder where I come up with the names for my scarves. Usually the pattern, the colour or texture suggests a name. In this case I caught a bit of the movie Entrapment while embroidering this scarf!

Its a silk cotton scarf, two colours divide the scarf into two halves along the length of the scarf. Zig zagging lines of chain stitch and circles of sequins embellish Entrapment.
Entrapment and Purple Prose will be available at Plantation House just in time for Diwali!

Embroidered interpretation of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency

The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency interpreted as an embroidered piece for the Covered in Stitches contest    

I've used French Knots for the  crocodile, Stem stitch, Open chain, Chain stitch, Herringbone and Buttonhole wheel to name a few. Some applique. All images will enlarge if clicked on. 

A detail. Other than framing this embroidered interpretation I wonder what I can do with it. Any ideas?

 The cover illustration for the book is by Hannah Firmin.See more of her richly coloured  wood and lino cut illustrations here.
Take a look at other submissions for the Covered in Stitches Contest - here and there's time until the 7th of November if you'd like to participate.
Have a great week.

Purple Prose

Purple Prose my latest creation. Cotton silk scarf embroidered with tiny sequins and appliqued with pieces of silk.  

Will be available for sale at Plantation House.

Covered in Stitches

From pen and ink to being covered in stitches.

Read all about it here.

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.

Guess which book cover I've chosen to interpret in stitch?. Don't you love that French knot Croc? I'm quite pleased with the way its turning out. Next update I'll have a pic of the book cover I'm interpreting.

I've won tickets to go watch Johnny English Reborn this weekend, thanks to Radio Indigo.

Hope your weekend is wonderful.