Getting ready for Christmas

 As I get closer to Christmas there is always an excitement as to what I will make as gifts for the family…I’ve loved crocheting Nativity scenes, and keep looking around for original patterns. This was a free pattern I found on the net at https://pin.it/3lgZfzk. I am amazed at the generosity of people who create and share beautiful patterns. And then I found the pattern for the 3 wise men! I think I enjoyed crocheting the donkey the best….

And then there are the crochet baubles….. using up scrap balls from my yarn stash 

And finally the gnomes…..one planned for each family this year….

Crochet doll

 I’ve always wanted to crochet a doll. This was a pattern I had saved a long time ago. Finally got it done. My grand daughter Sufi wanted to know who I had made it for and I said me! 

Thread painting by hand

 Possibly a benefit of the lockdown was the need in me to remain positive and keep myself busy, which led to my experimenting with a variety needlework crafts. I fell in love with the whole idea of using thread to paint! My first experiment was a portrait of Ella, my daughter Nishka’s rescued and very beloved boxer. She was old and died and since she had been a huge part of all our lives, the grief was intense. In the embroidering of her portrait, I found a way to preserve her memory and cope with my sadness 

Malhar is where I live, an eco friendly settlement a little outside Bangalore city. During the lockdown it was more peaceful than it normally is and there was not even a remote echo of traffic sounds or anything that did not come from nature. The bird and insect life suddenly increased, plants grew wild and life took on another dimension……and through all the horrors of what was happening around me, suddenly there was also a sense of calm and peace. 

I decided to embroider a series on the birds I see in Malhar….so far I have completed 4, the green bee eater, the Indian blue kingfisher, the spotted owlet and the common sparrow. Two more to go, which I hope to get done by Christmas! 

Kawadi Workshop

As part of an activity for the Nool Koota group (the name for a group of us from our community who used to meet once a week to share skills and learn about crochet and knitting and a sewing, before Covid took over our lives!!) I had offered to teach the making of a Kawadi quilt. I had attended a workshop a couple of years ago and had loved the experience. The Kawadi quilts originated from the Siddi tribe of women from a North Karnataka. The details are in an earlier post given below. 

https://embroideringmytale.blogspot.com/2016/02/back-to-quilting.html

Since we are all social distancing at the moment we decided to do this virtually. 

It was a couple freaky fun sessions. Everyone was enthusiastic and 4 or 5 people completed their squares! 

My end result, 4 cushion 

Colour palettes from nature

Its been over a year since I posted anything....Life happens I guess! Another attempt in trying to maintain my blog. Hopefully with better luck this time!
I was looking at a crochet blog the other day, and was amazed to see the beautiful use of colour in the stuff the lady crocheted. Her inspiration is nature, she says and had posted some beautiful products alongside her inspirational pictures.
It really struck a chord in me....there have been umpteen times that I have tried to think of what colours to use when crocheting something, be it a blanket or an afghan or a scarf or hat....and got stuck, or started something and ripped it midway because the colours just didnt go well together, or left it the way it was and really  not been happy with the finished product.
She lives in the west, so she had her own unique sense of colours from her natural surrounding, often muted and subtle. But I live in a different part of the world, and our colours in India are so much brighter, as our trees and plants are more vibrant and bright.
So I have started collecting colours and am amazed at how incredible the mixing, the matching the synergy that exists in colours form leaves, and flowers and trees and the seasons as they unfold.

And then of course there are beautiful colour mixes in flowers!

Dark browns and blacks have so many hues, there is colour even in decaying leaves.

A workshop of a lifetime....painting with fabric!

I have been wanting to attend a workshop by Jenny Bowker ever since I saw pictures of her amazing quilts. As amazing are her quilts, is Jenny herself, a generous and gifted teacher, who shares her knowledge and skills with complete honesty, encourages you to the extent that you feel you are a master! For me free motion quilting has always been a challenge, and something I was petrified to try....what if I ruin my pieced work!!!! But Jenny made it simple, shared a systematic way of us doing it and at the end of the 3 days, I felt confident and kept wondering why it had taken me so long!! 

The preparations for the workshop started a couple of months before we actually met. She sent mails giving details of what she was going to do and encouraged questions, which she answered in great detail. Finally the days arrived and 14 of us met in Mumbai to experience an exhilarating and exhausting 3 days! 

We learnt how to create our template, increase the size and get tracing done onto the backing fabric, trace out the outline on fusible web and then start putting the pieces. It was like painting with fabric! 

The Cockeral is finally done!

It's finally done!!!!!! I actually finally had the guts to try free option quilting and finished quilting a top of a quilt I made 3 years ago!!!! As a 60th birthday present my family gave me a very special gift....a week's residential workshop, learning to quilt with Karen Sengel, a wonderfully talented quilter who lives in Chiangmai in Thailand! She specialised in a technique developed by Ruth McDowell, another very well known American quilter, which is completely pieced and machine quilted. I have given the link to my earlier blog post incase anyone is interested in checking out the process.

http://embroideringmytale.blogspot.in/2013/03/the-top-is-done.html

I like using local Indian woven fabrics, and the problem with that is that they are all of varying weights. This creates huge issues while quilting as the fabric stretches. I did try to stabilise it with starch, but it was still difficult. Didn't make it easier that I am a hand quilter, and free motion quilting proves to be a challenge! I am really pleased with the final result....although the FMQ needs a lot more practice. I like the fact that I have caught the superior expression of the cockerel!!