Thursday, February 27, 2014

Spring In My Garden-2

Here are Hibiscus flowers in my garden- some of them:

 This is hybrid variety or Hawaii Hibiscus. It flowers profusely and regularly. 
 Here is a closeup.
These are double Hibiscus-baby pink and lemon yellow 

This is dark red flower.
This is tomato red colour.
This is another shade in Yellow which we call sandal wood shade.
 This is purple coloured flower.
 This is orange one.
This is single red local variety.

Well some more in my next posts.....


Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Tie N Dye with Shisha Work


Bandhani or Tie and Dye is one of the oldest dyeing techniques of India. The state of Rajasthan is very famous for it. We Indian women have at least two or three saris and dresses of Bandhani. Mostly cottons, silks and also in modern times synthetic fabric is available. 

Bandhani fabrics have beautiful bright colours often contrasting colours like red and blue, red and green, yellow and green and more than two or three colour combination. They have various patterns of dyeing like dots, circles, squares, waves or stripes and many more.

These fabrics are further embroidered with fine wool, mirrors and beads. Saris, skirts, chunnis or dupattas(scarfs), and churidar or shalwar dress material is available in cottons, silks and synthetics. 

Here is one such dupatta. The fabric is light weight cotton or mulmul (soft and fine muslin), dyed by using Bandhani technique. 

As we can see, both ends of the dupatta has been stitched with a printed fabric border, and then big circular paillettes sequins have been added. Chain stitch with white coloured wool on the edges and with coloured wool on the paillettes sequins can also be seen. We can also see the small sequins embroiderd around the motif.


 Here a metal frame has been used for attaching the paillettes sequin. 
 A small circular paillettes sequin attached to the fabric.
Look at the tie and die pattern and the use of paillettes sequins.
The edges have been decorated with silver coloured beads and cowrie shells. 

This beautiful work is done by the artisans of Rajasthan. I have some beautiful tie and dye saris and dresses and dupattas of Rajasthan. I cannot resist their beautiful bright colours or the shisha work. Our wardrobe is not complete with out these beautiful collection.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Oak Leaf Pattern Finished

I have had this Oak Leaf pattern Stitch Kit with me for some time now. It is one of the many kits/projects, I have which I have not at all touched. Well with strong determination that I must take up and finish all such kits and projects, I am taking up one at a time.

Well this was a kit with two handkerchiefs, pattern, instructions and cotton threads-green and yellow. I traced the design on to one of the handkerchiefs and stitched it. The entire project was to be stitched with 2 strands of thread. The outline was to be stitched in double knot and in one place fish bone stitch was also to be used. The stitches to be used were double knot, button hole, satin, fish bone, stem and chain stitches.

Should be like this as per the given pattern.

I thought it was very simple and easy. But after I started stitching I realised that the Pattern was too small to stitch(but very Big for a hand kerchief) and the double knot with 2 strands was not looking that good. So I did the entire outline in chain stitch. This was also easy to do as the pattern had many twists and turns. Similarly in places where I had to do fish bone stitch, in one place I stitched it but it was very difficult to maneuver my needle as the design was too small. So I used satin stitch in another place. 
I stitched it like this.

In all I could not stitch the pattern as It is. So I finished one hand kerchief only. I am not satisfied with the finished product as my embroidery was not neat and I could not do it as I expected.

I think, I will enlarge this pattern and do it once more for a bigger project. I feel that this pattern will be good for table cloth or pillow cover, bed spreads, etc where we can stitch a larger pattern. I will keep you posted.

What do you say? 


Monday, February 24, 2014

Design A Day- Week 2




Here are all the finished Patterns of Week 2. Hope You have liked them all. 

I will be posting my finished projects (WIPs) as when completed along with Patterns where ever possible. So keep an eye on my blog.......


Saturday, February 22, 2014

Spring In My Garden-1

It is spring time in my garden. After a long time, I am slowly bringing back my garden to shape. It is tough to work on something after almost neglecting it for long. But this year I am determined to work on all things in life which bring joy to me. 

Garden is one of my passions. Healthy plants blooming with flowers and fruits attract various butterflies, birds and other friends of nature into my garden. It is always a pleasure to be amongst them any time of the day. However mornings and evenings with a cup of coffee or tea in my hand, I spend some time, in silence enjoying mother nature,listening to the various sounds of the birds, refreshes and rejuvenates my spirit.  

I am sharing the spring time in my garden with you. Here have a look...

Oranges and Yellows- all chrysanthemums 
Yellow Chrysanthemums
 Orange Chrysanthemums
These are called Star or Baby Chrysanthemums available only in Yellow colour. 

 More for you in my next posts....

Friday, February 21, 2014

Design A Day-Day 15

Here I am with  pattern for Day 15. Once more it is a small pattern with simple stitches.

 I stated with this pattern. I drew it directly on to the cloth.
I used 6 strand cotton floss and all of the 6 strands-2 shades of blue, light green and pink. Stitches used were, Detached Chain, Back Stitch and Chinese Knots. I added the Chinese Knot buds later which was not in the pattern I originally started with to fill in the spaces between the flowers.

After finishing the embroidery I realised that thought it was looking great, I should have used 2 strands or even pearl cotton as the ground cloth was fine cotton. It would look more delicate. Next tine I will do that.
Here is the pattern. I have altered it a bit and made it more symmetrical. It would look great on Kitchen/bed linen, blouses, kurtas, napkins, hand towels, children wear etc. You can use different colours or stitches and see how it looks. 

I am very happy that I kept my promise and posted for a fortnight without a break. Hope you like my patterns. I will take a break for this week end and see whether I can come up with more patterns. 

These designs were created by me. You can use them for your personal use only. If you use them, please send me the pictures of your work, which I will post on my blog or if you post them on your blog or site please link to the original pattern here on my blog and let me know about it. I would appreciate that very much. If you want to share them please attribute the work to me, with link back to this blog. Do not re-publish. Please Don't Post the patterns on your site or blog. I hope you will respect my request.

Keep an eye on my blog and watch out for more patterns and my work as I am determined to finish all my WIPs and also start new projects....


Thursday, February 20, 2014

Design A Day-Day 14

Well here is pattern for Day 14:

 This is the pattern I started with.
 These were the threads I used 6 strand cotton. I used all 6 strand.
Stitches used: Chinese Knots, Fly Stitch, Stem Stitch, Detached Chain Stitch.
This is the final Pattern for you.

Hope you have liked my patterns so far. If  you use any of these patterns, I would like to see how you have done it.

Tomorrow will be the last day-Day 15. I am not sure whether I can continue this series after that. Let us see. I want to complete so many of my WIPs. 

These designs were created by me. You can use them for your personal use only. If you use them, please send me the pictures of your work, which I will post on my blog or if you post them on your blog or site please link to the original pattern here on my blog and let me know about it. I would appreciate that very much. If you want to share them please attribute the work to me, with link back to this blog. Do not re-publish. Please Don't Post the patterns on your site or blog. I hope you will respect my request.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Design A Day-Day 13

Day 13 and I am here with one more pattern for you.
 As usual I started with the pattern drawn directly on the cloth.
 These were the 6 strand cotton floss I used.
The center of the flower is Chain stitch-3 strand. All the rest is 6 strand. I have used Chinese Knot stitch for the flower, Stem stitch for the stems and Detached Chain for the leaves. 

Actually I wanted to add just one row of knots but some how I was not satisfied with the result. So I added one more round to make it look like a proper flower. Later on I also added the four leaves at the bottom which was not there in my pattern I started with.

 Here is a closer look at the flower.
 Here is one pattern.
Here is the final one. This pattern will be good for corners and if repeated will look good as a border too.

Hope you have liked my pasterns so far. I am enjoying this project very much.

Please drop in your comments and suggestions if any. I would appreciate that very much.

These designs were created by me. You can use them for your personal use only. If you use them, please send me the pictures of your work, which I will post on my blog or if you post them on your blog or site please link to the original pattern here on my blog and let me know about it. I would appreciate that very much. If you want to share them please attribute the work to me, with link back to this blog. Do not re-publish. Please Don't Post the patterns on your site or blog. I hope you will respect my request.

Watch out for more in my next posts.....

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Design A Day-Day 12

Here I am with Day 12 Pattern. It is again small and simple pattern. I could not photograph the pattern I drew on the cloth.
 I used these pearl variegated threads.
 Stitches used were Bullion Knots and Chain Stitch.
Here is the pattern for you. 

These designs were created by me. You can use them for your personal use only. If you use them, please send me the pictures of your work, which I will post on my blog or if you post them on your blog or site please link to the original pattern here on my blog and let me know about it. I would appreciate that very much. If you want to share them please attribute the work to me, with link back to this blog. Do not re-publish. Please Don't Post the patterns on your site or blog. I hope you will respect my request.

Watch out for more in my next posts....