Friday-Free Patterns

Hi there. Yesterday I was too tired. I am down with some allergy, which had made me rest less and the medicines make me very drowsy. I could not even sit properly for a few minutes. Any way here it is- another pattern.

This is from my morning news paper, on children's page for colouring. But when I looked at it, I found it interesting. When I look at something, I always visualise the image or words I read. In this case, I thought that the bigger bird as mother and smaller one as daughter. The mother is trying to teacher her flying. I love the way they are sitting on the branch amongst the leaves and flowers. It gives such a beautiful cosy and rosy feeling. 

This pattern would be apt for, greeting cards, children's dresses, cushion covers, hanky, pillow covers, table cloths, kitchen linen like hand towels, table mats etc. One can paint it with fabric paints or embroider it.  Running stitch, stem stitch, chain stitch, satin stitch or long and short stitch can be used. The flowers can be done in French or colonial knots or beads.

Hope you like it......

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Friday-Free Patterns

Hi Friends Sorry for posting my free pattern late. I am down with some bug and recovering. So here is the pattern:

This pattern is good for fabric painting. This can be used for Mirror work and or Bead work as well as Kundan work. I feel chain stitch, running stitch, stem stitch, satin stitch, detached chain, herring bone, French knots can be used.

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Friday-Free Patterns

Design for Borders

The stitches for this design could be-Stem/Chain or Running Stitch, French Knots and Herring Bone/Chain or Satin Stitch.

Would look great for fabric painting too.

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Friday-Free Patterns

This weeks pattern:

This again is a motif for crewel work. Crewel work in India is known as Aari work-the chain stitch embroidery done with a hook known as Aari. In this type of embroidery, mostly wool is used (in Kashmir) and silk or cotton threads in other places. It can also be done by ordinary needle but the stitch with Aari is more fine and beautiful.

The above motif is inspired by the designs from Kashmir. 

Satin Stitch and Running Stitch or Kanta Stitch Herring Bone Stitch, French Knots can also be used.

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Friday-Free Patterns

Here is this weeks pattern:

This design I created for Crewel Work. I could not start the project, as I do not know where I can get the wool yarn in India. May be I will some time.

Chain Stitch, Satin Stitch or Long and Short Stitch along with Stem or out line Stitch can be used for this motif.

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Friday-Free Patterns

Here is this weeks pattern:

This is good for mirror work and bead work, other hand embroideries and fabric painting. Satin Stitch, Stem Stitch, Chain Stitch, Herringbone Stitch and French Knots can be used for this embroidery. Would look great on scarves, saris, blouses, tunics etc.

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Friday-Free Patterns

Here is this weeks pattern:

This motif is for gold work or Zardosi work, Antique work, Kundan work or combination of all these and also for Satin stitch, Chain stitch etc.

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Friday Free patterns

Hi Friends. I was away and came back yesterday late into the  night. it was a very tiring but very nice trip. I am so tired after the trip.

I could not post any free pattern. But here is one site where you will get two beautiful vintage patterns of flowers and peacock:

http://maureensvintageacquisitions.blogspot.com/search/label/Embroidery%20Designs

Maureen has also given some motifs here:

http://maureensvintageacquisitions.blogspot.com/search/label/Motifs

She has also given some very beautiful projects along with tutorials and the patterns to down load.: 

http://maureensvintageacquisitions.blogspot.com/search/label/Tutorial

https://sites.google.com/site/maureensdownloads/

I loved the Ribbon Doll very much. I will try it out one day for my niece.

Please take time to visit her blog here:

http://maureensvintageacquisitions.blogspot.com/

It is beautiful and there is lot to learn, see and enjoy. 

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Friday-Free Patterns

This is again a peacock from Kalamkari Motifs. This can be used for embroidery and painting. 

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Friday-Free Patterns

Kalamkari Peacock Motif

Hi friends. I am tired today after a long travel for the pat three days. But am happy as my project is coming to an end in another week. Well that is why I am late in posting my pattern today. Hope you don't mind.

Well so many of my friends have been asking for Kalamkari patterns. So here is the Kalamkari  peacock pattern. This can be used for embroidery, fabric painting etc. 

Hope you like it. Keep watching my blog....more interesting things to come....

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Friday-Free Patterns

Here is one more pattern.

This is a folk motif. It looks like a horse-or is it a camel? I am not sure. But I found it very beautiful. This, I found as a block print on a sari. I improvised it a bit.

This can be used for embroidery, block printing and painting too. This can be used for greeting cards. If you are using this for embroidery, used any of the Indian stitches to make it more ethnic-Kanta, aari, or any other such stitches. Chain, herringbone, running or back stitches, crewel or gold work may also look good. 

Well, hope you use this motif.

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Friday-Free Patterns

Hamsa-The Swan

Hi all. I am going to post free patterns on Friday once again. I have been very busy these past weeks and still am. But many of my friends have requested me to continue to post these designs. So here I am:

This is once again Hamsa or Swan. This is a traditional Indian motif, folk motif. I found this block printed on a cloth. I have improvised it because the original one was not much suitable for embroidery or painting.

This can be used for embroidery or fabric painting also on greeting cards. Chain, Satin, Stem Stitches can be used. Or the outline can be done in Chain or stem and can be filled in with any of the filling stitches. Cotton and silk threads are best suited. Kundans, metallic threads can be used for a different look. Embroidering the entire motif with gold thread (on off white or other dark coloured back ground) of same or different thickness can be used. Similarly embroidering with silver on black or blue coloured back ground will also be beautiful. Well the choice is endless for a creative mind.

These motifs are good for saris, blouses, dresses or even for bags etc. 

Watch out for free pattern every Friday.....

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Friday-Free Patterns

Paisley 

It is Paisley design once again. I am fond of these shapes. Here is one I created long back for my blouse. 

I embroidered this in Satin stitch. But this would look great with Chain stitch too. This is again created from inspirations of classic motifs form Indian textiles, temple sculpture etc.

Hope you like this.

Embroidered Butees-11

Peacock Again

Friends, recently I went shopping for laces and other embroidery materials. I could not resist picking up a few of these. It is Peacock Butee again but in a different shape.

Isn't it pretty. I am yet to use these. I am not finding time to attach them to my saris and dresses.

Hope you like this motif.

Friday-Free Patterns

 I am posting late again but could not help it. Here is this weeks motif:

         Paisley Motif

Its Paisley once again. this is a classic Indian motif.This has been copied from a sari block printed with this design. Satin Stitch, Chain Stitch or running stitch -Kanta work would look good for this motif. This can be used on saris or blouses, kurtis etc. Hope you use this in your embroidery.

Friday-Free Patterns

Sorry folks I am again late in posting my free pattern. I am not keeping good health and it is quite hot here. So it is really difficult with the frequent and prolonged power cuts to attempt any thing at all. For the past three days, I have been trying to upload my pattern and because of power cuts, I had to try again and again and I finally gave up.

Today power just returned so hopefully I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can at least post today. Any way here it is:

It is dancing women once again. Folk/tribal motifs. 

Singing and dancing during celebrations is quite a common feature with various tribes and rural folk. These people work very hard and are very simple at heart. They lead simple lives too away from all the hustle and bustle. Their day starts early with the sun rise and ends with the sun set. During the day they work hard practising their traditional occupations of agriculture, cattle rearing, basket weaving, pot making or something like that. 

They sell their produce in the local markets on the market days. With what little they earn they buy those things which they cannot produce themselves. 

At the end of day, they eat what little they have and enjoy a drink or two. In olden days the only entertainment they had was singing and dancing in groups. Now perhaps some may have TV sets. Still singing and dancing are a must in celebrations-whether it is a marriage or a birth or festivals.

So their art-usually on the walls of their mud huts reflect their daily chores or  dancing etc. These motifs are from Bengal, painted on a sari I bought. Very simple but reflecting the folk art and culture.

Hope you like them....

Friday-Free Patterns

Here is one free pattern this week. A paisley border.

This is my creation. I like Paisley patterns very much. So most of the time my creations revolve around paisley. This would make a good border for saris, churidar or salwarws, scarves, odhnis, stoles etc. 

This can be used as vertical. horizontal or cross  or inclined rows also. More to come...Keep a watch.....

Friday-Free Patterns

Swan Motif 

Its Friday and time for a Free Pattern. It is a Swan or "Hamsa/Hansa" or "Raja Hamsa" the royal swan. Its gait is supposed to be beautiful and many a poet equates a beautiful damsel's gait with that of a Raja Hamsa. 

Hamsa or swan has inspired our textile designers. Last time it was from a block print. Now this is from a woven motif-woven with zari or gold thread as a border on one of my mom's saris. Here it is:

     Swan or Hamsa Motif

Now this a classic or traditional Indian motif handed down over generations as a sculpture on temples or woven on textiles or may be painted on paper or fabric. This motif can be used for block printing, painting or embroidery.

I hope you like this. I would love to have your comments, suggestions, preferences if any on these patterns please....Keep a watch there are some surprises to be shared with you all..

Friday-Free Patterns

Paisley

This time I want to introduce to you one of the most popular motif from India-Paisley....

Hand woven border on silk from Assam showing the Mango or Paisley design.

Paisley- tear drop shaped pattern- is of Indian origin. Some believe it to be of Persian origin. However the word "Paisley"  has been derived from a town Paisley of Scotland. This is called as Paisley Pickles by the American quilters and "Welsh Pears" by the Welsh and were used in their textiles as early as 1800s. French call this as Boteh and Plame.

Some feel that the tear drop shape can be traced back to ancient Babylon. It represented the growing shoot of  date palm which was considered as sacred and "Tree of Life" as it provided food, drink, fibres for clothing and for all other needs. Gradualy the growing shoot symbol began to be recognised as fertility symbol too.

Some believe that this shape is known as "Boteh" is the Zoroastrian symbol of life and eternity and originated from a combination of stylized floral spray and cypress tree. This later on was adopted by the Azerbaijan too in their textiles and architecture too. 

The floral motif of Iran known as "Buta" originated in Safavid dynasty of Persia. This sounds like the "Boteh" and I think it originated from that word. Buta is a word still used in indian textiles for tear drop shaped pattern. This was popular textile pattern used during Qajar Dynasty too. Textiles of royalty as well as common man-garments, carpets, shawls, furnishings, quilts,  and jewellery sported this motif.

Some believe that paisley pine cone, or tear drop, was derived from the Indian boteh or buta (from the Persian word for flower). Buta even today refers to tear shaped motif. Buta in general means motif but when specifically used- tear shaped one.

The boteh first started as a simple and naturalistic plant rendering used in both textiles and art; it was an attempt by artists and weavers of the Mughal court to imitate European botanical studies typical of the 17th century. Stylistically, the evolution of the boteh owes much to traditional Persian floral design, as it was depicted in carpets, tiles, and miniatures. By the 1700s, the motif was embellished with additional flowers and tendrils. Gradually  all those merged into a  slender conical “tree” with  a bent tip. Finally the motif evolved into the elongated serpentine abstraction as we see it today.

This is still a very popular motif in Asian countries.

Indians used this symbol or pattern since ancient times. In Sanskrit this symbol is referred to as Mankolam-Its a tamil word meaning Man-Mango and Kolam-rangoli or design. Mankolam means the Mango design. In Telugu it is known as Mamidi Pindelu, in Urdu -Kairi and Punjabi-Ambi; all meaning unripe small mangoes. For us this symbol is auspicious associated with prosperity.

          Paisley in Batik

These patterns were widely used by the Kashmiris in their shawls either woven or embroidered. In other parts of India these were woven with gold or silver threads as motifs or borders on saris and other materials, jewellery etc.

   Paisley in Kashmiri embroidery

The East India Company during their rule in India popularised this pattern during 17th and 18th centuries as Kashmir shawls were exported to Europe. To meet the huge demand, the manufaturers in Marseilles began to print the motif. Holland followed the suit. During 19th century  the design from the Kashmir shawls were copied and adopted for the hand looms and jacquard looms by the manufacturers of Paisely-Scottish town. Later on these motifs were printed on cottons and woollen fabrics which became famous as the paisley patterns.

Even today this motif is popular in our South Indian textiles and jewellery. So here is my motif.....

            Paisley Pattern
This would  look great on saris, blouses, cushion covers etc . You can paint it or embroider it. Satin stitch, herringbone stitch, chain stitch with French knots may look good.

Hope you like it. Try it out and let me know.

Friday-Free Patterns

I am always the late Kate. I just could not post the pattern in time. It so happened that my systems hard disk is almost filled up with data. So I had to take a back up and delete some of them to create space. It is a real tiring business. One thing is I am not much organised with my Data and dump them here and there. Saving data on external sources takes time. With the frequent power cuts, it is a nightmare. We have had to discard so may CDs/DVDs due to this. Anyway I have not yet catalogued my disks. With the result I had to search and search. I am still too tired from my hectic travel schedule and need time to recover. So here I am posting this motif late..

                     Peacock Motif

This is again a peacock motif. This looks a like a folk motif found as block printed on one of the saris I think. Earlier I just used to make a mental note of these when ever I came across these motifs and drew them when I was back home. I did not have a camera then. So I may not have remembered it exactly. Most of the time I carefully study the details a make a mental note of it till I can reproduce it on paper. But sometimes staring at some one just to make note of a motif or design is quite embarrassing...:) :)


Even if we have a camera we cannot just click at every one in public places. We cannot breach their privacy. So I still have to rely on my memory.

This can be used for fabric painting and embroidery. Chain Stitch, Satin stitch or Indian Herringbone Stitch would suit it I think.

Try it and let me know. I have still lots of motifs to pen properly. I have just filled my sketch pad with ideas. I need to give them proper shape. So brace yourselves and wait for more motifs........

I would like to know what you feel about these motifs. Are they any good for trying out?

Keep watching......