Monday, March 23, 2015

Friends in My Garden-Wasps


I like to spend as much time as possible in my garden. No doubt, it requires lot of time and energy, in maintenance. But the result is that we have fresh air, greenery around us, it supplies us with, flowers, fruits and vegetables now and then. 

It is a pleasure sitting in the garden, any time of the day or season. In spring or in summer, monsoon or in winter, lot of activity can be seen. Watching, bugs and bees, birds and butterflies, caterpillars and many other creatures is meditative.

Well here is one of the visitors, who became a resident of my garden:

These are very small wasps, constructing their home with white substance. They make tube like hollow structures, lay their egs and seal it.
 You can see here the sealed ones.
We have so many of these colonies in our garden.

Well their sting is very uncomfortable. It feels like a small shock at first and then you feel as if burnt by the fire in the area where stung. This lasts for two to three days. So even though their size is small their sting is quite something. I have experienced it once.


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Saturday, March 21, 2015

Rangoli-309

Ugadi- 2015 Special


This is 25 to 1 dots- straight dots.

I have drawn here, houses decorated with mango leaf torans, front yard decorated with rangolis, mangoes and blooming flowers celebrating Ner Year Ugadi.

This is simple and easy to draw. Hope you like it.

Here are some borders, you can try with this Rangoli:






My Warm Wishes, to the Telugu people, Kannadigas, and Maharashtrians who are celebrating, Ugadi, Gudi Padava... that is New Year as per our Indian Lunar Calendar. 



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Monday, March 16, 2015

StichXplorations-Satin Stitch


This is a very old sampler. This was my attempt at satin stitch. The stems and sepals of the buds are chain stitch. The center of the flower is diagonal stitch over satin stitch base.

The fabric used is unbleached heavy cotton. I used Neem zari thread; cotton thread with gold or zari thread. 

This one time I got it perfect, as you can see below:


This is not my favorite stitch. Nine out of ten times, I cannot do this perfectly as I would like to. But I have improved over the years.  I need to practice this stitch  to improve my skills. But I keep on postponing it as this stitch is a strain on the eyes. 

What do you say? 

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