Inchies Sampler - Square 18

Hi there. My work is progressing very slowly. It is terribly hot here. We cannot move out of our houses. The temperatures are ranging between 40 to 47 degrees Celsius. Even as early as seven in the morning, the heat is so much that  we feel as if we are sitting on the burner. As the day progresses, it is getting hotter and hotter so much that we cannot venture out. It is very hot till late in the night.  

We are all forced to sit at homes unless it is something very urgent or unavoidable.

So amidst all this here I am trying to make some progress in my crafts. it is really difficult to do anything when you feel as if you are sitting on fire and your skin feels as if it is burning and there is so much humidity. 

I have completed Square No. 18. This is again related to Square No. 10.

In Square 10, my theme was a Rainbow. So now, in this square, my theme is Dancing Peacock. 

Our elders say, that, when the sky is heavily filled up with dark clouds, just before it starts to rain, the Peacocks open their trains to display their beauty. It is said that, the Peacocks attract the females - Peahen with beauty of their trains and their dance. When the Peacocks dance, and the heavily clouded dark skies adorned with a Rainbow form the backdrop, then it is such a  beautiful sight- isn't it ?

I have embroidered this theme of dancing Peacock, clouded skies, with a Rainbow as its back drop and the jungle filled up with greenery and colourful flowers as its stage.

I wanted to embroider the Peacock. But I could not fit it into such a small square. So I opted for an embellishment (acrylic I think). I could not get a blue one so it is golden Peacock. I have used, Pearl cotton threads and stranded cotton threads for the rest of the embroidery.. 

Do you think the square is too much crowded? Please mail me or drop in your comments, suggestions  or what you think about this sampler, I will be glad to know. 

Watch out for the progress in my next posts......

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Inchies Sampler - Square 17

Here I am posting after a long time. 

It is summer here. But in between we have had some rains which is disrupting all the things which we women do in summer. Like pickling, sun drying  vegetables, making crispies and poppadoms...

The untimely storms have damaged mango crop besides, other fruit crop like plantains, papayas, citrus fruits and also other crops. This being the peak season for pickling mangoes, there is huge demand for them. But supply of good produce is so less that the costs have sky rocketed. On the other hand there are power cuts and water shortages.

Well that is the day to day challenges which we people face here. I am just hoping that all  plants in my garden survive the heat. 

Because of all that I could not concentrate much on my projects. I am just picking up what ever UF projects I have and carry on the work as much as I can. 

This is Square 17 of my Sampler.

This is linked to Square 9.

When it rains heavily as shown in square 9, children are the most happy ones. They enjoy the showers, they can bunk schools and play. Here in this square I have embroidered children- a boy and a girl making paper boats and playing in the rain. That is what we used to do when we were children. Now our children don't enjoy such simple things any more.

I have used pearl cotton mostly and some stranded cotton threads. Stitches used were also simple except for the girls hair.

I found it very difficult to stitch such tiny figures to fit into the square. The ground fabric was also a heavy one making it very difficult to stitch. I wanted to have a raised or 3 D effect. 

I am not satisfied with the way the figures turned out. But I did not dare to undo all the embroidery and start allover again. 

I learned some lessons while doing this square. 

Any suggestions on how to stitch such tiny figures? Can any one of you share some tips please?

Hope you like this. Still many squares to go.....

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StitchXplorations-French Knots

Take a look at my exploration of French Knots.

The back ground is as usual, unbleached heavy cotton cloth. I have used stranded cotton thread mostly. I have used all the 6 strands for a thicker knot. I have also used stem, outline, detached chain, and fly stitches with long tasils.

For grass I have used Rim Jim Threads(it is some what fuzzy) for grass for the fluffy look. 

This is one more stitch I am not so good at. But I think it is better than my satin stitch skills. I find Chinese knots easier than this for filling up.

Strictly speaking Knot stitches are fun once you master them. they give a textured look, a 3D effect and are quite interesting.

What do you say?

This is one more stitch I need a lot of practice. 

Watch out for more......

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Spring Time in my Garden-5

These are the chrysanthemums I have in my garden. Now since day temperatures are quite high, these are not blooming. 

 This is the button or miniateure mum.

I also have purple ones. I forgot to take a pic before cutting the blooms. 

These plants which have bloomed were cut to almost ground level and left in the pots. Now I have put them all under shade till monsoons arrive. The mother plant will give out many shoots which can be replanted to get the blooms. But it is really difficult to save them during summer. No matter how careful I am, I always loose some of these plants.

Have  to see how the summers will be this year. It is already quite hot here...

Watch out my blog....

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3D Greeting Cards-1

How nice it is if we have lots of time to think and create our arts or crafts? But many a time, I don't have that much luxury. Suddenly a little one comes to me saying, it is his birth day, or my niece tells me that she has to attend a birth day party in next half an hour, so I don't have much time to think, I have to rush around to create something with what I have at hand. It is quite irritating but then do we have a choice?

Here is one attempt at one of the cards I made(Sorry for poor quality of the picture, I was in a hurry).

These days you get so many 3D stickers of different sizes for decorating your walls. I keep in stock some of them. We use it for our niece's school projects.  So I used a bunch of sunflowers and a butterfly. The back ground is cream coloured textured card stock of A4 size folded in half. 

I just stuck them on the card-they are self adhesive. Then the message was written with glitter pens(I don't have a photo of that, as I was in a hurry). Message inside was also hand written with colour pens and glitter pens on a plain white sheet and stuck up. 

VOILA! We had a card in a jiffy, hand made and messages hand written with a personal touch. No one could make out that they were made from a sticker.

TIP:     So when you are in a hurry, and want to make a card in a jiffy;

Keep stock of such stickers, you can use one of them. They can be birthday cards, congratulation cards, thank you cards or get well cards. If you have a printer, you can print the greetings on the card stock before sticking or decorating it. similarly, message can also be printed and stuck inside. If not just write it down. 

So watch out for more......

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StitchXplorations - Satin Stitch

This is again one more attempt at satin stitch from the same sampler done long time back.

The background is unbleached cotton fabric. I have used a shaded cotton thread, 2 strands. I have outline some petals with back stitch to see how it looks. The leaves and stalk, stem have been done in satin stitch.

I have not filled in the center. I think s few french knots would look nice. I will try them.

What do you think?

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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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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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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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Sring Time in my Garden - 4

Here are the Magnolia flowers known as Champka in Sanskrit and Hindi and Sampengi in Telugu.

This is the white coloured one. This gives a very light fragrance. It does not flower profusely; may be my plant is too young.

This is the green one known as Aaku Sampengi meaning leaf Champaka. This blooms frequently and every new shoot will have lots of flowers. The fragrance of this flower is different from the white one. Earlier days this plant used to be there in many homes  and gardens in Andhra. Even today these flowers are sold in the markets and one cannot miss their fragrance. This reminds me of my childhood at my granny's place.

I never knew this plant gave fruits like the one above until recently. 

This is the yellow variety, known as Simhachalam Sampengi, as Lord Narasimha Swami at Simhachalam in Andhra Pradesh is said to be found of these flowers. So these flowers are offered to Him. 

The fragrance of these flowers is different from the above two. I planted this tree twice and both times lost them to termites. I will try my luck again.

Keep an eye on my blog......

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Spring time in my Garden -3

Hibiscus, also known as Rose Mallow, Shoe Flower, China rose is a very beautiful flower and quite common in India, especially in South India. These are grown for their showy and colourful flowers and also as shrubs in the garden. These are evergreen shrubs and flower through out the year. 

They require very less maintenance except for lots of pests and bugs. They also flower abundantly, hence hit with us Indians and other countries, like China, Hawaii and Korea etc....They contain many species which are both annual and perennial varieties. 

These are known as Japakusuma or Japa Pushpa in Sanskrit, Mandaaram in Telugu and GuDDhal in Hindi. These flowers are offered to Lord Ganesha, Kali or Durga, Shiva and Sun God as their favorite flowers. In general used as offering to any gos or goddess in our homes.

I prefer the local varieties to the hybrid ones. The hybrid ones give big flowers in many colours but they don't have the beauty of the local ones.

 This is only one hybrid variety I have as it was gifted to me.

 This is baby pink multi petaled one.

 This is lemon yellow multi petaled one.

This is a different shade of yellow, shade of sandal wood.

 This is lavender coloured multi petaled one.

Below are two varieties of orange colured flowers

  .

 This is tomato red coloured one

The one above is darkest red flower, which is not clear in the pic.
This one below is the single petaled local variety mostly in red, white and light pink colours. But the red one is most popular.

Here is my flower basket for Puja(daily prayers) filled with flowers form my garden.

Hibiscus, is used in ayurveda as it has medicinal properties. Tea made out of these flowers is quite popular in many countries. Paste of these flowers and its leaves, applies to hair make them long, lustrous, healthy and black colour. So women from South India use this as a hair tonic.

Watch out for more.......

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