Artistic Endeavors of a Restless Soul

Elephants, Peacocks and Paisley

bohemian saree quilt ....

After many thousands of stitches by hand, finally my bohemian quilt is done. Even though the weather was rather gloomy today, I could not wait, but wanted to take some pictures to post.

So, what you do think of it? I don't know if I should have done more work on each block.

There are sixteen blocks in all,

and in one of the blocks I stitched a pattern instead of an applique.

What a feeling it was to do the last stitch.

I wanted to edit the pictures to a collage but my computer hard drive is crashed and, I am using an old laptop which is not helping me a lot.

I am already thinking about the next saree project.

Thank you for stopping by today,

till my next post,

Gaia

Felt easter egg ; I made these for my tea &card group exchange.

Learning the ripple pattern; I have been crocheting for almost for three years now, and still could not learn the ripple pattern. So, this long weekend I took time to learn it... few rows so far.

Baby shoes ; this is my very first attempt; pattern and the instructions are from www.crochetgeek.com. They were easy to make and, I think it took about an hour or so to do.

I have finished sewing the border of the quilt, now it has to be folded and sewn again. And, then there are few other finishing details to be added, before I can show the whole quilt.

Visit to the art gallery to see a great photography exhibition..

Thank you for stopping by today,

till my next post,

xxx,
Gaia

Orange blooms... [learning left hand crochet]

A small throw...

I started this project several months ago, from a craft magazine called 'Americana Afghans' published in 1974.
After browsing through the projects, I was tempted to try out this particular throw, which had a vintage look and, I also wanted to learn something other than a granny square.
Since, I do all my crocheting using thrift-ed yarn it was also a challenge to find all suitable yarn.

I got this far... I would have liked to complete the whole blanket with the exact number of motifs, according to the pattern, but I got bit impatient as I have not been able find more yarn of the similar shades at the thrift stores lately.(specially the greens) I found lots other colours and want to start something else and did not want this project to get neglected, for a longer period, so I thought to finish it with what I had.

the reverse

It looks like I had understood the pattern somewhat.

from the magazine

saree quilt..
continuing on with hand stitching.. this is the border.

Thank you for stopping by today,

till my next post,
xox,
Gaia

Learning embroidery..

~crewel wool tortoise ~

I practiced more of couch stitch here( only on the tortoise), and did not spent lot of time on the other background details. I am pleased with how it turn out.

to the finish line..

saree quilt update;
I also did some detail work on the elephants..to give more texture. .And, still have to work on the other blocks which need the same.

... finally did cut fabric for the border.

Today was a lovely sunday, where there was enough sunlight to take few clear pictures.

Thank you for stopping by see my work,

till next time,

xxx,
Gaia

Crochet Baby Blanket..

A gift for a new born , he is three weeks old this week. His parents loved blanket and I hope he does too :)

For this project, it was all new yarn from the store, I used 3 balls of grey and one blue. The pattern is from Vogue Dictionary of Crochet stitches; it is a simple variation of half double crochet(hdc). The completed blanket measures about 38x38 inches.

to make it extra special, made it small applique too..

I did not forget work on the bohemian quilt. After spending many week day nights sewing , I have almost finished quilting along the squares.

And, I found a very suitable piece of fabric for the border as well.

Thank you for stopping by always....

till my next creative post,
xoxo
Gaia

Sunday....

Learning embroidery..

the process is slow and there so much to absorb..

In this piece I experimented; double threaded backstitch; where I also learnt that, while passing the thread in opposite direction through the backstitch it is so easy to pick the adjoining stitches if you are not careful. The instructions does point that too.
And, in basic couching I used regular embroidery floss but the book mentions that there is couching thread, but I think you can use any thread that suits the pattern and the fabric. Whipped stem stitch is done similarly to threaded backstitch.

My work did not finish as neat as I would have wanted it to be; at times I was in a hurry to see the end.

Happy Valentine's Day !!

Thank you for stopping by today,

till my next creative post,
xxx,
Gaia

bit of crochet...

This toy giraffe project is from Susan Bates "left hand crochet guide". It was very easy to make; basically it is blocks of single crochet. I reduced the size in half. I also sewed in the other details instead of gluing them as per the tutorial because I want to give it to a baby.