Chikan embroidery

One of my pending projects was Anita’s chikankari embroidery SAL.Although at first, I wanted to sew it on  a dress, after finishing the embroidery I felt reluctant to use it (didn’t want to spoil such a beautiful embroidery).Now, I’m keeping it at a safe place to be used as a reference for future chikankari projects.

I must admit that I was in a hurry to finish this project that maybe I didn’t practice enough.My favourite stitches are the overcast stitch and the wave stitch filling.The latter stitch was easier when practiced on a squared pattern but confusing when worked on a heart shaped pattern.I made a mistake and had to rework it.The stab stitches really play an important role to create a wave like pattern at the back.This class was a wonderful learning experience.Thanks again, Anita.I hope your next class will be on beaded chikankari.Ever since I started this class, I have been searching the internet for free chikankari patterns but couldn’t find one.If someone knows, please share it with me.

Long and short flower

In one of my posts last year, I’d written about long and short stitch direction rules. Please click here for the post. Those of you following my blogs must have read my experiments using these rules to improve my long and short stitch. I’d tried 2 different types of leaves and I’m satisfied with both results. I would love to embroider more complicated leaves using this method but today, I would like to share with you a simple long and short flower which I’d embroidered. This flower doesn’t have overlapping petals,( a continuous petal)  so it’s quite easy to embroider.

For this flower, the point of attachment between the petal and the stem is the small dot in the center. Split stitch or outline stitch the flower before starting the long and short embroidery.

As in my long and short leaf 2, I didn’t draw the directional lines on the flower pattern. Rather, I just held the thread toward the dot and stitch into that direction. Starting from the middle, stitch all the way to the left, alternating long and short stitches. Then, embroider from the middle to the right. Here, I’d finished the first row.

Finished the second row. As you can see here, I’d started embroidering on the second part of the petal, from the middle to the left.

Continue in this manner for the whole petal.

The next row is white. I just started from one point, worked long and short stitches in clockwise position till I came back to the starting point. All the while, I pointed the stitches toward the small dot.

Fill the center with French knots.

Goldwork peacock - Part 2

This is the continuation of my goldwork peacock embroidery project.

While looking for goldwork embroidery materials, I found these golden wires which I had no idea what they were.They looked like stamens for artificial flowers.Nevertheless, I bought them hoping that they would be useful in any of my goldwork embroidery projects.

 While working on this peacock project, I decided to use those wires to make the crest of the peacock.After twisting the wires here and there, this is how the crest looks like.

 Here, I’d couched the crest on top of the peacock’s head.The crown is ready!In my next post, I’ll show you how I’m going to outline the body of this peacock.

My First Needlework Project

Hi everyone, I’m back.Hope that I would be able to blog without any glitches.Today, I would like to share with you my first needlework project – a cross stitch sampler that I worked back in 1986.Just can’t believe it’s almost 30 years.How time flies!

This pattern is from the book, ‘FLORAL DESIGNS IN CROSS STITCH’, an ONDORI publication.Why did I choose this pattern?The basket!I love baskets.It’s a symbol of a bygone era and I love anything vintage.When I was a child, needlework really fascinated me.Watching my mother and elder sister embroidering was something that I enjoyed a lot.But, I had no confidence of trying one myself.I was a studious person – getting good grades and always on top of my class.It was only later on, when I was a teenager that I was tempted to try a hand at cross stitch which I considered easier than embroidery.My sister used to buy lots of ONDORI books and when I saw this pattern I decided to try it.

From then on, I was hooked and there was no looking back.Needlework is one factor that lifted my spirit in the darkest hours of my life – the death of my younger brother, death of my beloved father, the bitter separation from my husband, the lengthy divorce proceedings and finally the divorce itself, fighting for the custody of my son and the life as a single mother.Life has to go on no matter what.

This is my latest mirror work – needlewoven picot mirror work.What do you think of it?The tutorial for this is coming soon.

For the past few months, I hadn’t been active online and had lots of time to cook and bake.These days, I’m jumping into the ‘homemade’ wagon.I’ve tried homemade noodles, whole wheat bread, burger, burger buns etc. but my greatest achievement is homemade chocolate.At first, it refused to harden no matter how long I kept it in the fridge though it was the most delicious that I’ve ever tasted.I didn’t give up and found a simple method to harden it.This recipe uses simple ingredients like cocoa powder, milk powder, sugar and butter but the outcome was wonderful.My son is happily munching away the chocolate balls.Have you tried making chocolate at home?Please share your experience with me.

Goldwork peacock - Part 1

As a busy person, I had to think twice before starting a new embroidery project because it would take ages to complete one.When I bought the smooth purl (zardosi thread),   a few months ago, I knew I had to use it somewhere.After weighing a few options, I decided to embroider another peacock pattern from barbara’s blog  .As usual, I’ll share with you the exact link for this free peacock pattern at the end of this project.This is the first time I’m using purl, so I’m a bit cautious.Hopefully, everything will turn out OK.

  

  For the body of the peacock, it was worked in stem stitch filling.I’d used 1 strand of pearl cotton no:8 thread.

  

Here, I’d completed the body.

  

Made the beak using smooth purl.

  

Lastly, I inserted another purl under the beak and made a loop and sewn a bead for the eye.