Sticthes & Beads

 Hola dear friends! This time it has been a long long time and sooooo much has happened during this period.

Let me start by showing you my finish in 3 years!!! 

                                               

Amma is finally done and I just love how She has turned out! I can't believe that I took only (that's right.. only) 3 years to finish Her! 

Now I am taking a short break from stitching and took out my beads from hibernation. Here are some necklaces that I made in the last few months. Some of them went out as gifts to my nieces

After a huuuge project, I want to stitch something quick and fun

Selected 2 small cute designs from this book, which was a gift from a dear friend. I am going to use perforated paper for one of them as I want to make it into a magnet. Once this is done, I will chose the medium for the other one

That's quite a lot of updates in one post 😀. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!!

A Finish & my Mega Project

 Yes, my dear friends.. I have my first finish. You guessed right

Here's the all finished Mandala Lotus!! Took me 8 months to complete. I started this in June 2021 and finished in Feb 2022. This is going as a gift to someone very dear

My next project is a very special one and really huge. Am extremely nervous that it should turn out well

I have it all kitted up. The fabric is a 28ct Mushroom Lugana and all threads are DMC. This is a very personalized project, so even more nervous

That's from me today dear friends. Till next time.. stay safe.. Be Happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Christmas in June

My first proper finish in 2021. Isn't he a cutie pie 

 

I stitched this up on brown perforated paper and the pattern is from Pinterest. Used all supplies from my stash. The threads are a mix of DMC and Anchor. I did not use the same shades as recommended, but tried to match to the nearest shade that was available

To finish it off, I used red felt as backing and green ribbon that my dear friend just sent recently

Here's the final ornament. This is my first ever Christmas ornament. Hope I can make more 

I have not yet decided what to stitch next. I am going through all my saved patterns - hard and soft copies to try and decide 

That's it from me today dear friends. Hope you all are safe and healthy. Till next time.. Stay safe.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

First Post of the Year

We stepped into a 2021 on a very holy note with a visit to our Kula deivam temple and our Guru. For the last 4 years, every time we planned a visit to our Kula deivam temple, something would come up and the trip never happened. Finally, all graces worked to make it happen. 

Work suddenly picked up pace too all of a sudden after almost a year's lull. Schools are gradually beginning off-line classes. Vs classes will be beginning on Monday, thrice a week. Offices have not opened yet, but I did visit office once this month to pick up my laptop

Front line workers slot for Covaxin will come to an end by end of February and people over 50 years of age will get their chance. Probably rest of us will get our chance around May, fingers crossed 🙏 

Baking

I wanted to bake these cookies around Christmas, but it's never too late for these 

Peppermint cookies. I could not wait to find the traditional striped candy canes, so used Andes mint chips instead. Here's the link to the recipe

 V and I have been watching The Crown on Netflix, because of which we get a lot of suggested videos and facts about the royal family. One that caught our attention was about the royal family's favorite food. 

One of those is this super easy, no-bake dessert. It is so rich and chocolate overload. V made a white chocolate topping to add to it. Here's the recipe link

Stitchy Update

I already have my first finish of the year!! Unfortunately, it is a secret project and I cannot share pictures in any social media till I am able to give it to the recipient

But here are the ORTS from my first finish. It is going to be a gift to a very special person 

So dear friends, that's the update from me today. Till next time, take care.. stay safe.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!! 

A Finish and a start!

Hope all my dear blogger friends had a Merry Christmas!! We are finally in the last week of the year

Baking

V and I wanted to bake Christmas cookies this year

Linzer cookies and 'snow' cookies as we called it. We did not add food color to the icing, and with the silver balls topping, don't they look like snow :)

Stitchy Update

Put in the last stitches in Coffee last weekend. I am very happy with how it has turned out. I will be taking this and a few others that I finished earlier this year to the framer later this week

Started on a new project, which is going to be a gift. So, I am not going to talk much about this or post any further update pictures, till it reaches its new home :)

So, that's from me today dear friends. Enjoy the rest of your holidays. Till next time.. Be Happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir

A Finish!

It was dad's 73rd birthday on the 18th. We had a small cake cutting at home with my brother's family joining us over zoom

We wanted to try a new flavor cake this time - use some recipe that we had saved but not tried yet. Dad is not a great fan of chocolate cake. So that was out. I had some mawa in the fridge and dad likes the Indian flavor. 

                                                        

                                            Eggless Goan Mawa cake with saffron buttercream frosting

Another cake V baked was this apple dates cake. Link to the original recipe is here - https://www.davidlebovitz.com/apple-date-cake-salted.../

                                                

The changes we made are - use whole wheat flour instead of apf; olive oil instead of butter; flaxseed powder instead of egg

And yay, I have a finish!!

Snowy Day by Lizzie Kate. I used 18ct Aida from my stash. All threads are anchor from my stash too. I do not have the shade numbers as that's how I got them from the nearby craft store. He had just kept them in a cardboard box and sold them all to me. So, some of the skeins do not have the numbers on them. I tried to pick the closest match based on colors

Here's the ORTS from last month's stitching. The jar has YTD 

I have not yet decided what to stitch next. Probably I will do some beading before the next stitchy project

So friends, that's the update from me today. Till next time.. stay safe.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir

A Finish..

..Yes, here's my next finish in 2020!!

This project is the closest to my heart. I have been wanting to stitch a portrait of Amma for a very long time now. That is still some time away. So, while I work on kicking that off, here's a starter.
This is Amma's official logo and I have had my eye on this for a while now too. About 2 years ago, I tried several online pattern generators and selected one that worked. But, I never actually started working on it. Now, I wanted to start fresh. So, again I generated several patterns and found one that I thought was closest. Though the pattern suggested many colours, I worked only with 2 - blue and red. 
I strongly believe that everything fell in place for this project this time. The fabric is a gift from my dear friend Meari (who blogs here). It has very pretty pink flowers in the background. I think that was just perfect for Amma

Next up is a Lizzie Kate pattern - Snowy Day. This is a part of 6 fat men series, but I am just going to stitch this one up

I love snowy, christmasy patterns, and this will be my first of a festive pattern

I have it all kitted up. I am going to use 14ct aida for this, as I do not have the right shade of linen with me in my stash. I am going to use the anchor threads from my stash. I know that this will not have the same result as WDW ones, but I am not sure when I will be able to get any threads ordered from the USA. I am totally impatient to start stitching this up

So, that's from me today dear friends. Do stay safe.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!

Finished & Framed!

Dear Friends, in the wake of the Covid 19 Pandemic, I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Do take necessary precautions, but at the same time please stay calm and do not panic. Probably, this is the time to slow down and take things easy, while we stay indoors

So, I have finished the project I was working on from Pinterest.

Worked on Perforated Paper with the anchor skeins from my stash

This is how it looks framed. I am going to gift this one to my cousin

Next up is a project that has been in my to-do for a very long time. One of my very close friends has a  Needlepoint by William Morris book, where the projects are just drool worthy. Every once in a while I borrow the book from her just to drool over them. Finally, I decided to work on one such project from the book

This patter is called Rose and it's a book mark. The fabric will be a 28ct linen from my stash and the threads will be Anchor from my stash too

I want to stitch this for V, my daughter. Her birthday is in August and I hope to finish this before that. Initially, I wanted this to be a surprise for her. But with her around, nothing escapes her sharp eyes. Even while I was trying to decide on the next project she asked 'Is this going to be for me'!! She has a collection of bookmarks and changes it with each book she reads. So, I thought that this would be a good gift

That's about it from me today friends. Stay safe.. Stay healthy.. Stay Calm and take it easy. Till next time.. Take care.. Be Happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir

Losses!!

This year has been quite a sad one for the family - between December 2018 and September 2019, 3 of my uncles passed away!! Our family is quite a huge one, both on the maternal as well as paternal side. Though we all know that this is life, when it actually hits us on the face, it comes as quite a blow

Especially one of the uncles was very dear to all of us - his nature was such. My brother and I lived with them for 3 years and the kind of love they showered on us, words cannot express. I am still coming to terms with all this.

When we face with reality, we start thinking and there's a total change in the way we start looking at things. What seemed important suddenly become trivial and what used to be trivial are actually the most important. I am trying to change my ways especially in the last 2 months - visit/call people more frequently, put our differences behind and move on, try not to hold any grudges, focus more on mine and the family's health. Hope I am able to work through these

In between all this, our festival season too has started. As always, Navarathri is the first big one. This time I was not at all in the mood for an elaborate festival. But my aunts and cousins encouraged me to keep the spirit up and we had a smaller golu

Finally, I managed to finish Summer Iris

I changed the border color, as the recommended shade was exactly the same as that of the fabric. This was the first time I stitched on 30ct fabric and I found it very difficult. I could not stitch without my glasses on :)

Up next is going to be a gift for one of my cousins. I found this pretty pattern on Pinterest.

I found all the shades in my stash. I am planning to stitch this on perforated paper

Hopefully, things will come back to routine and I get to craft more frequently. That's the update from me today friends

Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep Crafting.. Au Revoir

Finished & Framed..

Wishing all my dear blogger friends a belated Merry Christmas!! You must be busy with the post-festive clearing up and gearing up to welcome the New Year

While we all are getting ready to sign off 2018 and relish the last few days of the year, I have a finish.. yes absolutely, blue lotus is all done

That's both the lotuses side by side. All materials are from my stash. Stitched on perforated paper with anchor thread from my recent thread haul!! The design is from Pinterest - here is the link to the pattern. I loved the design at first sight - it evokes a sense of calm. Also, love how it also looks like a namaste

That's the blue one all framed up. In hind sight, I should have either used the same lighter shade of perforated paper as the pink or lighter shades of blue.  

The pink one framed up

Both these beauties have reached my cousins in Dubai and are adorning the walls in their drawing rooms now. Doesn't it feel really good when we make something for someone and they really like it. I think I might stitch this again for myself :)

Signing off today on that note, take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Navarathri 2018 & a Finish

It is festival season in this part of the globe. The first big one, Navarathri, just finished.

Let me give you a brief background about the significance of the festival. The festival is celebrated for 9 days - the first 3 days we worship Goddess Durga, second 3 days Goddess Lakshmi and the last 3 days Goddess Saraswathi.
Durga represents destroyer of evils. These 3 days as we start the festival by worshiping Her, we destroy all our inner evils
Lakshmi represents wealth. Once we have conquered our inner evils, we fill ourselves with the eternal wealth of love
Saraswathi represents Wisdom. The last 3 days we then pray for inner wisdom and get proper knowledge of the self
We read the Lalitha Sahasranamam on all 9 days for the Goddess

All these 9 days, we invite people (mostly women and girls) home for Vethala Paaku (called Haldi Kumkum in North India). This normally consists of a few betel leaves, betel nuts, turmeric and kumkum. These are the absolute necessities. We can add howmuchever we wish over this - like mehendi cones, bindis, bangles, coconuts, fruits, the offering that we made for Goddess that day and (if we want) a small gift. This year V and I gave organic soaps as gifts. Basically all things that represent Shakti (Women)
Similarly we are also invited to other's houses. So there is a lot of people visiting us and we going over to theirs - whole lot of fun

Each day of Navarathri has a color as well, which is as per the below chart

This year we had all the more fun, as most of  us tried to follow this colour code - lots of pictures taken, but too many to share here. This is the time of the year when we bring out all our heavy sarees, jewellery etc. In this process V and I realised that we miss a few colours in our wardrobe. So, we are working towards filling that gap.. griinnnn

Golu is another part of Navarathri. We setup the golu in odd numbered steps (3/5/7 etc). Ours is mostly setup in 5 steps. Though there are many ready-made steps available in the market, best part is to assemble the steps with whatever furniture we have at home. 

When I was a kid, my grandmother used to have a huge golu of upto 13 steps - all put together with furniture and racks available at home

Our 5 steps were made using my craft chest, 2 tables of different heights and 2 suitcases (both antiques)

A full view of our golu

The best part about setting up a golu is that it brings out all our creativity. 

V setup a small park - a small waterfall using the hot glue gun, a bridge using popsicle sticks and used a black chart as the base

I tried something new as well - Rangoli in water

I have seen my grandmother do an elaborate rangoli during golu every year and have always wanted to try this out. But each time I thought of it, I would be intimidated by the idea. This year I somehow overcame that and got down to actually trying my hand at it. Though it's not a great one, it's definitely a good start and helped me get over the fear

Amidst all this, I also have a finish!!

Here's The Lotus - all done!! I simply love the way it has turned out. Again I used all materials from my stash - perforated paper and the threads. The original pattern used only one shade of pink. As I fell short of the shade, I combined 3 different shades and I love the way it has turned out

 My next project is going to be the same pattern, but this time a Blue Lotus. Both these are going to be gifts to my cousins

Here are the 3 shades of blue I plan to use - again using perforated paper, but a darker shade

Wow, that is quite a long post by my standards :) If you have reached this point, thanks a lot for reading through till the end

Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir!!

A Finish and some stash

Really really happy to show you Rose

This is probably my fastest finish till date! This is a free design from pinterest and has been a very quick stitch 

I could not find some of the shades in my stash and hence had to visit my nearest craft supplies store. I was totally saddened and shocked to see that all the skeins were literally dumped in his carton and asked them why are they in such a sad state. So they said that these were slightly older supplies and I could have them all if I wanted at a lesser price. I said I would think and come back. I am not joking when I say I lost some sleep just thinking of all these skeins of threads sadly dumped in a carton

So, I went back to the store and asked them what they would ask for the whole thing. Currently a skein of anchor thread sold at Rs.10 for new stock and these were sold at Rs.8. As they were all old, they said I could have them for Rs.4 per skein, which I felt was really a steal!! I brought home all these goodies!! Happy me.. happy skeins  

This is the complete carton of skeins. Those that are in the plastic cover were not full skeins and they gave them without charing

This is the complete lot all spread out

These are the lose 'skeins' which I got free

There are no bright shades, like the red's or blues here. I suppose I will have to go to the store for those. I think I have a lifetime of Anchor thread with me now.. hehe

Meanwhile, I have decided on the next project - A Lotus

This is also a pattern that I found on Pinterest. This is not a free pattern, but cost only $1.8. The link to the pattern is here. This is going to be a gift to another one of my cousins

So, that's the story today dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Coffee Finish!!

Can you believe it, I certainly am not able to believe it that I already have 2 finishes this year!!

I simply loved working on it and love the way it has turned out. This is going to be a gift to a very special friend and so makes this all the more special for me :)

I am still trying to decide what my next project is going to be. Till next time.. Take care.. Be Happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir!!