Shadow work & li'l bit of Kantha embroidery

The quota of festivals for us Indians have come to an end.The year end is approaching and so is Christmas.I've been breaking my head over what Xmas gift should I send to a friend of mine in the U.S. It should be unbreakable,lightweight,should represent Indian culture and shouldnot be too common-whew!! Time is running out and Iam blank!!

On the stitching front, I did manage to finish the blue on blue shadow work.I did the leaves using the Indian darning method- back stitch the outline first and then weave the thread in and out through the stitches.
I badly wanted to capture the blue shade of the cloth-hence this pic :)

A close up..

I did something else too.. Here's the pic

yeah.. it's my attempt at Kantha embroidery.The pattern too is typical to kantha and represents a tree.
For those who are unfamiliar,Kantha (pronounced kaatha) is a type of technique used in making quilts using rags (old clothes) It is a 'poor man's technique' and uses running stitch.Of late,any embroidery which uses running stitch to outline and fill the pattern is called Kantha.

My next step would be to fill the leaves and trunk with running stitch.I want to try the fill with another color -may be a lighter green for the leaves. Not too sure how it would end up.

By the way, have you ever seen anyone carrying a handkerchief with a tree pattern? -if you haven't - then be prepared..if you see a very beautiful lady(heh,heh) carrying the above piece, do come and say hello..coz its gonna be me... ;)


Comments

  1. I love both designs, especially the colors you used. You should send your friend a handkerchief like one of these.

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  2. Your tree design is beautiful, I agree with Patty maybe your friend would appreciate one of your embroidered handkerchiefs.

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  3. the tree design is very nice.infact kantha was the 1st type of stitch that i tried wen i was bitten by the embroidery work(which is a recent thing)

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  4. I'm bookmarking your blog. Just look at all those wonderful links you have! My grandmother taught me what she knew of embroidery when I was 10. Your stuff has opened a whole new world of things to learn. I can't wait to spend hours making tiny stitches, poking myself in the finger, mumbling over mistakes as I pull the thread back out. Why do we enjoy this so much....why?

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