Happy New year

HAPPY NEW YEAR ...

A visit across the river

One of my aunts is sick and my mother and I visited her at her home. Her home is situated on a river bank and we got to cross the river to go there.

There are local wooden boats carved by villagers to transport people across the river. There is no bridge yet. This is a picture of wooden boats (taken from http://www.supportsrilankafoundation.org/SSLF%20-%20our_projects.htm.) 

Two of these are bound together and a wooden platform is attached on it to transport people.

This is the front of the boat we have boarded.

This is the view at middle of the river. Unfortunately my thumb is covering one view in half.

Very simple pouch for hands free set or data cable

Hands free set and data cable of my phone tangles in my hand bag always. So I wanted a simple pouch to put them in. this is what I came up with. It is very very easy.

I used cross stitch canvas since it is a hard fabric and a soft leather extracted from an old leather bag...  Cut two circles with ½ inch sewing allowance in desired size for one pouch. I used a glass to draw the circles. Cut one circle in half. Use piping or blanket stitch to finish the strait edges of half cut circle. Attach a button and a loop to two halves. Keep the whole circle right side down on table. Put other two halves right side up on the other circle. Pin it in place. Use piping or blanket stitch around the circle to finish the pouch.We can add a nice tag to the pouch while finishing round edge.

Progress of the peacock embroidery

Hydrangeas are finished ...

Moving to the body of the peacock   mmm mm thinking of using long short stitch...

Easy embroidery pattern for pillowcases.

I wanted a set of pillowcases for my bed. And I wanted them pretty , handmade and most importantly fast… so I came up with this easy embroidery pattern using simple chain and lazy daisy stitches.

Stems are in chain stitch and leaves, flowers are in lazy daisy stitch. Choose colors of embroidery thread matching to bed covers.I picked greens, pinks, reds and yellows since my bed covers are in pinks and greens.

 Cut the base fabric to the desired size. Draw short and long mixed flower stems like bellow image, across the long end of the cut fabric for front of the pillow. Stitch the pattern and assemble the pillow case.

The both sides of any embroidery makes me happy because both sides carry it’s own charm.

Progress of the peacock embroidery

Finally embroidery …. Eyes of feathers are finished. I want to add hydrangea bushes in front of the standing peacock. So hydrangea bushes are on the way. Stems are in outline stitch, leaves are in filling stitch and flowers are filling with French knots. To give a 3D look to the leaves I used double thread. This is a very slow project…

A rainbow and Home made candles.

In afternoon of a rainy day this bright spot of colors appeared…. Not well captured due to low light and my poor photography skills from my bedroom window.

 I made new candles using wax dropped from used candles in candle holders. I double boiled the wax and dipped a thick cotton thread in hot wax to prepare the candle wicks. I used little clay pots for candles. Hold the wick in place using a cloths pin and pure melted wax in to the pot up to little lower than the brim. We can add colors or fragrant oils or rose petals or coffee beans or anything to the melted wax… Wax is used again and satisfaction of creating something … double the pleasure… J

Waterfall in our village

This water fall is not famous and has a special name other than just water fall J for us villagers. But beauty is not any lesser … My friends from my university visited me at my parent’s house last weekend and I took them to this falls. These are photos my friends snapped. Beauty of nature is the best.

Pruning tea bushes

My family plant tea and rubber for living. We are having heavy rain these days. So before heavy rain starts tea pruning commenced and finished. To prune a tea bush a very sharp knife specially crafted for this purpose is used. Pruning is done for mainly to expand the bush to create space for more new branches to be shooting up and maintain the height of the bush manageable when picking tea leaves. Following image shows bushes pruned last year.

In pruning all branches are cut leaving only one branch unless the bush will be dead without leaves. After new shoots come up the left branches also get pruned. These are newly pruned bushes. Look at sharp edges of cut branches. Cuts must be clean and sharp. Cut branches are left there to dry up and will be cleaned after rains.

A diaper bag for a friend

One of my best friends is expecting and making the baby things. So I made a diaper bag for her using this pattern (http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/09/baby-on-go-diaper-bag.html#more). I made few adjustments to the pattern to add a flip with tow buttons and to handles. Also I don’t have Moda fabrics so I used an animal print which I can find in my country. It didn't turn out neat as much as I wanted. That is because I was doing it in a rush I guess. This recipe is super easy to sew and I enjoyed it very much. Thank you Moda bake shop.

Another bout of exams is finished.

Not much sewing going on these days since I’m busy with my research proposal for the master’s degree. Gardens are flowering like mad…

This photo has captured blue sky we have these days and palm trees in the background.

 This flower's perfume is just heavenly.

This is a rare kind of orchid resides on a trunk of a palm tree.

Blooming...