INCREDIBLE INDIA November Journal Block

 Whether you are the driver or the passenger in India, road travel is always exciting. And if you need a taxi, they come in many shapes, sizes, colors, and styles.

One advantage of this vehicle is you get to know a lot of neighbors in your local area.

The most popular of all though is the tuk tuk. It's small but efficient, economical, can carry several passengers and all their shopping, and best of all it is covered so it makes for the best choice in bad weather conditions. 

                                                You're close to the driver so you can easily give him directions for your destination.

While waiting at the traffic light you can always engage in some friendly conversation with the people next to you.  

I thought it was a great way to travel around the city.

In my travels around India, the Tree of Life motif was one of the most beautiful and used in many different locations. This particular motif decorated the wall of a mosque.

Another particularly beautiful motif of the Tree of Life was in a temple in the city of Ammedabad.  It is wonderful with the grill work in front of a large tree.  The green leaves make a wonderful background for the motif. I wanted to use this Tree of Life motif for the first of my four blocks with one or more buttons.

The fabric used for the tree is a brown batik fabric. I used the fusible applique technique for the tree and stitched the edges of the applique with a hand Feather Stitch. The back ground fabric is a hand dyed gold fabric. The leaves of the tree are cut freehand and glued to the tree using fabric glue. An iron-on crystal complements each leave. Hand dyed buttons, of various sizes, where sewn to the trunk of the tree. 

The block was hand quilted and bound in a green striped fabric.