Winner of the Free Book: "Sew the Perfect Gift"

  I am excited to tell you that we had Random.org choose the winning number for comments that were left on my blog to win the book "Sew the Perfect Gift".  I am happy to announce that "Notjustnat" is the winner. Thank you all for stopping by to visit and leaving your comments. Enjoy Natima!

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.

Win a Free Book "Sew the Perfect Gift"

Martingale and Company just released a new book entitled "Sew the Perfect Gift".

I was pleased to be asked, as one of their top 25 designers, to participate and design a project for the book. Lots of cute, quick projects for you to make for family and friends. 

If you would like to win a free copy of this book, just leave a comment on my blog. 

On Saturday 17th December, a lucky winner will be chosen.

I hope you win!

INCREDIBLE INDIA October Journal Block

Oh my goodness...I forgot to post my October Journal Block!

My husband's father had been ill for sometime and he passed away on 12th November which meant a trip for us to the U.S. We are now home, over jet lag, and settling back to a normal routine.  Such a loss makes the time we will spend with family and friends over the upcoming holidays, even more precious and treasured.
This October Journal Block is my last of four blocks which incorporated text.

Within India, many different religious views are embraced and practiced. I wanted to somehow incorporate some of these views into one block, particularly the views celebrated by many of the population.

Plus, my friend Tehruna sent me a wonderful email celebrating the 4 Spiritualities of India.

Within the four flower centers, are written the 4 Spiritualities of India: 1) Whomsoever you encounter is the right one. 2) What ever happened is the only thing that could have happened. 3) Each moment in which something begins is the right moment. 4) What is over is over.

The sashings between the flower blocks carry the wordings of the following religions:

Hindu - We worship the three eyed One (Lord Shiva) Who is fragrant and Who nourishes well all beings;
Parsi - We revere Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds done and to be done, Now and henceforth

Christian - Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

And the three center photographs of Arabic calligraphy, taken from the walls of the mosque in Ahmedabad, represent the Muslim faith.

All believe!



All of the fabrics used in the block were hand dyed using Procion Dyes. The photographs were printed on fabric using Bubble Jet Set and Bubble Jet Rinse. Text was written using several colors of permanent Pigma Graphic Pens. The block was hand quilted.

Winner of the Free Book: Quilting Those Flirty 30's"

I am excited to tell you that we had random.org choose the winning number for comments that were left on my blog to win the book "Quilting Those Flirty 30's.  And the winner is "aracne"! Thank you all for stopping by and leaving a comment. Watch this space for future books to be given away.

Sights of Sri Lanka

We recently traveled to Sri Lanka and had a great time!  So much to see and do in such a small country. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought I would just show you photos, which is a lot better then me just rattling on!

We stayed in some interesting hotels but this one was especially fun!  We even had our own resident crocodile who lived underneath our room.

Beautiful peacocks were everywhere on the hotel grounds and in the countryside.

We saw lots of really cool Buddhas!




















Lots of monkeys in Sri Lanka but this one was especially cute with her baby.












We climbed to the top of Sigiriya Rock. The view was pretty fabulous from up there.


















Since Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country, we saw many young boys who were studying to be monks.

We went on safari and saw lots of animals but we fell in love with the elephants of Sri Lanka.

We saw LOTS of elephants!














We got up close and personal with some.

We rode elephants and fed elephants.




We washed an elephant and gave him a massage.











We bought handmade paper made from elephant poo!

And we watched the elephants make their way through town, on their trek to the river to frolic and play.  It reminded me a little of the running before the bulls in Spain! 

We learned about the lengthy process and all the time intensive work it takes to make batik fabrics.

We took the train up to the tea country. We heard that the next day, after we took the train, the observation car we were in derailed. Thankfully no one was injured!

We toured a tea factory.

We watched the tea pickers bring their tea to the managers to be weighed and their accounting ledgers marked.

We hiked through the tea plantations, had high tea, and bought several varieties of tea.

I don't think we will every think of a cup of tea in
exactly the same way again!

We met the lace maker and her daughter.  This is an old art that is dying out in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is full of these wonderful smiles!




 We checked out the day's catch of the local fishermen and watched them work.

We watched the local dancers at an anniversary celebration.

Sri Lanka is known for it's semi-precious stones so it was a real pleasure to visit the local jewelry shops and see all the jewels on display.

And of course the sunsets in Sri Lanka were stunning. We saw a gorgeous one each evening, on the south coast near Galle, where we spent 5 days on the beach.  A little bit of heaven!