Women at Work in India

Once I started looking i wasn't as hard as I expected to find women at work.

I thought they would be mostly behind he scenes and I am sure that is still right.

But here are some that were happy to be photographed.

Jaipur Street Seller

Paper Maker

She is shining her pot in the sandy soil.

She is cooking our lunch at a Block Printing Factory.

Village Kantha Quilt Maker

Village Block Printer

Village artist restoring the old building's art work

Teacher at the village sewing school

Bollywood Actor

Block Printing in Jaipur

Welcome back to Incredible India.

We are having the most amazing time with lots of Block Printing Workshops 

interspersed with tourist stops.

Is this heaven or what?

Now onto Block Printing with the masters at work.

Then my turn under supervision and guidance of a master.

It was so great to have him checking each step I took and showing where I 

might be going wrong.

Once the background was done it was onto the blue flower blocks.

Then onto the second colour (pink) on the flowers.

Getting these lined up was the challenging part.

This is the final one metre piece printed.






Back soon from Incredible India.

Kantha Quilts

This is the Kantha Shop that we visited - piles and piles and piles of Kantha Quilts.

Some were bright

and a close up.

Some were block print style in indigo and red.

Some were soft colours. These were quite special. 

One layer of cream cotton and one layer of cream gauze.

One stitch quilts -  appliqued only.

Two stitch Quilts - applique with stitching and some stitching 

on the bigger gauze areas.

Then three stitch quilts - applique and two sections of gauze stitching.

The colour areas are a tick thread and fly stitch giving the colour.

This one is coming home.

City stitcher tidying up a quilt ready for me to buy.

Most of the stitchers were in the owners home village way 

up near the Pakistan Border.

Indigo and Kantha from India

Wow we have had a great start to our travels in India.

We started in Jaipur and today we found an exceptionally knowledgeable tuk-tuk driver.

Even tho' we had been warned about them taking us off to places

that we hadn't asked for we did exactly that.

We got talking to Arun and he called for his uncle GS who knew exactly 

where to take a quilt shop owner.

To a fabric wholesaler - where else!!!!

First stop some indigo fabric shopping.

Yes this pile of fabric is coming home with me.

So we can make Kantha Quilts.

Then it was on to a Kantha Quilt Shop for another treat.








Back soon with more info on and photos of Kantha Quilts

Jaoanese Sampler Quilt

My Japanese Sampler Quilt has made good progress over the summer.

I now have all the one hundred blocks machine pieced and patterns drawn up.

. 

And I just about have the first fifty blocks hand quilted and sashiko stitched,

The first four rows are ready to go together.

This project is Quilt-As-You-Go which is working well, especially in this hot summer 

as I am only working on block at a time.

Back soon with the first four rows joined together with the sashing strips.

Bees Wax Wraps

Over the summer holidays we made bees wax wraps. 

These are great for wrapping cheeses, etc when storing them in your fridge. 

Reduces the need for Glad Wrap.

Our friends have a bee hive and had harvested the wax from it.

Hence the fun day we had creating fabric covered in wax.

Ready to go - nice boiled and boiled wax to purify it and fabric ready to go.

But first lets get the fabric prepared - it had to be washed and 

then cut to the size we wanted.

I had chosen some of our 1930s Reproduction fabrics -  somehow seemed appropriate.

 Meanwhile Mark's role was to grate the wax ready for melting.

Wax suitably melt now in goes the fabric.

And out it comes covered with a fine layer of wax.

Hang to dry and iron to set nicely.

Now ready for cheeses or pot covers.

A pot of Deb's honey.

What a fun day.

Old Laces

The third in my series of photos from the Warkworth Museum.

What a treasure trove this was. 

This time the focus is on laces.

These are late 19th Century laces from the Barbie Stanley-Harris Collection.

Cushion Lace

More Cushion Lace

Crochet Lace

Ribbon Lace

Net Lace

Ribbon and Lace Bonnet c. 1890

Thanks you Warkworth Museum for a wonderful display.

And what I have shown is just a small part of it.

Do get up there and visit if you can.