from Rajasthan with love

During an earlier visit to India, I came across hand block prints in a shop in Gurgaon (close to Delhi). They were a rare find for me. So I set about to preserve them in a quilt. I also wrote a bit about these prints and the quilt top in a blog post. You can find the post here.

It took me all this time to do something about the neglected top. It must be the flowering season that got me thinking about this quilt again.

The backing is cotton linen which I wanted to use for making kitchen curtains. But the stream of sunlight in here is so awesome in the mornings and I love the shadows it casts on bare walls like paintings without picture frames and also how nicely the sun warms up the room and makes it quite cozy all year round… so no curtains for the kitchen windows after all!

So the backing… it has a row of pretty flowers running the width on one side. Although the width was just right, I had to piece a Kona bone to get it to the right length.

But the resulting seam was looking odd on a plain fabric. So I took cotton lace and weaved a folksy ribbon through the loops in the center and attached it to hide the seam. I chose this ribbon for the colors it seems to pull from the front while still keeping it simple.
(I missed quilting a line. Have to go back and do that!)

Recently I came across a beautiful short film on the process of block printing by West Elm.
It transports us to slower times and to a place which seem so far fetched.

Chutki and I would love for you to have some of these petal soft fabrics.
One is a bundle of fifty 5 ½ inch squares with an assortment of prints,

and the other one is a set with varying lengths.

Please drop a line in the comments if you are interested in either of these. Chutki is very excited about this little play with you and looking forward to drawing names on Friday.
Have a great week! ( * v * )

Public Garden

Every year we look forward to the tulips at the beautiful Public Garden. Enjoy these pictures (couple of weeks old) I took at the garden.

There is another garden called Boston Common which is described as very pastoral and practical according to the city's website. It goes on to say both were designed and created two centuries apart while Boston Common being America's first park and Public Gardens its first botanical garden.

There is something always blooming here and always looks romantic with a small pond with a brightly painted bridge over it and willows surrounding the pond.

Tulips






Willows

Dogwoods

Flowers of a vine that I couldn't identify


Have a great week ahead.

~ Kalyan

Spring Cheer

Here is a collection of photos I took over last couple of weeks recording the arrival of spring in all its colorful glory.

Exuberant - magnolias mark a definite arrival of spring erasing any lingering winter grayness


Youth - i didn't know how to describe this photograph other than something that represents youthfulness

Hope - the day I took this photograph was when those tornadoes struck causing damage and loss of life

Happy - what other emotion would cherry blossoms evoke other than cheer?

Delicate - granted these are wild and widespread but have a beauty of their own




Rubies - love these crab apple flowers (I think) just about to burst open

Sunny - we bought this plant (Ornithogallum) at a nursery and it is producing these orange flowers like california poppies


Hope you are all having a nice time and enjoying sunny outdoors. Happy Mother's Day in advance.

~ Kalyan