book bag

Last Monday I joined a workshop "Indian Stitching: Embroidered Book Bag" at Hansons Fabrics.
I always enjoy Hansons workshops, they are so well run. All the materials are included in the cost, as are all the refreshments; tea, coffee and biscuits on arrival, a splendid buffet lunch and afternoon tea and cake, all this organised by Sheila. Thank you, Sheila, for looking after us so well!

Our tutor was Tiggy Rawling. Do visit her blog here, to see her fabric dyeing and read about her travels to India.
The object of the workshop was a sample of a cloth book bag. This type of bag is used in Asia to protect precious books.

First of all we traced the embroidery pattern into the fabric, then embroidered the design using chain stitch for the outline and Indian filling stitch ( Romanian stitch) and closed herringbone stitch as a filling stitches, with shishas in the centre of the flowers.

After completing the embroidery, we made up the bag, including the lining.

 

 

my Indian book bag

Another very enjoyable day spent in the company of Tiggy Rawling.

indian stitchery

This was the name of our Embroiderer's Guild workshop last Saturday, with lovely Tiggy Rawling.
Tiggy brought her "Indian Shop"" with her, with fabrics, felt and threads she dyes herself, and a large selection of embellishments.

We had a choice of making a cushion or a wall hanging, using cotton backing and bright fabrics, which were covered with tulle and then stitching over it, or a sampler worked on piece of felt.

This is Tiggy's tulle cushion.

First of all Tiggy showed us how to stitch on shisha mirrors, so they would not fall out. Her way is much better then I have seen in books, much more secure. It took us a while to get the hang of it, but then we were away!

I decided to make a small felt sampler. I know from the past experience, that if I get too ambitious in work shops, I will not finish the project and it will end up in a draw when I get home.

I used a piece of lovely hand dyed felt from Tiggy's shop.

This is the result.

Tiggy also brought with her various other examples of Indian embroidery to show us.

But my favourite item, the one I fell in love with, is Tiggy's blue quilt.

I promised myself to make one (sometime in the future).

In the meantime, I went home with some purchases from "Indian Shop".

Tiggy gave us a list of books we might want to look at for further information about Indian stitching, but when I got home and browsed through my books, I realized I already have a book on this subject.

It has all the basic stitches and some projects, however the technique for stitching on shisha mirrors shown here is not as good as Tiggy's.

Another lovely stitching day....