Jejuri Temple Inspiration

Back in 2016, we spent several weeks in India and one VERY memorable Saturday visiting the Jejuri Temple just outside of Pune.

I took a photo of this ceiling as we were leaving the temple and as I have looked at it over the years, I am interested in the dimension that it exudes. Sometimes I only see a flat design when I look, but sometimes I feel as if it has some dimension to it. Perhaps it was painted in a dome and that is the dimension that I see, but either way, I really like it!!!

…and would love to use the pieced circles in a quilt someday!!

Our day at the temple was one of the most memorable of our trip and…..the yellow doesn’t come out!! If that intrigues you, read further……

Photo please….ten rupees

So….a fun day of sightseeing AND a new quilt inspiration…..

DOES IT GET ANY BETTER???

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Thank you…….

Peacock Pavilion

The next quilt in my “Travel Log Quilt Series” is one of my favorites and there are several reasons for that….. firstly, it came from a trip to India which is one of our FAVORITE places to visit. Secondly, it is a peacock and I have a major crush on peacocks, and thirdly, it was the first time I had made a collage style quilt.

Story First

In 2008 Michael and I first visited India. We were only there for 10 days but quickly came to love the people that we met and the places that we visited!! We spent most of the time in the city of Bangalore, but for 3 days Michael and I were escorted to the state of Tamil Nadu, visiting the Mudumalai National Park. As we were traveling back to Bangalore, our host suggested that we stop at the Mysore Palace and, as usual, we were game for anything!!

The palace was gorgeous…..

….and we were so excited about seeing inside, but there was a problem…… a BIG problem for me…..

And they were serious about no photos….they wouldn’t even let us take cameras inside the palace. We had to check them at the door!!

The palace itself is gorgeous, as you can see from these photos that I found online…..

….but the most beautiful part was a great hall that had the most amazing stained glass dome with PEACOCKS!! I stood looking at the amazing windows and couldn’t stop thinking about the quilt that I wanted to make. I even ventured the thought that I would surreptitiously take a photo with my phone but the sight of a guard holding a machine gun quickly quelled that idea!

Instead I made a quick sketch….

…. and figured that I could find photos online when I got home. I WAS WRONG!!!

I searched and searched and the best photo that I could find was this one…..

Between it and my “drawing”, I was able to come up with the basic design….

Time for the quilt….

Now I had to figure out what fabrics to use and, at that time, I didn’t have a bunch of solids in my stash. I was super excited to visit my local quilt shop and find these gradation fabrics from Caryl Bryer Fallert…..

….and even better to find out that they were on SALE!!!!

I made an idea board with photos of peacocks…..

….and started playing!!

Unfortunately, I don’t have step by step photos of the process but I did have a wonderful time placing the fabrics and then machine stitching over them with beautiful threads. After I had finished with the design I then added the bias tape “leading”.

The final step was to add lots of quilting and the back really shows the designs…..

I used a monofilament thread in the bobbin and was pleased with the result…..

I love the final quilt…..

….and it is an incredible reminder of a fun trip!!

Project Planning

As I have been working on various Quilts of Valor, I have been thinking about new projects to start and I had two in mind…….

The first is an inspiration that I had when we were in Chengdu, China back in 2016. There was an office building next door to our hotel and at night there were long strings of colored lights shining brightly on the building. These is a very bad quality photo that I took to remind me of my inspiration…..

The colors would change from blue to red to yellow and sometimes the light lines would split up……

Again a horrible photo but it was best that I could get from inside my hotel!!

So, I have been thinking about how to make a quilt that has these same slivers in it. Here is where I am so far…..

…but this ain’t cutting it. I am not sure if the slivers that I am using aren’t bright enough or what, but I am not happy with it.

I have been wondering if it would be more interesting if I completely pieced the black/grey backgrounds first (maybe in a brick style) and then made the slivers go from top to bottom. The biggest problem with this will be that every time I add a sliver, it makes the edges wonky.

And, looking at this photo, I think that the slivers may need to be a bit wider and maybe I only want to use the lighter orange ones???? I have been trying to use some silks that I bought in India in 2015 but they may not be the right colors…..

SO…..since I am sort of stuck on this one, I turned to my other inspiration.

On the same 2016 trip, we spent some time in Trivandrum, India, and one of the things that I wanted to do was to get a Henna tattoo.

As I watched the young woman applying the Henna designs to my skin I couldn’t help thinking that the technique was similar to free motion quilting…..of course I viewed this exercise thru my “quilt-colored glasses”!!

So, I have been combing the internet looking for henna tattoo patterns with the thought of making a “white on white” quilt using those designs. I didn’t really want it to be white but was thinking about more of a tan-on-tan.

Yesterday I bought some appropriate fabric and decided to make a sample to see how it looks, and I am SOOOO happy with it……

I was thinking about doing some Trapunto work on it but decided instead to try using two battings. I placed an 80/20 batting on the bottom and a fluffy batting on the top. Unfortunately, I don’t have the bag that the“fluffy” one came in so I have NO idea of exactly what type of batting it is, but it works and I have enough for the big project so…..who cares!!

Now I need to spend a lot of time designing what this 40 inch square is going to look like. I am pretty sure that this sample design will be the center of the medallion and I am planning to put peacocks in each of the corners, but who know what else will be added to it!!

I also have to figure out a way to get the design onto the fabric. I have a light box but it is too small to do a big piece. I will have to put on my thinking cap!!!

So, no finishes, but a couple of FUN starts…… more to come!!

The comings and goings of whimsy……

whimsy – ˈwɪmzi/ – noun

playfully quaint or fanciful behavior or humor.

When we were traveling on this past 8-1/2 week trip, we started noticing that, on certain days, we were less tolerant of the differences that we saw. We started saying that, on these days, we had “lost our whimsy”!!!

Let me give an example….. on a whimsical day, we would see a small child standing in front of her Father while riding on a scooter and say “isn’t that cute”. But, if we saw the same scenario on a “non-whimsical” day, we would break into a diatribe about how dangerous it was and how the Father shouldn’t allow it to happen.

As the trip wore on, we realized how fortunate we are to live in a place where there is a lot of standardization in how things are done. That was probably the thing that most often caused our whimsy to wander away.

The classic example was the day that I wanted to buy a Coke in the hotel restaurant. First I went to the restaurant and asked for the drink. The waitress didn’t know how I was supposed to pay for it so she called a supervisor. The supervisor wrote up a paper ticket and walked it into the lobby to the front desk. From there, the desk clerk put it into the computer and printed out an invoice that I finally was able to pay. I walked away with a slightly bemused expression and a now warm Diet Coke!!!

With that being said, let me review the trip. Being an Accountant, I am enamored with numbers, so let’s look at the numbers of the trip……

19 airplane flights

15 hotels (and new beds)

31 Taxi rides in China alone!!

An unknown number of car rides (with driver) in India

4 boat/canoe rides

84+ teaching contact hours between Michael and his students

3,746 photographs!!

Umpteen banquet or buffet meals!!! The problem with these is that you just get a small amount of a bunch of different tastes and smells and you come away feeling like you haven’t had a full meal. We took the opportunity to order ala carte any chance that we could!!!

All in all, it was a good trip but we were both happy to arrive back in our Georgia home!!

Except for a quick trip for Michael in December, we don’t have any trips planned for the near future. However there is a possibility that next year we will spend 4 months in India!!! We will wait to see if the grant is successful……

And for now, life goes on with work, house cleaning, gardening, catching up with friends and family and, hopefully, a little bit of creative time too!!!!!

Thanks for traveling with us!!!

Exploring the Backwaters of Kerala

The second part of our Kerala vacation was spent on a Kettuvallam, a type of boat which were originally used as grain barges but have been transformed into floating cottages with each having 1 or more bedrooms, a Western toilet, kitchen and dining area. Once again Jai, of Sanchari Holidays did a marvelous job of hooking us up with Gokul Cruises .

Our driver picked us up once our ferry from Coconut Grove arrived at the dock and drove about an hour to the town of Alleppey which is the 7th largest city in Kerala. We were told that it is called the “Rice Bowl” of India because it is below sea level and the conditions are perfect for growing rice. We were met there by a company representative and put onto our own private boat (which, unfortunately, I dont have a good photo of!)…..

We explored the boat, checking out our bedroom…..

the simple and compact kitchen…..

and the magnificent dining/living area……

As you can imagine, the first plan for the trip was to check out these chairs…..

…..AHHHHHH….such bliss!!

We joined the queue of boats slowly passing thru the canal…..

…and started to enjoy the daily life that was passing by us…..

One of the first things that we noticed were the myriad of canoes that also plied the water, each with their long shanked motor……

We wondered about the length of the shank but then saw someone running thru an area of vegetation floating on the water and noticed that all he had to do was lift the motor out of the water and the vegetation would shake off. Very ingenious!!

I loved the scenes on the sides of the canals, including this laundry hanging lazily out to dry….

This boat carrying silage approached…..

…but we were amazed to see that it was not a wide boat but simply a single canoe carrying a wide load…..

We were entertained by this boat filled with umbrella wielding passengers….

Our captain asked if we wanted to stop at a fish market and buy some Tiger Prawns to have for dinner and we answered with an immediate “Yes, Please!!”. As we approached the docking area, all three of our crew members would come to the front to help guide us into shore….

They would beep the ship’s horn and immediately others would come out from the fish shop to help us dock..

The store (and I use that term loosely) was very basic and the fish were stored in these huge coolers…..

We selected our four Tiger Prawns (which I never knew were BLUE) …..

….hopped back on the boat and we were off again.

On closer inspection of the prawns, they looked like tiny sea monsters ….hopefully very TASTY sea monsters!!!….

A little further down the canal and it was time to stop for lunch with yet another docking. They presented a marvelous lunch highlighted by a small crispy fish…..

….and accompanied by a myriad of curries, vegetables and, of course, rice…

We spent a bit of time in the kitchen while they were cooking and I was intrigued by this utensil….

….wondering exactly what it was used for. I found out a few minutes later as one of the crew started grating coconut with it. I like this video because it not only shows the tool in action but also the big smile on the gentleman’s face!!!…

VIEW VIDEO

There was a much larger Houseboat next to us as we ate lunch and we enjoyed listening to the rock music and laughter that came from the bunch of young men occupying it.

We had been told that there would be a tour of one of the smaller canals which the houseboat couldn’t get to. We were expecting a small motor boat but were pleased to see a canoe arrive as our transportation. Our guide rowed calmly along for about 5 minutes…..

….and then handed me an oar. I quickly passed it on up to Michael and he proceeded to help with the rowing work…

Our guide was actually quite fortunate as Michael knew HOW to row and was able to do a lot of the work. We passed other canoes where the passengers were doing more to hinder the rowing than to help it!!

It was very interesting to be closer to the shore to be able to observe life along the river. Every home had a small opening that led onto the river and most had a large rock in pride of place….

It didn’t take long for us to understand that this was the “washing machine”….

The noise when women were washing was very recognizable….

VIEW VIDEO

In many places we could see over the shoreline berm to view the rice paddies in their full glory…..

As we floated past, we got a closer view of river life and I have to say, that it looks like a hard one!! It seems that everything is done along the river’s edge, including bathing, dishwashing…..

… recreation…..

…and food provision…..…although it was interesting to see that many houses had a satellite dish perched on the corner of their homes…..

I am not sure why these pots were stuck on the ends of long poles, but it reminded me of pirate movies where skulls were set out this way to warn others not to enter…..

We returned to our boat and a very sweaty (but happy) Michael took a photo with our canoe guide…..

The guide immediately climbed back into his canoe and headed off to the next boat for yet another tour…..

Now it was time to just sit back and enjoy the trip and we made the most of our relaxing time. It was fun to listen to the sounds of the canal, from the “slap, slap, slap” of women washing clothes, to the “tap, tap, tap” of men using machetes to open coconuts, the “ beep beep beep beep” of water taxi’s moving quickly thru the canal and wanting all of the house boats to get out of the way……………and the occasional cry of a vendor as he floated upstream hawking his boat full of wares….

It was also interesting to pass the other boats and smell the aromas of their cooking, wondering if their lunch was as good as ours had been!!

Many people would wave as we passed and I think that they were not particularly used to seeing white people along the river!! One young girl waved shyly to us and when we waved back, the whole family joined in the waving!!

This group of men were rebuilding the wall and “dock” in front of one house….

One of the funnier sights was when a canoe decided that it needed to cross the canal in the middle of a long line of boats…..

He would paddle as fast as he could as all of the Houseboats made adjustments to their engines to allow him time to pass. We did discover during this episode that our captain “was a honker”!!!

We passed one LONG snake boat (Chundun Vallam) which was being prepared for the races associated with the Onam Festival……

Unfortunately these races fall on Sunday so we will miss them!!

I loved seeing this little girl practicing her rowing……

…and we laughed as this man quickly rowed up in his canoe, attached himself to the boat and allowed himself to be towed along…..

As it got later in the afternoon, the canal traffic increased greatly…..

…and before we knew it we were ready to dock for the evening. We tied up in front of a smallish house, along with 2 other boats from the same company. An electric cord was pulled off of the boat and plugged into an outdoor socket. We were told that it cost 70,000 Rupees ($1,050) for the plug to be installed and that each boat paid between 350 amd 500 Rupees for each night that they spent there. It is quite an ingenious way to earn a bit of extra money!!

Soon we were told that our Prawns were about to be cooked, so we hurried to the kitchen to see them being placed into a small skillet with butter, covered and cooked for 10 minutes.

While we waited for the delicacy, we enjoyed the sunset that quickly colored the sky…..

Our delicious meal centered around the perfectly cooked Tiger Prawns…..

…and we greatly enjoyed every part of it…..

After dinner, we relaxed on the deck, happily watching the Geckos cavort around the ceiling of the boat…..

When it was time to head to bed, we found that they had closed our door and turned on our air conditioner so that our room was extremely comfortable!!

We awoke the next morning and were treated to a wonderful breakfast of toast (made by holding the bread over an open flame), omelet, vegetables and fruit…

All too soon it was time to cast off and head for port again. We enjoyed floating slowly down the Backwater, but signs of civilization started creeping into the views….

We soon docked in our spot amongst all of the other boats…..

….took a final photo of our wonderful crew…..

….and met our driver for the return journey to Trivandrum.

The drive back was slow and deliberate, taking 5 hours to travel 154 kilometers (92 miles). We laughed at several signs that noted that we were in an “Accident Prone Area” and to “Drive Slowly”!!!

We arrived back at our hotel mid afternoon and immediately started re-packing for our return trip to China on the next morning!!

We both felt that this trip was a magnificent way to end our time in India. We were well cared for and the time was just SO relaxing!!!