Penultimate Blog….I am pleased to be posting all these last projects.

Large Andeshe Plant Montages

Every morning in Andeshe after my yoga (ok very short – 10 minutes using the Yoga Studio App) I ran with Johnny the adolescent dog here. We run up and down the road and return in time for my breakfast of an oat, date and banana dairy smoothie. During the run we meet a load of other dogs including a very friendly bitch with her puppy and a variety of other dogs. More recently the other dog here, Jack, comes for the run too. This is a slow run/amble. Collecting interesting seed pods on the way is important as a way of not having to run (!) and also to incarcerate within some Tencel yarn I have brought with me in a variety of purple hues.

I love the shadows from the overhanging trees on the whole set

I was inspired to “catch” things on paper by sewing them on when I did my postcard series in Goa by the encouragement given to me by a fellow guest at Olaulim Lynne Lawton. Probably she (like Bernice) didn’t think much of my other montages but isn’t a typical New Yorker (as she lives in a village near Castle Coombe in middle England) and so was more polite or rather didn’t comment on them. This brings me to an interesting piece on middle England by Lynne and Robb’s son which they sent me. To be honest I had never really thought about the very negative connotations of being in middle England until I read this https://medium.com/@tomlawton/a-little-reassurance-from-little-england-cb147fae1fc. See what you think?

Chana (Meenaxi’s sister) thought it looked like a butterfly with a side arm!

My favourite. I tried dyeing one previously but used stamp ink and it never dried so went au naturel!

Back to these plants. I hope they will survive their journey back to England in my final shipment as they are natural and not wholly dry. I love the juxtaposition of a natural plant in India, encased in a criss cross of purple thread with an exquisite piece of lace at the bottom signifying all the loudness, richness and colour that is truly India.

Banana Bread

So, is this cheating if it counts as two projects? A cake and a bread? I know I made the shell toy count for two (shell sculpture and toy making) but really this probably is cheating! However, I am making it on a gas stove so that is a novelty certainly! And if it is a disaster then really, I won’t mind so much as there is such an abundance of bananas here, I am not being very wasteful. Whenever I think of banana bread, I think fondly of my niece Sarah who is an amazing baker. In fact, I have been over several times to have supper at Sarah and Lizzy and we have just the best meals and fun chats with wine! They are looking after my sourdough starter/mother and I hope she is doing well and growing nicely for me!

The arrangement to cook a cake on a gas hob

Back to the bread.

An ornamental banana plant but you can easily see the purple flower

So yes, banana flowers are purple but banana bread for sure isn’t! So whilst at Dorabjee’s (http://dorabjeesonline.com/) this weekend I bought some mascarpone cheese and some red and blue colouring to make a purple cream cheese frosting. Yes, I know that should be for carrot cake but grating carrots is tedious and mashing bananas easy peasy!

Also you can easily toast banana bread like Betsy often has for breakfast at Ginger and White (http://www.gingerandwhite.com/) – gosh another must go to place early on for a coffee. I used to go there on the pretence of getting Betsy and Toby early to orchestra. I am not sure how often they went but we had glorious early morning breakfasts there for a number of years! Previously I had gone to Carluccio’s in Hampstead (https://www.carluccios.com/restaurants/london-hampstead/)for my coffee when I had (and well delicious scrambled eggs sometimes) dropped the kids at the Academy School. However often I would overtake the 210 bus and they would hop on for free (as they were young enough and didn’t need to pay) and then scoot down from Whitestone Pond in formation (order of age) doing one, two, three ballet. This meant scooting with your back leg up in the air behind you on the count of three!

This took 40 mins to reach banana bread perfection

With the stunning purple icing – I did this all alone as Meenaxi was having a yoga massage!

Anyway, my banana bread was delicious! Well it was purple at least…….on top!

Imprisoned Purple Cars with an Escape Route?

Yes, you might think this is cheating! Using the now imprisoned purple toy car in more than one project blog. But I have done it before and I make up the rules! I didn’t know when I was in a book shop in Pune that they would sell toys cars and joy of joys they had two different ones. They did have a purple hot wheel’s truck with a purple jeep but I really couldn’t justify it – see I can rein in my spend!

First I did the car at the bottom of the photo. These were then joined by the other two.

But as their friend was already sewn in these new cars would need to join in a similar theme. As they are sewn by hand it takes quite a while – a lot of time to listen to all sorts of good and not so good podcasts (see my final blog for recommendations). The purple and yellow go faster car has seven escape routes – five from the front and two from the back.

The purple can can escape if he/she stays on the spiralling string

This car has five front ways out and two rear ways out. This is dip-dyed cotton candle wicks

The original car only had one! The final car (I promise not to buy any more – purple car obsession is now complete and finalised!) is actually within a spaghetti junction of heavily dyed candle wicks and could never navigate his or her way out. So sad……….. and do you know what. I have been told by my garage that my car (Nissan Micra made in 2003) is on its last legs so maybe I will buy a proper purple car. I did once have a lilac sports car (a smart roadster) for my 40^th. But the problem with this car is it leaked. I kept a brace (group of ducks can be also be a flock!) of plastic yellow ducks to swim about on the floor of the passenger seat footwell where there was often a couple of inches of water!

Addendum

This was originally a fluffy lilac yarn but once dyed became all spiky

This purple wire never ended up as a jewellery project and so was reassigned for an escape route for my old fashioned purple estate car

Really, I didn’t go specifically looking for toy purple cars on my last weekend in Pune. They came crashing down the street to me! Really…. And the shopkeeper was really kind to empty his entire hot wheels collection so I could choose a rather lovely old-fashioned car and a jeep. Will they escape too?

Spiral Yarn Sewn Montages

I had some very thick yarn that I bought in Pune ostensibly to finish off the three hot water bottle commission for Sam. The three yarns in purple I could source where fun, highly acrylic and were made in China! I had made some challah covers in the past using yarn in spirals and using the machine to alter the structure so it was a spiral off centre. When I tried this here on the foot treadle machine, I didn’t really like the effect.

Before stitching I glued it to keep it roughly in place

Using the machine didn’t really keep the spiral shape!

This machine can do straight stitching both forward and reverse and that is about it. So, it didn’t handle the thick chenille yarn that well. Instead I decided instead to use kantha stitch which seemed more appropriate here in India! All the yarns I have confined in kantha stitch are novelty yarns bought here mostly (or all?) made in China. I intended to stitch each one differently.

Mauve, lilac and aubergine variegated chenille yarn

So that one is vertical, one horizontal, one all into the centre and the other two slanted / and \. But I did that last one early one morning and forgot to compare it to its reverse one and so have two facing /. And I thought about spinning it through 180 degrees but it still is /! Hey ho. We have to live with many imperfections and having things not the way we always want them. Even my spiral yarn sewn montages are a lesson in life!

Small Little Mauve Furry Balls

I found these in the Samrat Mega Store. What a treasure trove to entice me in! In a larger incarnation these balls are made into key-rings. Not really my thing but these mini ones are very cute. I had 10 initially but needed double to make two items based on those banging silver balls.

So, this necessitated a trip back! The ones I remember from my childhood which is supposed to bang away for a very long time – clearly not infinity as they absorb energy every time they bang into each other but nonetheless it is a very satisfying toy to watch. They are called Newton’s Cradle and it have five silver balls. Then I discovered the Pendulum Wave Toy which uses 15.

Newton’s Cradle

Pendulum Wave Toy

Without any talking

With a rather smart older gentleman talking us through the process

I thought I would sew the strings attached to the pompoms in using the pretty pruple brocade but they slipped out. Also, I space the 15 for the pendulum wave toy at 1.5 cm apart but had to undo this and reposition them at 2cm apart!

Wearing a Saree

Outside the Andeshe veranda by my paper cut out mobile

It felt appropriate to wear a saree at least once. I had bought some purple patterned crepe de georgette – all five and half meters for 500 rupees. I had in my head designed all sorts of swirly, spiral clothes but really, I had run out of time. When Meenaxi’s lovely daughter-in-law popped over to Andeshe she was enlisted into showing me how to put on a saree and took all the photographs. Thanks Nicola Pawan! I thought one wore a tight top and the material for the skirt and rest of the layers stayed up because you tied it tight around your waist. Silly me. You wouldn’t be able to move around much and it would always be at risk of slipping down! You have to wear a petticoat skirt with a drawstring. I borrowed one and I rather liked wearing this saree for a bit! Only a bit though…rather impractical!

This shows how elegant the back of a saree can be!

I like the way the wind catches the saree and you can see my midriff! That is why Betsy calls me **Chubbles**!

I have loved seeing the women wearing them all over India. They are so elegant and almost invariably never in drab colours. Always exciting and vibrant….

Chakra Entry

So this is the fun bit. Predicting the future! It corresponds to the sacral chakra which covers the period from aged seven to 14 and then 56 to 63. So what do I hope for? Well I think contentment most of all. To love and be loved.

The boring bit…

I hope to re-validate in the NHS during this time also (snore, snore and a load of tedious boxes to tick)

The exciting bit

To have possibly met a significant other and hopefully to have moved to Israel to set up my new business venture.

And as in the words of Lynne Lawton to work on being kind, giving and receiving love and showing humility!

I have a few days to complete as many projects as is humanly possible and to take my excess baggage to a shipping courier here in Pune. To spend my final weekend in Delhi, fitting in a trip to Anokhi if I can!