Stitching in the Clouds...

Hello again :)  Almost one year ago my husband and I were able to take a short trip just outside of Kathmandu to a lovely resort in the city of Dhulikel, Nepal.  The resort was on top of a beautiful mountain which led to some pretty amazing views!  I even brought a new stitching project with me and got to "stitch in the clouds".



This is my project that I started last August for the "August ABC's" Challenge for the Stitch Maynia group on Facebook.  This is Map of Norway by Permin of Copenhagen.

When it is finished it will look like this...



I purchased the kit from a store when I lived in Oslo, Norway.  But after learning about all of the beautiful hand dyed fabrics out there, there was no way I could stitch it on the white Aida the kit came with.  So back in 2013 I ordered this gorgeous 28 count Lugana in the color called "Enchanted" from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie.  I chose this color because I wanted the background to look like land and the sea to add to the map feeling of this design.




Here is some more progress.  I saw a similar waterfall when we did the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour from Oslo to Bergen on the West Coast of Norway.







Here I finally added the letters that made this fit into the theme of August ABC's.



Here are some more animals and cities added to the map.



Here is a close up of the Orca whales and Puffin birds in the design.



And here are a few of the gorgeous views from on top of the mountain in Dhulikel...



The clouds were amazing at sunset when we took this photo.



If you look closely, you can see the tip of Mount Everest and the snow capped Himalayan Mountains right in the very center of this photo.  Unfortunately this was the clearest view of them we had during the two days we were there.



This is the beautiful infinity pool, but the sky was very overcast at this time...



Here is another gorgeous sunrise view from on top of the mountain.



I hope you enjoyed seeing some beautiful views in Nepal and my new start of Map of Norway.

Don't forget to sign up for my 4th Blogaversary Giveaway here.

Until the next time...Happy Stitching!

I found Nepali stamps!

Hello again!  I am trying to live up to my word and post more here.  Anyways last month on the Martin Luther King Jr. American holiday, I took a trip to Durbar Square in the Patan neighborhood of Kathmandu.  This Durbar Square (there are three of them in the Kathmandu Valley which I learned when I went to the wrong one and missed my tour group) was in the Patan area.  Patan is one of the nicer, more affluent neighborhoods in Kathmandu and it also contains the Patan Museum.  My new friends and I actually discovered the museum by accident when I found the gift shop first.  

One of the first things that caught my eye in the shop were these beautiful hand carved wooden stamps.

It's been awhile since I've blogged about it but I really love to use rubber stamps to make cards so I was thrilled to find these beautiful Nepali stamps!  The top one is a lotus flower, the second row are mandala designs, then there is the eyes of Buddha (who was born in Nepal and "Buddha was born in Nepal" is a very popular bumper sticker on busses here in town), a mandala with Nepali characters, a temple image, and the number 30 with the sunburst which also represents Buddha.  

I decided to try them out the other day but unfortunately these hand carved wooden stamps don't work quite as well as rubber or plastic stamps with a stamp pad and paper...

But I am still happy I found them here and they've made their way into my stamp collection.  I may try using a paint brush to add paint to them and seeing if that will give me a better detailed image next time.  Does anyone out there have any other techniques or suggestions?  Thanks for sharing my crafting journey with me :)