This Indian Block Printed piece has had quite an evolution; it was first printed back in 2024 at the adult learning course I took in Newark. Back then this is what it looked like, and it had plenty of potential.
But with other projects on the go (many in fact) but especially my other Indian block printing embroidery ones, like the three leaves, the birthday bunting, the embroidered heart and the mandala for my popper pouch, this one got put to one side.
Until we headed off on our walking trip to the Gargano Peninsular. That’s what I love about embroidery - it fits into a small pouch, doesn’t need a lot of equipment and importantly when travelling pretty much stays the same size so you don’t need to find extra room in your case.
By the end of that just a bit longer than a week, it looked like this.
And that’s how it stayed for quite a while, though my plan was always to complete the second set of swirls in a bolder colour way. I thought I’d use each panel separately, but the more I worked on it the more I thought it could become one piece.
I’m not sure when exactly I picked it up again - that remains unphotographed and undocumented - but it was some time during 2025. I suspect it was my embroidery project for our trip to the US and Canada last spring, but I could be making that up entirely, though I find it hard to believe that I didn’t take any embroidery with me at all.
But the swirls were embroidered and looking good. Though for me to use them together as a single piece I wanted more, and hatched a plan to use my Indian printing blocks to zhuzh it up and fill in some of that white space.
Indian block printing at home
It was the first time I’d done any block printing since that course, and I was unsure how it’d work out - spoiler, it worked out fine and was just as much fun as I remembered. The spur for me to get my act together was to print my ‘sheep in Christmas jumpers’ Christmas cards, but I think dedicating a block of time (no pun intended) to printing works well
At an earlier stash sale I’d picked up a length of the spotty oilcloth to use as a worktop protector. I’d actually forgotten I’d had such foresight until I re-discovered it in my craft room reorganisation a month or so before, which was good as I’d been tempted to buy some more, but thankfully hadn’t.
Through trial and error I found that the setup above worked for me, this included:
the spotty oilcloth to protect my kitchen island worktop
a foam rubber mat to use as my main work area (tip: you don’t need to buy often more pricey blocking mats specifically for crafts, the children’s toy area mats work just as well and are often cheaper)
My paints in use in front of me, using the plastic lids of instant coffee tubes and ice creams to hold the small dobs of paint and a cut up scourer to apply the paint to the block (both the lids and the scourers can be washed and reused many times).
And so I was off, but of course I needed to avoid printing over my already embroidered areas - so I tore a scrap of paper and lightly taped it over my embroidery before printing.
The mask worked well and my once plainer piece was just what I had in mind.
Though as I was embroidering I realised in some places I’d been over cautious, and so I drew the lines I wanted in place.
My plan was to start with pale pinks, graduating through hotter pinks and into the oranges below the double layered swirl.
I could have used variegated thread, but I didn’t. Instead I pulled a selection of lilacs, pinks, oranges and yellows and cut the embroidery floss to the same length choosing either two threads the same, or similar to use for that section as I went.
Other than that I had no real plan, and I’m super pleased with how it turned out.
It’s already looking different to that last photo, but I’ll save how it turned out - and in a surprise to no one, it’s a pouch - for another post.
