Birth sampler, and the end of the Temari drought

This is the other sampler I visited while I was in Michigan.



You can see the date, August of 1992, which probably means it was done in 1993. (I usually request a year's grace to complete a baby sampler.) My niece, who this was for, is getting ready to go to college! I'm ashamed to say her brother never received a sampler; I should probably remedy that situation.

This is the temari I finished today:



I picked out this pattern on TemariKai (I think, I can't find the pattern back now) months ago and wrapped the mari. I marked it, but then it sat for weeks and weeks. Then several weeks ago I picked out the 12 colors needed, and then it still sat. I would pick it up, look at it, read the instructions, and then put it down again. I'm not quite sure what the problem was; I think I was intimidated by the pattern. It is an all-over pattern, and the final outcome doesn't look anything like the pattern you use to stitch. It took me a whole week of stitching. The outermost (darkest) bands are not all equal width, but you would have to study the temari very carefully to discover that. I love how it turned out, but I'm very glad it is done. Hopefully now the temari will start flowing again.

We spent the day today with kids and grandkids. We celebrated P's 7th birthday (a week late) and we had a lot of fun. We gave him a radio controlled car, the biggest complaint is that the batteries have to charge for 6 to 8 hours before he can play with it. He promised to call tomorrow to tell us how it works.