Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Weekend Stitching

We had a nice quiet weekend this past weekend. We did some shopping, and some eating out, and some resting. I managed to get a couple of things finished:

This was the February monthly project for one of my guilds. Sashiko quilting, except this isn't quilted, it is just running stitch. The thread was more like string! I would love to make a little (about 12 inches) feather pillow with it, I shall have to see if I (or DD1) can find a form for it. DH says it looks like a flat temari!

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I also stitched a thimble. Debi of Temari Train... of thought posted the pattern before Valentine's day, and I just got to it. I really wanted to make the stacked hearts.

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It has been months since I stitched a thimble, and I could tell. I found out today that I was stitching backwards instead of forwards, and I think that is why my stitches are not closer together. Also, this pattern calls for weaving the bands over and under each other, and it is the first time I attempted that. I think it turned out okay, but for a while it didn't look so good. I could also tell it had been a while since I had made one because of this:

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Do you see the huge lump at 8 o'clock? I should have fixed that before I went ahead with the stitching.

I did get a chance to use some of my cool new thimble tools I prepared. The two cylinders are thimble forms, one 50 mm, and the other 60 mm. I used the 50 mm one for this thimble, and it worked perfectly! The paper wedges are tools to mark the sections on your thimble. They should be glued up into cones, then you slide your thimble base on to one, and transfer section lines to your paper. That works very slick as well! You can see I have 7/14, 9/18, 15, and 5/10. I think there are a couple more in my case as well.

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They are printed towards the back of the thimble/temari book, and I copied the page on to card and cut them out. (Even if I can only look at the pictures, I sure love my Japanese books!)

1 comment:

Debi said...

Hi Jane,

I like the sashiko; it will make a very pretty pillow. And, I like the new thimble. The colors are nice. I was curious as to why you said you have been stitching in the wrong direction though. Is it because of the instructions in the Japanese thimble and temari book (paperback)? They are actually backwards from all of the other instructions out there.

I really enjoy seeing all of your stitching. It helps to keep me motivated to do my own! :-)