"Granny Square" Temari

I started on this temari before I left on vacation, and took it with me to Arizona. It started out black with green markings. I had my doubts about it even before we left, but while I was working on it, I discovered that I was in deed doing the marking incorrectly. It was either pull out all the marking (risking disturbing the wrapping) or starting over again by wrapping over what I had done. I did not have black thread with me, so I ended up wrapping it in the green, and marking with white.

Here's the picture I was working from. One of my Temari groups had discussed the marking, and we had sort of agreed that it was a multi-face with triangles divided into 12 parts, but I wanted to be sure, and the only way to be sure (for me) was to make it.



I'm not going to count the time it took for the incorrect marking, but I stitched on this from Monday through Friday, while we were on vacation, and then started stitching with color. I worked on it at the airport, and during the flight, and got a lot of interest. Kids did a double take, but were to shy to ask about it. One person at the gate interrupted herself to ask me what I was doing. She had thought I was pulling out a ball of thread to either knit or crochet, and then I started stitching on it, and she could not contain her curiosity. On the flight the attendant stopped and asked "Are you putting that design on to that ball?" (I had the picture printed out in front of me for a reference, so I would not make the same mistake on the marking again.) When I told her that, yes, I was stitching that pattern, she thought that was very cool.

The color stitching took me more that a week, and I wasn't even stitching anything else during that time. Of course, that was my birthday week, and I just happened to go out 6 nights in a row, but still!

I still wish, when I see it in certain lights, that I had been able to keep the black base. Even so, it still looks intricate and gorgeous. It will do.

When I look at the flickr pages (where I directed you to the sample picture) I want to make all the designs from there. That stitcher started when she was 60, and is still going strong in her 80s, so I have a little bit of a head start, but not much. There is a long way to go.

Last Arizona pictures, I promise

More than 2 weeks ago, we went to Pleasant Lake, and had a very pleasant time. We ate at Dillon's at the Lake, the large building you see below at the floating marina. Would you believe there was too much sun!?



We enjoyed watching the water fowl. These are mallards.



This is a coot. They are smaller than mallards.



These are Muscovy ducks! They are native to Mexico and Central America, so they were a little out of their comfort zone here. (They are huge!)



At the other end of the size spectrum, we have the humming birds. I did see one flying when we were stopped at a traffic light, but this one was captive at the visitor's center. The literature said the iridescent color comes from oils in the birds' feathers! I couldn't get a picture of him flying.



Pleasant lake is from a dam, and it is in the middle of the desert, quite a contrast.



You can see here why they built a dam: water and power for the city.



I put the last stitches in my latest temari (late) last night. Pictures tomorrow!