P.S.

I got a message from Nana Akoa, and she says they are all fine!

Beautiful, but not delicate

This is another temari copied from Nana Akoa's flickr site:



I am very happy with how it turned out, even though it doesn't exactly match the model. When I looked at that one, my thought was "delicate." This one does not feel delicate, even though I used a size 8 pearl. You cannot see it very clearly, but this one sparkles. I did a quick wrap with pearl colored blending filament before I started the marking and stitching; I think it adds a lot in person. The marking is done with sewing thread, I think it has 162 facets. The centers and the hexagons/pentagons are stitched with the #8 pearl.

From studying my work on this one I can tell that I need a lot of work in making my markings even. Some of the hexagons are very misshapen. But in spite of that I like it! It goes very nicely with the snow themed temari I made last winter.

Our thoughts are with the people of Japan after the devastating earth-quake and tsunami. We have already heard from many friends that they are okay, but not from all. Please keep them in your prayers.

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!



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.



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:



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.



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!)

Soccer ball!

Ever since I started making temari I have thought that certain markings look like a soccer ball. So when I decided to make a temari for a co-worker who had hoped to be a professional soccer player one day I decided to go for it.



I like how it turned out, and now, it is out of my system.