Advent, Day 16

Shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks at night.



This shepherd's robe is really cool. The pattern called for tweeding your thread, combining a bright color with a shade of green; but I was stitching on 22 count, using one thread. What to do? It was sheer luck that it worked out the way it did, but I did 1/2 the cross stitch with the bright color, and the other with the shade of green. The reason I say it was luck, because it turned out that all the bright colors were underneath, and all the green was the top leg, without planning it that way. When you look at it closely it looks like woollen fabric woven with a colored warp and a green weft. Sheer luck!

Here's the Temari I made on Sunday. I'm showing you both sides, because they are different. It is a s16 division; cone thread for the base, DMC perle #5 for the stitching, and DMC spool metallic for the division. The first side showing was done with 4 sets of kiku overlapping, giving the nice chrysanthemum effect. The second side was done with 2 sets of kiku, only overlapping once. The petals look much pointier and the whole effect is much less complex. The color and pattern were inspired by a picture in the Mary Woods Temari book.





I wish my orange and red had been closer in value, I think it would have looked better. I'm excited to try this pattern in many different color combinations.

Advent, Day 15

And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by.



The bowl/vase I keep my Temari in is overflowing. I will be sending some away to new homes this week.



This is the Temari I finished on Saturday. It is a c10, with cone thread for the base, DMC spool thread for the marking and for additional stitching in the hexagons, and DMC perle #5 for the stitching. There are 12 pentagrams, and 20 hexagrams. You could probably call it a 32 center Temari. I saw the picture in the Japanese book I got, and was able to follow the pattern from the pictures and diagrams. If I had to do something differently, I would make my pentagrams and hexagrams with 4 rounds of stitching instead of 5. Some of the corners are a little squeezed together.



This is close to the arrangement of hexagrams and pentagrams on a soccer ball. I have always looked at soccer balls with interest, but was never able to understand the geometry of it, but I feel like I have a much better understanding now. I could stitch an actual soccer ball now if I wanted to, but do I want to, that is the question. If P were still playing soccer, I would probably have much more of an incentive.

Advent, Day 13

Here's Hannah bringing Samuel to live at the temple with Eli.

I love the flowering trees, and of course, another angel in the clouds.



This is the last page I have done in Mary Beale's Advent calendar. We will have to look at some different Christmas stitching for the rest of Advent.

Advent, Day 12

Here's the battle of Jericho. The city was fun to stitch with all the different colors. I do apologize for the stray thread on the lettering.



I've been tagged by Karol of Rosebud Stitching (Hi, Karol!). Here are the rules:
1. Link your blog to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Tell six quirky yet not boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
4. Tag five other bloggers by linking your blog to them, and lastly
5. Go to each person's blog and leave a comment for them telling them they have been tagged.

1. I used to be fluent in Spanish, but I'm not any more.
2. My brothers, sisters and I were all born in different cities, and only one duplicate state: Michigan, Minnesota, Texas and Oklahoma.
3. I am not a neat person. www.flylady.net helps somewhat.
4. I don't like olives or pickles, but I do like broccoli, asparagus, and artichokes.
5. I would rather not stitch on canvas, and I dislike aida fabric.
6. I have to be very careful not to get car-sick. I don't do a lot of stitching in the car.

If you are listed on the side here of blogs I read, consider yourself tagged.

Advent, Day 11

Rahab was King David's ancestor; I always wonder if the phrase "scarlet woman" comes from this story. She used a scarlet rope to help the Israelite spies and they eventually used that rope to save her when the city was destroyed. (She was a "scarlet woman.")



This Temari went very quickly. I was going to use two shades of green, but after the first one was stitched the next one did not look good next to it. It's not a very big ball, so this little bit of work looks good on it. It has cone thread for the base, it is marked c8 with Kreinik #16 braid in the 091 color (silver and black) and has perle #5 for the stitching. It's the second time I've worked this pattern, and I really like it.



I did discover something about the making of Temaris though. All the books say "secure your marking threads." I was trying to take stitches under the base threads when I marked the balls, but a lot of them were a little "loosey-goosey" and I wasn't doing all of them. Well, I read a suggestion yesterday about using your base thread to secure the marking threads. You don't have to hide it while you are stitching, because it is the same thread you are stitching over; you can't see your travel to each intersection. So because of that hint I secured all the corners on this one, and the difference is amazing. I don't think you can see the difference, but the stitching went much more smoothly and quickly, and feels a lot more secure. I will be doing that from now on on all my balls.

Advent, day 10

Here's another one with angels in the clouds; pouring out manna from his basket. Again, the face doesn't show too much expression, but I still like him.

People have been asking about this pattern. It is still available here. You can get it as a downloaded chart too, no waiting to start. The chart is hand-drawn, and I had been avoiding starting Mary Beale charts because of that, but once you get going it's no problem. After I'm done I may have to start on the stockings.



Here's the Temari ball I finished last night. Please excuse the soft focus, I was trying to get more of a close-up. I am pleased with this one. It is a c8 with cone thread for the mari (base) and DMC perle #8 for the triangles and DMC spool metallic for the marking. (I was encouraged to notice that in the picture showing the pattern I was following the squares were not necessarily square either. The squares you can see in this view look pretty good, but they don't all look that good.)



I have always enjoyed geometry, and in grade school I would play with my compass and make flowers and designs. That interest, my enjoyment of puzzles, and my passion for threads and colors seem to all have come together in Temari stitching. I have at least half a dozen designs in my head that I want to work on, and I keep finding more. Who knew!

Advent, Day 9

I forgot one of the pages! This is actually the 7th one in the series, Moses in the bull rushes. (His sister is watching over him.) I really enjoyed stitching the water. I thought it would take forever, but the pattern was very regular and easy to pick up. I get a kick out of all the bugs on this one too. I can imagine the Nile was pretty buggy at the time.



I made this Temari on Saturday. It is one of the simplest patterns, but this is one of the ones I like the most that I've made. The colors make me think of peppermint, so this is my "peppermint Temari." It has cone thread as the base, DMC #5 for the stripes, and DMC Spool metallic in pearl for the marking and the herringbone on the obi.



It's not even monochromatic! I can't guess what a ball is going to look like when I pick out the colors. Some times the colors I pick work, sometimes they don't! I am getting excited about the ball I'm working on now, hopefully I will be able to show it tomorrow. (Rust and blue, and the colors seem to be working.)