Advent, Day 24

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

Advent, Day 23

Here are a couple more angels. These are also MarBek angels; I used to wait for them to be published every year. They kept getting bigger and more ornate, with more specialty fibers, and I kept getting less and less time to work on them. I have files full of angel patterns that I have not stitched.







Since I bragged about Flickr yesterday, I guess it is only fair to say I just about had to show you my unenhanced pictures today. The editing software didn't want to work at first; I have to tell you, it was ugly!

This is my latest Temari, and I lost sleep over this one. It is a c8 division, which is then divided into 2 overlapping tetrahedrons (there are 2 sets of 4 triangles making a solid shape). I figured it out from a picture, but only after marking it once, beginning to stitch, and then pulling all the stitching off the mari. I think I was on the right track, but the first triangles I stitched were uneven. I was trying to use some DMC d'or thread, and it shredded, so this ball is marked with an inconspicuous pink #8 perle cotton. The finishing stitches are done with DMC #5. I am going to look at this one for a while yet; I think it may still need some bling. I might try to outline the inner and outer edges of each triangle with some metallic.



Jake (the dog) got a hold of it when I was out of the room; my family realized what a disaster that would be and rescued it. Thanks to their quick thinking there were only a couple of threads that needed to be adjusted. Thank you!

Advent, Day 22

More angels! These are the angels from my tree skirt.



This is the Tapestry angel.



This one and the next are by MarBek.





I always planned to fill the 55 inch diameter circle with angels, but these are the only four patterns on there so far (and I haven't added any for at least 10 years).

My friend from Moonsilk Stitches gave me a felted ball to try Temari on. It was very nice and soft, but I was afraid it was too soft to stitch on, so I wet felted it. It felted up very quickly, and got firm after only 5 minutes (or so) of hot water, soap, and agitation; of course then you have to wait for it to dry. I was still afraid of distorting it too much with stitching so I picked a very simple pattern, almost just a c8 marking with DMC #5 perle cotton; what really dressed it up were the additional stitches to secure the bands. It was lovely to stitch on; the needle went through the felt as smooth as silk.



I just wanted to mention how much I love using flickr for my picture account. The pictures I post here do not look anything like the pictures that come out of my camera. They have all been cropped and have had the exposure adjusted; some of them have been straightened, and there are all kinds of fun effects that I've just barely glanced at. I used flickr for free for several years, but now that I've been using it for this blog I upgraded to a "pro" account. There's a lot of fun stuff there to play with too!

Advent, Day 20

And more angels:





There is supposed to be a red one too, I wonder where that went off to?

(Happy Anniversary, Mom!)

Advent, Day 19

Multitudes of Angels!



These two are from the advent calendar I made for my daughters when they were little.



This is my Christmas stocking. My dad stitched it for me several years ago.

Here's my latest Temari, it's a simple one, but it still took me 3 nights to finish it. I copied the pattern out of my Japanese Temari book, but I changed the colors. It is a 5 point star s5 division. The detail of stitching down the outside intersections really adds a lot, I think. It is a Styrofoam base mari, wrapped with cone thread. The stitching is with DMC #5 perle, and the marking with DMC spool metallic.



This ball is a little too large for this pattern; too much of it has been left unstitched. That is another balance thing I will have to continue to work on.

This side was an experiment, and I like how it turned out. The white center is a "tri-wing" pattern, except it is stitched with 5 points instead of 3. Then I did the green star, tucking the stitches under the white to emphasize them. It still looked a little unfinished, so I just stitched around the outside in white.



This is what we are dealing with in our area this morning. Ice is coating everything. It looks beautiful on the trees and bushes, even though it is very hard on them and a lot of branches break. However, ice on the roads is no fun. I saw one accident, and another different car in the ditch on my way in to work (late) this morning. Ice on the wires isn't fun either. Our lights were flickering this morning; hopefully the ice will melt before it does any damage.



The excitement here today is that the ice is sliding off the metal roof in sheets, we can see it through the clerestory windows. It sounds like a roller derby or a bowling alley!

Advent, Day 18

Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host!







According to C.S. Lewis angels have colors we can't even imagine, not limited by the spectrum of light our eyes can pick up.

Advent, Day 17

An angel of the Lord appeared to them and said to them "Do not be afraid, I bring you good news. Today a Savior has been born. You will find him in a manger, wrapped in cloths.



I do apologize for the fuzzy picture. I keep trying to get too close.