All-over Kousa

I finished this guy last night. It was a stitch-along on one of my temari groups, except most of the people finished in September. I'm a little late. I'm actually pleased that I finished it at all, after the mishaps I had during the stitching. I had picked a pink and two different shades of burgundy, and I had done one needle-full of thread of each color. When I needed another length of pink, I could not find it anywhere! Either the dog (or my chair) ate it, or it fell into the garbage can. (Any of those are possible.) So it sat for a couple of weeks until I got to the store. I had the temari with me, and I thought I matched the color, but when I started to stitch, I had actually matched a darker shade of pink. At this point I decided no one would notice, and I kept on going but after one needle-full of pink (you guessed it!) my replacement pink color disappeared! (Same three possibilities for that disappearance.)

So it sat for a couple more weeks, hoping that one of the pinks would reappear. When that didn't happen, I decided to bite the bullet, take out the old stitching, and start over again with new colors. (I still couldn't give up on the pink.) I had been regretting my choice of colors for a quite a while already, so I wasn't too disappointed about that, but this is about when my stitching blahs hit.

On this pattern, the pattern doesn't start to show up until quite a bit more than half the ball is stitched, and I didn't like how it was looking earlier. I did have pictures of the same pattern in progress and finished, and I could see that I was on track, so I kept going, but it took quite a bit of determination.



This is a c8 division, and the stitching is layered, one row of each color at a time, building up the pattern. The marking is done with a white sewing thread, hardly visible when you are looking for it, and not visible at all when you are not. There are 6 pink squares, 8 green triangles, and 12 yellow diamonds. After working with one row at a time for a while, you can change things up, skipping a shape in one round or doubling up, so the possibilities are endless. Our stitch-along leader calls it a kaleidoscope ball, because it is constantly changing. I left off several of the diamond rows, and ended with three rows of pink.

It is possible to continue stitching until the "channels" get completely filled up too. That makes a much smoother look, and gives a very different character to the ball.

This type of pattern is fascinating, and I'm so glad I stuck it out.

A type of embroidery I no longer do

I was cleaning out my closet last week, hoping to reclaim some of the space in there so my sewing room could revert to a bedroom. I found a couple of sweat-shirts and pants with embroidery on them. I no longer wear these. The fabric shrank, there are stains on them, and I don't wear sweats any more (office clothes!).

But of course, I can't throw away embroidery! So they were stuck in the closet for years. I was looking at these taking up valuable space, and I decided to keep the embroidery and throw away the rest. (There's more than this that I still have to harvest.)



I can think of so many ways these might be used! On a tote bag, in a crazy patch, mounted on a button, appliqued on a jacket, etc. etc.

Now to clean out more of the closet! I hope I can come up with more creative solutions.

Star Temari

You may recognize this temari, I have stitched it twice before. This time though, I am going to write up the pattern and share it so people can stitch it themselves, if they want to.

Even though it looks so complex, it is quite easy. Stitch 12 pentagons (at such and such specific spot) and fill in the resulting stars with shiny thread. Got it?

Hmmm, I think I will have to be a little more specific.





We had a lovely Saturday. We got a relaxed start and stopped at Togouri's Emporium in Chicago for temari books. I told DH we won't have to go back, because I have purchased all they carry. There are a couple more that I want that they don't carry, so I guess I will be going to eBay.

After Togouri's we went to visit the store our daughter is working at. It is very nice and she looked lovely and in control, so that was very satisfying. On our way from the parking to the store we obtained a compass that DH has been wanting since our train trip, and we stopped at a book store. We can always spend plenty of time and money at a book store; if our house ever collapses it will be from the weight of all the books.

We didn't pay for parking all day! For Chicago, I think that is a first, and we were quite pleased with ourselves. This was the view from the parking garage:


The weather was beautiful! It was so beautiful we had to call my parents in Arizona and brag just a little bit. They had an 80 degree day, so there was less than 10 degrees difference in the temperature. We finished our outing with a nice dinner out, and then had a relaxing evening at home.

Cute Halloween pictures, Plus stitching content, I promise!

Here's Jake in his Bear's jersey. We bought the largest one they had, and it was still quite snug, but he looks cute. You can see his new pumpkin toy at the bottom of the picture. At this point in the evening, it was still intact, but by bed-time he had extracted the squeaker, which is, of course, the whole point of getting a new toy, isn't it?



Here's C in her Hannah Montana costume. This picture just makes me laugh. It is the exact same pose as the last two picture's I've had of her. You can tell she is Hannah Montana, because the name is written on the front in a fancy font. She was a little sad that she didn't have the wig that went with the costume, but as you can see from her smile, she wasn't too upset.



I posted the picture of the autumn colored temari a couple of days ago. I had posted the directions to stitch it in my JTA group and Laura stitched this from the directions I posted. The directions actually worked! Thank you Laura for letting me share this picture. I really love your color selection. I think I might even add the star burst design to my directions as well, and to my temari.








I really did stitch last night. I worked on my 2nd level 2 temari, but it's not done yet. I also took out the stitching for my all-over temari, so I'm ready to start that one over, I just have to (get to) pick out the new colors. They have to be contrasting, so that will be fun.

No stitching And no pictures!

Well, we are finally getting some sunny days here, so I'm hoping I will soon be over my stitching funk. I thought it was going to happen last night, and then I started coming down with C's cold. So far it's not too bad, and after another sunny day today, I may be able to stitch tonight after yoga and guild. I'm not going to hold my breath though.

I have a cute picture of Jake wearing a Bear's jersey for Halloween. (He looks rather disgruntled, but he didn't tear it off.) However, I forgot to put my camera back in my (purse) elegant camera bag, so you will have to wait. I had the camera out to take cute Halloween pictures.

Still no Stitching

I have not been stitching a lot this week. The weather has been so dark that I think I'm getting my mid-winter depression early this year. I heard on the news this morning that we have had 19 days with measurable rain this month, and it hasn't been sunny even on days without rain. So I apologize in advance for my blue mood.

I have been reading about this Monday meme here and on a friend's blog, so I though I would participate. Anna suggested a stitching bag, but I cleaned mine out a couple of weeks ago, and there is not much interesting in there. This is the little box I keep next to my stitching chair, and it is full of interesting stuff.

I didn't pull everything out, as you can see. There is still a complete package of knitting markers, a couple of binder rings to hold thread baggies, several business cards, floss labels, several foreign coins, a stone, and an embroidered patch. There's all my scissors that I shared earlier this month, plus one or two I had missed; a tape measure; a small calculator; 4 books of needles; 4 or 5 doll needles (that come in the package with the temari needles I've been buying, but are too big for temari); a knitting needle cable holder, a needle case decorated with wood-burning designs; 2 small and one larger crochet hook, 2 nail clippers and 3 files; a pair of tweezers; a rotary cutter; 2 packages of beads; 2 spools; 2 thimbles, one utility and one decorative (I think it's the Empire State Building); a little blue box with a sponge to wet floss, which I've never used; a baggie with bees-wax; lip gloss; an art eraser (works on fabric as well as on paper); and a head-phone cord. Oh, there's a small piece of crocheted lace mounted on a velvet ribbon, and a beaded and silk embroidery pin that is falling apart.



I do have 2 temari in progress. One is for my JTA work, a pattern I've done twice before. It is turning out nice. The second is an all-over design through Temari Talk that I am going to have to start over. I started, and lost one of the floss colors, replaced it, and lost the replacement! I'm going to have to pull all the stitching out and start over again, which will be a good chance to change the rest of the colors. I think I will go home this afternoon, curl up in my stitching chair, and do that (if I don't have to vacuum up too much water in the basement).

The gas company insisted on inspecting our home for leaks yesterday, and found one behind the paneling in the finished basement. We asked them not to cut a hole in the paneling, so they turned off the gas last night so DH could remove the panel, and came back today to finish the project. No stove, oven, or broiler, no hot water or furnace! but we made it. When they went to turn off the gas in the house they discovered the valve was not working because of tree roots, so we got a 4 to 5 foot hole in the front yard for that to get replaced. They put the dirt back, but not the grass.

Family Weekend

This past weekend was our annual family gathering. We have it at this time of the year, because when winter threatens my parents decamp to Arizona.

The adults sit together and talk.



And the kids run around. There was quite a din this year, but I didn't see anyone getting annoyed. Of course, the kids are all grand-kids and great grand-kids, and you know, they can hardly do anything annoying! LOL



C looking cute, as usual.



A is getting so grown up!



This is the best picture I could get of J. She was non-stop running.



I think G made the most noise, he was the littlest and was getting tired. But isn't he a cutie?



Here's T and G with their grandma.



Can you believe P's long legs? It took a while for him to warm up to the crowd, but he was enjoying himself by the end of the afternoon.

I'm so sorry I didn't get a picture of J. He was busy flying paper airplanes. My brother was making them. I was amused by how individual kids kept appearing next to him requesting an airplane (we had a paper airplane book). He claimed the first flight for each one, he was having as much fun as they.

As you might guess, there was very little stitching.