Temari Stitch-along

Here's the picture I promised of my bracelet next to the thimbles. I let the thimbles hang together so they wouldn't feel intimidated by the bracelet looming over them.



I was looking at "Nana Akua's" temari on Flickr (here) and I found a temari I really liked. Several people expressed an interest in stitching it along with me, so here we go.

It is a 32 face temari. Here's my marked mari. I have to number the pentagons and hexagons with tags pinned in each space. Unfortunately, the thread catches on the pins when you are stitching, but you have to keep the order straight to have the pattern turn out right.



The next step is to start stitching. The light pink is threaded, but I am going to start stitching Kikus with the dark pink (5 layers of pink in all) on the short lines of the pentagons and hexagons. There are 4 layers of the yellow/white star stitched on the long lines, and the two color families alternate. The example is stitched with 2 strands held together, but my mari is smaller and wouldn't fit that much stitching, so I will stitch with one strand at a time, even though I may need more rounds. We shall have to see how things fit.

Next time I will talk about where the points of the kiku land for each color family.



We went to the Carole King and James Taylor concert last night. It was fantastic! Unfortunately, with the parking and traffic we didn't get home until after midnight. I'm going to have trouble staying awake in meetings today.

Finally! A Finish!

So I finally finished my bracelet. After looking at the picture, I realize I should have put something in for scale. Maybe I will take another picture with one of the "normal" size thimbles in the middle, it would look like a minnow next to a whale. This is 3 to 3 1/2 inches across. I can't quite get it over my hand, but it will make a wonderful temari stand.

I used Pearl #12 for the stitching. It's the first time I had used Anchor pearl, and I really liked it. I could give it a real hard tug and it held well, and I like the range of colors. The bracelet I stitched over was a hard white plastic, and was contoured as if it was padded, so I didn't add any additional padding.



Laura gave me the bracelet form I stitched on in New Mexico. She had ordered it from Oriental Trading Company, but I can't find it on-line now. I started stitching soon after I got home from vacation and had been plugging away since then. All of a sudden on Friday I started to see what the finished product was going to look like, and then I got my enthusiasm back. I am very pleased with it. I got oohs and aahs from my family too.

I had a little trouble with uneven gaps at the end, I had one area that was closing off quickly, and a couple of other ones where I had to spread out the stitching more than I wanted to in order to fill the gaps. If I make this pattern again, I will mark more divisions on the pattern, just so I have a guide and can make adjustments throughout the stitching, not just at the end.

Shoutout to Sharon B in Pin-tangle

I just wanted to say thank you to Sharon B. for including World Embroideries in her alphabetical list of needlework blogs! I feel like I've made the big time!

Welcome to anyone who stops by from Pin Tangle; I'm sorry for the lack of posts, I'm getting going again after vacation.

Project Progress

This is a laundry basket full to overflowing of washed and dried (preshrunk) cotton fabric. This will hopefully become a rug. The tile you can see at the bottom of the picture is what I want to cover with the new rug.



The first step is to rip it to shreds. Here are three pieces of fabric ripped into strips; I think I am going to have pretty big muscles (or else be very sore) by the time I'm done. In the class I took the teacher showed how to rip one piece of fabric in about 5 minutes with a special technique. I tried it, but I am going to have to get stronger. I have around 25 pieces of fabric to rip.



I wanted to hang the strips on hangers instead of leaving them bunched up together. Hopefully this will keep things from getting tangled, and will make it easier to pick colors when I finally get to the fun of stitching.

I am very happy to say that I stitched for several hours last night. I am very pleased with how my bracelet is turning out, and can't wait for it to be finished so I can show you.

Stashing

Even though I haven't been stitching much, I have been doing some stashing. On Monday I got these silk threads for thimbles from Chloe Patricia. These are the ones I've been saving for.



They come in this cute box:



I love all the colors! Now I don't have any more excuses not to make beautiful thimbles.

Yesterday, when I was up in "the city" (Chicago), DD found 2 (count them, 2!) fabric stores for me to check out. The first one was very high-end. They had leathers, and we saw some fabrics for $50 and $100 a yard. I had my Advent stitching along, and I looked for and found a silk fabric to use as linings, backings, and ruffles on the finished piece. This was actually second choice for the color, but first choice for the price. I got 3 & 1/8th yards for the price one yard of the other would have cost. I wanted it to match with the lettering. I got this at Fishman's Fabric store. You can see a picture here.



Hopefully tomorrow I can show you what else I got.

Art in Illinois

I had the privilege of going to the Lotton Art Glass Studios on Friday for their open house. I've known Charles Lotton for many years, and I admire his work, but on Friday friends and I watched Daniel Lotton make a large bowl. This isn't exactly like the one he made on Friday; it is similar in color and in shape, but the flowers were very different. We were at the studio for over 2 hours watching the bowl take shape, and the time just flew by.

Many years ago Charles offered to give me a piece of glass in exchange for an original piece of needlework. I started working on it, but (at least at the time) designing needlework is not my talent. I will try to find the piece and show you how far I got.

Congratulations on your 40th anniversary, Charles, and I pray that the Lord will continue to bless you and your work!

I'm still here!

Hi everybody. I finally finished my books, and picked up a needle again. Of course, it was a toothbrush needle, and I threaded it with cotton fabric, torn into 2 inch wide strips. You can read all about it here: Aunt Philly's Toothbrush Rugs. Click to look at the picture of her sitting on the 16 by 20 FOOT rug! (This one is about 15 inches.)



I still have to weave in the working "threads" but then it is done.

I like the stitching. (It's done in a sort of a "buttonhole" stitch, and is quite relaxing when you pick up the rhythm.) I'm going to make a rug for the front door (and I will be accepting donations of cotton fabric in browns and greens... it takes 35 YARDS of fabric!). Any ideas where I can find yardage for less than $5 a yard? But the finished rug is reversible and washable, and I really like the look. It stitches up quickly too.

Tonight is music practice (for DH) so I go along and crochet in the free time. I'm still working on my mittens. Then Thursday I want to dig out my thimble and temari stitching supplies. I ordered the silk threads for the thimbles! I can't wait until it gets here.