Chrysanthemum, AKA Kiku

I had to spell-check Chrysanthemum (and I got it wrong) before I started writing this one. I wasn't sure about the "h."

I finished #4 last night, and I like it. There are a few things that are not perfect, but I really like the colors. The light, middle, and dark shades of red together show up mostly as a glow, not a color change, and I think that adds a nice touch. It also looks very Christmassy so these temari can double as ornaments for my guild's annual Christmas display.



I had some help stitching this. C likes to pull the needle through (when she's not busy doing something else). She also announced to her mom, several times, that grandma was working on a new samari ball. I pronounced "temari" for her very carefully after that, but I'm not sure she got it yet.

The weather has been dark and gloomy all week, and I'm starting to feel it. The weekend is supposed to be nice, though, so there is an end in sight. I can't wait for some sunshine!

Blog Action Day/Climate Change

Today is Blog Action Day, 2009. I hadn't signed up to write a post about the topic this year, because I couldn't think of a thing to talk about regarding embroidery and climate change, but when I got ready to post today I realized my topic actually fit.

Our guild wants to save money and the environment by having each person bring their own mug to use, that way we can avoid using the nasty Styrofoam cups, and do good at the same time. I have a plastic cup with an embroidered insert that I made several years ago, so I went looking for it. Of course, I could not find it, but I ran across this:




It is a tin enameled cup (the kind you would use for a camping trip) covered with beads in the Ndebele or herringbone stitch. It was a gift to me from a former director from South Africa, and was made by a Ndebele woman in that country. I was fascinated by it when I got it, and could not figure out how it was made until I got a herringbone stitch bracelet to make, and then I could see the stitch. The beading is done across the narrow dimension by stitching two beads on at a time. That is what makes each row tip in a different direction.

Keeping from throwing away one Styrofoam cup a month is not going to save the world, and at this point I'm not even sure climate change can be reversed. There are even people here in the Mid-West who wouldn't mind several additional degrees of heat in the climate, at least during the fall and winter. But I read today that soon there will be no ice at the north pole during the summer, and things will begin to accelerate. Ice melting leads to oceans rising, warmer oceans lead to more tropical storms (think Katrina!). The most disastrous change, in my opinion though, is that land the currently provides a living could become desert. Think dust bowl on a world-wide scale.

So I will bring my cup to guild meetings, and cut down on my driving as much as I can, and will do my best to act locally. If you are interested in helping, here's a website with suggestions, and there's even some good news there!

Thank you!

Party Time!

Last night we had the celebration of our guild's 30th anniversary. We had lemon fluff cake and punch, Swedish coffee and herbal tea. (Do we know how to party, or what!)



There are still three charter members who are active in the group. We had several former members join us last night, and one very special guest, who was the founder of the guild. She had a needlework shop in Homewood and taught many of the first members how to do Hardanger and other Swedish needlework techniques. She was very excited to be with us.



The table was covered with beautiful embroideries.

I am not a charter member; I joined about 20 years ago. It's been 20 years of stitching, learning, and friendship! I would be happy to be a member for another 20 years.

Number three!

Here is number 3 for the JTA entries. This is a "merry-go-round" pattern, so called because the stitches go up and down past the equator. I like the way this one looks, but I may have to do another one for my entry, this one did not turn out very even. You will notice that there is not a picture of either of the poles! It's only my second one with this pattern though, so I am improving.



We spent Saturday at Bengston's Pumpkin Farm. There was a petting zoo. P didn't actually pet any of the animals, but he did provide a piece of carrot to one of the kangaroos.



C of course petted everything. There were goats and sheep and calves, and llamas, and kangaroos, and a zebra, and a camel, and an eland.



After the petting zoo we went on a hay-ride with no hay, through the pumpkin patch, through the haunted barn, and the shop, through the fun-barn which C remembered from last year, and had a small snack.



I love this picture of P checking how big his sister is. When it came to his turn, he stood on tiptoe, which probably gave a more accurate measurement. There was quite a hollow where scores of people have stood to get their picture taken.



Here's the whole gang waiting for the tractor ride. It would have been more fun if it had been a little warmer, but we managed to enjoy ourselves. There are more pictures on my flickr site if you are interested.

Kumihimo (braiding)

This is another item I found in my guild tote bag. It was a free home-made kumihimo disk with the fibers to make this braid, 7 strands: 4 black, thin, and 3 gold with metallic, thicker. I really like how the braid turned out. It's about 30 inches long. It took about two hours of mindless work to finish this braid. I don't know yet what to use it for but these braids are very useful. It would probably make a very nice scissors tether. (!) I didn't save the home-made disk. I liked the ones I made more.



Last year (or the year before, time seems to be rushing by) we did a braiding badge with my group of grade-school girls. We braided hair, we made an octopus with eight braided legs, and we did some Japanese braiding on home-made disks. I offered a prize of a "real" disk to the girl who brought back the longest braid to the following meeting.

<--- (Real disc)

If you click here you can see a picture of a whole bunch of braids.

My incentive was very successful. Several of the girls brought back lengths of braid, but one of the girls had spent her allowance on yarn and brought back yards of braid. She was thrilled to get the disk.

While we were practicing in the classroom before they took the disks home for the first time, one of the girls made a comment I thought was priceless:

"This could be a hobby!"

I assured her that yes, there are people who have dedicated all their free time for years to this pursuit. I don't think she believed me. They don't work on foam disks like this though. The traditional tools for braiding are a wooden plate on a stand with a hole in the middle called a marudai. I considered asking my dad to make me one, and I even went as far as buying a wooden plate to make one myself, but the moment passed.

Every time I think I've seen it all I run across another craft that fascinates me. I could be a braider. I could be a weaver. I could be a spinner. I could be a basket-maker. These are the ones I haven't tried. I know I'm not a smocker or a quilter, or a crazy quilter. I've tried all those, and enjoyed them! but they don't captivate me. But like Popeye, "I yam what I yam": an embroiderer and temari maker (for now at least!)

New Temari; scissors and cutting tools

Here's the second of my Level 1 JTA temari. This pattern is called mitsubane, or tri-wing. It is very interesting to stitch, since one row in the pattern gives you the three points and the central hexagon. I'm pleased with how the colors worked out as well.



You can see, peeking from the back, the completed squares temari. I just added a metallic thread around each square. It can hardly be seen from farther than 3 feet away, but I think it really dresses it up, and adds a perfect finishing touch.

When I was cleaning out my guild tote bag the other day, I found 3 scissors in the bottom of it, and I hardly recognized the pretty one. It made me start to wonder how many scissors I have (dangerous question, I know).

So I started digging in my stitching corner, and this is what I came up with. I was a little shocked. I don't consider myself a scissors collector, but I do like a nice cutting tool.



Two seam rippers, grey handle for cutting paper, orange for cutting fabric, my rotary cutter for cutting out quilts (low tech, because my quilt phase was 20 years ago). Silver scissors with a lucet cord that hangs from my Ott light, this is the workhorse. My pink Gems live in the Quaker turtle's traveling bag, the blue/aqua scissors with the fob and the ribbon live in my Advent Calendar traveling bag. The folding scissors and the red handled scissors (and the plain silver scissors that looks medical) are the ones I found in my guild tote. The gold with the green fob and the stork scissors were in the work-box next to my chair (along with the seam rippers) and the silver pendant cutter on the beaded necklace also hangs from the Ott light, but I don't think I have ever used it.

The red handle, the gold handle, and the stork scissors have hardly ever been used, eve though they are the prettiest ones. It might be because they are put away for "good."

There are more that I couldn't find. There is a black handled one, shaped like the red handled one that DH considers his. I have a pinking shears that needs to be sharpened, and a drawer in the kitchen with scissors for opening packages and plastic bags.

When I was young I always used to bite my thread to cut it (and get yelled at for doing that) but my teeth are not sharp any more. If I try to bite my thread it just gets a little mashed. You will also notice that the small scissors I use the most have long tethers on them; I have a tendency to lose things. I feel guilty having all these scissors that are not being used, I don't know whether to rotate them in and out of projects, or if I should figure out a way to display them. The only thing I would consider getting rid of is one of the two (duplicate) seam rippers. I guess I'm a scissors hoarder.

Gifts!

Last night at guild I was able to meet with Pat Winter, and she gave me the brooch I won in her blog give-away. Isn't it beautiful?



I was worried about getting a good picture; I wouldn't call this picture good, but it is adequate. The brooch is about 2 x 3 cm, and the amount of detail encrusted (well, I don't want to say crammed, because it is too beautiful) on this piece is amazing. There is the white tatting you can see, and at least 4 different fabrics; most of the stitching on the seams is done with Kreinik or fine silk; and there is a tiny heart charm plus a whole bunch of beads. There's a "big" flower stitched in the center and some adorable little red flowers with French knot centers along the side.

Now I have to apologize, because the back is just as nice as the front, but when I took this picture (at the crack of dawn, literally) I obviously wasn't awake to think of getting a picture of it.

I cleaned out my guild tote bag last night; it was getting too heavy to carry. I couldn't believe everything that was in there (enough for a couple of posts LOL). I found these polymer clay buttons that I received from Zuleykha after she received my polymer clay give-away.



The yellow one center bottom is up-side down, sorry! But most of the rest on the right side are cut from canes. You assemble a flower with larger pieces of clay into a snake shape, and then mush them down into a smaller circumference, and your picture gets smaller too. It's almost magical! The design is the same on the front and the back. The two penguin buttons and the strawberry pendant are sculpted, and so cute! I'm so pleased that someone this good at making things from polymer clay got the supplies.

Thank you both so much! Stitchy people are the best.