Thimble Thursday

I actually finished this one earlier this week. This is the same pattern as the scales thimble, with just some changing of colors. There's a little bit of the 3D effect I was looking for, but the colors don't help too much with that.



Mold 50 mm; thread: #9 silk Orizuru thread; 12 sections.

I'm having trouble getting my divisions even on the ring. I'm not sure if it is a measuring problem or a stitching problem. This ring also has to be groomed, stitching adjusted, so the cross-overs are all in the middle.

These guys are so small that I'm finding it hard to see how they turn out until I look at the picture, if I can get a good picture, and by then it's too late to fix mistakes. I'll keep plugging away at them, they are as addictive as temari (and quicker to make!).

Quilt Treasures

I've gotten distracted from my conversation about quilts. There's one more I want to share with you. My great grandmother made five Double Wedding Ring quilts, one for each of her 5 daughters. I did not inherit the one she made for my grandma, but I did get the one she made for our maiden "Aunt Dora." It is like new, probably because Aunt Dora never married.



This had to be made in the 1940s or earlier. I love the colors. Growing up with these quilts around (my grandma and my aunt lived together, so there were always 2 in the house) made me appreciate quilts, and also gave me the distinct impression that the Double Wedding Ring pattern was the best pattern, and the pinnacle of achievement for a quilter.

I never tried to make one, but I don't have to, because I have this one. Why mess with perfection?

Weekend activities

I finished this thimble on Friday. It was totally an accident that it turned out looking like this. I had planned a different pattern, but I didn't realize that stitching on every other division, if your division is 14, gives you an uneven number, and you have to go around twice for each row. I did always wonder how to stitch this pattern, now I know!



I am working on another thimble too, but the only colors I have are pink and white, dark blue and dark red. I don't think the thimble I am working on is going to turn out with a 3-d effect, the way I was hoping, mostly because the colors don't work together.

I've been wondering if buttonhole twist would work for stitching thimbles. I went into my needle-work room, and found these, inherited from my grandma M.




Most of them look as if they have never been used! I love the colors and the sheen. The wooden spools mostly say 35¢. Several have plastic spools, so you know those are a little newer. I don't know if this thread is in good shape yet, or not. It has a little tighter twist than the thread I've been using for the thimbles, and is thicker, but not as thick as my pink/blue experiment. If this thread works for thimbles, I can have a lot of fun with the colors.

I always used to put in my zippers by hand with buttonhole twist, back in the days when I sewed clothes.

On Saturday we spent a couple of hours at a model train expo. The train clubs band together to put on a display, and we went to check it out. This is the European train club. All the writing in this part of the layout was German.



C and Daddy enjoyed looking at things. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of P. He was interested, but not enthused.



The train enthusiasts like this location, because there are real trains right along the parking lot.



Some people like to work on the layout, some like to run the trains. Most of the active members were people of our age, and a lot of the spectators/visitors were dads with younger kids. At our age, time and money may be a little more accessible. DH is interested in the modeling aspect.

99th Temari

I have studied the picture and the diagram for this temari several times, and never had the confidence to attempt it until now. I had to learn this technique for for level one, so this time, when I read the pattern I had confidence I could do it even though I wasn't sure exactly how it was going to work out. The only things I'm not too pleased about is I should have picked a darker green for the center, and I should have packed my stitches a little closer together.



But I really like the colors, and it worked up very quickly.



I've been hinting about a special milestone coming up. This is my 99th temari, and the next one will be my 100th! I decided to commemorate the occasion by giving it (the 100th) away. It's not made yet, so it will be a gamble for you if you want to sign up for it. So, if you sign up on this post, you will get 2 chances to win it. If you sign up on the post where I show it off, you will get one chance to win it. I will pull a name on the day I post my next temari after that. Please spell out your e-mail in words (unless I already know how to get in touch with you). I will print up the names, and pull one out of the hat (or ask C to, I think she would enjoy that). I do have a pattern picked out, so it shouldn't take too long.

One hundred temari! and I've only scratched the surface of the patterns, techniques, and colors I want to try. Who knew?

Mystery Temari

This temari was presented as a mystery on the Talk Temari group. We got instructions (in words, no pictures or diagrams) and had to follow them to the best of our abilities. This is what turned out. We were to think of crocuses.



I think it turned out very pretty. I went and looked at the photo gallery, no one else has finished this one yet. So I'm going to have to wait.

I had a treat at work yesterday. DD1 stopped by for lunch with her charge C and niece C. It was lovely to see them and hear some giggles.

New Thimble: not beautiful.

Well, I tried making a thimble with the threads I located this week, and this is the result. This weight of thread is too big for a small thimble, plus I was using the wrong needle. I was having a terrible time threading the needle and stitching. In fact, I broke a needle on this thimble.

The white you see along the edge is the pattern paper peeking through; obviously my stitches were not close enough. This thread might work on a larger "thimble," napkin ring size or larger, but not on these little ones. That only leaves me with 4 colors, so now I'm shopping for thread in my head again.

I must say that my base was beautiful! I ended up using a Tide Laundry stick for my mold, and I liked having something longer. It was much easier to hold in my hand. The bias tape I had purchased worked perfectly, and I really like the color.



I got a question from Carol. You can see all my temari together in one place here. I have to find a way of marking my GITS temari, but otherwise I think there are only 3 or 4 missing from these pictures. You can see my progress in making temari from the first ones to the last. Even the ugly ones are there.

The braided kiku division starts from a c8 (complex 8), but then you find the 4 triangles by following the long diagonals on what you could call the polar squares. The triangles are hard to find the first time, but after that you can locate them easily (at least, that's how it worked for me). If you can't find them let me know, and I'll work on a diagram.

Braided Kiku

In our Temari Challenge group, there was a question about braided Kiku stitching, and there was a good demonstration/tutorial shared, along with a challenge: How will yours look? This is how mine looks.

I'm stitching on a 4-face temari, which, if the faces were flat, is a tetrahedron. I like this division because it gives you more room to play than on a simple division, but doesn't take forever, like a multi-pole. I added extra support lines so each kiku has 12 points, and I layered the stitching, starting with the darkest color in the center and lightening up as I go out. You do have to be careful with the spread of your colors if you want a smooth transition. You can see on a corner of the pink flower that the colors don't blend. There's too much contrast, which calls attention to itself.



The four faces are separated by green tri-wings, which are outlined, in turn with a continuous line of darker green.



I'm very pleased by how this one turned out. It's not original, but it is very pretty.

Next is a mystery ball from the Temari Talk group. We got verbal instructions, but no picture or chart. It will be fun to see if my finished product looks anything like anyone else's.

Plus look what I found! (These were on top of my thread stash storage, rather than put away inside.) These are threads I can use for thimbles! They are not all the same weight, so I don't think I can mix the different types, but I can certainly come up with some interesting combinations. I'm so excited! I have to decide on a mold/size... I have a glue stick (6.4 cm) and a couple of chap stick tubes (5.4 and 5.2 cm). I think I'm going to try all three.



Now I can save my birthday wish for something else.

I'm planning a give-away for an up-coming milestone. Stay tuned!