P.S.

I got a message from Nana Akoa, and she says they are all fine!

Beautiful, but not delicate

This is another temari copied from Nana Akoa's flickr site:



I am very happy with how it turned out, even though it doesn't exactly match the model. When I looked at that one, my thought was "delicate." This one does not feel delicate, even though I used a size 8 pearl. You cannot see it very clearly, but this one sparkles. I did a quick wrap with pearl colored blending filament before I started the marking and stitching; I think it adds a lot in person. The marking is done with sewing thread, I think it has 162 facets. The centers and the hexagons/pentagons are stitched with the #8 pearl.

From studying my work on this one I can tell that I need a lot of work in making my markings even. Some of the hexagons are very misshapen. But in spite of that I like it! It goes very nicely with the snow themed temari I made last winter.

Our thoughts are with the people of Japan after the devastating earth-quake and tsunami. We have already heard from many friends that they are okay, but not from all. Please keep them in your prayers.

Weekend Stitching

We had a nice quiet weekend this past weekend. We did some shopping, and some eating out, and some resting. I managed to get a couple of things finished:

This was the February monthly project for one of my guilds. Sashiko quilting, except this isn't quilted, it is just running stitch. The thread was more like string! I would love to make a little (about 12 inches) feather pillow with it, I shall have to see if I (or DD1) can find a form for it. DH says it looks like a flat temari!



I also stitched a thimble. Debi of Temari Train... of thought posted the pattern before Valentine's day, and I just got to it. I really wanted to make the stacked hearts.



It has been months since I stitched a thimble, and I could tell. I found out today that I was stitching backwards instead of forwards, and I think that is why my stitches are not closer together. Also, this pattern calls for weaving the bands over and under each other, and it is the first time I attempted that. I think it turned out okay, but for a while it didn't look so good. I could also tell it had been a while since I had made one because of this:



Do you see the huge lump at 8 o'clock? I should have fixed that before I went ahead with the stitching.

I did get a chance to use some of my cool new thimble tools I prepared. The two cylinders are thimble forms, one 50 mm, and the other 60 mm. I used the 50 mm one for this thimble, and it worked perfectly! The paper wedges are tools to mark the sections on your thimble. They should be glued up into cones, then you slide your thimble base on to one, and transfer section lines to your paper. That works very slick as well! You can see I have 7/14, 9/18, 15, and 5/10. I think there are a couple more in my case as well.



They are printed towards the back of the thimble/temari book, and I copied the page on to card and cut them out. (Even if I can only look at the pictures, I sure love my Japanese books!)

Soccer ball!

Ever since I started making temari I have thought that certain markings look like a soccer ball. So when I decided to make a temari for a co-worker who had hoped to be a professional soccer player one day I decided to go for it.



I like how it turned out, and now, it is out of my system.

"Granny Square" Temari

I started on this temari before I left on vacation, and took it with me to Arizona. It started out black with green markings. I had my doubts about it even before we left, but while I was working on it, I discovered that I was in deed doing the marking incorrectly. It was either pull out all the marking (risking disturbing the wrapping) or starting over again by wrapping over what I had done. I did not have black thread with me, so I ended up wrapping it in the green, and marking with white.

Here's the picture I was working from. One of my Temari groups had discussed the marking, and we had sort of agreed that it was a multi-face with triangles divided into 12 parts, but I wanted to be sure, and the only way to be sure (for me) was to make it.



I'm not going to count the time it took for the incorrect marking, but I stitched on this from Monday through Friday, while we were on vacation, and then started stitching with color. I worked on it at the airport, and during the flight, and got a lot of interest. Kids did a double take, but were to shy to ask about it. One person at the gate interrupted herself to ask me what I was doing. She had thought I was pulling out a ball of thread to either knit or crochet, and then I started stitching on it, and she could not contain her curiosity. On the flight the attendant stopped and asked "Are you putting that design on to that ball?" (I had the picture printed out in front of me for a reference, so I would not make the same mistake on the marking again.) When I told her that, yes, I was stitching that pattern, she thought that was very cool.

The color stitching took me more that a week, and I wasn't even stitching anything else during that time. Of course, that was my birthday week, and I just happened to go out 6 nights in a row, but still!

I still wish, when I see it in certain lights, that I had been able to keep the black base. Even so, it still looks intricate and gorgeous. It will do.

When I look at the flickr pages (where I directed you to the sample picture) I want to make all the designs from there. That stitcher started when she was 60, and is still going strong in her 80s, so I have a little bit of a head start, but not much. There is a long way to go.

Last Arizona pictures, I promise

More than 2 weeks ago, we went to Pleasant Lake, and had a very pleasant time. We ate at Dillon's at the Lake, the large building you see below at the floating marina. Would you believe there was too much sun!?



We enjoyed watching the water fowl. These are mallards.



This is a coot. They are smaller than mallards.



These are Muscovy ducks! They are native to Mexico and Central America, so they were a little out of their comfort zone here. (They are huge!)



At the other end of the size spectrum, we have the humming birds. I did see one flying when we were stopped at a traffic light, but this one was captive at the visitor's center. The literature said the iridescent color comes from oils in the birds' feathers! I couldn't get a picture of him flying.



Pleasant lake is from a dam, and it is in the middle of the desert, quite a contrast.



You can see here why they built a dam: water and power for the city.



I put the last stitches in my latest temari (late) last night. Pictures tomorrow!

472 Facets

I started this temari before I went on vacation with a black base and green marking, but I messed up. I either had to take out all the marking lines, or wrap and start over. You can see what I picked. I had the green thread with me in Arizona, and not the black, and I couldn't wait the 2 days to start over.

This is the temari I stitched on in the airport and on the plane that got so many comments. The pins are in to indicate what color to stitch where.



This is the marking seen from close up. I used regular stitching thread, because I felt that any gold I had would be too overpowering with such a fine marking.



As you can see, I am about 1/4 of the way done. I really like the colors, even though they would have looked better on a black base.



I decided which color would go where by trial and error making sure that each purple pentagon had five different colors around it. When I got done, I was shocked to find out that there are 4 pins of each color, arranged as if on the faces of a tetrahedron. Each thumb and pointer finger is pointing to one of the green pins. That is so cool!



I love temari!