Another Christmas Temari

This is another little guy, about 2 inches across, stitched with pearl #8. Christmas colors with just a touch of gold.



This is my "old faithful" pattern, but you do have to pay attention. Last time I tried to stitch it while I was teaching a class, and the guidelines were not straight. I still haven't taken the stitching out of that one, but I will.

The background is tissues, courtesy of C. She found a shoe-box at home last week, and started packing it full of things for her friend S, everything cushioned with tissue. When I told her I needed a box to carry my presents for work, everything got unceremoniously dumped on the floor, and the temari were carefully placed on the tissue. These things must be done properly, you know. She was very happy to have found a box for presents, and then to have found presents to put in the box.

Rose Temari

This is another one of my little temari. I really like the way it turned out. The rose, outlined with gold, is very elegant looking, even though it takes a lot of time and a lot of thread to stitch. (You end up with a double layer of thread with this pattern.)



I had been thinking of making a rose on both sides of the temari, but I ended up making a basket on the bottom half. Even that turned out very nice. (I love to weave!)



The fibers used are DMC metallic, and pearl #8 for the stitching.

Christmas Temari

I have stitched another handful of Christmas temari to give away this season. In fact, I gave away two yesterday without getting pictures! I know! How could I! My only excuse is that my battery was dead, and I lost my head.

This one is a simple Kiku, stitched with rayon threads from India. The base is made from one plastic grocery bag, and is only about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter. This size temari is turning out so cute!



The other two I gave away were this size as well. One was a red base, stitched in a c8, with 8 different snowflake designs on the 6-part triangles, stitched in white pearl #4 braid. It is very sparkly and very pretty. The other was a s8, with a 4-petal red kiku and a 4 petal white kiku (I think it was on a red background as well), in interwoven style, stitched with #8 pearl. The contrast gives a very graphic look, and the kiku looks very different.

This small format is giving me a chance to stitch with some different fibers, and I am having quite a bit of fun.

I did give in last night and stopped by our electronic big box store for an extra battery and charger. DH says I paid too much, and he is right! I stored the new items (after charging up my camera, of course) in the drawer with the rest of the batteries. Next time I am looking for it, remind me, okay?

Camera Trouble

I have some temari to share, but my camera battery died this morning, and I couldn't immediately find the charger. DH and I both remember where we saw it last, but it is not there now! I hope I do not have to buy a new one. I have been meaning to buy another battery so I don't end up camera-less again.

I am glad it happened this way, though. C's Sunday School program was scheduled for last Sunday night, but was cancelled because of the weather. I would have been very upset if I had run out of batteries for that! My camera will be in working order by next Sunday, which is the rescheduled date, I promise!

Now I can't decide whether to stop at the store on the way home, or look around at home once more. I am leaning toward stopping at the store; I hate being without my camera!

Presents

I got several presents at the Christmas party on Tuesday night. Our Christmas get-togethers are always so much fun. For the past several years we have had an Italian buffet with several kinds of salads, several kinds of pasta, and a couple of kinds of pizza, with a sundae buffet for dessert.

My friend from Moonsilk Stitches gave me this original angel, decorated with 3 special buttons, and with holly around the hem of her dress, and the wooden Angel buttons from Vogue fabrics. She knows I decorate with Angels at Christmas, and so always indulges me. Thank you!



I got an abundance of gifts from my Secret Stitcher. I knew she was someone who read my blog, and it turned out to be Karol. Thank you again Karol for the great gifts all year long!

The first thing I pulled out of the gift bag was this canvas tote bag with a TemariKai logo on it! I am thrilled with it. I will be studying the pictures as well to see if there are any new patterns to make. I have a feeling this may become my new favorite tote bag. I don't know if I should use it for my regular guild meeting bag, or if I should save it for when I have a Temari class. Decisions, decisions!



Next I pulled out this "Locker Hooking" trivet in autumn colors. The technique looks interesting, and it would be possible to get a lot of beautiful colors into projects. It does remind me, though, that I should get going on my toothbrush rug. (The problem with the rug is that it has not been laying very flat, and I am fearing I may have to take a couple of rows out. The thought scares me so much I have been avoiding looking. I should just bite the bullet and find out.)



In the bottom of the bag there were all these goodies, a bookmark with a cross, a note-pad for my purse (C always asks for paper to draw on when we are out, so it will come in handy), and a pretty Nativity ornament. Thank you again Karol!



Last night I got invited to another Christmas party with people from my exercise class. I am trying to talk myself out of wanting to make Temari ornaments for each person in the class... but I don't know if I will be successful or not. I would need 8 for next Tuesday. I'm thinking small and simple... I will let you know.

Gifts (it IS Christmas!)

I ordered some cookie dough mix from the girl's club at church, and each package came with a pot holder made from African material. The African connection is that the girl's clubs are fund-raising to build a church in Zambia. I though these pot holders were very cool!



At our guild Christmas party last night, I gave my secret stitcher this temari. It is the first one in the series from Cosmo 7. I was worried that the dark blue flowers had too much contrast with the other colors, but the addition of the large beads in the centers lightened the flowers enough so that it looks very nice. I like how it turned out. I am working on the next one in the set.



I do want to talk to you about these Debi, but I haven't had a chance to gather my thoughts.

Tomorrow I will get pictures and share what my Secret Stitcher gave to me!

It's Christmas time!

This weekend we had a Christmas party that really helped me get in the Christmas spirit. I haven't put up any decorations yet. We have decided not to have a tree this year, because of the kittens. My tree skirt, with beautiful cross stitch, usually hangs down from the small table we usually put the tree on, and I can just picture kittens scaling it with their claws. I'm afraid if I saw them doing that, I would loose my cool, so for now, no tree.

So it was a real pleasure to enjoy time together with friends, good food, and singing Christmas carols. We were going to sing at a retirement home, but they were on lock down because of the flu, so we stayed away from there. We played a silly game that was quite a bit of fun.

We divided up into a red team and a green team and built balloon towers that were supposed to be free-standing. Here is the red team getting started:



And here is the green team:



Here's the result, and you can see why the red team won, the green team needed a helping hand to stay standing.



(DH was on the red team, I was on the green team.)

As we were visiting and moving from room to room in the house I started to notice beautiful hooked art, a pillow and a wall hanging in the den, a floral rug in the bathroom, a mat in the living room and this wall hanging. Our hosts were very proud of their daughter's art-work and gave me permission to share. She lives in Canada, and her name is Lou Ann Sybenga. She started out with purchased canvases, but now designs all her own work.



I think the work in this piece is amazing. The rug is beautiful, the stones in the fire-place look real, and the paisley chair is amazing. The name of the piece is "Marriage Mirage" and I will leave the interpretation to you.

I have always thought I would take up either basketry or weaving in my second life-time, but the more hooked rugs and wall hangings I see the more I like them. Maybe in my second life-time I will have to be a hooker.