New C10

I think this is my most Japanese-looking temari to date. It is similar to the other recent temari I've made. I have been trying to break away from my Western colour mindset and use colour combinations that don't really come so naturally to me. I an doing this by reviewing the stash of Japanese fabrics in Miho and my collection. So here she is.

I treated a grouping of 3 centers opposite of each other as 'poles' and used the red embellishments and the remaining 6 pentagons around the 'equator' were decorated with the yellow centers. I really didn't like the colours when I started this temari but I think they worked out really nicely.

This is one of the pieces of fabric that inspired the colours of this ball. It didn't scan as prettily or brightly as it looks in real life.

This week's C10 Temari

I have been playing with pentagons on C10 division over the last week. Here is my first effort of temari making.

I can't help thinking of sand dollars,which are usually white, but the link image I found while writing this post is in purple. I realised after the first 3 rounds that I was using the wrong lines in the pentagons, but as I hate to rip out threads, I decided to continue with it anyway. I Zen-stitched* this design, which I think is original (but you can never be 100% sure about that).

My intention was to make a design like the one below, which is my second effort for the week. Still stitching dodgy french knots... but getting better than my first attempts from last year.

Both these temari have 12 pentagon shapes stitched on them. Isn't it funny how different these temari look? I think maybe I should change my perspective more often.

*Zen-stitching: This is what I call any stitching done with no active plan or perceived outcome. It is when I just pick up the needle and stitch. I sense when I am finished because the end product will suddenly appear. This type of activity is really meditative. You can also Zen-drive or Zen-walk (I mean move in a direction that is not planned) and find yourself somewhere unexpected. I usually will end up at the beach, a nice park like Kings Park or Queens Gardens or most likely my Mum's house. I don't, however, recommend Zen-shopping... that is fraught with danger... especially in a thread shop, stationery or kitchenware shop!
Here is a quick bit of theory on Zen.

Find time to do some Zen-stitching today.

More spindle practice

Following the temari I made with the TT group recently I decided to have another go at stitching spindles. I have traditionally avoided stitching spindles but they aren't actually as beastly as many people make out. The biggest secret is stretching the points so everything lies down nicely. I have discovered that spindles work best when you know the area you need to fill and work the number of rows accordingly. This means ideally you need a pattern and a ball the correct size to get everything just right. But what happens when you are inspired by an image that has no pattern or size reference??? Well you just give it a go. I did this earlier in the week trying to decipher a beautiful temari I had seen elsewhere.

Most temari images have no (or an unfamiliar) reference point so it is sometimes difficult to rework a design on the correct size temari base. But this week I had a go and this is what I came up with...

My spindles are a little crammed so next time I will either make the temari 1 cm larger or stitch 1 less round. Also I will make sure to measure the starburst at the centers... or we could just pretend that I meant to have one longer line there. I am just about the begin this one again so I'll keep you posted on how it turns out. I took this photo on the 'zig zag bridge' walkway near my front door. I think this is my new favourite place to take photos... even the two ants that were crawling about kindly stayed out of shot. Nice!

Stitching this temari has helped my work out the possible first flower on my TC project ball... more about that in my next post..

Wishing you a stitchy day...

First Temari for 2011

I've had these ones finished for a few days now but I've not had time to post them. I'm not sure which one I like most, probably the yellow one, although the pink on is very effective too... but then the purple temari is growing on me. I haven't removed the scrap thread yet on the purple one. I don't make many temari that need to have the marking threads removed, I really like the effect of the design not appearing anchored to the ball.

I want to draw your attention to Rod B's Japanese Textiles blog today so you can see a new temari he has been working. He included a draft version of the pattern (there is no diagram yet) but the steps have been written. I really love his use of colour on this one... I think they seem quintessentially Japanese.

I need to work on varying my colours more, I find I get into a colour rut and have trouble escaping it. I think I will go through my Japanese fabric stash for some inspiration.

Weekend Workshop

Ahhhh we are having a bit of rain today and my garden is so thankful as it has been particularly thirsty weather for the last few weeks.

Last weekend I had an awesome workshop with 9 ladies in South Perth. One participant flew all the way from Melbourne just for the weekend. On Saturday morning we were so lucky to have Miho come to help as everyone marked up C8 division temari, for some ladies this was their first time to mark a into C8.

We stitched our way through several temari designs together over the weekend. I managed to convert one lady from foam bases to rice hulls when I gave her one of my bases because her prepared base was just a little too small for the design we were stitching. Once you go hull you don't go back.

This week is a bit quiet... for the first time in ages... I am waiting, waiting, waiting for a giant delivery from Japan. I haven't done much stitching (my neck, spine and arm are playing up) but I have something to show which is my latest effort. I finished this one last week but hadn't had time to take a photo. I think the pattern is from Cosmo 2 but I can't remember because I started it a while ago and it sat for several weeks waiting to get the last light yellow triwing  stitched on it.

I am beginning to suffer from increasing numbers of UFO's again. I am hoping to get some of them finished soonish. Some of these may get wrapped back over and started again as something else. Let's see: I will finish off the green based one (right) and the one on the front left but the middle one is just a ball I use for laying out new patterns and the one at the back is Joan's stitch along I still haven't finished. I don't like the colours so it will get wrapped over or pulled out and something else done on it. Also you can see through the bag my latest thimble bead almost done, this is the item closest to finished so this is the next thing I'm doing.

Now that I look at the photo it's not too many UFO's... I just have to put out of my mind all the crafty things I promised to do for everyone just now. [Just kidding people... you know who you are]

I am looking for C10 projects to make right now. I need two awesome temari to finish off my JTA requirements. When I started the C10 above I planned to use it as a JTA submission ball but in all honesty I did a terrible job of the stitching and when I tried to diagram the pattern... well let's just say I couldn't without just redrawing exactly what was in the book. I like to make my diagrams from my understanding of the pattern rather than just reproducing one verbatim* from the source.

*I know this means word for word... is there a term that means picture for picture?

I had a Chinese hacker attack on one of my 5 email accounts twice last weekend. Grrrr!!! I don't even recall opening or clicking on anything dodgy recently so goodness knows how it happened. I want to apologise if anyone got a weird message from me... I wasn't even aware of it until some kind folk began to email me to tell me what they received. I've changed everything, every password for every account and my modem and anything else I could possible think of and now I scan every hour (instead of once a day) for potential problems. There seems to be a lot of nasty Internet goings on at the moment so let's all stay alert.

Thrilled all over

I have a few temari UFO's kicking around but my arm has been too sore to settle to them. Here is my latest temari. I really enjoyed working on this one and just love how it turned out. It is inspired by a pattern in Cosmo 4 p24 #6 (pattern p52). I changed the colours a little from the original ball because I wanted it to really pop with rainbow brightness. After I stitched it I was unsure if I had got the rainbow colours right... despite just coming out of winter here I haven't seen any rainbows for a while.

I really like this eye catching cheery little C8 fellow. I think I have 3 all time favourite temari that I have made so far (I mean those I worked out on my own rather than asking for help on) the other two are.

This one is a C10 and it is almost an all over design. My other favorite is below, a S16.

I'm sure I see a theme... they all have blue on them. I've stitched the last two many times, and I think I'll make the top one again in graduated shades of colour to see the effect.  Hmmm what colour might I use? Can you guess?

Till next time... just keep stitching!

3rd time a charm??? Yes it is!

I did it. And here's the proof. Finally!

I do really love this design. Believe it or not I am about to begin it again on a white base ball... as soon as I wrap it that is.

3rd time a charm???

A while back I stitched a ball from Cosmo 2 page 1. I really love the design. I thought I had done a good job of it and decided to make it again in paler colours.

As I laid down the final round on the new ball I realised that I had done something wrong.  I then discovered that I'd made the mistake in reverse on the first ball. Oh my goodness! How did I not see it before? Can you pick the mistake? I bet you can. Here is the sample ball from the book.

Now here is the first ball I made. Can you see the mistake?

Here is the new ball. Now setting aside the fact that the colour palette is different, can you see the new mistake?

I'm sure you worked it out. But incase you didn't, here is the problem.

Look at the top layers of star points in the original photo you will see that one side lays over the top of all the pentagon sides. In the first attempt  I managed to get most of my top points underneath (instead of over) the pentagon sides on most of the 12 star shapes.  With the second attempt I did actually think about the need to weave the top layers so you can see that most (but not all of the points are laid over the pentagon sides. I'm not sure how I missed this crucial element when I first stitched this design. Maybe it is because I tend to follow the instructions until I think I've got the idea and then put them away. I don't recall even looking at the original pattern for my second attempt. Which was a big mistake because instead I chose to refer to my own pattern notes (which didn't account for this part of the design element as I hadn't noticed it at the time) and the actual ball I had previously stitched. It was only when I noticed that the weaving was different in some sections that I referred back to the image from the book. Oh well you live and learn I guess.

I have another ball wrapped and ready to try this pattern for a third time. Here's hoping I can get it right this time! I'll post a pic when it is finished.   See this post for the 3rd ball.

Something in the air??

This week I have moved very slowly along. I have stopped and started and been distracted all week long. I haven't finished anything much. I remember someone else mentioned having a fit of procrastination (Jane maybe) and I must have some related bug. Perhaps it is something in the air, maybe it is due to being so over productive recently, maybe it is denial... I need begin to take action on all my big plans... or I'm going to get myself in all kinds of trouble with deadlines soon.


I built 3 shelving units for my craft room (with the help of my hubby and son) this means no more piles of boxes stacked up and the one you want being at the bottom. So everything is much more accessible. Next week I'm going to relabel all the boxes and rearrange them into categories (sewing/soapmaking/beading/temari).

I'm working a C10 temari but it is going really slowly (snails could stitch it more quickly). The design is not difficult, and I have stitched it before. This time it will be pale colours on a dark blue base and marked with blue metallic. I have also tried out some of the new goodies I got from Japan.

I made a nice yubinuki from the hardcover book and used the silk wadding for the base. I really like the outer curve of the thimble. I haven't been able to get such a nice shape just using cotton thread or felt as the padding. The design is new for me as it involves a little bit of weaving. The stitching on this one is a bit dodgy but I actually got the concept of the design and will probably make this one again. Due to the weaving it is ineligible for Mamercerie's share your thimbles this month. If I get time I might be able to make another this month, the prize on offer is lovely (as always). I will need to make up some more thimble bases, almost all of the ones in my stash are used. I can't believe it really, I never thought I'd get through them all.

Look what I found

I have been digging through my box of temari looking for examples of C8's that I have made. I came across these ones that I haven't shared before.

This one was a little sad attempt at an interlocking band design. I think it was from TK or from Debi's notebook. Either way it didn't work out so I added the flower design as pictured and on the other end I did a strange looking herringbone flower. I didn't immortalise it in picture. I tried again on the next ball. It didn't turn out right again... maybe the woven sections were done too close to the 6 part triangle lines so the shapes didn't quite turn out as they should have.

Oh well I still like it... I was also experimenting with variegated thread... did you notice? I always wonder when it is right or wrong to use a variegated thread. These look ok.

I really like this one. It is from TK. I had this base ball wrapped in Yellow for ages! I could never figure out what to use it for. Inspiration! this design said 'yep it might just work'.

This is one I have been working on this week. Strangely enough a similar ball came up in a question this week on TC. Isn't it strange that out of all the temari makers, in all the world two people should be working the same (or at least very similar) ball at the same time.

Pattern play

I have been working on some patterns this week and have stitched several balls to see how the colours effect the design.

Here is the first pic.

I stitched the light pink one first. I adore the colours and think the background sakura shape the emerges is amazing. I stitched white, yellow and green on this one with Nordic Gold #4. You can just see a hint of the sparkle in the center. The next ball was the mauve one. This one is cream and 2 shades of purple with Nordic Gold #10.  I think the metallic was a little too bold for this design, still nice. The last ball is the cerise one. Stitched with white, yellow and navy and Nordic Gold #12. Which mix of colours do you think works best? I think my brain is drawn automatically to the light pink one because it is more likely to exist in real life. How often have you seen a cerise or lilac coloured sakura flower?

Here is the next pic.

I made the blue one first. I always think of stars being in oranges and yellows on blue backgrounds. I wanted to try to break the mental mould so I chose 3 colours at random from my wrapping threads and decided to stitch them. First I made the one on the far right. It is kind of a burgundy shade and has a lipstick pink, orange and pale yellow. I quite like this one in real life... it is much brighter. Next was the grey one. It is made with sky blue, lead grey and steel blue. It is really cold looking. The last ball I made was the coffee coloured one.  It is stitched in 3 shades of pink.

Which one do you think is nicest? I think my brain prefers the blue/orange one, but my heart can't really choose between the 3 others as they all seem to have such a different feeling.

Last pic for today.

These are the flip side of the balls in the previous pic. It is interesting that while I really couldn't decide on my favourite for the other side, I definitely prefer the ball in the top left. I really like all of the balls but this one really says fiesta to me. What do you think?

Rush rush rush.

I am hurrying to get everything done this week. I have a new round of Temari 101 classes underway and a one day workshop booked in about 10 days so it's all systems go and full steam ahead too.

Yesterday I wrapped 12 white balls for the workshop. The bowl looked very boring so I've put in some patterns I've been playing with which are my effort toward some new beginner ball patterns for future classes. Can you spot the weird thing in the photo, besides the dodgy lighting? (the answer is at the end of this post)


How to come up with a new pattern? I wouldn't feel right teaching from other people's patterns so I always endeavour to come up with something original. This can be very tricky because, let's face it, Temari making has existed for several hundred years and so it must be very difficult indeed to arrive at something absolutely unique. In addiction there are so few resources for Temari makers (especially in English) that we must all be following a similar 'artistic consciousness'. Still I do try... The first thing I do is get out every book I have and leaf through the pages looking for inspiration.  Next I get a feeling for an element I want to incorporate in the design... then I go for it. I don't make notes as I go... after the ball is finished I make retrospective notes and then see if I can do the same ball again from the notes.  I also 'tweek 'as I go and make reedits along the way. This is  probably completely backwards to the way everyone else does it... but it works for me. 

I wanted to do something with stars, hence the two attempts above and also something floral is always nice so there is the Sakura shape too. I usually teach a really simple Chrysanthemum ball as part of every class, no skips just up and down, but I think it is time for a change. I like the Sakura but want to work on the star a bit more the outer star needs to be a bit fatter and the inner star needs to be thinner.... or something.

I also squeezed in an hour or two at the Bassendean textile workshop today where we learned finger crochet. I made a few strands of it to contribute to the city logo mural the organisers are making.

Photo Answer: The front blue ball is casting a white reflection on the bowl. I photo shopped it in from another picture I had taken because the blue ball is actually one ball with two different patterns. I nestled it on top of a white ball. Did you get it?

Second C10 for 2010

The second C10 for 2010 is from Cosmo 2 featured on Page 3 is ball #14.  As you can see from the inset picture it didn't turn out exactly right.  There are several factors that I think contribute to this. 

1 The ball was perfectly (insert not 100% but pretty darn close) round but was marked at the pool while watching swim classes and chatting to folk - so the marking is a bit off. 

2 The colours are not as striking in contrast as the original.  The orange should have been a deeper shade.

3 The measuring from center was not spot on and also the mari is different size than the pattern.  So the problem is that the pink diamonds were not started in the correct place so the open space is too big... then the burgundy diamond was a little squeezy and the orange hexagons did not meet in the centers of the diamond. 

Actually I could probably go back to this one and stitch some more around the hexagons to bring them more toward the center but there are 20 hexagons and the space between the diamond is a little tight to be stitching in so I will probably leave it as is... sigh... a lesson learned.

New Temari

Following my grand plan for making 15 each of C8s and C10s in 2010... Here is the first C10.

This temari is featured in Cosmo Book 2 Page 1 Middle.  I have included  the picture from the book as an inset into the pic of my interpretation.  I thought it turned out a bit too bright when I completed it at 2am this morning... but now I have seen it a few times in the daylight ... I quite like it.  The base mari was 2cms smaller than recommended in the pattern so the hex and pentagon are a little crowded but I still like it.  My next temari is also going to be a C10 from the same book but this one will be number 12 from page 3.  I will post it on completion... it may take a while as I am currently translating the pattern into English  :-s

In other news we are about to expand the book range in our supplies store... To have a look at the range click the link on the left bar.

Now there's some nice lint balls!!

I had been saving dryer lint over the winter months and have recently worked my first temari using them as the core material.  I made the mari back when the TC Thread Challenge began so I was inspired by pink and purples (not what I usually stitch with).  The temari on the left and right have been detailed in previous posts but the central one was made during Christmas week and is based on Ice Crystals from Barb Suess' book. 

One of the ladies from our May Temari 101 class called saying she was having trouble with the stitches laying flat on this pattern and (although I hadn't stitched the design before) I offered some advice that I thought might help her.  As it turned out what I suggested did help when I used the same advice to stitch this ball.  I admit that while I don't actually like how my ball turned out (the colour choice and lack of sparkle is at fault not the design) I think I will try it again at another time.  I tend to stitch designs as pattern blocks (work up one shape then move to the next... I like to achieve in blocks) and as this one is stiched in woven layers (all the shapes are stitched in each round). 

I am trying to use up the Patina from our thread challenge.  It is lovely but too thick, I much prefer the rayon sold in our store. I did attempt to ply the Patina down like Debi A did in her challenge ball but then tried to stitch instead of wrap it. BAD MOVE!!! It didn't work for me at all!!! I just ended up ripping it out and doing this design instead.  I hate to waste thread so I put all my rip outs into my lint bag for another mari. 

A note on  using lint for the base... I wrapped 'Goldilocks' balls during my experiment with lint.  The first one was too soft, the second (of course) was too hard but the third... it was .... just right.  I have been experimenting with several core materials including shredded paper (not yet stitched on) but I must admit I am a rice hull girl at heart and it is my preferred temari core. 

Well this is my last post for 2009 so have a safe and happy New Years and catch you back here for 2010. Wow I can't believe I just wrote that... 20 something years ago I remember a group of friends working out the ages we would all be in 2010 and how old it seemed.  Now it doesn't seem too old at all. 

My new 'stitching' years resolution is to get out my list of designs to try and make 2 a month... that'll take care of 24 out of the 100's I have on the list... oh and to finish the quilt I began in 2007... still only 100+ blocks to go!!!!

TC Thread Challenge Ball Number 2

This is the progress shot of the second ball for the TC 2009 Thread Challenge.  It is a pattern on page 53/55 from 4837704867 (click link to go to my book post, it is #10 on the list) The division is a bit dodgy (see note below about core materials) and the mari is smaller than the recommended size so I skipped one row of colour.  I used Nordic gold in Purple and Pale Gold and the two colours of Very Velvet Petite.  I considered using the Mandarin Floss but thought it would be too blue. I also thought of plying down the Patina to outline the shapes but thought a contrasting colour would be better.

All said I am pleased with this ball even though it has some very obvious flaws.  It is my first dryer lint ball and was a little squashy and slightly off round... I am so used to the firm base provided by using rice hull for the core.  The texture of the needle going into the ball took some getting used to.  I missed the usual noise of the needle occasionally brushing the hull.