Unexpected surprise

Yesterday when I returned from doing volunteer Math Goals testing for my son's 4th grade class my husband handed me a package that had arrived while I was out. See 'when you do good you get good'! My Mum is right on that one.

Kristy's gift temari to me

The package was from Kristy in Qld. The moment I touched the package (before I even shook it or squeezed it) I knew what was inside. There were three spools of surface wrap thread that I had admired on the beautiful ball she'd sent to me at Christmas. What a darling you are Kristy! Thank you so much for thinking of me and taking the time to post me some of this gorgeous thread. I love it!

My hands were already aching because I had re-made three temari in the last 36 hours (two C10s and a S12 and I still have a couple to go), and although I should have had a rest tonight I found a yarn wrapped temari and I couldn't resist covering it in this beautiful coloured thread. The of course I wanted to stitch it, something simple, but I wasn't sure what.

I reviewed all my old temari in boxes recently before donating a bunch of them to my son's school, and one part of a pattern stuck in my mind. The green layer from the Mema is a Star ball that I purchased form Barb Suess a couple of years ago. So I decided to try to work out the green layer from the ball (which is always displayed in my lounge room). When I was done with that part of the pattern I added some 6 point star bursts (Matsuba) to fill in the open areas. When I finished my temari I sat back and thought gee that is pretty neat, and an original design too. Well yes and no, it is original in the sense that I altered a design and added my own embellishments but actually I realised that there was a ball pattern out there that is strikingly similar. I got Barb's blog update about her Echo Star class beginning tomorrow and took a visit over to her Esty site. I discovered that Barb beat me to it and she sells the pattern on Esty but when I compare the images side by side they are actually different. Just goes to show you can't claim something as an original design too easily in temari making.

Update on Chrismas baubles

Earlier this week I posted about the temari balls I've been making for the neighbours in my street. I am about half way done with this project now. Here is a new progress shot. I can see from the finger marks on the plate how many times this project has been moved around the coffee table.

All the small size temari are completed. Three of the medium size are also done and another has the obi band done and is awaiting the pole designs. There is still only one large temari finished, I am saving the large ones to stitch last. I still can't decide whether to string the sets of 3 together to make one graduated bauble or if they would be better as 3 separate pieces. I am leaning toward the prior but I've never strung temari together before so I need to work out the best way to do it, also I am trying to decide if they would look better hanging smallest to largest or largest to smallest... and lastly would I use a tassel and which thread would I used to make it?

The more I stitch these tiny temari the more I am falling in love with them... they're just so darn cute. I've been chanting to myself  'I am making these for all our lovely neighbours' from time to time as I stitch but truthfully the neighbours could possibly end up with baked goods for Christmas instead of these temari.

Happy stitching!

What's stitching this week.

I've been minding my Step Nana this week while my Mum and Step Dad have some well earned R&R. Seeing as she is 92 I have had a fairly quiet week, so between making cups of tea etc I have had plenty of time to stitch. If only the lighting here was better!!! Every light fitting has at least 4 globes but they don't cast as much light as I'd like... of course at home I spend most of my stitching time under a bright work lamp. The only decent lighting is in the entry hall which has the most beautiful light shade... but I need to wear SPF30 to sit underneath it. Here is a picture of it.

This week I have finished a JD Sakura design that I began a few weeks ago. You might remember the series I was doing with colour experiments. So here it is all in muted tones of beige and tan with a brown obi.

I have also had a go at one of the yubinuki featured on Debi's Temari Train Blog. It was a little gappy in one spot but still turned out nicely. I think the main problem (besides my poor measuring) is that I tried to make it from memory of the instructions... instead of from the instructions. I got there in the end, and this was one of those times when blind faith is required as the pattern doesn't really emerge until you're almost done stitching. I love how it turned out and will probably try it again but the thimble Debi made this week is calling to me. It is so beautiful.

I have also been working on another pattern from Debi's Notebook for the birthday challenge set up by Kristy in QLD over at the TC group. It is a really cool pattern... here is my version.

This last pic is a ball I finished a while ago but forgot to add to the blog. Can you tell it has been cold here? All reds and oranges on this ball trying to keep warm.

When I get home I need to go through all my boxes of temari and photos and look for my C8 and C10 balls. I hope I can find some, I do try to regularly gift my craft items away. Our home is a single level house with no basement and no attic (like the majority of homes in Perth)... therefore no huge amounts of storage. This means the more I want to create the more I need to gift away.

Post note:  While I was away my dear husband took it upon himself to clean up our office and my craft room. Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh no!!!!!  The questions I had to answer about all those supplies!!! Such as why I had 75+ 3inch Styrofoam balls, 20meters (at least) of assorted fabric and 8kg of soap. Hope he didn't find the 15 balls of wool and the 100's of buttons I have in one of the crates... He probably did but I guess he gracefully let it slide.

Linda's Basketweave ball finished

I stitched up the rest of this ball tonight after dinner. The original ball is stitched in Yellows and Blue/White on a mid blue ball. My ball is a bit different... I seem to have a red and orange this going at the moment. The basket part was pictured in this post. I figured that stitching yellow would be too much and due to the base colour being white... I wanted to avoid white too. So I pulled a bunch of blue tones and a pale grey.

I also wanted to encircle the kiku with the green instead of breaking up the kiku with it. I left off the french knots. So here are the final pics.

I quite like how it turned out. I will make this one again on a larger ball, so I have more space at the pole to make the french knots. 

 Now I have 4 UFO's to complete. There's the last colour variation of my JD series from last week, a S6 spindle design, a S12 braided kiku and the project I was working on from Cosmo 6. Then I need to get going on my ball I promised to make with Jane and I'd also like to try out a ball that Rod has worked on recently... They are both on my to do list.  Oh I forgot I am also part way through Joan's weaving stitch along on TT..

C10 Sampler Ball

The sampler ball I've been working on is completed.  The idea of undertaking the sampler ball was to experiment with a bunch of patterns and ideas that I wanted to try out but didn't want to commit to stitching a whole temari of.  I stitched 6 designs on opposite poles and this is what it ended up looking like.  I could have done 12 designs on this ball (or changed the colour sequences) and maybe next time I do this experiment I will.

I think I am officially over this set of colours and they are going into the back of the drawer for a nice long rest. I like my experiments with the layered star and lazy daisy.  I can't say I've seen  a temari with this type of layered daisy stitch (of course I am sure it has been done) and I have seen the other patterns in pictures but some required me to work out the stitching path like the Sakasa Uwagake Kagari (top left face) thankfully I could work it out this time since learning about this stitch when undertaking the Cosmo #3 P3 project. 

My next project is to measure the Sunflower #2 class ball and mark it out for stitching... but right now I have a hot date with the grocery store before school pick ups so I better run.

Braided Kiku Challenge Ball

I have completed the ball for TC's current challenge. I used cream, light and medium pink, lavender and deep purple. There are two sequences from light to dark stitched on both poles. The obi is made of many rows of purple Nordic Gold then secured with silver. Here it is.

I really like how it formed a stacked flower effect.  At the beginning I thought of trying to stitch an obi of interlocked diamonds so I planned on just one sequence, but as the pole design emerged I thought it needed a more simple obi. This meant I should have done two rows in each colour as there would be too much room at the equator.  Solution? Run the exact sequence again.

I found this stitch interesting .  Tension is definitely something to keep an eye on. I wonder how it would look starting further out from the pole? I like the lattice look created.  Most other braids I have seen are more tightly stitched (maybe it is because they are stitched with double thread or maybe they are just nudged up more closely than mine) but I like the openness of the weave.

This ball is the last one from my recent experiments with dryer lint. I found it at the bottom of a bunch of stitched balls... yippie! Ok it was purple but at least I didn't have to make a base.