fanTASTically behind schedule

I signed up to do the TAST challenge this year and the first two weeks were no problem, but my time has been really restricted the last few weeks and while others  are catching up, I am falling woefully behind.
I hope to catch up over the next month or so but I know there is no time to spare before the end of the month. I also haven't started the HHG stitch along on TT (which is now finished so I'll be doing it as a stitch behind).

A girls day out

This weekend we had surprise house guests. It was wonderful to share our home with these two lovely ladies. Ms S, a dear friend I made in my childhood, and her daughter Miss C invited me on a girls shopping day on Saturday. This is something I very rarely get to do (I have two boys in my home so shopping for non-boy things is always a solo expedition). We shopped for an outfit for Miss C's upcoming school ball. We did some recon on the Internet on Friday night... so many dresses to choose from, we got ball gown overload before we even hit the stores.

We travelled all over the metropolitan area heading East, West and South, but the PERFECT dress was found. Pale pink taffeta, with a netting overlay on which the most exquisite embroidery is featured. I admit I had to blink away several happy tears when I saw how beautiful Miss C looked in her dress.  We also had a delicious afternoon tea at Choux Cafe in Nedlands.

What a blissful weekend. Thanks girls for staying with us and I'm counting the days until April when you both relocate to Perth. Happy dance!!

No it's not dejavu

Last October the ladies at my temari class requested a date for another class in February 2012. They liked a temari I had taken to show and decided it would be great to try out. No problem, I really enjoyed making this design and for once was really happy with the colours and how they turned out.

In late November someone agreed how lovely the temari was and I sold that ball at the Hinata Gallery, small problem, but not to worry, I took a few pictures before the buyer took the temari away and this week I have been making some replacements.

Of course it has been restitched (above) in the original purple colour-way but I've also made one in shades of slate blues. The blue tones are lighter in real life, more frosty looking I guess. Just what I need in such hot weather.

I really love how this one turned out (is it wrong to be in love with your own temari?) but this one really does make me feel happy all over.

On the road again.

This week has been one of those weeks when jobs get started but not finished. I have lots of different things that need to be done (all of equal priority) so instead of knuckling down and doing these things I drove to Collie on Monday and Dwellingup* on Tuesday. Actually these road trips do meet a goal (getting the odometer on our car to meet our tax obligation) but it is also nice to be in a cold car on a hot day.

Collie is a small timber and mining town a few hours south of Perth on the inland road. I guess I had been there as a kid, because my Grandmother's sister lived there with her family so it stands to reason we would have visited there. Collie is about 2 hours (200km) from Perth down South West Highway. The drives were quite pleasant with very little traffic (not even one Police car to be seen on Monday) so I got to drive almost all the way with my cruise control running.

The countryside seems to be overrun with orange and black butterflies (Monarch) right now. They are simply unavoidable and sadly there is powdery evidence on the car grill that I smashed a few of them in my travels.

I saw several closed down craft stores on the way which made me feel a little sad but also led me to wonder if crafting is dying out in these townships or are people just buying more online/when in Perth.

I saw a church spire as I drove into the valley that is home to the township of Collie and decided to drive around until I found it. It is decidedly flash for a township of about 7000 people. Click the picture to see the stained glass panels. Just lovely. I think we might need to take an overnight trip back to Collie to explore the area a bit more.

Harvey and Brunswick (on the way to Collie) are in dairy country, most of the area is still fairly green despite the long hot summer we've had. I saw some interesting sights along the way including a most unexpected Camel grazing in a paddock by the road. I stopped to take this picture of cows going to the Brunswick show. Classic!

* Dwellingup is the tiny township just South East of the E in the map. Full of glorious large timber forests and one elusive raspberry farm that I will find someday.

Wrap Happy

Last week I had a custom order for 16 temari bases. The customer had a specific colour palette and size requirement so that the temari will fit in a cabinet being made to house them.

I can't wait to see a photo when these temari are stitched and sitting inside their new housing. Hopefully my customer will give me permission to post the picture here.

Keep Calm and Carry on...

Today I was surfing the net for a few minutes and came across this site that lets you design your Keep Calm and Carry On... poster.

So what did I decide to make? You don't need to guess too hard right?

I also made two batches of tomato pasta sauce again today. Miho purchased another $6 box of tomatoes, so I spent part of the day chopping, stirring and bottling sauce... another 22 bottles.

I also wrapped and marked my next two temari bases which I hope to start stitching on tomorrow.

Finally a new temari project to share

I've been working on these temari for ages. They look like a multi petalled flower. The blue one is really large and although it is STILL not finished I decided to share it anyway. This temari design is a big commitment despite the fact it is a simple division. This temari took me a week of dedicated stitching back in October to get one side done (I've misplaced the threads for it so I need to find them before I complete it). One of my temari friends shared a photo of a temari made with this pattern. It took me a good while to decipher the pattern, but I think I've got it.

The temari below is my take on making the temari less consuming to stitch. Fewer divisions on a smaller temari means it is quicker to stitch up. Still it took me a week to stitch this one. There are two different sides on this one. Can you spot the difference? Besides the one on the left being slightly out of focus that is.

 I am about to begin a new version of this one with a couple of extra divisions to make it look a little more lacy.

School goes back in 3 days so I will have more time to dedicate to stitching again.