Trumpet fanfare! Here is the first Yubinuki

OK brace for something scary! Yes it is time to share the first thimble that I tried making more than 12 months ago.  But before I do that I will show number 14 and 15.

It is getting really cool here now and so I thought stitching in oranges and reds would help me warm up... of course it didn't warm me up but the thick socks and blanket I had over my knee did. Here is number 14.

This one was made as usual on a 6cm form which was divided into 12... but when I realised 4 colours wouldn't work on 12 division as I wanted, I divided each section which resulted in my first 24. I quite like the result. Also I hardly stabbed myself at all because I wised up and stuffed the inside with padding which allowed me better grip on the thimble. It is still a bit gappy but I think that is down to not marking out divisions until the first row was stitched so the stitching wasn't as even as it should have been.

And here is number 15. Don't you love the little flower pins? I made them because... because I just had to have some super cute pins. The thimbles are so cute but it is sad to stick boring old pins into them when they are converted into pin cushions. I made about 30 pins after dinner last night.   My hubby and his/our best friend both thought I was nuts... but they just don't get 'it'.

This one is my regular 6cm size divided in 10. I started out following Debi's recent Thimble Thursday post but when I got to the 5th row of blue I thought "hey, how would stripes look?" So that's what I did. I filled one section with the fuchsia then stitched 5 blue, 3 fuchsia and so on... Now I know it takes me about 21 stitches to fill my sections. As usual I didn't measure after removing the form I just eyed the distance. I'm getting a little better at this I think.

OK so here it is... as promised... the nastiest little thimble I ever saw!!!     Disclaimer: I cannot be held responsible of any injury caused by viewing the following images. You may experience temporary blindness, stomach upset or some other sudden malaise.  You view these images at your own risk.

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Here is the run down of errors made with my 1st thimble attempt:

I had used the wrong thread (believe it or not I used multiple strands of floss)

I the needle I used was too big (thickness)

My base was not wrapped thickly enough (and I think it was done in computer paper not card stock)

My base was also too tall so the proportions look weird

My bias binding was sewn together and created loads of lumps

I don't even remember knowing that I had to pad it so it is flat flat flat

I had never seen anything in English about thimble stitching apart from a page on temarikai so I pretty much made up what to do after seeing thimble stitching on a temari ball.

So the moral of the story??? If at first you don't succeed, try try again. And then put it aside, do some more research, find some fantastic mentors and try again.

Thanks to all the members of Yahoo's thimble ring group for helping me find my way.  Without all your hard work, support and guidance I would have stopped at making Thimble #1.

Now go and have a cuppa, a bit of chocolate and zone out... you earned it!