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!!!!

What's new pussy cat?

This last 7 days have been a whirlwind of anticipation, happiness, worry, sadness, joy, hope and relief.  The net result is we are again glad for the marvels of modern medicine, hopeful that all we endure really is part of the great plan and trusting that we can make great lemonade anytime we are offered lemons.

One of my best friends almost always begins a conversation with me by asking 'What's new pussy cat?' Well what's new is amazing... actually it's whose new... Miho (my SIL) has delivered their new son.  The labour was surprisingly long and Suzanne (our Mum) and I stayed for support.  He weighed in at a sumo sized 4190g (9lb4oz I think) - no wonder the labour was so long.  He is gorgeous, just like his big sister and even bigger cousin.  Miho did an amazing job using just a little laughing gas and nothing else.  We are so very proud of the amazing person she is.

Here in Perth we have newborn screening tests and thankfully when our newest fav little guy was screened he raised a red flag.  So all were packed up and rushed into our local children's hospital for futher tests... Very greatfully he is heading in the right (safe and healthy) direction (30 years ago the outcome would have been gravely different and we are thankful for all the medical wonders we take for granted most of the time).  Whilst his Mum and Dad were busy worrying, not sleeping and pacing the hospital floor yesterday, I was blessed to have my niece for our first overnighter together.  Getting her to sleep was a bit tricky... it took me a while to remember which rocking action is the one that makes toddlers fall asleep in your arms (it is figure 8's in case you are wondering) We made penguin waffles for breakfast and I can't resist sharing this pic of our happy bunch.

 I usually don't put personal pics on this blog but this one really is gorgeous and shows pure joy... over the smallest of things... homemade waffles for breakfast.  They were all just out of bed about 10 mins and my neice is doing her famous "Yatta!!!"  My son is stamping his own 'style' on being in the pic and DH is surprisingly chirpy for 6:30am on a Saturday.

In the few quiet times we had this week between hospitals, school, shopping, cooking for christmas and doctor visits... I managed to bang out another ball with my temari challenge challenge thread - no this is not a misprint ;).  I have done the pattern before but I do love it and this time I just used the mandarin (bamboo) floss, RG nordic gold purple and added some threadart perle 8 cotton. This ball was the smallest I have done so far as a C10 and it must have taken me 4 goes to get the marking close to right.  I didn't count the rows just filled up the 6 part triangle spaces and moved on.  I think by the end I may have gotten the hang of  keeping the floss flat (when that's what my actual intention is).  Anyway have a quick squinting look so you don't see too many of the flaws...  It wasn't quite finished when this pic was taken but you get the idea.

It was also the last week of school for my son (and thousands of other Aussie kids) as the next 7 weeks are summer holiday.  Next February there will be a new teacher and new room/grade etc so when I asked what do you want to give your teacher for Christmas I was surprised when he said "a nice temari please because she wont already have one".  He picked one from all the temari I have made and I was amazed that he picked a previous version of the same design as I had been stitching this week. So here is the temari for his lovely teacher Ms Murray.  I don't usually do the tassles but this one was for a special gift. I added two gold stardust beads and used gold twilleys goldfingering for the hanger and tassle.

We got our forcast for Christmas day tonight and it will be 36 or 37C (close to 100F) I am so glad that 2 of the desserts i am making are icecream based!!  What will the weather be where you are this Christmas?

Well that's the wrap up... At least all that I am sharing today. I have been up for 18 hours (after a 4 hour night sleep), made waffles, choc chip cookies and  pizza on homemade bases for dinner, danced around the whole house with my niece, coloured in lightning mcqueen pics and played wii fit and watched a movie with my son, travelled 2 & 1/2 hours and fought the Christmas rush at the Joondalup mall for a dippin dot fix for the gang... and now I think I need to sleep.... in my bed rather than on my keyboard so until next time....

Cosmo 3 Page 3 Headscratcher

Since I purchased the Cosmo books I couldn't get a particular pattern out of my mind. It was a real conundrum. This week I decided I just couldn't stitch another ball if I hadn't stitched out this design. In the top of the photo you can see a scan if the original picture. It had no instructions at all and wasn't even mentioned in the text.

I had a feeling it was a C10 and the stitching area was on the 6 part triangle. Also I could see that the shape was a mitsubishi stitch. I researched Mitsubishi stitching and discovered that the design is made by stitching and linking square or pentagon shapes. This meant that all the Mitsubishi were connected and this was not the case in the photo so this theory was a dead end. Additionally there was no way to get the points to meet inside the C10 pentagon if I followed this method and stayed with my C10 original thought.

What I didn't know was that when you see a shape in temari it is not always stitched the way you might expect and this can lead you to look for an answer to a much harder problem. I decided that the points were a kiku of sorts because I thought it would be too hard to stitch a triangle and then diamond shapes over the top. It must have been a continuous stitch. I had seen a kiku stitch similar to this that is worked inwards towards a center but it was always stitched into a star shape.

SO that was it I was firmly stuck. So after many weeks of trying to decipher its' secrets with little luck I decided to call on the brains trust at the Temari Challenge and Talk Temari groups. Thankfully the folk were more than happy to help out :)). I was on the right path but with the assistance received I was given the final piece of the puzzle and that was confirmation that what I had guessed was correct and that the stitch path could be adapted from a star shape to a triangle. The stitch used was Sakasa Uwagake Kagari.

I can now say that I have completed this ball and am moving on to my next challenge. Thank you to everyone that helped out on this one. If you are interested in temari and like to join the groups online the links are here http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TemariChallenge/ and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/talktemari/.