Temari Class

Our new class is almost here.... it begins on June 7th and we called it Temari 101. The very basics of this craft will be taught over 3 weeks (approx six hours in total).

I have put together a starter kit for students attending with all kinds of goodies (some of which can prove challenging to find in Perth). The emails have been flying, instructions printed and mud maps have been made. We will explore contruction of the mari and learn 4 designs. I hope to post pictures later.

If you live in Perth and are interested in attending a future class email me for details.

Craft Fair

This week Miho, Suzanne, Naoko and I went to the craft and quilt fair here in Perth. It is amazing to see all the beautiful craft things on show to buy. The quilt display was stunning and there was bling a plenty in the bead section. The stalls had all manner of interesting things to buy from buttons and ribbons to ironing stations and long arm sewing machines.

It made me think how wonderful the craft of temari is. You don't need an iron or a machine, there are no special adhesives or frames or a ton of space to make temari. All you need is a needle, coloured thread, pins, something to make a ball (and you can even use dryer lint for that) and a little imagination. All the bits can fit into the tiniest bag which you can take anywhere.

Better yet temari is a fantastic way to meet new people. There are groups in Yahoo you can join and make contacts around the world. You can make temari at the park while the kids play, on the train or even at the Doctor's office and you'll find people can't resist asking "What you are doing?" You find that what starts with temari can end with a new friend.

I couldn't imagine taking my quilting or scrapbooking out with me, so thank goodness for temari. I wonder if we might showcase temari at the craft fair someday in the future.....

New Temari Completed

I finally found a cute bowl to display assorted temari. It is on my coffee table and really brightens up the room. I plan to make various themes of temari to swap them through the year.

The red and white Temari are inspired by a photo from Glenna Kipp, a fellow member of temari challenge. My version is a little different to the original but I just couldn't resist stitching this pattern for the Kiku. I love to work out patterns from a photo, it often requires many rip outs but there is real satisfaction in getting to the goal.

The cerise, black and white set of three were made for my Mum's birthday. She also makes temari, and I gave them to her as pictured above. She decided that, although my plan was for her to complete the largest ball, I should complete it. So the picture below shows the set finished. It was an exercise in doubles, each ball has twice the volume and divisions as the smaller size. So the small ball is 3/4C rice hull and six divisions, medium is 1 &1/2C and 12 divisions and large is 3C and 24 divisions. The stitching itself is exactly the same on each ball, but you can see how different each ball turns out.

The "stitching" on the largest ball was given for Mother's Day instead of the usual bunch of flowers. I'm amused by the fact that Kiku is Japanese for Chrysanthemum which just happens to be the type of flower grown and traditionally given in Australia for Mother's Day.

Inspirations Magazine Article - Barb Suess

Our favorite temari author, Barb Suess, has an amazing article in the current issue of Inspirations Magazine (Issue 62 April 2009). If you have purchased this magazine, and arrived here at our blog, welcome to a whole new world of stitching.

Check out our blog for links to places to buy temari essentials in Perth... if you live elsewhere (in our big land down under) I can probably put you in touch with resources in your area.

Also for Perth folk come and join us to stitch temari. Just send an email for more details. We all get together weekly to discuss temari and work on new projects.

Till next time... off and stitching...

Happy Easter!!

Well 2009 is 1/3rd gone already. Can you believe it? I began making Easter egg shaped temari but then I decided to make a few teeny temari (1 inch) and got hooked on them. So here is the pic of the first egg shape I made and below is the box of bonbon sized balls. All but two were made by me. There is a yellow and blue asterisk star made by my seven year old and also one in oranges made by Miho. Mostly they are experiments in Kiku stitching. I tried different weaving and spacing etc to learn about how each would look. Hope you see something you like.

Yes it is true. All stuffed into a ferrero rocher box, 32 teeny temari of all descriptions. Below I have taken some closer shots of the box's contents.




Sorry the shots are taken sideways as you can see there are about 4 temari waiting to be stitched but I am amazed that the box is full. Every Tuesday our temari girls asked where are your new temari?? But I have only made a few new large ones lately.

I really like to play with Kiku and see how each pattern emerges. In the various teeny's I have experimented with Cottons in Floss, Perle 8, Perle5 and even a polyester Gutterman thread which comes 30m on a green spool (I think it's for embroidery) Miho's ball is in the picture here (bottom right in red orange and yellows)


I picked up a box of 40 Perle 8 threads from ThreadArt (in USA) and they work quite nicely for stitching this size ball. You can use a tissue as the base for this size (and make them even smaller) but I have used a 1 inch foam core and when I purchased a bag of 20 I spent a few nights wrapping them in yarn then thread ready to be stitched.

OK, did you spot the little face? I was just about to mark the ball up and my son grabbed it and started sticking pins into it. He asked me to stitch it up and this is what we came up with. We think this is how he looks 1st thing in the morning - before we wet his hair down! Also in the top right of the same picture is his 1st temari.

So the egg idea didn't take, but I did get into the chocolate thing for Easter by using the chocolate box. I have a bunch of egg shapes wrapped in the wool layer so maybe I will try again in a few months.... and be ready for next year....
Rebecca