Finally a Finished Object

I've been working on this for a long time. First in the back of my mind. Then I strugged with the design. It was a much belated birthday gift for a friend--World Embroideries--so I went to her blog for ideas. Finally, I "borrowed" a photo off of her blog and adapted that. I liked the overall composition, but I changed the colors and sized it to fit the towel.

I did my best to translate temari from 3-D to 2-D, while still looking three dimensional, and also being usable as a dish towel, washable and all of that. It journeyed to London and back with me and this is pretty much the only thing I worked on while I was sick. Now that the recipient has it, I can share. For a while, midway through, I thought it was ugly and hated my color choices and stitches--I did a lot of ripping. Now I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

Party Time

Tuesday night's holiday party for my EGA chapter was great fun. Everyone got a table favor--mine is below. It was filled with chocolate kisses and floss for stitching. There was also a giveaway to one lucky winner at each table--various gift certificates were the prizes.I also received some lovely gifts from friends: This luggage tag was stitched on finer linen than I can see. I love the quiet colors and traditional design. I think it's going to hang in my office for now.I love this sparkly holiday temari ball from World Embroideries. She is so very ambitious!Here is a Brazilian embroidery ornament from a good friend--she used a pattern book from the 70s for the design. Many many techniques were featured in the gifts and ornaments exchanged at the party. I was great fun to see what everyone was getting!My draw in the ornament exchange was the charming embroidery below--I got a bonus. I adore the little beaded ornament that was in the bag with the ornament. I am so very lucky! They were made by Karol of Rosebud's Stitching. The room where we had our dinner was beautifully decorated and looked out over snow covered fields. This is the best start to the holiday season possible!

Klutzy Autumn

My klutzy autumn continues. (My toe is still many shades of blue/black.) I slipped and in trying not to do the splits, tore my groin muscle. It's a bit achy but not what I'd call painful. But it appears to have destabilized my artificial hip and the last Wednesday morning something went "pop" and I couldn't move. At all. I'm up and moving again, with help. Hubby has been absolutely wonderful. That's why I was silent last week--I was at home in bed wrapped in ice. I see an orthopedic doc later this week. Preliminary x-rays look okay. We think it's just unhappy muscles and tendons, but anything with my hip pushes all of my panic buttons so I'm being careful.So, I've been busy, since sitting is about all I can do, unless I'm laying about. I made this on my mari. The paper core is not nearly as nice as the rice hulls--the needle and, more important, pins can't penetrate it. But I learned more stitching this one. Both ends are the same.I finished two more kissing pillows and have a fourth underway.Before I fell, I got this block for Deep River County Park pressed and blocked. I'm not thrilled with the green I selected, but otherwise I'm happy. I have a second one cut out but I think I need to find a different green.I had this preprinted ornament panel from Jo-Ann's so I stitched them up.This felt ornament completes the batch of eight that I cut out and began in June. I have more felt and thread but don't know if I'm up to doing more.

I worked on many other things, too, but wasn't up to getting pictures yet. Satin stitch leaves in many shades of green on an old stamped pillowcase for a garden border. I picked up the crewel needlebook that had been languishing in my pile. I designed and stitched four ornament samples for next month's class at the YMCA--I also cut out sequin waste to use to decorate them and I cut out felt shapes for backgrounds. Busy hands help the time pass.

cool stitched stuff

Before I post more photos of more cars (yep, another car show this weekend), I thought I'd post some really cool needlework. Mostly not by me. This is my sister-in-law, wearing a sweater she knit over a lacy top she knit (her show-n-tell is mostly wearable) holding a sashiko pillow by our niece. three at once.This is a runner my sister made. I adore the bright colors.Here are a couple of close ups.My sister also made this cute veggie tales quilt.
On Friday night I made this mari. Step one for a temari ball. The center is shredded paper from my office shredder. In a knee-high nylon with a run. It's bigger than I intended but I made some choices I'll make differently next time. I began with black wool, then some thinner navy wool yarn. That was fine. I topped it with random thread--mostly in peaches and greens. Very pretty on the blue wool but, hmmm, when I went to wrap the white top layer, I began to see the error of my choices. I ended up using two spools of white thread for the top layer, just to cover up all of those dark colors. I've learned.

Now I need to decide what to do with my big fat mari. I spent some time browsing in my book thinking about what I like and why I like it.

Temari

Over the last two months at Needle Artisans, World Embroideries has been teaching us a simple temari design. She made all the mari, we just got to do the fun stuff.This is my first side. It's what I understood from the class.For side two I decided to switch the colors. And I also decided to look through the book on Temari I have. Hmmm, the instructions looked different so I tried it. The result is very different. The stitches are exactly the same, there's only a slight change in where they are placed (inside or outside the previous row). Here's my obi. My marking thread shows through but not regularly. I wasn't sure which way to go with it (try and make it show all around or try to bury it, so I just left it.

It was really fun and I got a tad obsessive about seeing what how the next row looked. I also found it very hard on both of my hands and I ached.

But I already want to redo this using the things I've learned. She said you could use shredded paper for the center of the mari. I have lots of shredded paper....

Stars!

This wonderful Star Temari ball was a gift from World Embroideries. I couldn't wait to get my paws on it! It now resides in our living room where I can see it all of the time. It's surprisingly heavy and solid and very cool--thanks!

Well, the transmission problem looks likely to be the expensive one, not the cheaper possibility. We're now looking into who we'll have fix it and where. My husband has a scanner that reads codes so we knew it was the transmission, but a friend has a better one that reads more specific information and he used it to diagnose the more specific problem this weekend.

We took ourselves to see Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino Sunday. It was a very good movie. It hit me hard, but then most things do. But it was very good.

I've worked my way through about 7/8 of Drums of Autumn. I find myself picking up words and speech patterns from the book. By the time I finish rereading the last two I'll likely have a Scots accent! Even knowing what happens, it's a riveting read. (I generally rocket through Diana Gabaldon's books the first time I read them because I have to know What Happens. My second time through I go slower and savor.) The movie and book filled up a lot of my weekend.

I did pull out another older project. Actually, this one is newer than most in my pile, but it's been on my mind. I began this piece in a class by Catherine Jordan last April at the EGA Great Lakes Region Seminar (blogpost here).

(BTW, this year's seminar is coming up soon--check it out here. It is very definitely well worth it.)

I made a lot of progress, but since it's mostly layers on top of layers, it may be hard to tell. At seminar I completed most of the tree trunks and began to stitch leaves on the trees. I began with the biggest tree in front and then realized that may not be the best idea.

I left that stitching in but rethought the rest and began from the back, stitching the leaves I thought would show through or be taller than others. Then I added leaves for the middle layer of trees. Now I'm back toward the front and am working on those leaves and have begun thinking about the foreground. Even if I mostly cover an area that's already been stitched, things peep through and add a feeling of depth.

Last night, just as I lay down in bed, it came to me how to stitch the mossy path--underside couching. It worked well with the very fragile velour thread. I got up early this morning (very rare for me) to stitch the path. (I was tempted mightily, but I knew that if I got up last night to do it, I'd probably botch it from being too tired.)

Taking photos like this is also very helpful. Looking at it I can see areas where I want to go in and add more background or change the shape a bit. I was worried that the little tree on the far left would be too bright but I think it's okay now that I've seen the photo.

I've found it interesting to note that most of what I'm picking up now is on canvas. I wouldn't have put needlepoint at the top of my list if asked but, well, there it is!