Now that the course work and my patterns, for the Level 2 certification are done, all I can do is wait until February to submit and then in May/June I will be notified. 

I am now doing some temari for the fun it. First up is an advanced C8 from a Japanese book. This was a stitch-a-long in the temari group, back in September. It is call Ninja Star and if you quilt you might think of it as Monkey Wrench and if you weave it is similar to a hounds tooth.  If you don't quilt or weave, never mind!

The mari must be very round and the markings with in 1 mm or less of each other, otherwise it throws everything off.  Most of this temari is woven but a square structure is stitched on the mari thus giving a frame for the weaving to attach too. All the stitching is done with doubled thread and it is important to ensure that no twist happen as the threads are woven. 

I actually wound 2 mari. The first was too large for the pattern and I would have had to experiment to see if I could make it work with extra rows; it was just easier to wind a new mari in the correct size. After marking with regular sewing thread, it is removed later, I measured everything 4 times to make all the divisions and intersections as even as possible - lots of pins were used to indicate where I had been. Then the stitching and the weaving!

I was partway through the weaving and I almost gave up - twice as I was not seeing the design. But I do not give up and figured if it did not appear, I had at least learned what not to do. When I started the last set of wraps, the design began to appear - YIPEE.  I did have a lot of grooming to do - where you push the threads around to even and straighten them. 

​Next up, a Yubinuki base in the same colors for it. That will be my next post

The last lesson has been completed WOOT WOOT. 

This lesson is about a continuous path of stitching. In Japanese is it Hito Hude Gake which is translated to One Stroke of the Brush. In brush painting the brush is placed on the paper and not lifted until the entire design or calligraphy character is completed. In Temari, it means that one thread defines a design in a similar way.  IF this design were worked in one color, it would be one continuous thread - starting at the North pole a pattern stitched at the starting pole and then, without ending off, moved to the next section, etc until the opposite pole is reached and then the stitching direction is reversed and it worked back up and around until the starting point is reached! That's a long thread!

The temari to make for this lesson is on a C10 with Kiku's on each center. One color is used for stitching North to South and another color is used for stitching South to North.  Since learning to make the transition points from one center to another is tricky I decided that the "bonus round" would be worked first.  

For the pre-bonus round, I worked a similar pattern on a C8. This in the pictures with the green mari wrap and the orange and yellow threads. The stitched pattern is a double kiku which gives it a sunflower look. My mari was smaller than what was specified in the pattern instructions and my stitch spacing was too far apart in some areas; thus some of my points ended up not being even from pole center to center. 

The C10 temari was wound with a dark purple thread and then I used a lavender and bright green for the stitching. My transitions were better but I think the lavender gets washed out by the green. IF I do this again, I would wrap the mari in lavender and use a dark purple with the bright green for the stitching

The last temari I made for lesson 11 was a "Plum Blossom" on a C8. The lesson showed a Plum Blossom on a C10 but it was not required to do. Well, being the over achiever that I am I decided to try it and use my fancy Japanese threads - in pinks so it really looks like a plum blossom flower.  Note: Elisa of Scotland has a Victoria Plum tree in her back garden so I have seen pictures of those blossoms and so I was aiming for soft pinks transitioning to almost white.  

Since the Japanese thread is thinner than the Size 5 perle cotton I mostly use, I made the mari a bit smaller and used the thread doubled in the needle.  

This was certainly a challenge! The thread from Japan is a polyester, which gives it a wonderful shine but it loves to twist and knot so I was constantly de-tangling it. If I had taken a stitch and not realized the thread was twisted I had to pull the threads back out and straighten them so the two threads would lay flat, next to each other and also not bunch up where the stitch was made. I also uses A LOT of thread. I used for shades of pink but I used up 1+ cards of the white, there are 30 meters of thread on a card. 

When I was almost done I could see I should have spread my stitches out a bit more as there were gaps at the center points of the pentagons (where the pink triangular petals meet) so I did some extra fill at then end but still left a little gap at the very center since there really wasn't room along the sides to lay more threads. 

I am glad I did it but I should have done it once in the perle cotton to make it easier - Oh well, live and learn.

Lesson 11 YIPPEE, I am in the home stretch. 

But before we get to the pictures from this lesson, there is a picture of ALL the temari I have done so far, for the certification - the temari for the patterns I have to submit plus my bonus round and some where I did the temari multiple times because the first or second was wrong.   There are 40+ temari in the picture and that works out to be 1+ per week because we are in week 36 as of this post. Lesson 12 will have 1 maybe 2 more temari and then I can work on the submission document. 

As a child I learned embroidery, crewel work (embroidery with wool) and to sew which I really enjoy. As I got older I learned and became quite good at quilting while still sewing clothing.  

And with a love of fiber, I learned to knit, spin (but not really enjoy) and weave. I can weave rugs or "fabric" to then use as the basis of a garment. 

Along the way I have collected many things - Fraternal Organization pins, Scandinavian Enameled Jewelry, early 1900 chain maille purses used by the flappers as well as collecting gems and minerals.  Along the way I learned how to "cut" a cabochon and eventually how to set them in metal of copper, brass, silver or gold (very rarely) and then how to make jewelry, raise vessels, and do chasing and repousse. 

10 years ago I started learning about Japanese Temari and Yubinuki.

I have  plethora of books covering all of these subjects.

With the pandemic and being home for 170+ days I have been looking at all I do and I have come to the conclusion that I need to simplify my life

Let's start with the sewing. I have a good sewing machine which is big and bulky and a smaller machine which is good for workshops. I don't do a lot of workshops these days so I think it is time to sell the portable machine.

I had/have 3 looms - a rigid heddle, a 8 shaft 30" wide table loom and a large 8 shaft 40+ inch wide floor loom. At one point I also had a 4 shaft folding floor loom which I sold to my friend Yuko when she returned to Japan plus a 16 shaft table loom which has also been sold. Recently the rigid heddle loom has been sold and the 8 shaft table loom will be traded/sold this weekend.  I want a small portable loom for sampling so I don't have to setup the big floor loom and I settled on the Ashford Katy Loom which has a 12" wide weaving width and is 8 shafts plus it folds. I put the table loom up for sale and found someone who wants to buy it and she mentioned that she had a Katy which she thinks is too small. I suggested a trade and she went for it. 

Some of the knitting, quilting, and other books will also go. 

Some of the antiques I have collected over the years will also be sold.

It all comes down to do I need this stuff anymore?

This lesson's topic was interlocking shapes and getting consistent shapes too. The first patter to be completed was Puzzle Pieces on page 151 of Temari Techniques; it is a C10 with interlocked pentagons and diamonds. Then we were to do another few temari from a suggested list. I went rouge and decided to make a series of temari based upon the first one using other divisions. I then did a C6 with squares and triangles, a C8 with squares and diamonds, and a 20 face mari made from a S12 that had pentagons, hexagons, and diamonds. All 4 mari used similar colors and they all varied in size.

Then I did a fun bonus round, and interlocking all over design. For this last one I did not use Perle Cotton but threads from the Japanese assortment I bought earlier in the year.  ​I included many process shots so you can see how the final design is the result of layering the stitching

I noticed that I have now been home, due to the pandemic, for 120 days. I have left the house a few times for minor trips to do the grocery shopping, lab work required by the doctor, and one trip to work to pickup some notes I left behind under the assumption it would only be a week - HA!

I did an assessment of what has been accomplished - not cleaning the house or taking walks; but lots of lines of code for the day job, books and temari.

You can go read about the temari in other blog posts so I thought I would like the books I have read, so far. I have averaged about one per week and I leave it to you to go look them up. Many are series and they can be out of order

• The Collapsing Empire
• The Consuming Fire
• The Last Emperox
• The Sparrow
• The Children of God
• The Magicians
• The Magician King
• The Magician's Land
• Fractured Stars
• Junk Yard
• Spiked
• Splintered
• Spliced
• Goldilocks
• This is How You Loose the Time War
• The Engines of God
• DeepSix
• Chindi (started today)

Lesson 8 is continuous path stitching which is a follow on to the Flax Leaf from lesson 7. Lesson 9 is for stitching a thimble ring pattern (a.k.a yubinuki) for the obi.  And I finished lesson 8 and then just went into lesson 9 as that was what I have been waiting to do for a year when I first learned this was a required technique - because I also stitch actual yubinuki thimble rings!!  

So first up are pictures of the temari the continuous stitching which I will admit I rushed through and my teach pointed out that my stitching accuracy was not as good soooooo, it would be best if I did one of the two temari over. Which I did this past week.

For lesson 9, yubinuki obi, there was only 1 temari to stitch but I decided to do an extra temari as a bonus round. The stitching of the edge of yubinuki is different for a temari obi than it is for an actual yubinuki. Because of this, I started a practice temari to work on the edge stitch. I was almost done when I then set it aside as my stitches were finally consistent in tension, spacing and level at the top and bottom. I then started the temari again but I worked slowly and carefully and it came it really well. Then I did a bonus temari with a similar pattern but different colors.

I have sent everything off for review and I will start Lesson 10 sometime this week

This week I started to work on the last pattern write up that is required as part of the certification. A few weeks ago I was looking for something to stitch and write up and it had to be a C10 design. I looked through my books for inspiration and I came across a pattern with a stitch I had not seen before. It is a actually called a reverse kiku (herringbone) on a triangle shape. I have since fallen in love with this stitch. For a C10, I stitched it on the 6-part triangles and which framed the pentagon. I used 5 different shades of green and worked to have each of the 5 greens only once around the pentagon. I then chose 6 shades of blue and stitched a kiku in the pentagon and, again, worked the blues so the adjacent pentagons all were different shades.

I am now planning another temari with nothing but reverse kikus! 

Lesson 7 is about a stitching pattern called Flax Leaf. It is used to fill the shapes created from the division marking lines.  It can be done with simple markings (first pictures) or complex (second picture is a C8). A pine needle design is stitched and then the ends of the pine needles are stitched to the outer shape.