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. 

As I have said in other posts, this level of certification requires me to write up 6 patterns.

And I have completed my fifth pattern; a C8 based upon a pattern done by a FB friend in the temari group I belong to. She did this for a family member and after she posted the pictures, someone else in the group asked about the pattern and there wasn't one so I wrote it up. The diagram took 3 tries in Adobe Illustrator so it looked correct and conveyed the correct information. Then the write up took 4 versions to edit it down to one page per the JTA requirements. 

This pattern is called Stained Glass Roses.

This lesson covered (literally) all over designs. These two temari are the same patter but when stitched with different colors, they look very different. They are both marked as a C10 and then continuous starss are stitched around/over the pentagons.