Quilt for Japan - finished and sent!

It's been a long time since I made a quilt and finished it so quickly. After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Luana of Equilter.com asked for donations of finished quilts to be sent to Mission of Love. They are putting together a container full of all sorts of things to be given to the disaster victims. I made a blue jean quilt with raggedy seams on the outside. It was so much fun to make and easy!

Blue jean quilt with some temari touches

Of course, I couldn't resist adding a few touches of temari...

Hooray for Fiber Art!

Packing up three of my temari babies for the gallery in Indiana

A few weeks ago, I got a a surprise email from The Art Museum of Greater Lafayette to participate in the Making It In Crafts National Invitational exhibition beginning May 20 and running until September. Exhibiting temari as fiber art has been on my to-do list for a long time and I'm thrilled that the guys from the museum in Indiana discovered my website and sent me an invitation! I only wish it were closer to North Carolina so I could go and see all the other fiber art on display. 

How to stitch on a thread-wrapped temari

It seems like forever ago that I wrote a bit here about how to make a temari ball.

Wrap your temari with blue thread.
Stitch happy, sloppy daisies with pearl cotton.

Spring has arrived here in North Carolina and I thought I'd share how to stitch happy little flowers on a temari. No adding guidelines or anything. Just use your embroidery skills, some pearl cotton, and bring these bright colors into your crafting. The daisies are made by stitching detached chain stitches or lazy daisy stitches grouped together in a little circle. Then you fill the center with yellow French knots. You'll need to use a sewing method rather than a stabbing method since you don't have access to the wrong side of the work like in regular embroidery on fabric.  A couple of tips for you ...

New temari goodies!

Gosh, I am so busy with family life, trips, and getting ready for class that I haven't had any stitching time at all. So sad! But it's like Christmas around here with all the boxes of temari goodies arriving for the Blue Stars Online class.

Just for this class, I ordered a retractable tape measure with a temari design.

Tape measure with temari design

 I have a few extras that you can find in my shop.  You'll also find some of my favorite threads by Rainbow Gallery.

There are 2 kits left (of 72) for the Blue Stars class. Going, going........

Get one before they are gone. I'd love to stitch a combination 10-division temari with you.

Blue Stars Online Temari Class

Extra patterns

Blue Stars Online Temari Class - only 5 kits left

Registration closed Sunday with 67 students - what a wonderful group of stitchers from all over the world. Since thread comes in boxes of 12 skeins, I've ordered enough supplies for 72 kits. So, there is room for 5 more students. If you would like to join, please send me an email. This is your chance to conquer that C10 division!
Class description for Blue Stars 

Weddings and a Prom

Not much temari for me right now. We are celebrating a couple of weddings in our family so I'll be traveling. This weekend my daughter attended her senior prom. There is so much to do with her during these last couple of months in high school. Exciting but busy, busy, busy! Here she is - all dressed and ready to join her friends...

Part 2 - April Temari Challenge - 20 Faces to Fill

Quick post today. This is a follow up on the challenge 20 faces marking sampler going on in TemariChallenge Yahoo group. 

Here are a couple of photographs of the temari I stitched with this marking:

Variety of herringbone designs stitch on 20-faces temari

April TemariChallenge - 20 Faces to Fill

Marking a combination division temari is often daunting to beginners. But after stitching a simple division temari, with one design on the north pole and one design on the south pole, the next challenge is to mark a temari that has more than two faces. There is an easy way to skip ahead to marking multiple faces on the ball without going the route to the combination divisions.

20 Faces Special Marking Temari

There are many ways to add support lines to further divide the ball. I'm leading the April challenge in our TemariChallenge Yahoo group to share how to turn a simple 12-division into a temari with 20 faces.

I hope you can join us!