BIG news for JapaneseTemari.com! Have you met Dana Watson?

You probably know Dana from my emails telling you about her classes in North Carolina. She has a new series of classes for beginning temari makers starting soon in Chapel Hill. Dana teaches at Thimble Pleasures, a quilt shop that is the best in our region. It's worth a trip to see all the colors and prints of fabric, including a large selection of Japanese fabrics. Here is a link to the next session of temari classes.

I met Dana when she came to a book signing at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh when my first book, affectionately now know as “Colorful Spin" came out. Then, like so many of us, she became addicted to temari and showed up in all my classes. I’ve been envious of her perfect stitching and sense of color from the beginning!

Dana has spent time in Japan teaching in the Sendai area and she recently returned from a trip back to Japan where "the goal of the trip was to do ALL THE THINGS, and we sure did try." Her trip was packed with days on the move. Read Dana's blog to find out more about her trip as she gets the days documented and the photos sorted for her blog.

Great news! I will now be able to dedicate all my temari time to stitching and writing because Dana is taking over the job of maintaining the temari shop on Etsy.com. Yay!! When looking at my website or Etsy shop, you will not notice any difference. The only clue will be if you check the postmark on your order and see that it was mailed from Durham or Chapel Hill instead of Raleigh. Dana will be working hard to make stocking supplies and shipping kits and other temari goodies go as smoothly as possible. We will both see your order, but now Dana will fill it and mail to you.

While Dana is handling all the supply mailing, I’ll be able to use this newly freed up time to write more patterns and develop more classes for you. It's a great opportunity for each of us to become more involved in our favorite craft. I'm really looking forward to our cooperative efforts to make stitching temari fun and easy for everyone!

You can contact Dana directly at dkwatson@gmail.com should you want to request special supplies. We'll also both see conversations sent through Etsy, so that's another good way to reach us.

Chip the cat and temari

From Mary Jo....
"His name is Chip. And he is a sweetheart for a cat. And actually both of my cats are very good with all of my stitching - my Temari balls, my counted canvas work, etc. Except when I'm power wrapping my Temari balls, they just watch respectfully and I hope admire it."