Temari Challenge week 2...going great!!:)

Thank you for following my Temari challenge progress this November :)

My progress after the 2nd week 

This type of embroidery pattern is known as 'Kiku' in Japanese meaning Chrysanthemum . It is made with layered Herrigbone embroidery stitch called as Uwagake Chidori  . Click on the links to see the pattern and stitching tutorial .

 

The beginning : Pins marked at a calculated distance between North pole and equator of the ball 

Embroidery in progress

Layered pattern formed as the embroidery rounds increase

On the centre/equator , also known as 'Obi' , I stitched solid square shapes with the same stitch . These solid shaped patterns are also commonly used in Temari balls

I have started using Kreinik metallic threads on my Ladybird fairy and I am enjoying working with it.

My first ever chilli grown at home :) I always had failed attempts due to flower drop problem

My spinach keeps growing big and giving steady harvest twice a week .

Hope you enjoyed seeing my Temari progress pics .

When I wrote my post today , I found a google notice about cookies notification as per EU laws . I don't even remember whether I disabled it years back while designing my blog . When I checked with my country domain , I did not see any notifications . Anyways , I have no energy to analyse it right away and make any changes but if anyone has come across it or know about any tutorial on what needs to be checked/done , then do share it .

Have a great day!
Preeti :)

Temari challenge - Week1 and few more updates :)

As you all know I decided to take a challenge to learn a new craft and dedicate an entire month towards it, this is where I am at the end of first week of November with my new craft - the Japanese Temari ball .

I have a book 'Temari Techniques' by Barbara B. Suess and I am also learning from the website TemariKai . Below is the process I followed to make the ball , enlarge image to see the text . 

Looked a happy red ball of circumference 25 cms. until I started poking pins to mark the points . Many thread loops came out and then I understood that I should wind it more tightly . I did one more round of covering with a single sewing thread . I had to be careful and slow because fast and tight winding could have cut my finger . My ball then got reduced to a firm 24 cms in circumference . 

Some mathematics is involved in creating the guidelines on which the embroidery is done . I started with an intermediate level of S16 division . The ball is divided into Longitudinal lines and an equator which is called as 'obi' in this craft .  

When I was 90% done with my guidelines marking , the metallic thread frayed and broke :( So I used Anchor pearl cotton thread in golden shade . Since the ball is small so I am going to embroider it with Anchor pearl cotton threads .

As promised earlier , here are few images of my cushions together 

 

These are the cross stitch projects I worked on last month .

Height chart :- I managed a good amount of negative progress - truncated a large chunk of tree :((((

Dimensions Kitty Litter :- Almost completed the black cat on the extreme right and started a new grey one on the extreme left . I planned to complete this project on my last Birthday but seems it might even take another birth to complete :)

Ladybird fairy :- Worked on the skin part , it will look better after back stitching .

Thanks for seeing!

Happy crafting!

Preeti