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Saturday 16 May 2009

Craft Fair

This week Miho, Suzanne, Naoko and I went to the craft and quilt fair here in Perth. It is amazing to see all the beautiful craft things on show to buy. The quilt display was stunning and there was bling a plenty in the bead section. The stalls had all manner of interesting things to buy from buttons and ribbons to ironing stations and long arm sewing machines.

It made me think how wonderful the craft of temari is. You don't need an iron or a machine, there are no special adhesives or frames or a ton of space to make temari. All you need is a needle, coloured thread, pins, something to make a ball (and you can even use dryer lint for that) and a little imagination. All the bits can fit into the tiniest bag which you can take anywhere.

Better yet temari is a fantastic way to meet new people. There are groups in Yahoo you can join and make contacts around the world. You can make temari at the park while the kids play, on the train or even at the Doctor's office and you'll find people can't resist asking "What you are doing?" You find that what starts with temari can end with a new friend.

I couldn't imagine taking my quilting or scrapbooking out with me, so thank goodness for temari. I wonder if we might showcase temari at the craft fair someday in the future.....

Friday 15 May 2009

New Temari Completed

I finally found a cute bowl to display assorted temari. It is on my coffee table and really brightens up the room. I plan to make various themes of temari to swap them through the year.


The red and white Temari are inspired by a photo from Glenna Kipp, a fellow member of temari challenge. My version is a little different to the original but I just couldn't resist stitching this pattern for the Kiku. I love to work out patterns from a photo, it often requires many rip outs but there is real satisfaction in getting to the goal.





The cerise, black and white set of three were made for my Mum's birthday. She also makes temari, and I gave them to her as pictured above. She decided that, although my plan was for her to complete the largest ball, I should complete it. So the picture below shows the set finished. It was an exercise in doubles, each ball has twice the volume and divisions as the smaller size. So the small ball is 3/4C rice hull and six divisions, medium is 1 &1/2C and 12 divisions and large is 3C and 24 divisions. The stitching itself is exactly the same on each ball, but you can see how different each ball turns out.

The "stitching" on the largest ball was given for Mother's Day instead of the usual bunch of flowers. I'm amused by the fact that Kiku is Japanese for Chrysanthemum which just happens to be the type of flower grown and traditionally given in Australia for Mother's Day.