Beginning temari

In one of the odd coincidences of the needlework world, Mary of Needle 'N Thread posted about her purchase of a temari book today, and Jane of World Embroideries has been posting about temari lately, too. Allow me to contribute to the discussion!

In yet another online class through Shining Needle Society (can you tell I'm addicted to these classes?), I'm learning to make temari with Barb Suess. The class will have one main temari (Morning Glory) with two overlapping techniques, and two additional "challenge" temari, each with one of the two techniques, but with less instruction.

The first lesson came out this week. This week's lesson is all about making the thread-wrapped core and simple 8 division guidelines. Here you can see my three temari cores in different states. The far left is a part of a stocking filled with rice hulls. The middle ball is a little further along, having been wrapped with yarn. The ball on the right has the outer thread layer and the guidelines in metallic thread, waiting for next week's lesson.Mary, in case you were wondering, it took about 2-1/2 hours to make the core and put guidelines on it. I expect the next couple to be a little faster, now that I've done it once. I don't blame you for "cheating" by purchasing the mari already in this state, especially if you just want to try this technique out!

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Erin update: 1 week down, 11 to go in the cast. She's adjusting well, and is slowly getting back to sleeping as well as she was pre-cast.

Check out the hot-pink knees on the little girl who looks a bit tired!

Happy Dance: Floral Rondel

Hooray! Here is my completed Floral Rondel, designed by Judy Souliotis. It's my first finish since Erin was born 5 months ago, but then I started it after she was born.

As you can see, when you have the correct color silk to finish stitching what you've started, it works up beautifully. Fortunately, the nerve flare-up that was making it difficult to work the couching stitches has subsided, so I was able to finish this Friday night.

I'm very pleased with how this came out. I took the class primarily to try out the Sha fabric and to stitch one of Judy's projects. I didn't know I'd like the finished piece as much as I do!

Now to figure out where to put it after it's framed. It's a bit small to hang by itself, so I'm going to have to find some companion pieces in my collection of prior works.

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Erin update: Aside from a bit of expected soreness, Erin is recovering well from her surgery. We're all still getting used to the cast, but she seems comfortable enough in it.

Home again

Thanks again for all of the well wishes! Erin did fine overnight, and showed she was breathing well and eating well, so they let us go home. She's now laying on her play mat, enjoying being in a familiar place and playing with her familiar toys, without being hooked up to wires and tubes! The cast does not seem to be bothering her much, aside from when we have to do diaper changes and I need to clean near her incisions.

As for me, I hope to catch up on sleep and finish Floral Rondel over the next day or so.

An update...

Let me start by saying thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers sent our way today. We are grateful for all of the support.

Erin is fine, but she and I are not home as we'd hoped. I'm writing this entry on a cool internet/movies/TV setup in the cheldren's area of the hospital. Unfortunately,the screen in our room is VERY blurry, so I apologize for any missed key strokes!

When we went into the surgical center this morning, we'd been hoping that the doctor would be able to manipulate Erin's hips into position without surgery. It was not to be. The doctor found that there was too much muscle, etc. in the way, and he needed to operate.

The procedure went smoothly from that point, until they tried to bring her out of anesthesia. That didn't go so well.. It's a long story, but it ended up with oxygen blowing on her face, her finally waking up fully SIX hours after sergury, and staying in the hospital overnight for observation..

Right now she's sleeping, and aside from an occasional whimper, seems to not be in pain.. I'm going to try to get some sleep myself...

Tomorrow is the day

I can't believe it's here already. Erin goes in for her procedure tomorrow (Thursday), and then she'll be in a cast from chest to toes for 12 weeks. :-( She's NOT going to be happy, especially since she's just recently figured out how to roll over (although then she gets mad because she hates tummy time!). Oh well. I'll try to post tomorrow night to let you all know how things went.

On the stitching front, I've been making rather slow progress on Hannah Thornbush. I'm still on band 2, and I apologize for the lack of pictures. The lesson for bands 3 and 4 came out on Monday. Only the second lesson, and I'm behind already. Sheesh!

After several emails back and forth with Denise from Threadneedle Street in Washington state, the correct color of silk I needed for Floral Rondel showed up today. Thank you, Denise! Now I can finally finish this!

Floral Rondel on hold again

Last week I mentioned that I had received the extra silk sent to me by Judy Souliotis for Floral Rondel. I was concerned because it seemed a bit lighter. That was confirmed when I started stitching with it:The new spool starts at the downward pointing arrow and continues to the left. It was strange - this spool seemed a bit more peach than pink. I looked at the two spools - full and empty. They've got different numbers! Yup. No wonder they looked different! They're different colors entirely!

I went back to the instructions to see what color was called for. Aha! The original instructions called for color A, but the kits had B substituted. When Judy very kindly sent me the replacement, she sent A. Since she's already been so kind, I'm not hassling her for color B. (And if any of you know her, PLEASE do not do so, either.)

Instead, I'm trying to buy color B, but I'm hitting a bit of a roadblock. It's listed on the color list on Access Commodities website, but I can't find it on the lists at any online shop. I'm working with one shopowner who is trying to order it from Access for me. If this doesn't work, one blog reader has offered to trade her spool from the class kit with me. Thanks, Kate!

As for that little bit of stitching with the new color? I've taken it out. It just looked odd.

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Erin update: Our little girl has been having reading lessons at Grandma & Grandpa's. See?

And this picture just makes me laugh. It looks like she's terrified of her own feet!