The christmas spirit

Just thought I'd share with you some Christmas spirit from a small village just a few kilometres from here.  Each year around the beginning of December the people of Tarrington have a Lanternenfest.

Lots of people decorate hay bales.  It's quite a big thing for the local area.  People come from miles around to check out the hay bales on the sides of the road.  I have also seen bus loads of people.

Some residents go to heaps of trouble when decorating their bales and use lots of imagination.  It's become quite the thing to "check out the bales".
This year I actually remembered to take the camera.

This is one for the kids.  They can stand behind the figures and put their faces at the holes and have their photos taken....you know the sort of thing.  I even saw some Japanese people doing it.  Cameras flashing and lots of giggling.  They were really enjoying themselves.  After all, that's what it's all about.

                                                Just love the camel!!!  

                               And this one I thought was very appropriate!!!

Clever aren't they?  There are also Santa's in all sorts of poses, a huge letter addressed to Santa made out of square bales.  There are some that are made from other materials, as are the wise men with the camel. I also saw a large angel that I would have liked to get a photo of but it was a bit too busy to stop.  This is all on the main highway between Hamilton and Warrnambool, so it can get a bit hazardous at times.

On a Friday evening early in December, (or maybe the last one in November), there is a fete type affair in the local church grounds.  Everything from a sausage sizzle (with Bratwurst sausages) to a competition for the adults which involves holding a beer stein straight out at arms length to the side of the body.  The winner is the person who can keep their arm straight for the longest amount of time.  Sounds easy doesn't it?  Try it.  It's hard going. 

People gather around this event and decide among themselves who's going to win and who's going to be knocked out first.  Good clean fun.  I went to the Friday night fete a couple of years ago.  It finished with the littlies parading with their lanterns.  Then there was a church service where the kids did the nativity scene. It's nice for the kids to get involved.

So much for the Lanternenfest.  I just couldn't resist the "Needle & Thread".   Cheers.

The Older We Get....

Where has 2012 gone?  It seems the older we get, the quicker time flies by.  I feel as though Xmas will be over before I realise it's already arrived.  Instead of the days running into each other, the weeks have now taken over.  Old age is upon me!!!

So much has happened in our lives since my last entry (which doesn't really seem that long ago).  My D.B. has had a stint in hospital in Melbourne, which turned out not to be as bad as we were expecting, thank goodness.

During the last 4 weeks we have had 3 trips to Melbourne and then decided we'd take some time out, and went over to Adelaide and back home through Mildura.  This week we've almost stayed home, just doing 2 short bursts of 100kms each.

During our travels I have met 2 very talented ladies who have both stitched temari balls.  The first lady I met lives in Central Victoria, and she invited me to her home so we could share our temari interests.  Boy, is this lady talented.  Apart from her temari she does so many other beautiful craft works from quilting right through to exquisite painting.

We spent a great day together and I came away with lots of new ideas.  We are to meet again soon in my neck of the woods, so I'm really looking forward to that.

While in Adelaide, I had a contact name of another very talented lady, who also has done temari and yubinuki, which I was really interested in learning more about.
Although she was extremely busy with wedding preparations and renovations, she offered to spend some time with me, which was great.

Temari and yubinuki were "been there, done that" crafts for her.  I found it hard to understand how anyone could not stitch temari after starting such a wonderful craft.
Never the less, this talented lady has moved on and is now doing Japanese Embroidery
and her work is absolutely out of this world.  I was enthralled with all the treasures she has embroidered.  Just amazing.

I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to meet 2 such talented ladies who were so willing to welcome me into their homes (being a complete stranger) and sharing all their work and ideas with me.  My thanks to you both,  D.L. and B.S.  I really appreciated your time and hospitality.

All the time we were away, I was still absorbed in temari stitching.  Surprise, surprise...
I have just finish an "Unfolding Kiku" that is a Barb Suess creation, well, more like a Masterpiece in my opinion.  I just love it.  It's the 1st time I have ever tackled a C10.
I have to say I didn't think I'd ever get past the marking stage,  but I finally did and I'm pretty pleased with my finished effort.  I can almost hear my mother saying "self praise is no recommendation" or "pride goeth before a fall", but I still feel pretty chuffed.

I'll put a pic of it on my next blog, as it's still in my camera and I still don't know how to transfer photos from camera to computor!! I did find a photo of a few of my early temari, so I'll add those this time and by next time I may know how to do the transfering bit.

Best wishes for the festive season to you and yours, and I hope the coming year keeps you safe, happy and healthy as well as giving you spare time to keep stitching.

Well it's been quite awhile since my last post and lots of things have happened in that  time.  We have had a few trips to Melbourne and we have both had some awful coldy flu bug for the last 7 or 8 weeks.  So we have been out of circulation, so to speak.

During all this time, needless to say I have still be stitching temari balls. Surprise, surprise!!

I have now been getting all my pre wrapped bases (maris) from Rebecca in Perth.
She is very obliging and sometimes I wonder if she thinks that I think she has nothing else to do but wrap maris for me.  I really do appreciate all she does for me and I
think if I had to start making a temari ball from scratch, I'd go back to sewing.

Over the months of temari stitching I have become rather picky with some of my very early temari balls.  I have used some coloured maris and threads that I have decided I don't want to mix in with my colour scheme.  I have also improved in my stitching techniques and can see heaps of boo-boos where I'm sure there is scope for much improvement.

As a result, my city friend, Mrs S.S. wants all my discarded temari balls.  She was appalled when I started pulling all the stitching from one temari I wasn't happy with,
( which I have to say is certainly not a good idea, as it leaves lots of dirty looking marks all over the mari, so it's best to put it down to experience and start a new one).
She said "I'll have all the ones you don't want".  So now we have a really neat arrangement.  If I'm not happy with a temari I've done, I give it to her and she pays for another mari.  I'm rapt with such a nifty plan.

Last time we were in Melbourne I took a photo of my "mishaps",  although I still have quite a few to add to her collection.  All I have to do now, is work out how to get the photo from my camera to my computer without outside help!!  Well that'll be something!!!

I just have to try Temari

                                     
I became so engrossed with temari that I seemed to spend hours on the computer checking out everything I  could find.  The local library didn't have any books on Temari, but managed to get a couple in.  I spent heaps of time studying those and became completely absorbed with the whole subject. 

My biggest problem was that I couldn't find anyone who had even heard of temari, let alone anyone who knew where I could learn how to make a temari ball.

I finally found a site in the U.S. and ordered some prewrapped balls, which are called maris.  A really smart move, when I didn't have a clue about how to even start stitching one!!!

With that order I had enquired if they knew of anyone in Australia that did lessons on temari, and was given the name of Temari Addict in Perth.  Perhaps I should have said Victoria, Australia!!

I did make contact with a lady called Rebecca from Temari Addict and she was very helpful, and gave me a contact in Melbourne who did workshops from time to time.
I was finally getting somewhere, and after all Melbourne was only 300kms away. Just a tad closer than Perth!!

I asked my dear friend, the city Mrs.S.S. if she would do the lesson with me.  She said she'd be happy to have a go. I was so excited about finally being able to learn how to stitch a temari ball. I was like a child waiting for Santa.  I hardly slept the night before.
I didn't know it then, but I think I had already caught the temari bug.

The morning finally dawned. "Today's the day".  Sounds sad for an adult doesn't it, but that was honestly how I felt.  Full of great expectations (to borrow a phrase).

 After only a 2 hour lesson I knew I had caught the fever.  When we returned back to my friends house, I had to keep stitching until I had finished my temari ball.  Then I could hardly wait to drive back home so I could start on one of the balls that I had
ordered from America.

For those of you who stitch temari balls, I'm sure you know how I felt.  It certainly does get you in.  For those who haven't tried, you don't know what you're missing.
It's so rewarding to stitch one of these beautiful balls.  It certainly doesn't matter if it is  a simple design or a complicated design, they are all beautiful.  You can stitch the same design in different colours and it's amazing how it can look so different from the first one.

Here is the pic of my very 1st temari ball.

 Little did I know how close my craft life was to changing.


My DB and I decided that a doona cover in purples to match the purple geisha girl would give a really bright touch to the bedroom and link the 2 pieces together.  So the search began for fabrics that matched in with what I had used with the purple geisha girl.

We both really liked the "Garden Path" design and decided that as the 2 doona covers wouldn't be seen at the same time, it wouldn't matter if I did 2 doonas in the same design.  The fact that I already had the pattern pieces had a slight bearing on my choice of design.  After all,  "I'd been there and done that".

As I had used only 4 colours in that panel,  I had  quite a task ahead to find enough different fabrics to do another Garden Path.  So the search began.  My local fabric shop has a good range of Japanese fabrics for a country town,  but  not a lot of purples, and I had picked what I liked best for my geisha girl.

Just as well my DB is a very placid and patient man, because the next shop I knew of that has  a good range of japanese fabrics was at least 175kms away...each way...that is.  So armed with my pattern book and the remnants of fabrics we set off to hopefully succeed in this mission.  Mission accomlished.

Just after I finished this doona cover,  my local  fabric store owner, Mrs N asked me had I ever heard of Japanese Temari Balls, which I hadn't.  She said she was reading a book that made mention of them.  After she descrbed them to me I couldn't wait to get home and start googling.  Wow.  These balls are just beautiful.

And so the seed of temari fascination was sown.  Little did I know what lay ahead.

But before I could do anything about temari balls, apart from drool, I still had a slight problem.  I now have 3 geisha girls,  3 doonas and 2 doona covers.  So I still have to make another doona cover,  but the Temari time clock is starting to tick loudly.

Here is the pic of my 2nd doona cover.

Sorry about the few faded looking sections at the bottom,  I'm still learning how to take a decent photo.  Good or bad photography aside,  I hope you like my doona cover.

Getting started

I'm delighted that you're visiting my blog.  I hope you'll find it interesting.

My Temari experience had a rather strange begining.  I was in my local fabric shop and saw a panel set of 3 japanese geisha girls by Lonni Rossi.  If you are not familiar with them, they are the black outline of 3 different geisha girls.

One of our towns very talented quilters, Mrs N, had 1 geisha panel that she had appliqued hanging on display in the shop.  It was stunning.  I just had to have a go at them, although I had never appliqued anything in my life before.

Luckily, my local fabric shop carries a great range of japanese fabrics, and home I went with a "new project".   When I have a "new project",  I tend to become extremely single minded and tunnel visioned,  to the extent that meals can almost become non existent!!

I finished the 3 panels and I was rather pleased with my 1st attempt at appliqueing.  Mrs N very kindly painted the faces white and embroidered the lips red for me. 

My DB decided they were worth having framed.

Our local framer, who is an expert in his line of work, had to make a box frame for each panel as they all have some embellishment that sits up from the fabric.  He did a beautiful job and we were both rapt.

Now, where to hang them?  We decided that they'd look good on our bedhead wall.

So there they hang, with nothing else even resembling a japanese theme in the room.  Oh, I did have a large frame with a display of combs that I bought in China in the mid 80s, so they were a bit like something that would blend into a japanese theme.

The next project is about to begin.  More on that next time.

Here are the pics of my 3 geisha girls.