Here is my new finished project: baby birth record. I am planning to finish it in a frame, but have not decided type and size yet. I’ve changed the font, took one from Cross Stitch And Country Crafts magazine. Since it is in Russian, the name of baby is ANNA, not AHHA ;)

I would never show you my first temari, because it is terrible! But since every my friend who wants to try is afraid to fail, I used to show them my firstie ;)

Here is the story.
I was reading russian community of japanese learners and one member mentioned temari and asked everybody if anyone know how to do it’s base. I wondered, what the hell is temari and why she is asking about it in study japanese community. So I’ve searched the net and discovered the whole world of making this gourgeous japanese toys and best site on temari I’ve ever seen: TemariKai.
It was a great day - 8th of May, 2006. I’ve spended half a day reading TemariKai site and then decided to try to do one. I was eager to start, never read whole detailed instructions, so my first temari came out such a freak :)
I assure you, other’s firsties are much more beautyful, mine is exception. I hope this story will give you inspiration to try!

Hi, all! I am working now on rather complicated Pentagons division of temari tutorial, but it will be logically correct to do tutorial on making temari base first.

Please, consider this tutorial as one of many ways to do base. When you try it out, you’ll feel where you can make changes to improve process for yourself. You can use other materials, of course, mine are not obligatory.

I like the idea of recycling in crafts. I am as an environmentalist always thinking about giving new life to old things. I always use plastic bags and waste cloth to make temari base. In this tutorial I’ll show you how I use them.

Take plastic container of chocolate egg with surprise. Put some noisemaker like button, coin or sea shell into it. Read the rest of this entry »

To be continued, over 50 temaries to go…

Here is my very first cross stitch project:

It was a kit of russian manufacturer Riolis. I wanted to choose small kit or pattern with cuddly cats, but liked the cunning face of this vulture very-very much ;)

This is my second finished cross stitch project.
I was invited to wedding party of my japanese teacher and her fiance – Japanese too. They are working here, in Russia and decided to have wedding party without returning to Japan (I bet it was much and much cheaper then it costs to run such a party in Japan). So I’ve made this album cover (click to enlarge):

Cover is made from dark blue fabric and linen stitched cloth as an applique. Here is a close-up for cross stitch:

I took this scheme from the italian magazine Susanna. But I had to do some changes. In the first place it was a scheme of a framed picture for the wedding registration table like Name & Name & Date & Today is wedding which is placed near the guest book. I’ve changed the scheme to apply to the photo album. Also I’ve decided not to do backstitch. It is not about time. Actually this linen fabric is equivalent to smallest size even weave cloth, so I had to stitch in 1 thread (I’ve almost broke my eyes). Stitches on this project are very small, so backstitch would come out rough and inaccurate. I’ve kept backstitch on faces only and made the contour for the scroll.
Newlyweds was happy to receive it and promised they’ll put wedding ceremony pictures into it ;)