Ma Mercerie

Design Memo -- Harlequin (or nine-patch diamonds)

2011-10-09T14:35:00.000+09:00

I have received requests now and then for the design interpretation for certain designs, mostly advanced ones, and while I do not wish to encourage you to try the new designs while you are still not ready for it by posting advanced design here, it's not very practical for me to answer to the requesters by sending an e-mail one by one and some cases the requester did not provide me with the way to contact them by leaving a comment anonymously without the link to their e-mail addresses or blog posts/web pages. So I have decided to give you a design memo of the most requested one today. Although I freely share the design memo with you, it is still my intellectual property and I would like you to respect it. It is not my intention to imply that any one of you would abuse it, but I just wanted to make a statement so that no misunderstanding would arise at later date, is all. You would be horrified to know how serious the copyright infringements are on the web. Having said that, here we go:

Skill Level: Advanced
Required technique(s): Forward stitch, back stitch, and weaving
Number of stitching path(s): Two and then later becomes four
Design period: Two sections
Design repeat: Two sections
Number of round(s): Single
Number of colour(s) used: Four

This design is a kind of my original. The reason why I affixed "a kind of" before "my original" is I cannot be certain that anyone had ever made it before I did but I stitched the design without referring anything, so this is "a kind of" my original. I call it "Harlequin" because it reminds me of Agatha Christie's "Mysterious Mr Quinn" which based on the Italian masked character, Harlequin.

The design consists of the centre part of nine-patch diamonds and framing and you have to determine before you start stitching how many stitches you are going to make in one section.

My framing takes six stitches so subtract six from the number of the stitches in one section and the reminder is the number of stitches you are going to stitch for the centre nine-patch diamonds. It may not be very convenient number for you to form nine-patch so you have to adjust it by:

1) Adding or taking a stitch or two from the total number of the stitches of the section. Although this is easiest, you may have some difficulty to pack extra two stitches in a section, especially the section is already too packed to start with.

2) Changing the number of the sections i.e. narrowing/widening the section. Please note that the number of the sections has to be an even number as "rounding" will not work for the design. Also please note that the number of the sections will affect the shape of the diamonds, i.e. the more sections, the skinnier the diamonds become.

3) Making the ring size smaller/bigger/shorter/taller, possibly in conjunction with changing the number of sections. Although It involves most tedious work, you get the best result. However, if your thimble has to be in the specific size, then it's not an option for you.

Start stitching with two paths and weave 3x3 as you go to form nine-patch's. As this is nine-patch diamonds, the colour of the second stitching path appears at the four corners and centre small diamonds, so make sure to stitch with the right colour for each path.

Then start stitching the framing commencing from both sides of the portion you have already stitched, therefore the number of your stitching paths now becomes four, stitching alternatively and all in the same colour. Stitch a row in the first path with back stitch starting from the left side of the first path of the diamonds, then in the same way stitch the third path, then the second path with forward stitch starting from the right side followed by fourth path. Thread the different colour and stitch the second row in the same fashion, and for the final third row, change back to the colour you used for the first row.

As I stitch the diamonds portion all by forward stitches so the threads lay slanted in the top and bottom triangles however, if you opted for back stitches, back-to-back with forward stitches, then it appears as V-shaped.

Wish you happy stitching!

La Chanson Japonaise ... ???

2011-09-19T11:29:00.000+09:00

A Japanese music duo was featured in one of the morning TV show a few weeks ago I was told, that they are Japanese but sing in France and that they sang in a TV trailer of Festival Paris Cinema last year. Must be very talented, I thought. So, I went and looked for them on YouTube and found them.

Zoun-Doko Bushi by Les Romanesques on YouTube

I do not have a word to describe their performance. Unusual? Different? Humoristique? Peculiar? Whatever I (and you) think of them, their song sure sticks to you.

Tout va bien-ien-ien, tout les citoyens-yens-yens
Je me promène le dimanche matin
Les pigeons picorent des miettes de pain
Je mets mes pieds sur une crotte de chien

The melody itself is of a Japanese origin, but their lyrics are their own I think.

Then there is another song:

Mademoiselles by Les Romanesques on YouTube

Comment allez-vous,
ma jolie petite fille, mademoiselle?

They are quite something else.

The picture is nothing to do with today's post, but it's always nice to have some pictures so I thought I should include at least one. This is one of the "on the process" pictures I took last summer when I made several thimbles in the same design but with silk thread in various colours and gold thread.

I believe I have shown this picture before and some of you might remember.

*** Shop Update ***

The listings of four Japanese print (cotton fabric) are going to expire very soon and as I announced it before I am not going to re-list them. If you ear-marked them, please go and have a final look. The listing of a set of 24 silk sewing thread has already expired. I plan to revamp my shop (not know when I actually get around to do so, though), so it will remain unavailable at Etsy however, if you would like to purchase it I can list it as "specially reserved" for you. Please drop me a line.

Welcome to my blog

2011-09-13T23:23:00.000+09:00

Last week Craftgossip generously featured my last post, in which I listed links to my previously published posts about "how I make my thimbles" so that you could find them easier and friendstitch listed a link to it, too. Thanks to these two wonderful sites (if you haven't visited either of them, I strongly suggest you do so now. You won't regret it, I am sure) I received a great number of the visitors and I would like to welcome those of you who have chose to return to read my post, again.

Let me introduced myself quickly. My name is Chloe Patricia and I live in Japan. I am a thimble maker (not for a profession, of course) and I make the kind of thimbles in the photo above. Not looking very much the thimbles you are familiar with, I know. Japanese thimbles are traditionally ring shaped and not a cap. There are metal and leather thimbles (also in ring shapes) but Japanese people have been making their own thimbles at home, re-purposing leftover fabric and threads.

The thimbles I make are the most elaborate form: stitched all over with silk threads. With less and less people who do dressmaking and kimono sewing, along with factory made metal thimbles, this kind of thimbles were almost extinct after World War II until several years ago it was re-discovered. They are highly decorative but they are still a working tool, too. Since the core of the ring is paper, it's pliant enough to re-shape itself to conform your finger as you are wearing it while it's sturdy enough to help you pushing the needle without pricking your finger.

It requires a little getting use to to make your own, but as I showed you in the previous posts (you can find the links to these posts in my previous post) it's not very difficult once you got the basics. I would like you to remember that these posts are not tutorials. They are merely the posts which show you how I make my thimbles. Please also remember the ways I showed you are not the only ways. There are other ways and possibly better ways. If you are happy with the way you do, please stick to it and tell me about it so that I will consider converting to it.

If you are not quite sure if this kind of thimble making is really your thing, or you would like to try it first quickly before fully committing to it, I have a kit at my Etsy shop. The kit includes a finished thimble base with starter stitches done and an instruction booklet, so that you can just thread the needle (also included) and carry on stitching. It takes about two to three hours to finish it.

I also host a photo sharing group at Flickr where you can share the photos of your thimbles (or anything else you made using the same technique) with the rest of the group, or any other visitors for that matter. By the way, we have a new member recently there and PokiPaws (alias of the new member) shows us her first and second thimbles. I am amazed that although she used DMC's 6-strand embroidery floss, the finish has luster as if it's silk or rayon. It made me wonder if I should re-evaluate the value of the cotton floss. My photo sharing group is not a contest; I merely wanted to give my fellow thimble switchers a place to show off their work when I started it and it remains the same, no critics either. The primary rule, aside from the thimbles you upload the photo of have to be your own work, is for you to mention the size of the mould on which you formed your thimble base and the material you used. The size of the mould does not have to be very precise. Just measure the circumference of the tube you use with a measuring tape, either in inches or millimeters will do.

I love to hear from you and if you have a question about thimble making, please don't hesitate to ask. You can leave the question as the comment or e-mail me. You should be able to find my e-mail address at my profile page. It may take for a while but I will try to answer it.

another mumbling with the typhoon gone but a new one approaching ...

2011-09-04T21:57:00.000+09:00

The current typhoon is over the island and now on the sea but it was disastrous leaving 21 death and 54 missing. As I told you yesterday, it proceeded (is still proceeding) extremely slowly and it dropped a tremendous amount of rainfall over Japan, leaving floods and landslide all over the country. Even it has been over, it still keeps raining, heavily in certain areas.

We are doing fine, virtually no damage at all, just a heavy rain last night. Kyoto had been a capital city of Japan for over 1000 years for a reason with less damages by earthquake, floods, and other natural disasters than other area.

However, there is a new typhoon has appeared on the weather forecasts. It's 13th and is heading to this way ....

This is one of the two thimbles I told you I had made recently with the one I showed to you yesterday. The technique is the same, but the colour scheme is different and as a result it appears as a different design. I wanted this one in shades in the same way as the previous gray one. I used three colours but obviously the lightest in shades is too light and the contrast in colours is stronger than I hoped it would be. I am going to dig in my thread stash boxes later to see if I can find a suitable one.

I opened one of the word documents I have neglected for so long today. It is titled "Starter Kit". As you may have correctly assumed, it's my long standing project of silk thimble starter kit instruction. I really hope I can offer the kit (or maybe it becomes an on-line course) later this year. I posted about how I make my thimbles before and you are supposed to make your own thimble following my instruction. Here are the links to these posts:

thimble base making

marking paper

how to stitch

post script of how to stitch (please scroll down a little bit since it started with other subject)

tidying up your initial stitch

how to make two-scales design thimble (one I used to call bi-coloured scales)

cosmetic touch-up

There are other posts tagged as "how I make my thimbles" but you do not need these recent posts, yet, in order to make your own first one. Please be patient with my English. I read these posts mentioned above and found a lot of grammatical and typing mistakes. Also I used to call "sections" as "segments" in the earlier posts until I had to use the word "segment" to represent a portion of the line. Questions are always welcome. You can leave a question at either the particular post or at the most current one, it doesn't matter.

If you would like to see what it is like quickly, may I suggest "First Thimble Kit" at Etsy. The kit includes a ready-made thimble base with two rows of stitches done and a instruction booklet. So you just thread a needle (also included) and continue stitching. Please note that the instruction booklet does not show you how to make a thimble base. how to apply padding, or how to mark your marking paper.

Lastly I am still hosting a photo sharing group at Flickr. Please come join us once you made your own, or just pop in and admire our work there. Thank you.

mumbling with typhoon coming and staying ...

2011-09-03T11:51:00.000+09:00

It was not very nice to have a typhoon hanging around for a week and finally the 12th typhoon (we don't name typhoons in Japan. We just give them the ordinal numbers instead) is now almost at the edge of the one of the four main islands and moving northward VERY slowly. It is said that the typhoon is similar in size to Irene which hit NYC and moving in the speed equivalent to jolly bicycle ride. The news report said that some parts of the country got half the annual rain fall over the night. The morning news was full of flood and landslide. Fortunately for me, the area we live has not affected very much, so far. It's just like a very windy day now but it's going to be very rough tonight. It seems that the typhoon got slowed down further.

The photo is my most recent thimble. I have made two more in the same design but in different colours. I like its blue and gray hue. Since I do not dye my threads, I have to shop looking for the "right" colours. The haberdashery I frequent only sells Fujix Tire silk thread but about a year ago I purchased other manufacturer's silk thread on-line as dead stock as they were out of business. The brand name was Hyoutan and their colours are very delicate and in lovely hue as you can see in the picture. It's quite a shame that they are no longer in the business.

As you may know I have listed Japanese cotton prints fabric at my Etsy shop and the listings will expire on 19th September and I am not going to re-list them. If you ear-marked them for the future purchase, please have another look at them before the listing will be gone.

Speaking of Etsy, well, I am not very happy with some of the listings there. It's about copyright infringement. I switched from paper books to e-books years ago except the picture heavy crafts and cooking books and a few years ago something called "geographic restriction" was introduced in e-books market and you cannot buy certain books if your credit cards are not issued in the correct country. It's about the publishers and/or writer's copyright. The certain publishing house only bought the right to sell in the certain countries and if you do not have a credit card issued in that group of countries you are not entitled to buy it in e-book format while you are welcome to import the paper book published by the same publishing house. It does not matter where you are currently living, it's the credit card which matters. Weired. I am not very happy about the situation and I do not fully understand or agree with their reasoning but I can accept it. The writers' and publishers' rights have be protected after all. What I am upset about is there are many of the sellers at Etsy who simply scan the paper books and sell it in JPEG or PDF format saying it's "e-books". It's outright piracy. What upsets me more is the fact that there have been many people who bought them. It's quite easy to realize that the "book" was scanned manually because the listed photos of sample pages show the edges of the pages of the book or a trace of shadow which indicate that curved pages at the binding. It's quite clear that the pages of the books are scanned and they chose to ignore the fact that they were buying the illegally copied books, or just don't care if it was a legitimate book or not as long as it was cheaper than buying from the bookshop. I have reported several sellers but it's a up-hill battle. Please pop in to Etsy and search for "ebook". You would be amazed to find so many scanned PDF/JPEG files among the seller's original patterns and instructions. When you add "Japanese", then the majority of the results would be piracy. What the world has become ...

hot, hotter, and hottest and ...

2011-08-20T14:56:00.000+09:00

Hello, I am back. Not that I was on holiday or was ill. Thank you for visiting my blog while my absence.

It's August. The most detested month if you ask me. Most Japanese people do not like summer (in my opinion), unless you are on the beach side. It's really, really a miserable month down here. However, this year I have my beloved ice cream maker with me. I have of course made a regular ice cream but I find sorbet is easier to make and more to my liking. To make fruit sorbet, you just process your fruit through the blender, sieve, and chilled it in the fridge, then process it in the machine. My absolute favorite is watermelon. Oh, how I love my ice cream maker.

As you may know I live in Japan and one of the traditional performing arts is called Noh. Kabuki is the other and more famous and fancier. Kabuki has been performed in both Europe and North America so you may have known what it is like. Noh, on the other hand, is a masked play, mostly singing and dancing. The singing is on a little monotonous side and sounds like chanting and dancing is very subdued, so subdued the performer almost do not move. No set or prop on a few metres squares of a stage. Not for everyone but it's beautiful nonetheless, especially if you could catch the meanings of chant like singing. There will be a performance held at the Noh Theatre near our place later this month and I am looking forward to it.

In case you are wondering if this is still a craft blog heavy on Japanese silk thimbles, here are two of my latest thimbles:

I used to make a lot of this design. This is a weaved nine patch diamonds but I like to call it "Harlequin" because it reminds me of the cover of Agatha Christie's "Mysterious Mr Quinn".

This one is the same design I have been making recently a lot; pinwheel. Because of the colours I chose for this one, red, green, and gold, it resembles poinsettias.

I have added the poinsettias thimble to my "Share Your Thimbles" at Flickr and found out that we have a new member to the group. Please kindly go over to the group's page here, and welcome our newest active member, May as magic_pochacco. She has uploaded a lot of lovely thimbles and beadings. May, if you are reading this post, please kindly mention the size and material of your work in the description field of the photo.

If case you are interested in purchasing my thimbles, here is a link to Etsy.

hot, hotter, and humid ...

2011-07-16T22:40:00.001+09:00

Half way though July and it's getting hotter. As you may know, I am not a summer girl; as a matter of fact, summer is my least favorite season. For those of you who live in northern (or far southern) parts, summer is a season with nice warm weather with longer days, but those of us down here, it's just very uncomfortable months. It's almost 36 degrees C with 70% humidity outside today. For your (who lives in North America) information, 36 degrees is about body temperature. Of course Nadia who lives in Tunisia who left me a comment on the previous post said she was suffering from 100 degrees F, which I understand is over 37 degrees C, so I should not complain much (it's just one degree in difference, but I know one degree at this high temperature makes a very big difference) but still it's not very fun enduring steamy weather. I am unable to enjoy the heat, I just can't. No sun bathing for me, thank you very much.

I got myself an ice cream machine the other day. I have always wanted one but didn't have a reasonable excuse to buy one. Not that I got a good reason this year, but I went ahead and bought it anyway. My machine is a small one and it can only process about half a litter of ice cream base at one go. It consists of two parts; a container which requires to be kept in the freezer for over 10 hours in advance so that it will be nice and well chilled when processing the ice cream, and an electric paddle which placed on top of the container (as a lid) and whisk the ice cream during processing.

My favorite flavor so far is apricot sherbet. Just cooked apricots in the syrup with a slice of lemon and processed it in the blender and sieved and chilled, then processed it through ice cream machine. It's very yummy as the way it comes out of the machine, all nice and soft and chilly, but once the sherbet is stored in the freezer, it becomes firm and you can make ice cream soda with it. Well, it's not ice cream, so I should not call it ice cream soda. Can you tell me what's supposed to be called?

Instead of club soda, you can use dry white wine or sparkling wine.

and it's a lovely treat for hot and humid summer.

Bal Masque

2011-06-21T09:00:00.001+09:00

Some of you who lives in Northern countries actually celebrate Midsummer while it's just another day in wet season down here in Japan. It's kind of funny since Midwinter is marked on the calender as one of the days of importance. To be precise, Midsummer is marked as a day of importance on the calender but we do not celebrate or anything. Perhaps everybody so hate winter and we all need a reminder spring will come eventually, before the weather becomes harsher (the coldest is February here).

Anyway June in Japan is not a very nice month. It's VERY WET. It's either wet and chilly or wet and hot. It's a transitional month before summer which is worse; July being hotter and humid and August being the hottest and more humid.

It's not very comfortable to wear a mask in June in Japan (or any other summer month, for that matter) but if I were to attend a masquerade ball on Midsummer's night, then I would like one of these masques here and dress like Titania. "The Merchant of Venice" is a mask maker whose web page I stumbled across years ago. They do not update their web page very often, if ever, so after a few visits I stopped checking on it until about a month ago when I moved from Internet Explore to Firefox and thought it was a good idea to make sure all the bookmarks still worked. The page still exists and I am glad for it but I doubt they have added any new mask since last time I visited their site. I have not purchased any yet, but my favorite is a one called "succubus" which you can find in Gothic category. I might one day place an order for it...

Happy Midsummer and enjoy the longest day of the year.

P.S. I wonder it's also called a midsummer even in Southern hemisphere?

prototype I and II

2011-06-16T16:00:00.003+09:00

It's already halfway past the month and I finally managed to upload my contribution to Flickr photo sharing.

When I announced this month's photo sharing earlier, I gave you a small peek of my current project. It was a needlework tray and pin cushion set as many of you figured it out. I have stitched two third of the tray and pin cushion and before continue stitching the rest, I thought it would be very prudent to make a prototype to determine the colours I chose would really work fine.

Not too bad, but not exactly what I thought it would appear. The darker blue and green are too conspicuous and needed to reduced it to a single round. Toup and silver look too much alike and no, it won't do. Perhaps much darker colour might have worked better?

Sorry about the blurry picture, but one less dark blue and green with dark charcoal and dark olive, the pin cushion appears completely differently. The pin wheel parts and squares appear more prominent and this is not the effect I prefer for this particular project.

So, it's white that I finally chose for the tray with silver metal thread. My metal threads are smaller in size than the silk I use and since I reversed the proportion of silk and silver for the last part of the stitching, I encountered the small problem of coverage at the edges and it shows as you can see. I really should have made the third prototype. The stitching part of the tray is finished and it only require attaching the lining to the inner bottom. I am not really sure if velvet works better than satin but as I have some velvet in my stash and no satin at all, it's most likely I would use velvet. I will show you when I finished lining the bottom, in either material, along with the new pin cushion in matching design. In the meantime, wish you happy stitching.

Share Your Thimbles June 2011

2011-06-02T07:44:00.000+09:00

It's June and it's time for "Share Your Thimble" on Flickr. Last month we only had four people who showed us their thimbles. All are regular participants and their works are lovelier than ever. If you have not visited the Flickr to admire these little beauties yet, please do so from here. Although all the May's thimbles were advanced design, the simple yet elegant and sophisticated two-scales are always welcome. "Share Your Thimble on Flickr" is a photo sharing group where anyone can upload the photos of their Japanese silk thimbles and not a contest. No one win. No one criticize anyone's work. Just the place to show off your thimbles. You can join the group with your very first thimbles.

Here are the rules:

1. The thimbles (or any other rings) have to be your own work.

2. Although the name of the group reads as "thimbles", your work is not necessarily a thimble and you can make your rings in any size you would like, as small as a focal beading for a necklace or as big as a bracelet, or even bigger.

3. As stated above, they have to be your own works however, you can use the ring base from the kit if you choose to do so. It may not seem to be fair, considering I sell the kits, however, they are many other kits available (at least in Japan) and some of you may be able to obtain them, and it is definitely not fair to exclude the people who is brave enough to share their first work with us from the group.

4. No technique restriction applies. You can use back stitch and weaving in addition to the forward stitch, and even embroidery on the surface if you choose to do so. This is not a contest. You do not need to use these techniques if you are not up to them or you simply do not feel like it. A simple yet elegant two-scales design is always welcomed (and it's one of my favorite designs).

5. You can use any material, and in any colours, you would like.

6. Please state the size of the mould on which you formed your ring base in the description field of the photo, either in millimeters or in inches. Please also mention what threads and padding you used, too, so that we could compare notes. In case you bought one of my kits, here are the sizes and materials: "first thimble" is 50mm in circumference and Tire Silk size 9 & floss silk padding. "small pincushion" is 61mm in circumference and Tire Silk size9 & floss silk padding. "medium pincushion" is 103mm and Tire Silk size 16 & knitting yarn for padding.

7. You can upload as many photos as you like. You can upload several photos of one thimble if you choose to do so.

Now, please start uploading your photo from here.

I have not finished my contribution to this month's photo sharing yet however, it's preferable when the post is with photos, any photo. So here is a small peek...

Can you guess what they would be when finished?

a little bit of cheating - this is how I make my thimbles

2011-05-27T22:35:00.001+09:00

As announced in my last "how I do" post, I am going to tell you a way to cheat a little so that you can simplify your marking paper.

The crossing of the threads always happens at the mid-point of two sections. This is the fact. When I posted this article, I showed you how to apply this fact to simplify your marking paper, as in 28 sections into simple 7 sections. Today I am going to show you how to simply your markings of period of eight scales design. This involves "weaving" so you may not find it simplifying but I will show you how nonetheless.

The weaving is exactly what the name suggests; you weave your thread when stitching. When you stitch the first path, there is nothing on the thimble body so no crossing of threads at all. When the second path is stitched, your current thread travels over the thread of the first path and it makes the crossing of the threads and the crossings form the horizontal line on your thimble as you go, to give it a two-scales design. The weaving is to have the thread travel beneath the existing threads on the thimble body. How many threads under which your stitching thread travels and where to weave determine the design.

This is a design diagram of period of four scales (four-scales) design. In order to make it easier and simple, I am going to explain how weaving technique helps you with this design.

According to the design diagram, you are supposed to start stitching from first path in red, then the second in blue, the third in green, and the last in yellow with the marking paper of sixteen sections.

Now, I will show you how to stitch a period of four scales design without having four-section-marked paper. There supposed to be sixteen sections in total for four sets of four sections (period of four). Instead of having sixteen-section marked paper, I made my marking paper with only eight sections. Then, stitched the first path, then the third path skipping the second path.

Here is a picture where I finished stitching first (white) and third (green) paths as if I was going to make a two-scales thimble.

Here I was trying to start the second path. As I told you, the crossing of the threads always appear at the mid-point of the sections, so the start of the second path should be where the tip of the needle appears on the top side in this photo.

Made an initial stitch and was trying to make a downstroke stitch. Please focus on the light brown thread and green thread. In the picture, the light brown is placed on the green one and this will not do. As the light brown is the second path and green the third, light brown should have traveled beneath the green thread. Now is the time to use weaving technique; making your stitching thread travel beneath the existing threads on the thimble body.

You slide the needle, the other end, where the eys is, firstly beneath the green thread. Please make sure not to disturb the padding. By disturbing, I mean try not to pick any padding material.

Pulled the needle through. I am sorry the picture is not very clear. I hope you could see the green thread is on top of the light brown one.

This picture shows it better, that light brown travels beneath green, on the other hand please note that the light brown is on the white thread of the first path.

Here I made all the stitches of the second path in light brown, traveling beneath the green, i.e. woven, which is the third path and on white which is the first path.

Now, it's time to start the fourth path. Make an initial stitch at the mid-point of the section. Make sure that the stitch at the bottom in light brown, the crossing of green and white, and your initial stitch stay vertically at the same position.

I used white for the fourth path so it's not very clear to see, but since it's the fourth path, you do not need to weave your stitching thread at all. The thread of the fourth path travels on top of all the threads.

Here, all done nicely with only an eight-section marking paper.

In the same way you can make a period of eight scales (32 sections over all) design with an eight-section marking paper.

Started a new path between path 1 and path 2 of the previous four-scales. I was trying to make eight-scales so the path 2 was to be path 3 and the new path I was creating in the picture was to be path 2.

My current stitching thread was of path 2 of eight paths so it should have had to travel beneath all the other three threads except the first path because the other three were to be 3rd, 5th 7th path respectively.

The needle is passing beneath the green thread of path 5 and ...

path 7 in white. The last thread on the thimble body in white was of the path 1, so the stitching thread had to travel over it.

Here the down stroke stitch was made. Please note that the green thread of path 2 travels beneath firstly light brown (path 3), another green (path 5), and white (path 7), but not the last white which is path 1.

Have done whole row of path 2.

Was starting the path 4 ...

In the same way as before, wove only the 5th and 7th paths, as the current thread was of path 4.

The white between light brown and green was my stitching thread of path 4. It travels beneath the green and first white but travels on the second white, second green, and light brown and the stitch at the bottom was made.

Path 4 was done.

You now know the drill. This was start of path 6.

You know what this was now. The 6th path in green (second green in the picture) only went beneath the white, and on everything else.

Path 6 was done.

The last path at last. This is my favorite. Can guess why?

As this was the last path (path 8), no need to weave at all!

Here all done with only eight-section markings but now the thimble had 16 sections.

Perhaps you may find this rather daunting and not worth trying. I felt myself while writing this post that it sounded rather tiresome to determine which thread go on or beneath which. However, once you start stitching, it is not that difficult. Just need to make sure which path you are stitching, is all and you will know what to do. After all, you only have to do this for the first row. From the second row onward, you can stitch from path 1 to path 8, in numerical order.

I would appreciate the feedback from you once you tried this technique.

pin cushion in pink

2011-05-21T08:30:00.002+09:00

The design on my latest pin cushion was an experiment and it appeared as I thought it would be, so in that sense it was a success. However, I find it a little bit too busy. Maybe in different colours... Actually it is a prototype of my latest project (aside from new thimble kit). I thought it would be lovely to have a work tray for needlework with its side finished in the same way as thimbles. Actually I got around and made one for myself. That first one taught me I needed to improve how I attache a bottom to the ring. So I made another tray base, I would say an improved one, last weekend and I have started experimenting in the smaller scales, hence a pin cushion. The height of the side is 15mm plus bottom, the same as the tray so my experiment can be adapted to the tray easily. I like the design but it would look nicer when the design is two or three tired with higher sided ring. I may not pick this one for the tray but I believe I am going to start a new experiment on the design, too, for something else.

Beverly at How Sweet The Sound is hosting Pink Saturday this weekend, too. She set up a list of links of the participants so that we can visit and see what other people has found for their posts in pink. I wish you all happy pink Saturday.

Share Your Thimbles May 2011 part II

2011-05-19T11:01:00.001+09:00

I have realized that I have not added my thimble for this month's photo sharing yet. It's now on Flickr as well as Pat's lovely thimble. There are more than 10 days for you to make your own. Look forward to seeing your work there, too.

thank you for your support and prayers for Japan

2011-05-19T10:30:00.002+09:00

I have planed to post this one for so long but have not got around to do so and I feel really bad about it. It has been over two months since the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. Since then we, who live in Japan, have received a huge support from all over the world and I would like to thank you all for your effort to help us. We cannot thank you enough but I would like for you to know we in Japan all appreciate all the efforts and all the prayers you made for us.

Perhaps some of you are wondering what happened the "sending tote bags for school children in the affected area" programme. It went very good indeed. They wanted 1000 bags as a first batch to send to the affected area by 15th April but in the end they could manage to receive 59,000 bags! The first batch of 1000 bags went north from Tokyo on UNICEF's truck on 7th April, and thousands of bags traveled northward to the children in the affected area everyday afterward. You can read the report here, although it's all in Japanese. Thank you letters are also posted as well as the list of the name of the participants of the programme.

I read about a lot of craft people sent their work to Japan for morale support, like comfort quilts and temari. Big thank you to you.

Etsy meet in Japan + social networking + shop update

2011-05-18T17:59:00.001+09:00

As most of you probably know I sell thimbles and pin cushions I made at my Etsy shop as well as "first thimble kit" and silk thread, plus occasional floss silk wadding. Etsy is an on-line market place concentrated on hand made products and supplies. I started selling at Etsy shortly after I had started this blog and of course have not made much sales. I do not make much sales when compared to other more active sellers but I cannot complain as my merchandise is not very popular items. My sales have been heavily depended on the "word of the mouth" as you call it. Someone mentioned Japanese silk thimble in their blog post and put a link to my blog for tutorials and I got quite a few visitors and consequently a part of the visitors also visited my Etsy shop and some of them actually made purchase. I believe this is the way most of my sales were made.

I may have alarmed some of you by my previous post about statistics but I can assure you that I do not have any interest in what you view on-line. I received about 20 or so unique visitors daily with total 40 to 50 page views according to stats application I installed here and when the number of visitors hit over 100, then it is certain that someone mentioned my blog or Japanese silk thimble with the link to my blog somewhere. I try to track the source and leave a thank you comment there and that's that and nothing more. Checking key words sometimes tells me what the visitors wanted to know. A little while ago the keywords analysis shows "backward" along with my name. It made me wonder if some of you might have been wondering how to make backstitches.

Then late last month I received a message from Etsy International Team (which I did not even know existed) that a representative would come visit Japan and would like to have a meet with the sellers in Japan. And so I went the other night to meet other fellow sellers and Etsy people. We had about twelve participants and it was more than I expected as the venue being not very convenient for most. I am not sure what I was expected from the meet but I found it quite interesting. That to know that Etsy would like to expand Japanese market. Not Japanese customers buy from the sellers overseas, but domestic sales. At the moment most of the sellers (at least the ones, including myself, who were there at the meet) only sells to overseas. Not that we do not wish to sell to people in Japan, but simply we do not have Japanese customers. The language is a huge barrier as well as payment options but the biggest impediment is most people never even heard of a hand made craft marketplace called Etsy, ever. Etsy has been trying to be multilingual and a few of the European languages have already introduced we were told, but that multilingual features only applies to the public space like top page and help pages and not individual listings. I myself would not call it being multilingual. As a customer I find it quite annoying when the language option only available on top page. Not having a very high expectation about Japanese domestic market but anything to increase sales is welcome was consensus at the meet among the sellers it looked.

What I really found interesting was that the majority of the people at the meet did say they facilitated Twitter. Earlier last month, another craft market place called ArtFire with which I have created an account with but never listed anything, sent me a newsletter that they were having a boot camp for social networking and asking me if I would like to join. As a matter of fact I had opened the account at Twitter about several month ago but immediately after I got myself an account I had realized that I had not had anything worthy to Tweet. Did you really want to know what I was going to prepare for dinner? Perhaps you might have been interested in what TV programme I watched the other night. What do people actually tweet about? So after creating an account I had put Twitter aside without tweeting anything at all. So the newsletter last month from ArtFire about incorporating the social network tool with sales intrigued me, intrigued me enough to sign up. It turned out the boot camp is a kind of on-line discussion. How to sign up the social network such as Facebook, Twitter, and blog and how to maintain them. It is actually quite informative for the very beginner such as myself but may not be so for those of people who already had a fundamental knowledge about how they work.

I am still not sure how it works, but I made my first Tweet on my latest listing at Etsy. It appeared on my account page and there is a link to my shop as well as two photos I uploaded there. It is actually quite nice and it could be nicer if someone besides myself could have seen it, too.

These four fabrics and a new thimble are now on the shelf at my shop at Etsy. Please come and have a look at here.

statistics

2011-05-15T08:15:00.002+09:00

Although it does not show on this page, I have installed one of these statistics application here. It shows how many visitors and page view I got. The reason I installed is not so that I could check the number of the visitors daily. I know my blog does not get much visitors. I am an infrequent blogger with a small number of readers and I am quite content with it. What I want to know is where people come to visit to my blog, so that I could know my reader a little bit more and I do not mean geographically where you are, although the "visitor map" is very fun to look at. Most of my readers are in Europe and North America with a small number of views from Asia and Australia however, I have recently started to receive viewers from South America, Africa, and Tropical Islands. Wow indeed although they could be a one-time viewer. It will make me very very happy if you are the one reading this from Maldive and leave me a comment.

If not geographically, then what? What I like about stats is it shows me which web page the visitors come from. I am not interested in your on-line activities and I do not check where you come from routinely. I only check it when I got a hike in the number of visitors. It means someone mentioned my blog somewhere with the link to me. In this way I now know Russian temari group talk about thimbles as well as temari and British embroidery people had a first view of Japanese thimbles.

The other features of the stats I like is keyword analysis. The majority is my blog name and my name, with Japanese thimbles and how to make thimbles but sometime I got something that makes me smile, like "when did photo sharing first started". It may not have meant "my" photo sharing but someone tried search with that keyword and ended up to my blog. Amazing. It's December 2009, if you are interested by the way.

Peonies in Pink + thimble making mumblings

2011-05-14T19:11:00.000+09:00

All these pictures are taken in late April and early May but I did not get around to post them until now. Probably because of the extra harsh summer last year all the flowers are on the smaller side and less in number, but they are lovely nonetheless.

Beverly at How Sweet The Sound is hosting a weekly Pink Saturday and from her web page you can visit a lot of posts in pink. I wish you all happy pink weekend.

I have received a quick question from Sandi about one of my "how I do" posts. She left me a comment on the post in question as an anonymous reader so I do not have any means to get back to her except replying here. Sandi, I am sorry to expose you like this but I really do not have any choice. Sandi asked for my confirmation if I used a single strand of size 25 perle cotton (like DMC's six strand ones) in the post where I talked about alternatives to silk. Yes, I did. A strand of size 25 embroidery floss is close to the size of the silk I use for my thimble making although the cotton perle is very softly twisted that the finished thimble lacks the certain luster of the tightly twisted silk gives. I would like to wish Sandi happy stitching and hope she would join the photo sharing this month with her new thimbles.

Pat left me a comment on the previous post about her thimbles for April on Flickr. She showed us two thimbles, one is scales design in lovely pastel rainbow colours, and the other one in brown is called "kanoko" in Japanese. Textile people would know what kanoko is. It's a kind of Japanese tie dye design. The direct translation of kanoko is a baby deer. The design is said to be resembled the back of the baby deer. You know, there are spots on the back of Bambi? By the way is there a designated name for babies of deer, like puppies and cubs? Anyway her brown thimble is called "kanoko" design.

I have been trying to assemble a thimble starter kit for you know how long and still not finished yet. I firstly thought to sell the kit with all the materials apart from scotch tape and machine thread with an instruction booklet for base making and how to stitch two scales design. The booklet contains a lot of photos instructions and the printing cost becomes a problem. At the moment my draft is A4 30 pages. One set of 30 pages takes a lot of time with my printer and as I plant to sell it, it's just not practical. Using copier costs expensive and as my business is very very small, utilizing printing service is out of question. So I am now leaning to the idea of PDF file so that the customer choose to print it or view it on their PC. I know not all of the countries use the same size papers. Does my instruction booklet cause a problem where people do not use A4 size paper?

I have another idea. What do you think about on line thimble making courses? You buy a kit from me and I mail the material and send a PDF file via e-mail. Then you join the on line group like Yahoo and Google. You will upload your finished work on the group' photo page and we can have a discussion board over the concern/question/whatever. I would love to hear your thought.

Share Your Thimbles May 2011

2011-05-11T15:32:00.000+09:00

One third of the month has already gone, but I would like to officially announce the start of the thimble photo sharing on Flickr today. But first thing is first, I have to announce the end of the last month's photo sharing, i.e. our first ever "thimble of the month challenge". Although we did not have many participants last month, either, I believe it was a moderately successful challenge. If you have not visited Flicker yet, please pop in there to have a look from here. You can find very beautiful work there. Some of them did not fit the challenge, but it doesn't really matter, does it. The purpose of the group is having fun and not a contest. Oh, and we have a new member this month. Please kindly welcome Yuenman.hk to our group. Her thimble on Flickr is was not a scales design (it's bluewaves) but beautifully done. Lydia (Quiltsummes) wondered if her thimble was called a scales design. Well, it's technically not the scales I expected you to make, but it's also called scales design, "vertical scales" to be exact. As I told you many times before, collective triangles are called scales in Japanese design and as you can see in her thimble, the triangles are shifted by 45 degrees, hence vertical scales. It involves back stitches and my complement to Lydia. I half expected Debi and Dorian would gone for finer scales than period of 32 sections, but their colour schemes are very beautiful: Debi's being with distinct yellow frame and lavender and green composition is very unique, and Dorian's is very bright and festive! It's hard to believe that these two thimbles are same design, only in different colours. Natalie (beadturtle) shows us her beautifully done arrow's shaft feather design. Using the only two colours by placing them alternatively gives the unique arrow design which you can find in many classic kimono. Pat shared her lovey rainbow colourd thimble and "kanoko" design. "kanoko" or "hitta-kanoko" is a kind of tie dye design and she reproduced it on her thimble. Surya's thimble is with repeat of four in three colours which I am still wondering how best to describe the design and her second entry to the photo sharing is a lovely bracelet. She found something you would like to know about in the process and she mentioned it in her blog post at Sunshine Craft. I should have included it in the post where I explained about row and round.

Probably not very soon because I will need some preparation time, but I hope we would be able to have another challenge sometime later. Now, back to this month's photo sharing. We are back to regular photo sharing and that means you can share whatever you made using the thimble making technique with the group: i.e. no size or design restriction applied. As we are not going to have a lucky draw this month, either, there is no reason to set the closing date but the end of the month. I have set up a discussion board at Flickr and I would like you to leave a comment there once your photos are up, and that discussion board I will close on the last day of May.

Here are the general rules of "Share Your Thimbles"

1. The thimbles (or any other rings) have to be your own work.

2. Although the name of the group reads as "thimbles", your work is not necessarily a thimble and you can make your rings in any size you would like, as small as a focal beading for a necklace or as big as a bracelet, or even bigger.

3. As stated above, they have to be your own works however, you can use the ring base from the kit if you choose to do so. It may not seem to be fair, considering I sell the kits, however, they are many other kits available (at least in Japan) and some of you may be able to obtain them, and it is definitely not fair to exclude the people who is brave enough to share their first work with us from the group.

4. No technique restriction applies. You can use back stitch and weaving in addition to the forward stitch, and even embroidery on the surface if you choose to do so. This is not a contest. You do not need to use these techniques if you are not up to them or you simply do not feel like it. A simple and elegant bi-coloured scales design is always welcomed (and one of my favorite design).

5. You can use any material, and in any colours, you would like.

6. Please state the size of the mould on which you formed your ring base in the description field of the photo, either in millimeters or in inches. Please also mention what threads and padding you used, too, so that we could compare notes. In case you bought one of my kits, here are the sizes and materials: "first thimble" is 50mm in circumference and Tire Silk size 9 & floss silk padding. "small pincushion" is 61mm in circumference and Tire Silk size9 & floss silk padding. "medium pincushion" is 103mm and Tire Silk size 16 & knitting yarn for padding.

7. You can upload as many photos as you like. You can upload several photos of one thimble if you choose to do so.

Now, please start uploading your photo from here.

Wish you happy stitching. Chloe P.

a quick note ...

2011-05-01T12:25:00.000+09:00

This is just a quick note to let you know that I will officially announce the start of the new photo sharing at the later date and that you can start preparing your thimbles now. I got a cold and haven't been doing very well for over a week. I have much to tell you about but I am still supposed to be in bed, so off to bed I will go now. Wish you happy Sunday with your family. Chloe P.

Pink in Bloom part III

2011-04-16T09:30:00.015+09:00

This may not have been reported worldwide but on the day of one month anniversary after the earthquake and tsunami, Japan was hit by another big earthquake. This time it was slightly smaller, magnitude 7.0, but still big enough. I can only imagine, no, I cannot imagine how frightening it must have been for the people already suffered.

In 869 A.D. on 13th July in Gregorian Calendar, the same area had been hit by the big earthquake, it's estimated as magnitude 8.3 (I have no idea how they estimate it, though) and the castle excavation site on the hill shows the watermark left by subsequent tsunami which tells how far the tsunami had reached inland and how high it had been, and the disaster and loss of people was recorded, too. Although the death toll was one thousand in the record, the number just signifies the great number of people was lost and not a numerical accuracy I suppose. This is said to be one of the biggest earthquake and tsunami in that area in the recorded history. After over a millennium, we had a very similar disaster last month with 13,591 deaths and 14,497 still missing (as on 15th April, 2011). Everyone knows what missing means at this late date, but we won't call it dead untill the body is recovered. Would you please include us in your prayers?

The cherry blossoms will be gone soon. It's spectacular when these little pink petals dance in the wind. Please visit Beverly's How Sweet The Sound for more pink. Wish you happy Pink Saturday.

pink in bloom part II

2011-04-09T09:30:00.014+09:00

A tad late but cherry blossoms are in full bloom. The little flowers only last for a few days and they'll be all gone with wind. There is a saying that the flowers are beautiful because they will just go and don't linger...

We had another big aftershock the night before yesterday. This one was quite big but no tsunami this time. It has been nearly a month since the Big One. With the help from all over the country as well as overseas, the things in the affected area have been improved a little. Some of the towns affected had huge dikes, one of them being 10m in height, which should have withstood tsunami but they didn't. Whether the affected area is suitable for human habitation remain unclear.

Beverly at How Sweet The Sound is hosting another Pink Saturday this weekend, too. Please visit her blog and see how a bunch of us concentrate on something pink. Wish you Happy Pink Saturday.

arrow's shaft feathers design, or quad coloured scales

2011-04-08T10:50:00.000+09:00

Nat, one of the readers asked me what the design I showed you (the third design diagram in this post) actually looks like on a real thimble and here it is. This is quad-coloured scales, or period of four scales. Although it's one of the scales design, the separate name of "arrow's shaft feathers" or just "arrows" is given to the design. The design looks nicer when the angle of the thread is sharper although sharp angles require you to space your stitches with care.

I tweaked it a little so this is no longer a arrows design or scales. I miscalculated a little (happens a lot) and it didn't turn out the way I thought it would be, but this is not too bad, if I may say so myself. I will see if I could refine it a little.

By the way, what do you think about calling a period of four design as a quad-coloured scales design when it is stitched with only three colours? The same issue arises in Japan, too, but no one has not concluded what is what. "A period of eight scales in four colours" is more accurate and clear to understand, on the other hand it is not easy if you do not know what the period means. What do you think?

found something I could do, too

2011-04-02T22:57:00.001+09:00

*******

This is my second post today. If you are visiting for Pink Saturday, please scroll down. Thank you and wish you happy pink weekend.

*******

I subscribe several (perhaps many) newsletters and one of them told me this morning that a craft organization was collecting tote bags to send to the children in affected area. The organization, Japan Handcraft Instructors' Association, was asked by its member in the affected area to see if they could collect hand made tote bags for children because they lost almost all the belongings as tsunami hit the area, let alone school bags.

As soon as I read it, I started digging in my hoard of fabric. The one I used for the bag is something I have been saving for something special as it was the last of the bolt at the store and I was told that it had been discontinued so no more was available. I found it's a perfect occasion to use up one of my most coveted fabric. The instruction given on the web page along with the specification looked easy enough so I took out my machine and started sewing. It took me five hours to finish because, as I told you several times, I am not very good at machine sewing. It didn't help that the bag has to be made of quited fabric and I didn't have ready-quited fabric at hand. Over all, I am quite satisfied with the finished bag and I hope the new owner would like it, too.

The organization is one of the government registered organization and reliable one, I believe, to entrust my bag to deliver to the children in the coastal area in Fukushima. The nuclear complex is focused at the moment but the area was also affected by tsunami. Tsunami was the reason why we have problems at the power plant, to start with. If you would like to join to make bags to the children, here is a link to the details. The problem is that their English page tells you nothing about the project but the general information of the organization and their activities. The closing date to receive bags is 15th April and it won't give you much time to send them from abroad, I am afraid, and there is an issue regarding tax/duty. I know there are several readers who live in Japan. Perhaps some of you could participate in the programme I am hoping.

Pink in Bloom

2011-04-02T09:30:00.010+09:00

It should have been cherry blossoms in this time of the year but we had unusually cold weather (for Japan) recently and not much to look at at the moment on cherry trees. We will need another week, I am afraid, to give you decent cherry blossoms. In the meantime, I would like to share my pink roses with you. It has been for a while since I last posted something pink to participate in the Pink Saturday programme hosted by Beverly. Her blog post, How Sweet The Sound has a large list of links of the participants of the scheme. Please visit her blog and have a look. You would be amazed to see so many things in all pink assembled at one place.

Wish you happy Pink Saturday.

How I make my thimbles - design period

2011-04-01T23:11:00.002+09:00

***** update *****

It came to my attention, thanks to Laura B, that the link I put in the post didn't work. It has been remedied and now working. Please try again. Thank you. Chloe P.

***** update *****

As promised in my last post, I am going to explain what a "period" is. A period, or design period, is the number of sections your thread travels, from top to bottom, and coming up to top.

The above is a design diagram of bi-coloured scales. The first path, in red, travels one section when going down and another one going up, so total number of sections traveled is two, thus the period of this design is two.

This one here is a diagram of quad-coloured scales. It looks busy but please concentrate on the red line. It travels two narrow sections when descending, and another two going upward, so the period of the design is four sections.

You now know what a period means. Very good. Then, you might wonder what the difference between "period" and "repeat". A good question, indeed.

A design repeat is a minimum unit of design as you know, while a period is simply the number of sections the thread travels as explained above. It sounds exactly the same thing, I know, but let have a look at the diagram below.

This is, too, a diagram of quad-coloured scales, only in two colours instead of four. Placing two colours alternatively like this results in a very unique finish typically called "arrow's shaft feather" or just "arrows". Although the design is given a separate name from scales, it is still a quad-coloured scales design. You can see each thread travels four sections, so it's a period of four while the design repeat is 2 sections.

Make sense? Can you see the first two sections (in pink) of a period is exactly the same as the latter two sections (in light blue)? These two sets of two sections are identical therefore the smallest design unit is two sections instead of four only because you chose to arrange thread colours this way instead of four different colours, or red, red, blue, and blue and the design repeat would be four sections which coincides the number of sections which consist of a period.

Then, this leads to something called "rounds". When you experimented on the number of sections, you noticed that your stitching path did not always come back to the starting point until it made another round of stitches or two. For example, design period of four, like quad-coloured scales, fits nicely on even numbered sectioned thimbles, like twelve sections, with only one round. On the other hand, it won't fit on, say, fourteen sectioned thimbles until it make two rounds of stitches. Please have a look at below diagram.

When the first path come back to the first section, your stitch is located at the bottom instead of on top side and you have to make another round to finish that row of stitches. Please note that there are only two stitching paths, red and green, even though the period of the design is four sections. A "row" is stitches you make from starting point until it comes back to where you started and "round" is number of rounds you have to make until you finish a row of stitches. This fourteen sectioned thimble with the design period of four sections requires two rounds of stitches to complete a row.

I can give you another example where period and repeat do not match. Here is a thimble I used to explain how to simplify the diagram last summer. It is 28 sections in total with period of eight sections. The design looks far more complex than four coloured scales above, but the idea is the same: the second half is just a second round and a design repeat is four sections while a period is eight.

You really do not need to know all of this, but understanding the make of the design will help you to deviate to more complex designs. Next "how I do" will be about cheating a little to simplify the markings. Keep you posted.

Share Your Thimble April 2011

2011-04-01T08:43:00.001+09:00

****** updated ******

I feel the need to tell you the definition of scales design. The scales design is made when each stitching path is done alternatively and each path in solid colour. Either the number of sections or colours used doesn't matter. As long as all the paths were stitched alternatively, it's a scale design. I am not very sure if "arrow's shaft feather" should be included, especially a path makes rounds, but I decided to include it, too, at least this time.
Thank you. Chloe Patricia

****** update ******

Since suggested, I have been toying with the idea of Monthly Challenge. When I firstly started the photo sharing at Flickr, my intention was to start from the simple bi-colour scales and to proceed to the more complexed designs. However, I soon realized that it wouldn't work like that. My photo sharing is not a monthly subscription programme which allow anyone start any time from the very beginning therefore choosing one particular design may exclude some people from joining the group and it's not my intention at all. My group has to be something everyone can join.

After considering the options, I have decided to have our first challenge this month, the challenge being scales designs. This may not be what you have expected. I understand that challenge is something worth challenging and scales is just scales, the most basic design. One of the reasons I chose the design is my lack of preparation time however, the main reason is I feel scales design is underappreciated and you might enjoy re-discovering the possibility of the design and of course scales design can allow the new people join the group with their very first bi-coloured scales, too.

For the people with advanced skills, I would like to suggest to try the narrower sections. The above picture shows you my contribution this month and it's 32 sectioned thimble with period of 8 sections in three colours. I can tell you it's a challenge to have a marking paper sectioned into 32 and stitching with eight thread simultaneously.

To make the challenge worthy to be called a challenge, I would like to restrict the size and shape to a thimble and thimble only this month.

Here are the rules:

1. The thimbles have to be your own work.

2. For the sake of the challenge this month, the rings you make have to be thimbles. That means the size of the mould should be about 5-6 cm in circumference.

3. As stated above, they have to be your own works however, you can use the thimble base from the kit if you choose to do so. It may not seem to be fair, considering I sell the kits, however, they are many other kits available (at least in Japan) and some of you may be able to obtain them, and it is definitely not fair to exclude the people who is brave enough to share their first work with us from the group.

4. The design has to be scales. The number of the period of sections is up to you from bi-coloured scales (period of two) to whatever you would like.

5. You can use any material, and in any colours, you would like. Please note that you do not restrict yourself to use four colours for period of four design. Two colours or three colours, or even single colour will work just fine. Mine in the picture is period of eight sections with only three colours. Please experiment on the colours, you would be surprised to discover the possibilities there.

6. Please state the size of the mould on which you formed your thimble base in the description field of the photo, either in millimeters or in inches. Please also mention what threads and padding you used, too, so that we could compare notes. In case you bought my kit, it is 50mm in circumference and Tire Silk size 9 and floss silk padding.

7. You can upload as many photos as you like. You can upload several photos of one thimble if you choose to do so.

8. The closing date is 21st of April 2011, Japan time. Please note that we are 9 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) in Japan. You can still upload your photo after the official closing date and share it with use since I do not close the photo sharing pool.

Now you can start uploading your photos from here at Flickr.

I am sorry but no lucky draw this month. Not that I do not want to give my contribution of the month away. Although the photo sharing has been successful, we seldom have a new member and I am not very comfortable to keep a draw in such a small group as most, if not all, of the participants have already won at least once. Until we have a large number of the participants I will withhold the draw. However, the discussion board is open at Flickr for this month's sharing. Please feel free to leave your comments there once your thimbles are up.

Will you please invite your friend to join the group. Thimble making is not particularly difficult when compared to other needle crafts and it does not need much material to make while it's fun. For those of you who have not made one yet and wish to start a new hobby (mind you, thimble making is addictive), I have sort of tutorials under the tag of "how I do" and for those of you who are wondering what "period", I will publish a post and explain it within a few days, so please be patient with me.

Share Your Thimbles First Quater of 2011

2011-03-31T16:41:00.000+09:00

Hello there, thank you for reading my previous two posts. The situation in affected area has not improved much and we have new problems but since this is supposed to a craft blog post and I have decided to concentrate on it from now.

Have you visited Flickr recently? There are many beautiful thimbles and pin cushions from simple scales to more complexed design and you should really visit and have a look. Here is a link for you. We had seven participants this month including a new member.

I am facing a difficulty uploading the photo so I cannot show you the result of the lucky draw so I just give you the winner here: the sixth entry, beadturtle who shared her lovely woven thimble in brown with us. Would beadturtle kindly contact me via e-mail for shipping address?

Tomorrow I am going to start a new photo sharing. Come back for the detail tomorrow. It will be our very first Monthly Challenge.

Thusday mumbling

2011-03-17T15:38:00.001+09:00

It has been a week since the disaster. In addition to the earthquakes and subsequent tsunami, we are now facing a nuclear disaster, too. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the kind words and efforts to help Japan. We really appreciate it.

I have been thinking. About many things. I am watching the disaster reports on TV, just as you do who live outside Japan, from the safe distance and I feel guilty. The guilt over surviving, not suffering, not doing enough, not being able to do more. We are heavily discouraged to send stuff to the suffering areas individually. So all we can do is donating money and there is a limit a person can donate and it makes me depressed. The city halls and relief agencies, as well as TV networks, are collecting monetary donation and scholarships for orphans are expanding, but these efforts are not enough.

The support efforts from overseas are reported here and we all feel good, that we are not alone. The morale support is also vital in case of disaster as well as monetary support. The supporting messages/articles on the paper as well as individual prayer on the message board help us keep going. And then, jokes and malicious comments appeared, too. They hurt us tremendously however, we all believe in the freedom of speech in Japan, so I exercise my right and say that it shows the person's bad taste and insensitivities. In Japan everything has its time and place. Whatever the personal belief is, it's not time, or place, to express it now, so just shut up and later when everything resumed normal then start talking, is the general opinion I believe.

I have been wondering what I can do.

Friday mumblilng

2011-03-11T21:15:00.000+09:00

I have finally finished the flower basket. You may be wondering about the smudge at the bottom. It is not a stain. I put the smudge there to make my signing stitch obscure. Yes, a signing stitch. We sign the embroidery in the same way we sign the calligraphy in Japan.

Thank you for your kind welcome back comments and e-mails. I am still trying to catch up with the correspondence and will take some more time to get back to you. As for the monthly challenge idea, I am not entirely sure if it works, but I have decided I will give it a try, at least once. The main concern is that restricting to one design may result in excluding some people who are not up to the design. I thought about it for a few days and I realized that I was not sure how exactly the monthly challenge works. Is it like "can you figure it out?" and I only give you the finished one and the participants will try to see if they could reproduce the design by themselves, or I choose the design and give the instruction, too? I need more of your opinions here.

Some of you may remember that I considered changing the currency at my shop at Etsy. The foreign currency exchange rate is relatively stable at the moment but it may fluctuate drastically again without warning and setting the currency at the shop as the denomination of the country I live can save the trouble of repricing the merchandise whenever the currency rate fluctuates, or rather save me from feeling guilt by increasing the price. So, finally I have went ahead and changed it to Japanese Yen. At a glance it looks the same as before, but once you opened the product page, the price is shown in YEN than US Dollars. I apologize for the inconvenience caused but I have to protect myself you understand.

Lastly, as you may have already known, we were hit by the big earthquake and tsunami this afternoon. The most affected area is north-east of Japan and luckily the area we live are not affected and all my family are safe. I have been watching TV from the moment the earthquake hit and the damage toll just keeps increasing. ... ... ... The earthquake itself was big with a lot of aftershocks, but it is tsunami that is devastating. Please note that I am speaking in the present tense. Tsunami is still rushing to the Northern coasts, over 10meters high. It may take a few days until we knew the final number, but it looks grim even now... ... ...

Share Your Thimbles - First Quarter of 2011 (Jan-Mar)

2011-03-01T23:15:00.000+09:00

It has been quite awhile (two months, to be precise) since my last post. It was not my intention to disappear completely for such a long time and I am sorry to have you made worry about me. We had a bit of a crisis, which I do not wish to discuss here, and keeping up with the world of world-wide-web became just too much for me. Thankfully the everything is back to normal, at least as normal as it could be and I am back to blogland and trying to catch up. I would like to thank everyone who was so kindly worried and asked about me, sending me an e-mail, send me a message at the comment section... Thank you and your kinds words helped a lot.

During my absence some of the ladies continued uploading their beautiful works at Flickr. If you have not visited there in two months, please do so now and admire their rings. Lydia suggested on the discussion board at Flickr that we may choose one design and every participants make it, like monthly challenge. The idea intrigues me but I need some more time to organize it and I wonder by choosing one particular design we may exclude some of the people who are new to thimble making. I would like to know what you think of the idea.

Some of the new readers may not be very familiar with my monthly photo sharing called "Share Your Thimbles" and let me explain briefly what it is. As the name suggests, it's a monthly photo sharing of the Japanese silk thimbles you made. It's not a contest or anything, just the group of us who make thimbles (or any other objects using the same technique) upload the photo of the work at Flickr. It says monthly but actually the photo pool at Flickr is never closed, therefore you can upload at anytime as you like. However, We are going to have a monthly lucky draw and it has a close date. I am repeating myself but this is not a contest and anyone can join the group and no criticizing at anything at all.

Here are the general rules of "Share Your Thimbles"

1. The thimbles (or any other rings) have to be your own work.

2. Although the name of the group reads as "thimbles", your work is not necessarily a thimble and you can make your rings in any size you would like, as small as a focal beading for a necklace or as big as a bracelet, or even bigger.

3. As stated above, they have to be your own works however, you can use the ring base from the kit if you choose to do so. It may not seem to be fair, considering I sell the kits, however, they are many other kits available (at least in Japan) and some of you may be able to obtain them, and it is definitely not fair to exclude the people who is brave enough to share their first work with us from the group.

4. No technique restriction applies. You can use back stitch and weaving in addition to the forward stitch, and even embroidery on the surface if you choose to do so. This is not a contest. You do not need to use these techniques if you are not up to them or you simply do not feel like it. A simple and elegant bi-coloured scales design is always welcomed.

5. You can use any material, and in any colours, you would like.

6. Please state the size of the mould on which you formed your ring base in the description field of the photo, either in millimeters or in inches. Please also mention what threads and padding you used, too, so that we could compare notes. In case you bought one of my kits, here are the sizes and materials: "first thimble" is 50mm in circumference and Tire Silk size 9 & floss silk padding. "small pincushion" is 61mm in circumference and Tire Silk size9 & floss silk padding. "medium pincushion" is 103mm and Tire Silk size 16 & knitting yarn for padding.

7. You can upload as many photos as you like. You can upload several photos of one thimble if you choose to do so.

8. The closing date is 21st of March 2011, Japan time. Please note that we are 9 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) in Japan. You can still upload your photo after the official closing date since I do not close the photo sharing pool, however, I do close the discussion board for entry to the lucky draw.

Now you can start uploading your photos from here at Flickr.

We are going to have a lucky draw at the end this month, as stated in the first part of this post. One lucky winner will receive a thimble of my contribution to photo sharing which shown as above. To participate in the draw, please leave a message at the discussion board at Flickr under the subject of "Thimbles of First Quarter of 2011". As stated above, you can upload as many photos as you like however, you can enter the draw only once. The winner of the draw will be announce here at my blog, NOT at the Flicker, by the end of the month.

You may noticed that I haven't named this month's photo sharing as March 2011, but First Quarter of 2011. As I said, some of the ladies have kept thimble photo sharing going during my absence and I would like to include them even if they won't add more of their work this month.

If any question, please don't hesitate to ask. You can ask your question as a comment on this particular post, or send me an e-mail directly which you can find in my profile page at Blogger.

I look forward to seeing a lot of beautiful works by the end of the month.
Happy Stitching.

Time flies and farewell 2010

2010-12-31T23:22:00.000+09:00

I had an end of the year luncheon with my mother and sister today and found this on the dish of hors d'oeuvre. It says Time Flies and indeed it does. Thank you for reading my blog posts this year and wish you and your family happy and prosperous 2011.

Share Your Thimbles December 2010

2010-12-31T23:11:00.000+09:00

This month we have six participants with 10 thimbles/rings/ beading, despite the fact that it's December, one of the busiest months with holidays. They are all very lovely and if you have not admired our work yet, here is a link to Flickr. As you recall I have lifted the technical restrictions this month and you can see back stitches and weaving were used on a few thimbles/beading.

We have six entry to the monthly lucky draw and the lucky winner of this month is number 4, quiltsummse, who shared her beautiful thimble named autumn forest with us.

Quiltsummse, will you please send me an e-mail for shipping address? No hurry though, because the local post offices are now closed for New Years Holidays and won't be open until 4th of January.

Guess what? I finally went ahead and made my own temari. I have wanted to make temari for a long time but haven't got around to make one until now. One of the main reasons why I didn't was the size of temari. As I assumed that it was quite possible that I might be addicted to temari making, I feared I would need a lot of space to store temari. One temari won't take too much space, but five or ten will require a substantial storage space, you know.

To save the storage space, I opted for a miniature temari. In this size, I can store a score of them in a chocolate box easily.

I used regular machine thread to wrap the ball and size 9 silk hand sewing thread (the same one I use for thimble making) and I am not very happy with the result. It's quite possible that it is everything to do with my wrapping being so floppy (I know I need more work here) and nothing to do with the thread size being so similar but don't you think it looks too busy? I am thinking silk floss for Japanese embroidery, the one untwisted silk fiber, for wrapping so that the background would look much smoother. Would temari experts kindly help me out?

maybe a little bit obsessed...

2010-12-06T22:59:00.000+09:00

Further to my past post regarding my experiments on dark olive with lighter green, I made two more of the same design but in different colours:

With previous three pin cushions in amethyst and green, and these two, even I have to admit that I am a little obsessed, but I like the design and feel happy stitching.

*** shop update ***
Actually this is not an update, but an announcement that I am seriously considering changing the currency of my shop. At the moment the currency exchange rates are relatively stable, however when it fluctuates again I have to but review the price of my merchandise and I really hate it. Even though it's not a price hike from my point of view, it actually is for the customers. Setting the price in Japanese Yen other than U.S. dollars allows me not to revise the price due to currency fluctuation. I hope you understand. Thank you. C.P.

Share Your Thimbles - December 2010

2010-12-01T17:48:00.000+09:00

I just can't believe it's already December. I haven't completed as much projects as I hoped at the beginning of the year, but I am very proud of myself that I have been hosting a thimble photo sharing at Flickr throughout the year and this is the last occasion for you to join the group this year.

As I told you the other day that it's our one year anniversary and our photo sharing is now into the year two this month. I am not sure how this is going to affect the group, but I have decided to lift the ban on the technique you can use on your thimbles: From now on you can use back stitch and weaving as well as embroidery on the surface. My contribution to this month's photo sharing is orange pin cushion, in the same colours as Japanese maples (which do not produce maple syrup by the way) at the moment. They won't last long and within a week or so these beautiful leaves will be all gone.

Here are the general rules:

1. The thimbles (or any other rings) have to be your own work.

2. Although the group name says "thimbles", your work is not necessarily a thimble and you can make your rings in any size you would like, as small as a focal bead for the necklace or as big as a bracelet, or even bigger.

3. As stated above, they have to be your own work however, you can use the ring base from the kit if you choose to do so. It may not seem to be fair, considering I sell the kits, however, they are many other kits available (at least in Japan) and some of you may be able to obtain them, and it is definitely not fair to exclude the people brave enough to share their first work with us from the group.

4. No technique restriction applies. You can use back stitch and weaving in addition to the forward stitch, and even embroidery on the surface if you choose to do so. This is not a contest. You do not need to use these technique if you are not up to it or you simply do not feel like it. A simple and elegant bi-coloured scales design is always welcomed.

5. You can use any material, and in any colours, you would like.

6. Please state the size of the mould on which you formed your ring base in the description field of the photo. Please also mention what threads and padding you used, too, so that we could compare notes. In case you bought one of my kits, here are the size and materials: "first thimble" is 50mm in circumference and Tire Silk size 9 & floss silk padding. "small pincushion" is 61mm in circumference and Tire Silk size9 & floss silk padding. "medium pincushion" is 103mm and Tire Silk size 16 & knitting yarn for padding.

7. You can upload as many photo as you like. You can upload several photos of one thimble if you choose to do so.

8. The closing date is 21st of December 2010, Japan time. Please note that we are 9 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) in Japan. You can still upload your photo after the official closing date since I do not close the photo sharing pool, however, I do close the discussion board for entry to the lucky draw.

Now you can start uploading your photos from here.

We are going to have a lucky draw at the end this month, too. One lucky winner will receive the pin cushion of my contribution to this month's photo sharing which shown as above. To participate in the draw, please leave a message at the discussion board at Flickr under the subject of "Thimbles of December 2010". As stated above, you can upload as many photos as you like however, you can enter the draw only once. The winner of the draw will be announce here at my blog, not at the Flicker, by the end of the month.

You are going to be busy with the holiday approaching but take sometime for yourself for a few hours and make a small ring and make it a pin cushion, or a tall ring and then you have a beading for necklace. They are especially good as a stocking filler. Happy stitching.

Share Your Thimbles November 2010 closed

2010-11-22T17:50:00.000+09:00

This month I am prompt and now announcing that this month's "Share Your Thimble" at Flickr is officially closed. I haven't closed the group at Flickr, but the message board, so you still can upload your photos to show us what you have made. As a matter of fact, the photo sharing group is never closed.

We have five people who shared their work with us this month: coral-seas who showed us her very first thimble, Temari Debi with her beautiful blue fins on brown thimble, Dorian E who shared us with her two thimbles this month, not beads, beadtutle with her lovely gold fish big rings, and suryaismail with her yellow and orange bead which she said look like trilobites but far lovelier than ancient creatures. I would like to thank everyone who visited our group and left comments on our works. I realize that Flickr has a new function of "recent activity" and we can see when signed in that someone has left a comment on the photo.

As promised, one lucky winner will get my contribution of thimble to this month's photo sharing. We have four entries this month and ...

The winner of November is number 1, coral-seas. Congratulations, coral-seas, will you please send me an e-mail for your full name and shipping address? You can find my e-mail address in the profile page.

Did you know that this was the 12th "Share Your Thimbles" this month? I started the group in December 2009 and next month is our first anniversary. I welcome any suggestion to improve the group, especially on how to promote our activities. The fact that the thimble making is not very popular is a problem, not that people loathes it or anything, they just don't know what they are missing is all, I think.

*** Shop Update ***

I have listed three of "First Thimble Kit" at my Etsy store if you are interested. If you placed your order now, I think they will still arrive in time for Holiday. As for "Starter Kit with (almost) everything you need", I appreciate your patience, it will take a little longer before it becomes available.

Can you tell the difference?

2010-11-19T23:45:00.001+09:00

Following the previous post, I experimented on the same designed pin cushion bases. For those of you who didn't read the previous post, one of the instructors from my embroidery course suggested that I might want to consider inserting a smidgen of emerald green in the stripes when I brought it (the right one in the photo) to the course Here are the results of my experiment:

This is the original one, in solid dark olive and gold, I put the small patch on the photo so that you can see the olive green thread I used. I like it as it is, maybe a bit too subdued, but I like the colour combination and it looks good, if I may say so myself.

Then, I used the celadon for the last round of the center square for the second one. My instructor suggested emerald green and his suggestion in colour choice is always spot-on, however, I thought emerald is a touch too strong a colour, especially when the design requires the thread has to appear not only the square part but all the strips parts, too.

I regret that I didn't take step by step photo, but it was really an interesting process. As you can see (or you may not see), the strips (and squares) are formed from the centre. After two rounds of dark olive green, the celadon come, and the whole green part appeared as if it was solid emerald green. Then three rounds of gold and I realized that the whole ring was in the colour of peacock feathers. It was like a WOW moment. Then two rounds of dark olive green and it was totally changed again, with dark olive lying side by side with amethyst and it made amethyst deeper, richer. Another WOW. I wanted to stop there but I had to add another gold, not only for the sake of experiment, but for the completion of the design as it required another round of stitches. The celadon is subtle but it makes the design more interesting for sure.

The third one, with emerald green. I am sorry that the photo is a bit blurry. I was quite happy with the second one with celadon, but I wanted to see what it would be like with emerald green in it. I was right to think that emerald green would be too strong for this design and that he hadn't understood how the design was formed and emerald green had to appear all the way in the stripes and square. He is a embroiderer and I think he wanted to add a bit of emerald green here and there, and not like this, although this is the brightest one and I suppose it's not too bad.

I would like to make another one with celadon and without the last round of gold. It requires a little tweaking of the design, unless I want to replace the gold with the third round of olive green, and I do not. Perhaps adding a little more gold may be the answer, I have to think about it.

flower basket -- update IV + another pin cushion

2010-11-13T01:29:00.000+09:00

The basket itself is finally finished, and so are branches of plum flowers. So it leaves me no option but to work on chrysanthemums and peonies leaves. I am not very happy with these leaves as they are now, to be honest, and that's why I have not been very keen on working on them so far. I can choose to redo them, of course, but I really don't want to. My instructor told me that they were not bad, that I have just finished the "ground work" so what I needed to do was to "beautify" them. I am not really sure about it, though. He, however, told me that I had better redo one of the daffodil leaves, the longest one on the top, and I quite agree.

Here is another pin cushion, in the (almost) same design but in different colours and size. Thank you, Lady of the Lock and Laura B. for your kind words on my previously listed pin cushion in pink. This one still glitters a lot but it doesn't bother me as much as the previous one does, possibly because I just don't like the combination of that particular shade of pink and gold, is all.

I brought it to the embroidery class to show it off, and the instructor suggested that I might want to insert a little bit of emerald green in the gold and dark green stripes part, so that it would bring the purple brighter. His suggestion in colours is always reliable so I am making exactly the same one right now but with a row of emerald green, so that I could compare the effect the brighter green is supposed to provide.

on-line advertisement

2010-11-09T15:23:00.000+09:00

The web service which offers something free, either blog or social network, or anything, got advertisements. Do you pay attention to them?

I generally do not. However, the two advertisements caught my eyes the other day.

One was on-line printing service offering free business cards printing. I have always wanted nice business cards for my shop so I decided to investigate it. It turned out that "free" is for the basic grade paper and I still had to pay for the processing fee. I was not sure if you could still call it free, but I was intrigued enough to look further, and found out that with a small fee I could custom order the cards and look what I got;

The other was for photo books which offered limited time discount. Naturally, I had a lot of photographs which I should have already dealt with. So here are my first photo books:

(There are two because the second one was for my companion)

(We had a dim sum making class at the hotel kitchen during our stay)

a make a month November 2010

2010-11-06T23:18:00.000+09:00

This is my latest pin cushion base ring, in detail. I have finished stitching the pin flower (windmill) part months ago but never finished the background until two days ago.

I used gold thread for Japanese embroidery and perhaps it's a little too glittery, don't you think?

Share Your Thimbles -- November 2010

2010-11-01T09:06:00.000+09:00

It's time to start stitching your thimbles again and here is a link to Flickr to share your work with the group.

This is a photo sharing group called "Share Your Thimbles" and if you make Japanese silk thimbles (or any other rings using the same technique, I would love to have you join us. This is not a contest nor competition and definitely no critics. Anyone is welcome.

General Rules:

1. The thimbles (or any other rings) have to be your own work.

2. Although the group name says "thimbles", your work is not necessarily a thimble and you can make your rings in any size you would like, as small as a focal bead for the necklace or as big as a bracelet, or even bigger.

3. As stated above, they have to be your own work however, you can use the ring base from the kit if you choose to do so. It may not seem to be fair, considering I sell the kits, however, they are many other kits available (at least in Japan) and some of you may be able to obtain them, and it is definitely not fair to exclude the people brave enough to share their first work with us from the group.

4. Your work has to be done with only forward stitches. No weaving or back stitches at this time.

5. You can use any material, and in any colours, you would like.

6. Please state the size of the mould on which you formed your ring base in the description field of the photo. Please also mention what threads and padding you used, too, so that we could compare notes. In case you bought one of my kits, here are the size and materials: "first thimble" is 50mm in circumference and Tire Silk size 9 & floss silk padding. "small pincushion" is 61mm in circumference and Tire Silk size9 & floss silk padding. "medium pincushion" is 103mm and Tire Silk size 16 & knitting yarn for padding.

7. You can upload as many photo as you like. You can upload several photos of one thimble if you choose to do so.

8. The closing date is 21st of November 2010, Japan time. Please note that we are 9 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) in Japan. Though you can still upload your photo after the official closing date since I do not close the photo sharing pool. However I do close the discussion board for entry to the lucky draw.

Now you can start uploading your photos from here.

We are going to have a lucky draw at the end this month, too. One lucky winner will receive the thimble of my contribution to this month's photo sharing which shown as above, one is pink stripes with white fins. In order to enter the draw, please leave a message at the discussion board at Flickr under the subject of "Thimbles of November 2010". As stated above, you can upload as many photos as you like however, you can enter the draw only once.

The winner of the draw will be announce here at my blog, not at the Flicker, by the end of the month.
For those of you who are not a thimble stitcher or who chose not to join the group this month, you can still participate in the group as we participants of the group would love to have your comments left to the photos uploaded. When you click the photo at Flickr, you will find a dialogue box in which to leave your comment. I (and I believe you, too) would be so excited when someone left me a comment. Please come visit us here.

Flower Basket -- update II or maybe III

2010-10-31T17:44:00.000+09:00

It doesn't look like I made a progress since last post but I did; plum branches, which were not shown in the last post, are mostly done and basket is half way done, I think. So it leaves only leaves (no pun intended) and a lot of touch up with flowers. You can see what it was like in June in here and see how much (or how little) progress I made in about half a year :)

Share Your Thimble October 2010

2010-10-31T17:22:00.000+09:00

My thanks to those of you who decided to participate the photo sharing this month , those of you who mentioned my photo sharing group at your blog, and those of you who visited the group to admire our works. We have four participants with 10 thimbles/beads.

We had a lucky draw ...

and the winner is number 2, Temari Debi. Congratulations, Debi, please contact me for your shipping address (I don't think you moved, just being remodeling but just in case). By the way, I was able to establish the correspondence with the winner of August's lucky draw, Dorian.

Tomorrow is the first day of the month and I will start another photo sharing. Start stitching thimbles, shall we?

Flower Basket - update

2010-10-19T20:00:00.002+09:00

Still need to work on leaves a lot, but I am now optimistic about finishing it off soon.

A make a month October 2010

2010-10-16T17:04:00.000+09:00

It has been a while since I last participated "a make a month group" at Flickr. The object of the group is to make a dent in the hoard of materials/books/patterns/etc and share the finished work and/or on-going project with the group monthly. I have just finished the ruffled scarf and would like to share with you, too, as well as the group.

If you are interested in the group, here is a link to Flickr for you to join or admire other lovely works. If you are interested in buying one for you (or winter holiday gift), here is a link to my Etsy Shop. Thank you.

Share Your Thimbles October 2010

2010-10-01T19:01:00.000+09:00

It's time to start a new photo sharing at Flickr and everyone is welcome.

General Rules:

1. The thimbles (or any other rings) have to be your own work.

2. Although the group name says "thimbles", your work is not necessarily a thimble and you can make your rings in any size you would like, as small as a focal bead for the necklace or as big as a bracelet, or even bigger.

3. As stated above, they have to be your own work however, you can use the ring base from the kit if you choose to do so. It may not seem to be fair, considering I sell the kits, however, they are many other kits available (at least in Japan) and some of you may be able to obtain them, and it is definitely not fair to exclude the people brave enough to share their first work with us from the group.

4. Your work has to be done with only forward stitches. No weaving or back stitches at this time.

5. You can use any material, and in any colours, you would like.

6. Please state the size of the mould on which you formed your ring base in the description field of the photo. Please also mention what threads and padding you used, too, so that we could compare notes. In case you bought one of my kits, here are the size and materials: "first thimble" is 50mm in circumference and Tire Silk size 9 & floss silk padding. "small pincushion" is 61mm in circumference and Tire Silk size9 & floss silk padding. "medium pincushion" is 103mm and Tire Silk size 16 & knitting yarn for padding.

7. You can upload as many photo as you like. You can upload several photos of one thimble if you choose to do so.

8. The closing date is 21st of October 2010, Japan time. Please note that we are 9 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) in Japan.

Now you can start uploading from here.

We are going to have a lucky draw at the end, too. One lucky winner will receive the thimble of my contribution to this month's photo sharing which shown as above. In order to enter the draw, please leave a message at the discussion board at Flickr under the subject of "Thimbles of October 2010". As stated above, you can upload as many photos as you like however, you can enter the draw only once.

For those of you who are not a thimble stitcher or who chose not to join the group this month, you can still participate in the group as we participants of the group would love to have your comments left to the photos uploaded. When you click the photo at Flickr, you will find a dialogue box in which to leave your comment. I (and I believe you, too) would be so excited when someone left me a comment. Please come visit us at Flickr.

Share Your Thimble -- September 2010

2010-09-30T20:17:00.000+09:00

This month we had three participants to my monthly thimble photo sharing group at Flickr. There were only one participant up until the very last minute and it worried me a lot. Thank you for those of you who participated and those of you who visited Flickr to admire our works. I will continue the photo sharing and look forward to seeing your works there next month, too.

As before we had a lucky draw and the lucky winner who got the thimble as a prize is Quiltsummse from Germany. Quiltsummse, I will contact you about shipping later.

I have not been contacted by the last month's winner, Dorian E, yet, for shipping information. Dorian, if you read this, please send me an e-mail at chloe_patricia (at) hotmail (dot) co (dot) jp for shipping information.

Share Your Thimbles September 2010

2010-09-01T23:40:00.001+09:00

Are you ready for this month's "share your thimbles"? You can start uploading your thimbles from here at Flickr. The rules are the same as before:

1. The thimbles (or any other rings) have to be your own work.

2. Although the group name says "thimbles", your work is not necessarily a thimble and you can make your rings in any size you would like, as small as a focal bead for the necklace or as big as a bracelet, or even bigger.

3. As stated above, they have to be your own work however, you can use the ring base from the kit if you choose to do so. If may not be fair, considering I sell the kits, however, they are many other kits available (at least in Japan) and some of you may be able to obtain them, and it is definitely not fair to exclude the people from sharing their first work with us.

4. Your work has to be done with only forward stitches. No weaving or back stitches at this time.

5. You can use any material, and in any colours, you would like.

6. Please state the size of the mould on which you formed your ring base in the description field of the photo. Please also mention what threads and padding you used, too, so that we could compare notes. In case you bought one of my kits, here are the size and materials: "first thimble" is 50mm in circumference and Tire Silk size 9 & floss silk padding. "small pincushion" is 61mm in circumference and Tire Silk size9 & floss silk padding. "medium pincushion" is 103mm and Tire Silk size 16 & knitting yarn for padding.

7. You can upload as many photo as you like.

8. The closing date is 21st of September 2010, Japan time. Please note that we are 9 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) in Japan.

Now you can start uploading from here.

We are going to have a lucky draw this month, too, at the end and one lucky winner will get the thimble of my contribution to this month's photo sharing, shown above. In order to enter the draw, please leave a message at discussion board at Flickr under the subject of "thimbles of September 2010". You can upload as many as you like but you can enter the draw only once.

Let's start stitching the thimble and please come join us here at Flickr.

** Dear Dorian, you are the winner of the last month's draw. Please contact me for your shipping address. My e-mail address is chloe_patricia(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)jp

flower basket

2010-08-30T22:50:00.001+09:00

I have been kind of hibernating during summer months and as predicted I have not worked on the embroidery project during summer but in about a month the autumn course will commence so I have to start threading the needles and work on the on-going project, seriously.

I have made a little progress since June, but not much as you can see, and the peony petals as well as leaves still need a lot of work but it looks rather nicer, if I may say so myself, now that the centre of the flower is done. I truly hope I would be able to make more progress before the course starts on 30th September.

*** shop update ***

This is just a reminder that tomorrow (Japan time) is the last day before you can shop at the current price at my shop although the new item (24 cards of silk thread) will remain the same price.

Share Your Thimbles 2010 August

2010-08-26T09:15:00.000+09:00

This month we had four participants. I would like thank Laura B. who said she now knew what she was doing, Dorian who participated in two month in a row, Debi who is one of my regulars, and Ludmila from Ukraine who chose to join us again after long absence, and of course all of you who visited Flickr and admired our works. If you have not visited photo sharing yet, there is a link to Flickr on the right column.

Now, the winner of the lucky draw is Dorian who shared her lovely beads and thimbles with us. Dorian, will you please send me an e-mail for shipping address, you can find my e-mail address in my profile page.

Next week I am going to host another photo sharing at Flickr. Details will follow on 1st of September. If you make thimbles, or any other rings using the technique, please come join us there.

*** shop update ***

Bad news..... As you know the currency exchange rate has been fluctuating drastically, in whose favor is depends on whose view point you are standing, but not mine for sure. A dollar is always a dollar but when you live in a country which medium of circulation is not a dollar, it does not always hold the same value. It fluctuated nearly 15% since I priced my merchandise and I cannot absorb the loss any more. Therefore I am forced to reprice everything already listed at my shop with 13-15% increase. New price will apply from 1st of September, Japan time. If you are considering purchase, it's best for you to buy it this month. It may be a bit too early for thinking about winter holiday shopping, but perhaps you should start a shopping list now. I am sorry I could not give you much warning about this unfortunate price hike but I hoped the intervention by Japanese government and bank of Japan would have some effect on the situation.

Share Your Thimbles -- August 2010

2010-08-01T17:20:00.000+09:00

It's the first of August so you can start uploading your thimbles from here. My contribution this month is the thimble shown above. The design is called "blue wave" . Actually it's just striped bi-coloured scales but almost every designs are variation of bi-coloured scales in one way or the other.

Here are the rules of the photo sharing at Flickr:

1. The thimbles (or any other rings) have to be your own work.

2. Although the group name is "thimbles" your work is not necessarily a thimble and you can make your rings in any size you would like, as small as a focal bead of the necklace or as big as a bracelet, or even bigger if you like.

3. As stated above, they have to be your own work but you can use a thimble base from the kit if you like. It may not be fair, especially considering the fact that I sell the kit, but there are many other kits available (at least in Japan) and some of you may be able to obtain them. I don't see any reason to exclude the people who bravely share their very first work with us.

4. Your work have to be done by only forward stitches. No back stitches or weaving at this time.

5. You can use any materials, in any colours, you would like.

6. Please state the size of the mould on which you formed your ring base in the description field of the photo. Please also mention what threads and padding you used, too, so that we could compare notes. In case you bought one of my kits, here are the size and materials: "first thimble" is 50mm in circumference and Tire Silk size 9 & floss silk padding. "small pincushion" is 61mm in circumference and Tire Silk size9 & floss silk padding. "medium pincushion" is 103mm and Tire Silk size 16 & knitting yarn for padding.

7. You can upload as many photo as you like.

8. The closing date is 21st of August 2010, Japan time. Please note that we are 9 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) in Japan

Now, you can start uploading your photo from here.

We are going to have a lucky draw at the end and one lucky winner will get the thimble of my contribution for this month shown above. To enter the draw, please leave a comment on the message board at Flickr. You can upload as many as you like but you can enter the draw only once.

Now, people, let's start stitching and please come join us here.

Share Your Thimbles July 2010 and the lucky winner is ...

2010-07-31T18:01:00.000+09:00

This month we had seven participants who shared their thimbles with us and that is a great improvement compared to the last month however, we had two new people, too. Just great, isn't it?
Before announcing the winner of the lucky draw, I would like to tell you about how I draw the winner firstly. You have been seeing the strange combined ladder like pictures for months and might have wonder what it was. It's called "amidakuji" in Japanese and it's a quite popular way to draw when the participants are small enough. Although I assigned the number from left to right, if the participants are present they can choose who get where, and you can draw for the multiple prizes at one time.

The number was assigned on the top and the prize was set at the bottom. (we had six people who entered the draw although the total participants of the photo sharing was seven)

Then added the horizontal lines and each person followed the line descending, although sometimes it may involve uphills.

and the winner of July is number 1, Pat of palsu34 who shared two of her lovely thimbles with us. Thank you all who participated in the photo sharing this month, and you, too, who visited the Flickr to admire their works. I am hosting another photo sharing from tomorrow. I would love to see more people joining us there.

Keep It Simple - how I make my thimbles

2010-07-13T16:28:00.002+09:00

When Debi listed this design for last week's Thimble Thursday of her weekly posting, I just had to make one for myself, too. Looks very pretty and advanced design yet easy to make. You can find design interpretation and instructions on Debi's Temari Train of Though, although the current post is about her recent temari (real beauty I might add) so you have to scroll down a bit.

Debi's instructions are very detailed and easy to follow, but 28 sections with period of 8 sections sounds very intimidating and the design diagram looks rather complicated, especially for the people who are new to thimble making. So let's simplify it a bit, shall we?

The above is the design diagram, with all the 28 sections with 4 paths. I forgot to put the numbers beside the arrows but I hope it's clear enough without them. Debi stitched first path through firstly then proceeded to the third (the second pink one in the picture) but I prefer to stitch the paths alternatively as much as possible so the arrows in pink are placed at the same plane to signify it. The gist of stitching instruction is stitch the first and third paths alternatively until each sections are filled, then fill the second path, and after that, fourth path.

Please follow the pink line across the diagram and you will find it makes two rounds before coming back to the starting point. The design period is 8 sections, but actually second half of the period (4 sections) is simply the second round of the first half, in another word, one row of stitches consists of two rounds and that's why there are only 4 starting points.

Now, let's remove everything else beside the first path's stitching:

You can now clearly see what you are going to do with the first path. Are you ready to start stitching? Before threading your needle, please ask yourself;

"DO I REALLY NEED A 28 SECTIONED MARKING PAPER FOR THIS DESIGN?"

The answer is no. Please don't think I am out of my mind because of so hot and humid weather down here. I know what I am talking about. Let's simplify the diagram further and you will know what I mean;

You see, all you need is a simple 7 sections. But what about the starting points of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th paths, no markings for them? You don't need them for this particular design. You might want to consider this design 7 sections with 4 sub-divisions, instead of 28 sections, each sub-divisions represent the paths of stitching. Make sense to you? If it doesn't, hear me out firstly before giving up, this is not as complicated as I make it sounds.

When you made the second round of stitches of the first path, the threads laying on the thimble body crosses each other and that crossing points are always made in the exact half way of the section, and in this way you will know where to start the third path. I put the vertical green lines in the diagram above to show where the half way points are, and third path's thread in red, but not finished all the way because it makes the diagram too busy.

Now look at what it looks in real thimble ( I used green thread so that it shows clearly although the diagram remains in pink);

I finished the first row of first path and was going to start the third path.

You can see ( I hope) now what I mean the crossing points show you the halfway point of the section and it's where you start your third path.

I made an initial stitch and was going to make a down stroke stitch.

In this way, you continue stitching until you made all the stitches of the first row of the third paths.

As you see, it's getting easier as you go, because when you start the second round, you have now both the central crossing and the stitch you have already made when you stitched the first round to hlep you to determine where you make a new stitch.

You can always check if the stitch was made at the right place by placing the thread vertically.

Here, I got myself a nice 14 sections with only 7 sections markings

and this is the diagram (with 28 sections) to show what I have done so far. Now the question is how do I know when to stop stitching for first and third paths.

The answer is the same way when you determined the points where to make the stitches of the third path.

This is where I had to finish the thread and start the second path.

and in reality...

start stitching the third path until all the remaining space is filled ...

like this and then there is only fourth path to go.

I have finished the thimble, but didn't take a photo of it to show you, mainly because I didn't like the finished colourings of it.

Although I used the threads crossing points to determine where to end stitching the first and third paths, but if I knew before hand exactly how many stitches I make in one section of 7 sections thimbles, I could have just simply divided the number of the total stitches in one section in four (because of 4 sub-divisions) and didn't need to worry about where to stop.

This is one of the latest thimbles I made and it has 24 sections with 6-section period. As you guess, I didn't use 24 sectioned marking paper. I interpreted it as 8 sections with 3 sub-divisions. As I had to divide a section into 3 sub-divisions, I was not able to use thread crossing points as a guide as I described above. Instead, I used the "divide the number of the stitches in one section" method. I (almost) always make 20 stitches when my usual thimble has 8 sections. So I knew a sub-division had to have seven stitches each and although it made it total 21 stitches instead of my usual 20, it was still an easy adjustment.

This is why I always encourage you to count your stitches. Counting is essential to make stripes but solid coloured sections could use your counting stitches, too.

For those of you who wonder how to make the above design, here is an instruction (no diagram, sorry);

1 start stitching as if you are making bi-colourd scales in the same colour for both paths for the diamond shaped part in pale blue until the one third of the section is filled.

2 using four contrasting colours, frame the diamonds by forward stitch for second sub-division, back stitch for third subdivision for both 1st and 2nd paths until all the spaces are filled.

For those of you who are interested in purchaing it, here is a link to my shop.

The monthly photo sharing at Flickr, "Share Your Thimbles" is still open. There are only two participants so far. I look forward to seeing yours, too, there.

Happy stitching!

Share Your Thimbles - July 2010 -

2010-07-01T21:29:00.005+09:00

Following to the previous post, we are now having an another "Share Your Thimbles" at Flickr this month, too.

Here are the rules, as same as last month:

1. The thimbles or any other rings (or even not in ring shaped ones) you are going to share with us have to be the ones you yourself made. No borrowing. I don't think any of you will cheat but I think I should make it clear and I hope you understand it and not be offended.

2. Although the name of the Flickr group is "thimbles", you can make your rings in any size. As small as focal bead of the pendant, or as big as a bracelet, or even bigger if you like.

3. You can use ready-made ring bases from thimble making kit if you choose to do so. I don't see any reasons to exclude the new people just because they purchased thimble making kits.

4. Your thimbles or any rings have to be made using only forward stitches at this time. No back stitches or weaving.

5. You can use any materials, in any colours.

6. You have to state the size of the mould on which you formed the bases in the description field of the photos. Please also mention what padding material and thread you used, too. In case you use the ring base from my thimble making kit, it's 50mm in circumference, floss silk for padding, and Fujix Tire size 9 silk hand sewing thread.

7. You can upload as many as you like.

8. The closing date is 21st of July, Japan time. Please note that we are 9 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) in Japan.

Now, you can start uploading your photo from here.

We are going to have a lucky draw afterwards. The prize is the thimble, my contribution for this month, shown above. My thimbles are working tools as a rule, however, I used gold thread for this one and therefore it is not suitable for actual sewing. In order to enter the draw, please leave a message at discussion board. Although you can upload as many as you like but you can only enter the draw once.

This is the eighth photo sharing since I started hosting it last year and there have not been many participants. As a result there may be an occasion, like last month, when the same participants will won the prize more than once. Last month's winner, Rebbecca, who had won the previous month, too, very generously offered to share the prize since there were two thimbles however, I think I had better to stick to the rules as I do not wish to set a precedent. It's not very fair a handful people won repeatedly however, it's not fair, either, to change the rules. I will draw one winner regardless of the past winning records and that is that.

I sincerely hope you understand. However, if there are many more of the participants, the repeated winners will not be such a big issue. Please, please join us at Flickr. I know for the fact that many of you make thimbles, don't be shy.

***** shop update *****

FYI, there are "first thimble" kits as well as medium pin cushion kits in five colours available at my shop.

the winner of June's lucky draw is ...

2010-06-30T23:15:00.002+09:00

There were three participants with nine thimbles/pin cushion in June's Share Your Thimbles Flickr photo sharing. I have to say I am kind of disappointed with fewer people joined this month, but you all must have been very busy with other crafts as well as your daily obligation.

Although there are three people participated, only two of them entered the draw, Rebbecca of temari addict and Debi of temari debi. This is the reason I postponed to announce the winner so far. As you may remember, Rebbecca won the last month's draw. Since I started the monthly photo sharing I have been worried that someday same person won the prize, or everyone have won previously but one participant, because there have not been many participants. I just didn't expect to face it so soon. It's fair to draw the winner regardless of past winning record. Still I think it is also fair to award the person who never won before.

I thought it through and decided that I would just have to flip a coin because the rule is the rule and the winner of June's is Rebbecca of temari addict in Perth. I should have shown the picture of how she won, but for some unknown reason (again) I cannot upload a photo. I can swear that the coin flipping was done quite fairly. Rebbecca, I will post your watermelon thimbles tomorrow. Debi, I am sorry but will you please continue participating the photo sharing.

The next month's photo sharing will start tomorrow. I would like to expect more participants next month. Wish you happy stitching!

flower basket

2010-06-20T14:59:00.006+09:00

It's so humid down here it's suffocating. I know there are a lot of places with more severe climate in the world, but 80% humidity at 29 degrees C inside is bad enough for me. And it's just started, it's getting worse...

The Japanese embroidery class I attend is only held twice a year, 3hrs x 6 times over 3 months twice a year. So there is no wonder (at least for me) I cannot finish the flower basket in timely fashion because I do not do it at home. I have been working on this since summer in 2008 and I really would like to finish it this year.

*** shop update ***

Since my declaration to keep a slower pace at my shop, I have time to enjoy other things, including spending the evening doing nothing particular, than just filling the order. I really was exhausted I think, not that I made that big a sale. Now I think I am ready to pick up the pace a little bit. Your First Thimble kits are now available again and I am working on the medium pin cushion kits (I have not forgotten that I had got a request for two of them) and of course Starter Kits. I will notify here when they becomes available, pincushions soon, starter kit hopefully soon.

The winner of the last week's giveaway is ...

2010-06-05T09:09:00.006+09:00

As I told you last week, I am going to announce the winner of lucky draw but firstly I would like to share with you this soon-to-be a small pin cushion as soon as I filled the ring with the pillow as my contribution of Pink Saturday this weekend. You can find a list of the participants at Beverly's How Sweet the Sound for more pink.

Now the lucky draw...

Very primitive compared to random.org, isn't it, but it works fine.

The winner is number 6, Catharina Maria in Netherlands! Catharina Marina, I have left a comment on your recent blog post and look forward to hearing from you. I would like to thank you all who read my posts and I am sorry that you could not win this time. I may be able to offer another give away once I could find a way to draw the winner more efficiently and for free.

Share Your Thimbles June 2010

2010-06-01T19:14:00.003+09:00

Today is the first day of the sixth month of this year. Time flies, indeed. So, the first day of the month means it's time to start another thimble sharing at Flickr. My contribution to this month's photo sharing is the one shown above. I really hope you would recognize what it is.

Here are the rules:

1. The thimbles/rings/pincushions/bracelets/etc you are going to share with us have to be the ones you yourself made. No borrowing. I do not think any one of you will cheat, but I have to say it here and I hope you understand.

2. Although the name of the group is"thimble", you can make your rings in any size you like, and not necessarily a circle shape either. I have made some oval shaped ones and they turned out just fine.

3. You can use ready-made ring bases if you like. I don't see a valid reason to exclude the very first thimble, just because it was made from the kit.

4. Your thimbles or any other ring shaped objects have to be made using only forward stitches at this time. No back stitches or weaving, please.

5. You can use any materials, in any colours.

6. You have to state the size of the mould on which you formed your thimble/ring bases in the description field of the photo(s). Please also mention what threads and padding material you used, too. If you are going to upload the thimble from the kit I sell, it's 50mm in diameter, silk hand sewing size 9, and floss silk padding.

7. You can upload as many as you like.

8. The closing date is 21st of June, Japan time. Please note that we are 9 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) in Japan.

Now, you can start uploading your photo from here.

We are going to have a lucky draw this month, too. In order to enter the draw, please leave a message at discussion board at Flickr after uploaded your photos. You can upload as many photos as you like, but you can only enter once. I am going to draw one lucky winner and she/he is going to get two watermelon thimbles shown above.

Yes, they are watermelons. If you didn't find them look like slices of watermelon, please humor me and just pretend you think they are. They need more work, especially where placement of the seeds is concerned.

Can you tell the difference between the two? The first one shows furrows while the second one shows a trace of distinct vertical lines. I am not sure which I like better. Putting seeds in is tricky. The easiest and neatest way to put seeds is to apply knot stitches or seed stitches. Although I like the "built-in" seeds, I may have to embroider, just to see what it will look like.

Share Your Thimble May 2010 - lucky winner is ...

2010-05-31T22:33:00.003+09:00

Thank you for your patience. We have six participants with 14 thimbles/pin cushions/bracelets in this month. The winner of the lucky draw of Share Your Thimbles May 2010 is Rebbecca from Perth, who shares us with her cute pin cushion. Rebbecca, I am going to mail you your pin cushion the day after tomorrow.

By the way, I am offering a give away, which does not require you to submit your creation to share at Flickr. It is still open to enter and you can find details is in the previous post here.

Happy Pink Saturday 2nd Birthday

2010-05-29T10:00:00.001+09:00

It has been nearly a month since I last posted and I would like to thank you all who visited my blog since then, probably wondering why I haven't announced the winner of the "share your thimbles" lucky draw. Well, things kept happening and I got cold and have been in bed for almost a week. I will draw later and will announce the winner soon.

I still do not feel very well but have recovered enough so that I do not want to stay in bed all day. You know, there is a tourist bus called "hop on and hop off", the bus stops at major tourist attractions and the bus tickets are good for a day and you can get on and get off the bus at any stop and as often as you like. I have been like a tourist on the bus. When I felt well enough, I hopped off the bed and do something, like check e-mails or watch TV, and got exhausted quickly and had to hop on to the bed again and slept for awhile, then hopped off the bed again, and got tired again and had to hop on to the bed, and slept for awhile and ...

Now, as the title of this blog post tells you, Pink Saturday is celebrating its 2nd birthday. Beverly of How Sweet The Sound has been hosting Pink Saturday every weekend for 2 years, that is 106 Saturdays, amazing, isn't it? You can find a list of the participants at Beverly's. Although I am not a regular participant, I have decided that I would join this weekend when I was received a notification of the big occasion. It was good that I have already prepared for the occasion considering.

Just before I made above thimble, I got an inspiration, something like double chained design. It turned out that I made a grave miscalculation (again) and I had to improvised to save it. Although this was not what I was originally intended to make, I am quite happy with the result.

And I am offering it for a give away. Please leave a comment on this particular post if you wish to enter the draw, before 4th of June, at 21:00 Japan time, which is 9 hours ahead of GMT(Greenwich Mean Time). I will announce the winner in my next Pink Saturday post on 5th of June, but I would like to notify the winner, too, so I would appreciate it if you could leave your comment in a way so that I can contact with you, like leaving a link to your blog, web page, or profile page which gives me an access to the e-mail address.

Wish you all a happy Pink Saturday!

a trinket box

2010-05-11T19:46:00.003+09:00

I have realized that I haven't shown you a trinket box I made last year. Long time readers may remember the embroidery on the lid.

The circle box was made in exactly the same way I make my thimbles, just the bigger, and obviously it has a bottom. My pin cushion ring frames from the old days had a bottom so it was not new to me to stitch a ring with a bottom, however, the size itself gave me a headache once I started stitching. It's 9.5cm in diameter and 4.5cm in height when finished and the thread I used was my usual silk hand sewing size 9, so, it seemed to take forever to finish it.

It was my first trial to make this big a ring (can one still call it a ring even if it has a bottom?) and I should have added more. The triangles (or diamonds?) look in the same size don't they? I didn't want to distort the design by making the ring chubby. Too fat at the middle makes the centre triangles bigger than the top and bottom ones. However, I could have added another layer of cotton batting and still should have been able to avoid that effect, I think.

*** shop update ***

At the moment, my shop looks bare; there are only four items. The shop has been quite successful and I would like to thank you for your purchases and encouragements. However, I think I am now a bit winded. Filling the order takes most of my free time and I do not have much time left to do my own stitching, and more importantly, no time for "beginner's starter kit" I have so wanted to assemble. I have decided to take things slow, not that I close my shop. It's just restocking may take longer, is all. What I put on the shelves will be still ready to ship on the same day you placed an order, or on the following business day, nothing will be changed apart from the shop carrying smaller merchandise. By the way, I have a new product for you here. You will be directed to my shop page. Please have a look and tell me what you think about it.

Pink Thimble for Pink Saturday

2010-05-01T09:30:00.000+09:00

There is a group called Pink Saturday hosted by Beverly and although I am not a regular participant I made this thimble in pink for this Saturday. Please visit Beverly's blog from here and you can find a list of the people who posted something pink today.

You may recognize the design as I have made several thimbles and pin cushions but this time I changed the way to place the frames. I used to place it so that it looks like the four petals flowers are sitting on the frames, but this time they are formed around the flower instead. It was not intentional, as a matter of fact, I wanted to form double frames in gold but miscalculated the number of stitches and ended up like this, although I am quite happy with it.

Since I used gold thread, the thimble is not suitable for actual sewing because gold thread is very fragile and easily damaged. I am still a tad sceptical about purely decorative thimbles but I can call them collectibles, can't I?

Share Your Thimbles May 2010

2010-05-01T09:00:00.001+09:00

The third of the year has already gone and it's the first of May. I wonder what I have been doing for these four months...

It's the first day of the month, so it's time for "share your thimble" at Flickr.

The rules are the same as before:

1. The ones you are going to upload have to be what you made by yourself. No borrowing the thimbles/rings or photos from somewhere. I am not implying you do such things, but I have to mention this, you understand.

2. You can use ready-made ring bases if you like. I sell the thimble making kits but there are other kits available in Japan and if you happened to obtain one of these, you can use them, too.

3. Your thimbles have to be made using only forward stitches, at this time. No back stitch or weaving.

4. Although the group name is "thimble", you can make your rings in any size you would like.

5. You can use any materials, in any colours.

6. You have to state the size of the mould on which you formed your thimble/ring bases in the description field of your photo(s). Please also mention what threads and padding you use. If you are going to upload the thimble from my kit, it's 50mm and Fujix size 9 silk thread, padding is floss silk.

7. You can upload as many as you like.

8. The closing date is 21st of May, Japan time. Please note that it's 9 hours ahead of GMT(Greenwich Median Time) in Japan.

9. You can upload your photo(s) from here.

Like last month, we are going to have a lucky draw. If you would like to enter, please leave a message at the discussion board at Flickr after you uploaded your photo(s). Although you can upload as many as you like, you can enter the draw only once. The lucky winner will get the small pin cushion shown above.

I look forward your entry and wish you happy stitching!

Flowers Up-date IV and thimble related mumblings

2010-04-30T20:30:00.004+09:00

Here is the last of this year's peonies. It has been unusually chilly this year, we are still wearing woolen jackets and it's rather unusual for soon-to-be-May. However, we were able to enjoy the flowers longer.

This is my second latest thimble. It has been quite sometime since I last finished the thimble. I have been making a lot of base rings both for thimbles and pin cushions, but they are all for my shop and therefore have to be unfinished. I do not dislike making base rings so making them is not a core for me, but every time I got the fun part, i.e. stitching, I had to stop and it's not very enjoyable after awhile. It was good that I actually finished one for myself.

When I firstly explain how I make my thimble bases long time ago I believe I said that any slippery fabric, such as fancy shiny lining was not suitable because my thimbles were working tools and thimbles with slippery lining would not stay put on the finger. Well, I should have known better but when I stopped by at the craft shop the other day I found very beautiful and shiny satin bias bindings on a shelf. I walked past the shelf eyeing the tapes but had to come back and brought three packets in dusky pink, dark violet, and dark olive to the check out counter. They are cupro, very shiny and very pretty. I told myself that I had enough thimbles, so much so I could sell, so I could make purely decorative ones, too, just so I could admire them. Why not, indeed. Since I haven't proudly posted the finished one, you can safely suppose it didn't turn out favorable. First of all, it's so slippery that I was not able to wrap the base mould with it tightly enough. I somehow managed it and then wrap the core paper around it and turned the edge of the bias binding over, and it was simply a disaster. Cupro bias bindings, at least the ones I bought, are woven looser and the edge of the tape frayed easily and it just didn't work at all. Now I have to figure out how I can use up all three packets of bias bindings...

Flowers Up-date III

2010-04-26T07:34:00.005+09:00

It has been a bit chilly recently. Unusual, since it's normal that the temperature goes up to around 20 degrees C while it has been around 15 degrees. However, as a result we are able to enjoy the flowers longer, can't complain.

Most of the flowers are already gone but there are still a few buds left.

*** shop update ***

The medium size pin cushion making material sets are now available in these colours. The finished size is about 42-45cm (a little smaller than 2 inches) and takes about 3-4 hours to finish. They are (naturally) bigger than small pin cushion and they are made with bigger silk threads, too, so they are especially good if you found small pin cushion was too small to work upon. You can jump from here for a quick peek ...

Share Your Thimbles April 2010 closed & Flowers Follow-up II

2010-04-24T10:46:00.010+09:00

We had 8 people and 20 thimbles/rings this month including two people who shared their very first thimbles. Now it's time for a lucky draw!

The winner is number 4, ludovic XIV, who shared her lovely ring in blue and metallic stripes. ludovic XIV, please send me an e-mail for shipping address, you can do so from my profile page.

I have received enquiries from time to time where to find some thimble design patterns. I am regret to tell you all that there is virtually no free on-line design sources, even in Japanese. There are a few web pages (in Japanese) which shows you how to make thimbles but the only one available design is bi-coloured scales design and you all know how to make it. Debi from Temari Train ... of Thought kindly shares her diagrams and explanations so you might want to check in on her blog.

I suppose most of the Japanese people who are interested in thimble making may firstly look up online and make their first thimbles, then go buy the books for further designs. The below two books are the most popular;

"Kagano Yubinuki" ISBN 978-4140311400

"Kagano Yubinukito Hanatemari" ISBN 978-4837703082

The latter book features both temari and thimbles so it's useful for temari design sources, too, however, you need to be aware that the way the author tells you to insert a needle is from the edge toward the center while I do it the other way around, that is, from the centre toward the edge. If you are familiar with the way I do, you may find it confusing. The way she represents the design on a diagram is different, I suppose because of the way she make stitches. However, it's a great book none the less. Needless to say, both books are in Japanese.

I created links so that you could jump to Amazon Japan who ships overseas but their shipping charge is extremely costly because they only ship by courier service. I would suggest you firstly try your local bookshop or online auctions, search key words being "kaga" and "yubinuki". If you cannot find a book(s) at reasonable shipping charge, I may be able to help you. If you are interested, please leave a comment in a way so that I can contact with you, like leaving a link to your blog, web page, or profile page from where I can send an e-mail to you.

Now, peonies update.

The Blogger and I are still not on a very friendly term where uploading the large pixels photos is concerned. I took the photo this morning and I had to squeeze it to about a quater,and as a result the photo does not convey how delicate these petals look, like below.

Flowers Follow-up I

2010-04-17T10:22:00.002+09:00

Just have to share these two with you...

Flowers of the Month

2010-04-14T15:41:00.004+09:00

Long time readers may remember my obsession with peonies. In Japan peonies are in bloom in May, although for some unknown reasons, mine always start unfurling petals in the middle of April.

Here is another picture I took this morning. There should be a picture of cherry blossoms here and I did take some pictures last week, but it seems that I misfiled them and cannot find them :(

*** shop update ***

Thank you for your feed back about pin cushion making kits I previously talked about. They are available now at my shop here. Please note that they do not include any instruction therefore it may not for you if you have never made a thimble/ring yet.

Share Your Thimble April 2010 part II

2010-04-05T22:42:00.009+09:00

I hope you had a lovely holiday weekend with your family.

Following to the previous post, here is a pin cushion I made for a prize of the lucky draw. It is one of my small pin cushions and it's about 23mm in diameter.

There is already one thimble uploaded here and I hope there will be more participants this month.

One of the ladies who bought a thimble making kit asked me if I was going to sell a pin cushion kit. I have been very behind of everything and finally I made a model for the kit.

The above is a finished pin cushion and the below is what you are going to start stitching with; a finished base ring with two rows of stitches already done. Instead of two threads, this time you work with four threads.

Anyone interested in?

Share Your Thimbles April 2010

2010-04-01T14:16:00.003+09:00

Now, it's the first day of April and here is another photo sharing for you.

The rules are the same:

1. They have to be your own thimbles. No borrowing the thimbles/photos from somewhere. I don't think anyone do such things, but just so it's clear for everyone.

2. You can use the ring base from the kit if you choose to do so.

3. Your thimbles have to be made using only forward stitches at this time. No back stitches or weaving.

4. You can make your rings in any size you would like, from a thimble to a bracelet or something bigger.

5. You can use any materials in any colours.

6. You have to state the size of the mould on which you form your ring base, the padding, and threads you use in the description field of your photo(s). If you chose to use a ring base from the kit I sell, the size is 50mm and the materials used are floss silk padding and Fujix size 9 silk thread.

7. You can upload as many as you like.

8. The closing date is 21st of April, 2010, Japan time. Please note that it's 9 hours ahead of GMT(Greenwich Median Time) in Japan.

9. You can upload your photo(s) from here.

As before, we are going to have a lucky draw. I am afraid that the prize is not ready yet, but it will be one of the small size pin cushion I made. I will be able to post the photo of the pin cushion within a few days, hopefully. If you would like to enter the draw, please leave a message at the discussion board, which you can find below the photos in the group page, and you can jump from here. Although you can upload as many photos as you like, you can only enter the draw once.

Here is how to upload your thimble photo:

Firstly you have make your account at Flickr and upload your photos. Then, visit the group page (here) and become a member. Then go back to your photostream page and open the photo you wish to share with us. Click the "send to group" button and then choose "Share Your Thimbles" from drop downs. You won't receive a "successfully done" message but it's done. Come back to the group pate to make sure your thimble photo is there, just in case.

My thimble for the month is another variation from bi-coloured scales design. I used only two colours to make stripes and so it is a sort of subdued. However, if you use multiple colours, perhaps in shadings or contrasting colours, the result will become very different. Of course we appreciate the simple beauty of bi-coloured scales, too. I look forward your participation this month.

Share Your Thimbles March 2010 closed

2010-03-30T15:45:00.004+09:00

Thank you for your patience for waiting more than a week to hear my announcement of the closure of this month's photo sharing and winner of the lucky draw. We have 24 lovely thimbles, bracelets, and a pincushion this month and six people left a message on the discussion board (although there are seven messages and it was because Debi left two)

Now, a lucky winner is Surya in Malaysia who shared her shaft feathers design bangle in pink and yellow. As she said in her message left, it's a quad-scales design using only two colours, so you can call it quad-scales but more commonly called as shaft feathers, as in a long bow's. Surya, please send me an e-mail for your shipping address. You can send it from my profile page.

These are my recent ring bases for pin cushion. They are nothing to do with this post but I think it's always nice to have a picture to share, so here it is. I suppose you remember that I have started to sell "your first thimble making kit" at my Etsy shop. So far I made 22 sales and the responses from the people who bought it were favorable and a few people asked me if advanced kit(s) will be available in future. When I first thought of selling thimble kits I planed to have two kits; "first thimble kit" and "beginner's starter kit". The former one is what on the shelf of my shop now, a finished thimble base with two rows of stitches already done. The latter one, a starter kit, should include all the key materials such as core paper, bias binding, silk threads, floss silk padding, and so on with instruction booklet which shows you how to make a base, how to pad it, and how to stitch. You can make at least three thimbles using the material included. That was a plan. Now I have become ambitious and dreaming of a "thimble of the month club". The first month's thimble will be very similar to the "beginner's starter kit" and from the second month and onward, you will receive a design diagram and instruction with maybe two cards of thread every month, perhaps a 6 months subscription. In this way the people who are new to thimble making can gradually familiarize themselves and learn more complex designs, too. In any way it certainly takes a few months before I can produce a new kit for you. In the mean time, I would appreciate your input in this matter.

I will start a new Share Your Thimbles the day after tomorrow. Happy stitching!

answers to recent questions - a kind of how I do -

2010-03-13T14:26:00.012+09:00

This is my second post today. If you are visiting for Pink Saturday, please scroll down for the previous post. Thank you.

I am ashamed to admit that I am very slow at responding to the comments left. I love it when people left messages here, even just saying hello, and believe me, I read them all.

More than a week ago, Pat asked me how many sections the prize pincushion for March had. It has 10 sections. You just start a thread and go stitching all the way until two sections are filled.

Before you start, you have to know exactly how many stitches you are able to make in one section if you want precise stripes.

The number of sections does not matter as long as it's even number. However there won't be a thread B so you may find it a little difficult to maintain the round shape of the ring, especially when floss silk or quilting padding were used as padding material. I suggest to put basting stitches where thread B should be and between B and A, just one row of stitches each with finer thread than your stitching thread. Just keep stitching as if there are no basting thread running across the body of the ring and when you filled half the section with stitching thread, then remove the first basting stitches. Just nip the thread at several spots and remove it. When you filled a full section then remove the second basting thread. If your stitching threads laid on the body of the ring were disturbed, then you can always tidy it up using the tip of the needle (I recommend the bigger needle than you used for stitching) or a very fine stiletto, like the one used for white embroidery.

This morning just after I published the previous post, Rebbecca asked me if I marked more divisions other than usual markings for section divisions as a colour change guide. The answer is no. I didn't but you can if you like. But you really don't need the extra markings because the other part (dark blue and white stripes part) requires you to know exactly how many stitches you have to make in one section, so you can tell when to change the pink threads, too, without markings. On the other hand you might find the extra markings half way between the original section markings useful, though, so that you could make the stitches evenly.

Lastly a person who chose to be nameless left a comment on the post explaining how to make stitches a few days ago. She (I call the person she) said that when finishing the thread, the picture looks like the needle is going down behind the marking paper and if her interpretation is right, and that when starting the new thread whether it come up in front of or behind the paper. I do not know whom to thank, but thank you for binging this up to me. They are indeed very good questions.

I believe this is the picture in question. It is not very clear where exactly the needle tip went and I apologize for it.

The answer to the first question is neither. The needle has to penetrate the the lining fabric at the exact place where you are supposed to make another stitch and going down through the fabric (try not to nick the core paper) and coming up penetrating again the fabric, marking paper, and the padding as shown in above picture. Otherwise, when you pull the thread through regardless it's in front of or behind the paper, it burdens the existing thread already laid on the padding.

The answer to the second question is, I am sorry to say it again, but neither. Your needle will go in through the padding, marking paper, and lining fabric, and come up where you want to make an initial stitch, and you pick the lining fabric again to make an actual stitch. Without penetrating the lining fabric, your initial stitch can be loose and you won't want that.

I am sorry I didn't make these points clearer when I explained about the stitching first time. When you find anything unclear, anything at all, please let me know. As I told you before, I may be slow to respond but I read all the comments left.

Cherry Blossoms

2010-03-13T09:00:00.003+09:00

There is a wonderful group programme called Pink Saturday hosted by Beverly where the participants publish a blog post dedicated in pink on every Saturday. It has been a while since I last participated in but when I made this ring as a frame of a small pincushion I decided that it was time to join the group again.

As you can see, this design is an another variation of bi-coloured scales. The first section is shading pink and the second section is dark blue and white stripes. I suppose the darkest pink turned out a tad too strong. I am going to make another one and I will increase the pale pink part and reduce the darker two, perhaps it might work better with paler yet pink.

Share Your Thimbles March 2010 - Part II -

2010-03-03T15:59:00.002+09:00

The above pin cushion is the prize for this month's Share Your Thimbles. To enter the draw, once you uploaded your thimble photo(s), please leave a message at the Flickr, not here. I made a slight change this month and you can enter the draw only once while you can upload your photos as many as you like. The closing date is 21st of March, 2010, Japan time. Please note that we are 9 hours ahead of GMT in Japan. For those of you who live in the area on the Western coast of American continents, the closing date is almost 20th, instead of 21st in your time.

The design of the above ring can be made using forward stitches only. I changed the colour randomly but precise strips looks very smart. It's easy but you might need a few practice rings before you become happy with the result. The bi-coloured scales design has two starting points, and you change the thread alternately when you go. This design only has one starting point and no thread change unless you want to make strips. So your padding, whatever you use, may interfere while you make stitches, and you may feel difficult to maintain stitch consistency. Do I make sense? Any question and let me know, please.

I would like to thank you all who encouraged me when I first thought about making a kit and selling it at my shop, especially Debi who helped me to put the instruction booklet together, without her help, it wouldn't have been such a nice and helpful booklet. She agreed to edit it and not only corrected my wordings but also added invaluable tips.

Five people bought my thimble making kits so far and I am very happy that they are going to start making their own thimbles or any other rings using the thimble making technique. I won't say it's easy but it's not as difficult as it looks or as you think it would be. I have added another five kits on the shelf of my Etsy shop. If you are interested, please pop in and have a look.

Share Your Thimbles - March 2010

2010-03-01T10:00:00.004+09:00

Now, it's time for you to start making silk stitched thimbles as I am hosting another thimble sharing Flickr group. You can upload your photo from here.

Basic rules are the same as the previous months, but I have made a slight change:

1. You have to make your own thimbles to join the group. However you can use the finished ring base from the kit.

2. You can only use forward stitches. No back stitches or weaving.

3. You can make your rings in whatever size you choose, from a thimble to a bracelet.

4. You can use any material in any colours. Please state the size of the mould, padding, thread in the description.

5. You can upload as many as you like.

6. The closing date is 21st of March, 2010, Japan time. Please note that it's 9 hours ahead of GMT in Japan.

As before, we are going to have a happy draw after closing on 21st of March, and the lucky winner will get one of my small pin cushion. I am sorry but for some reason I cannot upload a photo of it. I will try later again.

In order to enter the draw, you must leave a message at the discussion section of the Flickr, not a comment here. Another change regarding lucky draw is you can now enter only once. So however many photos of your thimbles you uploaded, your entry to the draw counts as one.

These two photos are design suggestions, slightly varied from the bi-coloured scales design.

When you went to the half way point, change the colour for the rest of the section. I used two colours but you can use four and it makes it an interesting design.

You can figure out how to make this design by yourself so I won't go further, but actually it's more difficult than the one above because the neat initial stitches of the accent colours are not easy to make. It's challenging but I find this design very sophisticated.

There are so many designs you can make using only forward stitches and it's fun to make your own design or figure out how to make it. Of course you can always join us with a bi-coloured scales design. I look forward your participation.

P.S. I made three sales of thimble making trial kit, the ones I told you in my last post, so far. At the moment there is only one left on the shelf here and I will list a few more tomorrow morning. When you read this post and decided to purchase one for you but it was already sold out, please request an order using "request custom item" function at the right side column on my Etsy shop or leave a comment here so that I would know how many I should list them. Thank you. CP

Your First Silk Thimble Trial Kit

2010-02-28T21:35:00.003+09:00

Tomorrow I am going to start another thimble photo sharing group for March and am wondering how many people will join it. The number of the participants for each month are all in one digit and I consider it a personal challenge to increase the number of thimble stitchers.

My first step was to host a thimble sharing Flickr group and I have to admit it has not been working very well, even with give-away lucky draw. So I took another step and have assembled a thimble making kit for the beginners. I have named it "Your First Silk Thimble Trial Kit" and it includes a pre-padded thimble base ring, silk thread in two colours, a needle, and an instruction booklet. The thimble base has two rows of stitches already done for bi-coloured scales design, all you have to do is thread the needle and carry on stitching. This kit will give you an idea what silk stitched thimble making is like.

You can purchase the kit from here.

Share Your Thimbles February 2010 closed

2010-02-23T23:32:00.003+09:00

This month there are five participants and 12 thimbles/rings. Our newest participant, Jane from Illinois said in her entry comment that she was wondering if she qualify because she used the kit I had sent to her. The kit in question is the one I am working with for my Etsy shop and consists of the finished thimble base with two rows of stitches started and enough thread to finish it off. Although the rules I posted when I started the Flickr pool this month did not say anything about the finished base from the kit, I should have thought of the possibility of it. Apart from the one I sent to Jane, there are commercial thimble making kits and all have a finished base in it. Since it was I who sent Jane a thimble base I have decided that her thimble qualify the give-away draw. I will change the rules so that next time everyone can enter the draw even if she uses the finished base from the kit.

Now, the draw. We have 12 entries (2 non-entry comments and 1 deleted one) and the lucky number is 9, Pat (palsu34) and her red and gray thimble. Congratulations, Pat, I will contact you by e-mail later.

As I said before I am working with a kit for the beginners to sell at my Etsy shop. At the moment Share Your Thimbles Flickr group has only 12 members and I know there are more people who reads my blog and (more importantly) who is interested in but has not made one yet. To encourage and help you take your first step I decided to sell the beginners kit. The kit consists of a finished thimble base, threads in two colours, and a needle. The first two rows of stitches are already started, so all you need to do is just thread your needle and carry on. I think I can list them at my shop, hopefully this weekend.

Number of Sections and Design Placement on an Oval

2010-02-20T17:56:00.006+09:00

What is the best angle to capture the oval shaped object in the photo? How hard I tried, it didn't look like an oval. I tried several, well more than several, but none worked. Yes, I am working on oval shaped rings now. Making ovals is not difficult compared to taking photo of them, I can tell you.

This is the mould I used to form a base ring. It was originally a lid of a toner bottle; I put the glass bottle in the recycling bin and kept the lid in a box labeled as miscellaneous, in hope that someday I would use it for oval shaped rings and understandably I forgot about it. Keeping something for something later can result in an overwhelming amount of somethings stashed in a closet and when you decided to sort out the mess in your closet you might "re-discover" something worth working with and so I re-discovered the oval lid along with the oval shaped plastic shampoo bottle the other day.

As I told you, shaping the ring in an oval is not difficult. When you remove the finished base ring from the mould, you may find it rather fragile but it's workable. The difficult part is (apart from photo taking) design placement. When you work with a circle ring, regardless of the size, you don't need to worry about where you start stitching where the design is concerned. I am happy about the placement of the design; the four petals flowers are exactly where I want them to be however, I may be able to improve the proportion of the flower, i.e. widen the flower a little bit. This ring has 14 sections and I am working one with 12 sections now to see which I like better. Are you wondering why I have skipped 13 sections? This design works on 13 sectioned ring, too, and most probably it might look the best. As a matter of fact, it's easier with 13 sections than 12 and 14, because you only need to work with two threads at a time rather than four. The thing is, what is the best way to place 13 flowers on an oval ring and this is what I mean when I say deign placement. I do not want to complicate it so the flowers have to be in even numbers. If 12 sectioned ring didn't work, I have a few options to fix it; wrap the paper on the mould to make it bigger, wrap an extra layer or two so that the core ring becomes thicker, or making the height of the ring taller or shorter, or give up on the design. Hopefully 12 would work fine. I hope, really.

When I published a post about number of sections and thread angles, SunshineCraft asked me by leaving a comment if I ever change the mould or anything to achieve the specific angles. I really do not like to change the mould, the paper thickness, number of the layers of paper, or the height of the rings, or anything to change the size of the rings so I don't usually, unless I receive a custom order. Most of the time, changing the number of sections will sort out the problems. The number of the sections, i.e. the size of a section, in accordance with the design is an interesting subject and since next month's photo sharing will allow you to try out any design with forward stitches, I am going to start writing a post about it. Happy stitching!

February is not too bad when ...

2010-02-20T13:38:00.009+09:00

As mild as it is in Japan, February is still the coldest month. The day is getting longer and the sky looks (sometimes) cheerful and you can almost feel spring being there, and I am well aware that there are a lot of places where people are suffering from a very cold weather, including heavy snow, yet I feel cold down here.

In addition to my "seven days of specialness swap" earlier this month, I have got wonderful surprisings this month, too. The first one was from the last month's winner of Share Your Thimble photo sharing, Kat in Texas, also known as Shidepro. She sent me a box full of embroidery floss. When she responded to her winning notification she asked me if I was interested in trying out the bulky nylon thread she used. When mailman came to my door and handed me a box from overseas sometime later on Sunday morning, being Sunday means no mail delivery unless it's express service in Japan, I was puzzled. Surely I would remember if I bought something from overseas which comes by express airmail. Would I really? I knew I was expecting sample thread from Kat but surely it would be in a normal size envelope and not in a box. Oh, was I wrong. Inside the box there are beautifully carded thread, not only the bulky nylon, but Kat also gave me colourful samples of size 8 perle cotton.

I mentioned that I have never actually seen a size 8 floss, she kindly gave me an opportunity to try them out. The problem is, I am kind of a pack rat, stashing everything and not actually using them. I have pledged that I use (hopeful) many of my hoardings this year and actually make something using them (have you seen my pair of curtains in the last post? I am really proud of my self that I have been keeping my promise - so far), I might decide to use them. But you know, using up thread stash is difficult for me. They are beautiful as they are and I don't want to mess them up. I also have variegated floss from Julie as one of the 7 days swap. I am afraid my thread stash may not be reduced anytime soon.

Then the following day I received a lovely collection of sample floss from Kat, I got this from Jane. She created a fabric book back in last autumn, and each page of the book represented the alphabets. She chose a quilt for Q with nine patch quilt featured on the page and challenged her blog readers how many squares we could find in the page and luckily I won the prize. I have seen many temari before, all of them in the display case at the shops, but this is the first one I actually hold in my hand, let alone own it. For those of you who are not familiar with temari, it's a (obviously) ball; direct translation is a "hand ball", as opposed to a "foot ball". There was a foot ball game played by noblemen more than a thousand years or so ago but the game and the ball were not the one we are familiar with today, not soccer, rugby, or American football. Temari has gone back to a few hundred years I believe and made of a fabric/paper/thread core ball covered by thread wrapped around to form a sphere then embroidered on a surface. Not very bouncing but it was a girls' indoor toy. Today, nobody actually play with them but to display and admire its beauty. I admire mine everyday.

February is not bad at all, not at all, in deed.

A make a month February 2010

2010-02-12T23:22:00.006+09:00

I am so proud of myself that I have finally finished the long (not so) forgotten curtains for a spare room. I do not want to say when I bought the fabric so you can assume it was a long time ago. A piece of the curtain consists of four 125m width of the fabric and I used the machine to put the fabric together but other than that it was all hand sewn, including attaching the lining and pleating, as I was taught in the curtain making course almost ten years ago. One of the reason I put off making it is that I have to use my dining table as a working space. It becomes a really big piece of fabric when you put 4 width of the fabric together and it requires quite a big space to accommodate it. I had to use only the very edge of the table for about a week and you can imagine how inconvenient it was.

This is not my first hand sewn curtains, but it's my first time I spaced the pleats so that the same part of the pattern appears at the same intervals; the big flower part always on the pleats and the narrow flowery stripes at the flat part. It took some time to figure out how best to space the pleats but it was worth the trouble.

I am not really good at sewing, machine or hand sewing, but I like matching pattern of the fabric and I did quite well this time, if I may say so myself.

This is the wrong side of the fabric and you can see the pattern match on the seam allowance, too.

I have joined the "a make a month 2010" programme and this is my make of the month of February however, there is still enough time to make something from the long accumulated hoardings, so I may be posting something else at the end of the month.

7 days of specialness swap part II

2010-02-11T15:50:00.008+09:00

Although Chinese New Year's Day has not come yet, it's considered spring according to old Japanese calendar. Occasionally it's got really cold (some of you living up north consider it still mild, though) generally the weather in February in Japan, at least where I live, is not so bad.

I have been a bit lazy and haven't updated my blog to show you what I got for my 7 days of specialness swap for a while.

Julie got me Cath Kidson's rose soap for me on Thursday. Although her fabric and bags etc are available in Japan, soap still is not. I have a tendency to hoard not only craft supplies but also anything smells good, like bath products such as scent sachets, shower gel, and of course soap. I prefer soap to shower gel but in recent years many bath products companies mainly sell shower gel and I have been wondering why for some times. Nothing wrong with a nice bar of soap, regardless it smells like soap or something nicer.

Friday's is a bunny egg cozy.

Very smart, isn't she? The problem is, I do not have an egg cup. So I used one of my sencha tea cups to substitute it. This is the smallest one and it works fine. When I opened the package, my mother was at present visiting with me and she fallen for the bunny and wanted to adopt her. Well, we will see.

Saturday's is one of my loves of my life, chocolate. In my considered opinion, no one can have too much chocolate.

On Sunday Julie got me another knit creation of hers, a cupcake pin cushion, pink frosting with a cherry on top!

On Monday, the last day of the swapping, I dredged to open the last package because, well, it was the last, but opened it anyway and found this very cute hedgehog, the one I coveted so much when I first looked at Julie's weblog but gave up because my knitting skill was not up to it.

I had so much fun and am really glad to have participated in the swap programme by Ali and I would like thank Julie so much to make this month so special for me. I will treasure everything you gave me, thank you, Julie.

7 days fo specialness

2010-02-03T17:59:00.006+09:00

In last December Ali of Domesticali called for participants her 7 days of specialness in February. It is a swap programme, where two blogger exchange small 7 gifts and open the package one at a time everyday in February, the most gloomy month in north hemisphere. I have been paired with Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits and here look at what I got from her:

I forgot to take pictures before opening yesterday's package so you can see one package is already opened.
Can you see the packages are all labeled to which day to open? Julie told me it really wouldn't matter what day I opened which package, but I followed the instruction and got myself lovely variegated embroidery floss. So gorgeous.

Look at this cutie I got for today. I named her Selina and she is currently hanging from the door knob looking at me while I am composing this post. As a matter of fact Julie is offering some of free patterns and you can knit this tiny bunny yourself but my Selina is special and she wears a dress and her free pattern does not include a dress. Please check out her blog and you can find a link to her free patterns page on the sidebar. She is really talented and self her knitted cuties and patterns on Etsy. When I first paired up with her, I checked out her blog and shops to see what to get her and found a little hedgehog pattern and seriously wondered whether to buy or not. Finally decided that my knitting skill was not up to the challenge, but he is really really cute.

I have still got five packages to go and I cannot wait till tomorrow morning!!!

Share Your Thimbles - February 2010

2010-02-01T20:56:00.006+09:00

I didn't have time to announce the start of another Share Your Thimbles this morning and I am sorry for the delay.

The same rules as previous months apply:

1. You have to make your own thimbles to participate.
2. The design must be a bi-coloured scales with two colours, no stripes or shadings.
3. Variegated thread is acceptable if you like the effect.
4. You can use any materials you like, thread wise and padding wise.
5. State the circumference of your mould and thread & padding you used in the description field.
6. You can make your rings in what ever size you like. Just state the size as mentioned above.
7. You can upload as many as you like.
8. The closing date is 21st of February 2010, Japan time. Please note that it's 9 hours ahead of GMT in Japan.

Here is a link to Flickr group: Share Your Thimbles

As before we are going have a happy draw and the winner will get the below small pin cushion.

In order to enter the draw, you MUST leave a comment on this particular post. One upload with one comment for one entry, so even if you uploaded three rings but only left one comment, then it counts as one valid entry. Please mention your Flickr user name in your comment so that we can admire your work knowing who made them. To make things easier for me and clearer for everyone, I would appreciate it if you avoid leaving non-entry comment on this particular post.

I look forward your participation.

Happy stitching!

A make a month 2010 - January - plus number of stitches

2010-01-31T22:27:00.007+09:00

Have you noticed a nice blog button? It's a make a month 2010 button. Helen of Angharad has challenged us to stop hoarding the craft supplies and actually make something. She is now hosting a Flickr group and of course I have signed up.

They are medium sized pincushions. I have already made rings months ago, but didn't come around to make cushion parts (the process I do not care very much) but Helen's challenge gave me a reason to finish them. Of course making these small (they are medium sized but still small, as you can suppose) cushions doesn't make any dent in my stash though, it's a start.

Meri asked me something about the previous post of number of stitches. I am sorry I didn't make myself clear and here is an additional explanation:

The number of the stitches you make in one section of course depends on the size of the ring, number of the sections you are having, and the size of the thread you use. What I was trying to say is when you compare with the two identical sized rings stitched with the same thread, the number of the over all stitches varied depending on the number of the sections. The less sections (wider sections), the sharper the angle of the thread, the less over all stitches because an actual coverage of the thread becomes wider at the middle of the ring body

As for the recommended size of perle cotton for thimbles, I am sorry but I have no idea. As a matter of fact I have not ever seen any perle cotton other than size 5. In Japan there are not many choice where embroidery floss is concerned; there are size 25(6-strand floss) and size 5 and that's all. Of course there are Japanese embroidery silk floss, sashiko cotton, kogin cotton, temari thread, and other "stitching" thread (manufacturer called them so, not me) available, but no perle cotton. All I can say is the thread size should match the size of the ring. Size 5 perle cotton is definitely too big for a thimble. On the other hand you can use one strand of size 25 embroidery floss (closely the same size as silk hand sewing size 9) for a napkin ring if you like. It takes long time to finish it but you can make more delicate and intricate design than the one made with bigger thread.

Debi suggested on the number of stitches post to include two pictures to show how there is a greater distance across the thread when the angle is sharper. (Debi, I now understand what you meant) It's a great idea however, sadly, as you have all witnessed, my drawing using Paint is not up to the task. Perhaps I can get better result by hand drawing and scanning afterward. With these two pictures, it will make more sense easily. Thank you, Debi

Sidhepro mentioned the other day when she uploaded her "share your thimbles" photo, that her edges were not up to her expectation, that her down stroke was better than upstroke and so the bottom edge ended up the better stitch alignment. How you insert your needle decides how your stitch looks (and so does how you pull the thread, too) so if you are happy with your down stroke, or upstroke for that matter, more than the other, why don't you hold your ring upside down when you are doing less favored edge? Hold it upside down, insert the needle tip, turn it to the correct side up, then pull the thread. However, I do not like to do so, because it makes threads prone to all tangled up, especially you use more than four, but it's my personal opinion. Many people do this way, so why don't you, too?

I am very slow to respond to comments left but I read all. When I didn't make myself really clear in my "how I do" or you have a question, or just say hello, please don't hesitate to leave a comment. I love it when people respond to me :)

Thimbles are all about geometry and trigonometric function

2010-01-30T22:00:00.003+09:00

Today's post is one of my "how I do" series but a bit heavy on a technical side. It may not make sense clearly to you, but it's not your fault. English is not my first language and I have never participated in math class in English. I would appreciate it if you could let me know, after you read this, where and how to improve it so that it becomes easier for everyone to understand.

When I first made a thimble, I made a mistake by packing too many stitches in one section. The reason I tried to make too many is a simple misunderstanding. The centre of the ring is fatter than the top and bottom because of the padding, thus I thought I had to make more stitches so that the body of the ring is nicely covered. But I was wrong. Unless the angle of the thread is too extreme or the ring is unusually fat, you don't need to worry about whether you are making enough stitches for body coverage.

You may have noticed that I said "section" instead of "segment" as before to refer the space all the stitches are made. From now on I will call them sections although I don't plant to replace the words in the old posts at the moment.

Now, like origami, thimble making is much like geometry; simple zigzag thread forming various designs and number of sections, order of stitching, and to which directions to go decide the design. However how many stitches you make in one section depends on the angle of the thread. It's trigonometric function, sounds scary doesn't it.

The above is a diagram of simple bi-coloured scales, number of sections unknown. When I talk about the angle of the thread I usually mean angle a (not clearly appeared in the picture though) and I meant angle a when I left a comment on Debi's post however, it's easier actually to explain when concentrate on angle b so from now on, it's angle b when I say sharp or otherwise.

When you have less sections, in other word wider sections, in other word again more space to stitch, the angle of the thread becomes sharper like below;

When the angle of the thread becomes sharper, the more coverage the thread makes at the middle of the body because the width of the thread becomes wider.I have realized that my English is better than my drawing :( Does the picture make sense? A horizontal black line above is a position where the two threads cross, i.e. the fattest part of the body and segment line a is a width of a thread at the top of the base where you make a stitch, segment line b is also a width of the thread (in the same width naturally) but segment line c is an actual width that covers the body. The sharper the angle becomes, the wider the actual width of the thread at the middle of the body becomes. That means the size of the sections (or you can say the number of the sections) dictates how many stitches you have to make in one section. The narrower the sections the less coverage the thread makes at the middle, and more stitches required while the wider the sections the more coverage and less stitches. Actually you can calculate how many stitches you have to make if you like.

My mould is 50mm in circumference and when sections are 8, I make 20 stitches in one section and it makes total 160 stitches while when sections are 10, the number of the stitches in one section is 18 and it makes total 180 stitches. The difference is 20 which amazingly coincides the number of the stitches I make in one section of 8. The size of the base is the same but the total number of the stitches varies depending on the angle of the thread, i.e. number of the sections of the ring.

Having said that, when the angle is too sharp then what will happen? You are of course going to make less stitches but the coverage at the edges cannot catch up with the one at the middle so either you cannot fill all the section at the top/bottom of the ring with stitches or you have to make stitches rather sparsely. I don't think either option looks very good. You can adjust it a little by adding more padding at the centre, i.e. makes your thimble very fat, so that there would be more room at the middle of the ring. My limit is 7 segments for 50mm mould ring. Perhaps I can make do with 6 but not very sure if I like the result.

Here is a summary; as you see below two diagrame, the first one has sections half as small as the second one's , i.e. the second one's thread has to form a sharper angle.

I have merged two diagrams so that you could see the angles more clearly:

When you work with red thread for the first diagram, say you make 12 stitches in one section while with blue thread for the second diagram 21 stitches. Since the section of the second diagram is twice as wide as the first one, when compared you have to make 3 more stitches to fill the TWO sections of the first diagram, which is the same as ONE section of the second diagram, and this is all to do with the angle of the thread. The sharper the angle becomes, the more thread coverage at the middle, and as a result less stitches over all.

Of course you don't need to know all of this to make your thimbles but counting the number of stitches is vital to deviate to more complex designs. When you practice next time, why don't you count the stitches and see if you could always finish off with the same number of stitches? Knowing how many stitches you can make, or rather, you are planning to make, is essential for thimble making. When you can make exactly the same number of stitches every time, then you can make do with one or two more/less stitches in the same size section when the design requires it. Say I want stripes, a set of three rows of stitches stripes, like, a set of red, red, and white. As I told you, I make 20 stitches for 8 sections, that makes one stitch short so I try to pack a little and make 21 stitches, 7 set of 3. Maybe red, red, white stripes are too bright, and perhaps I would like to add another row of red after the final white, that requires total 22 stitches, 7set of 3 plus 1. Then I can either add two stitches on top of my usual 20, or make one less stitch, i.e. 19 stitches of 6 set of 3 plus 1. Both can work fine. Adding 2 to 20 is not difficult and it maintains the original design of 7 stripes while one less stitches is easier although it changes the design a little bit.

I will host another Share Your Thimbles for February. I am thinking to continue to limit the design to bi-coloured scales for one more month and then in March it will be anything you can make with forward stitches. So please count your stitches in February so that you will be ready to explore more complex designs in March. Happy stitching.

Share Your Thimbles January 2010 -closed-

2010-01-24T17:34:00.002+09:00

The second Flickr group photo sharing is closed on 21st of January and we have 6 participants and total 11 thimbles. I am pleased that we have more people than the previous time.

Although we have 11 thimbles there are only 9 entry comments left. As I stated before, in order to participate in the lucky draw you have to leave a comment; 1 entry by 1 comment for 1 photo. So I numbered 3rd comment by Debi as 1 because first two are non-entry, and SunshineCraft as 9, and the winner is number 3, Shidepro, for her first ever thimble. Kat in Texas, AKA SidhePro, please e-mail me from my profile page for your mailing address.

I am going to host another photo sharing in February and I look forward to seeing your thimbles next month.

This is just FYI, I am working on the post about the number of the stitches in one segment. Please be patient with me. Hopefully I may be able to publish it next weekend.

Share Your Thimbles - January 2010

2010-01-01T08:00:00.000+09:00

Some of you may be in the time zone where it's still 2009, but it's already 1st of January 2010 and I wish you and your family a very happy new year. Now, having said that, we can move to the more important part, that we are having another "share your thimbles" Flickr photo sharing this month, too.

The same rules as last month:

1. You have to make your own thimble(s) to upload.
2. The design is bi-coloured scales with two colours, no stripes or shading.
Mixed coloured or variegated thread is okay if you like the effect.
3. You can use any materials you like, thread wise or padding wise.
4. State the circumference of the mould, thread, padding in the description field.
5. You can make the ring in whatever size you like as long as you mention the size.
6. You can upload as many as you like.
7. The closing date is 21st of January 2010, Japan time.
Please note that it's 9 hours ahead of GMT in Japan.

Here is a link to Flickr group of "Share Your Thimbles".

As before I will draw one lucky person after closing the photo sharing pool on 21st of January and this time she/he will get this medium size pincushion I showed you the other day.

To enter the draw, you have to leave a comment on this particular post. One upload with one comment for one entry, so if you uploaded three photos and only left one comment, it counts one entry. Please mentioned your Flickr user name in the comment so that we can know which one is whose. To make things easier for me and clearer for everyone, please don't leave any non-entry comment on this particular post.

I look forward to your participation.
Happy stitching!

Last Post in 2009

2009-12-31T20:54:00.003+09:00

Time flies and today is the last day of 2009. The New Years Holidays are bigger yet holidays in Japan than Christmas, because Japan is not a Christian country and separation of politics and religions, Christmas is NOT even a bank holiday here. So I do not have much time today but I would just like thank you all for reading my posts this year, am really glad that I could be able to know so many lovely people through blogworld, am very happy that I could be of help for those of you who are interested in making thimbles, and there are so many that I would like to thank about but my family is waiting so I will stop now. By the way, I am having another photo sharing starting tomorrow, details to follow.
Happy New Year. Chloe Patricia

Cosmetic Touch-Up -- this is how I do

2009-12-28T15:30:00.001+09:00

I hope you had a lovely Christmas with your family. Now that the holidays are over (although there is still a New Years holiday coming), you may have some time for your thimbles. So today I am going to talk about some cosmetic touch-up.

It would be wonderful if one's thimble turned out impeccable as it is, but most of the cases it needs some tidying up. There is no way to fix the stitches once the thimble is finished, but there is a way to make your thimble look prettier.

Since the stitching thread runs criss-crossing the body of the thimble like weaving, and thus leaving crossing points which should form a straight line. However these crossing points may not always be so cooperative and wouldn't leave a straight line like above picture.

Well, what would you do about it? Pick a thick needle or very fine stiletto and insert the point of the needle between the fold of the thread like above picture, and ease the threads so that the crossing line becomes straight.

See? Much nicer. Although I firstly took this picture, then disrupted the crossing line and took the first picture above, then fixed it in the second picture, because I needed something you can clearly see, but it doesn't matter. You know what I mean to apply a cosmetic touch-up to your thimble.

In this picture can you see where to fix, not as obvious as the first case though? This is what I got after finished stitching, no deliberate disruption like the one above. I really needed to sort this out.

Looks much better. You can use the same needle you used to stitch for this fix but it tends to bend or break so I recommend to use a thick needle or thin stiletto, the one you use for white embroidery. You don't need to wait until you finish stitching, but you can tidy up as you go, as a matter of fact it's better you do it during stitching. However, do not over do or obsessed about it otherwise you can never finish your thimble :)

This is not about "how I do", but do you think you could be more tempted to make one for yourself if I make a, say, "your very first thimble kit" and sell it at my shop? Many people commented on my "how I do's" helpful, but if you have never seen this kind of thimbles in real before, let alone made it, you may still feel reluctant to start it by yourself? I think I would. You may not want to invest on something you may not like it enough to continue making it until you use up all the thread or bias binding or anything. I don't think I would. Perhaps a kit with one finished padded thimble base with enough thread for one thimble, maybe pre-stitched a row or two so that you just continue stitching? I will think about it and in the meantime, I am going to host another photo sharing at Flickr next month. I will post the details in January but the rules should be the same. I look forward your participation.

Share Your Thimbles - December 2009 - closed

2009-12-21T22:20:00.004+09:00

Here is another medium pin cushion I made however, it's nothing to do with the thimble pool, just wanted to share it with you, is all. You are familiar with the design but this time I used gold thread. As a matter of fact this is the first time I used gold where weaving is involved and I am quite happy with the result.

I have just closed the Flickr thimble pool. You can not upload from now on until I open it next year but you can admire the works from here. There are total 13 entries, from a thimble to bracelet, by 4 people. However, when I visited the Flickr I found the earlier uploads were missing and there are only 12 pictures there now. Is this because I disabled the upload do you think? Does anyone have any idea why?

To be honest I am a bit disappointed because I know for a fact that there are more than 4 people who makes thimbles/rings among my readers, but then I cannot complain as this is the first pool and it's December with winter holidays and school break and all. I am going to host another Flickr pool after New Year holiday and I would like to expect more entries then.

Now, as I said there are 13 uploads with respective comments on the post for draw. Actually there are 16 comments including 3 non-entry comments. I numbered third comment by Debi as 1 and fifth one by Debi as 2 until the last one by Debi (again) as 13 and the lucky winner is number 5, Meri who uploaded her first thimble for us. Meri, will you please send me an e-mail about which pin cushion you would like and give me your name and address. You can send me an e-mail from my profile page.

As I said before I am going to host another Flickr pool next year so please continue making thimbles/rings. Don't disappoint me, please.

Marking Paper - this is how I do

2009-12-12T00:47:00.002+09:00

Two posts in one go, it's unprecedented but it came to my attention that you may have a problem when making a marking paper because I didn't say much about it in my "how I do's".

As I (probably) said before, the accuracy in finished design is up to the accuracy in your marking paper as well as regulated stitching. So, how do we make an accurate marking paper?

First of all, you do not use a measuring tape to measure the outer circumference of your thimble base. No, no, no, no measuring tape. It won't give you the accurate size. Instead use the paper you intend to use for a marking paper, in other word just skip the measuring and make the marking paper directly. Cut the paper in narrow long strip; I use 10mm marking paper for 11mm height core paper. Then wrap the strip of paper around the base and chop off the excess paper. Now you have your marking paper, although unmarked yet. If you intend to use the same mould, same core paper, same bias binding lining, and same thread to secure the lining, then you might want to measure the length of marking paper with a ruler for future use since your thimble bases are supposed to be in the same size.

Then you need to segmentalize it. The easiest way is like below picture.

It's about parallel lines I was taught in geometry class but I cannot remember what it's called. You draw the parallel lines in the same intervals on a paper and place one corner of the marking paper at line number 0 (I haven't numbered 0, though, in the picture), and the other corner at the line with the number your segments would be (mine is 14). Then mark the paper at the parallel lines. Repeat the process for the other side and you got your marking paper segmentalized.

This is how I do, it's easy and accurate but not the only way. If you are comfortable with another way, then stick to it and tell me how you do. I may convert to it, too.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Meri asked me about the distance between the parallel lines. Actually it doesn't matter really as long as all the lines are parallel but I would suggest for you to try 5mm firstly and see if you like it. When you use 50-60mm mould for 8 to 12 segments, 5mm intervals works just fine. If you require more segments, like 24, or even 36, then the distance between lines has to be smaller. Hope it's clear now and if you need further clarification, please don't hesitate to ask. Thank you. CP

Share Your Thimbles December 2009 - part II

2009-12-11T23:06:00.003+09:00

Hello everyone, this is to follow the previous post announcing the thimble sharing pool but I would like firstly to show you my newest pin cushion (medium). Looks rather good, if I say so myself.

Now, I would like to thank Meri in Portugal who responded firstly to my call, Pat for becoming the first member, Debi for uploading the first thimble, and Gloria for her kind word. We are now a group of four including myself and I would like to make some points clear:

Firstly, you can use any kind of thread you like. It does not have to be silk. You can use anything you like or you have in your stash. You can choose two different kind of thread for each colour although it may cause you some problems if the size is visibly different. The reason I asked you to state what you use when uploading is so that we can share the idea of what works well.

Secondly, the design is two coloured scales only. No shading in colour or stripes. Basically you can only use two solid colours. The variegated thread is okay if you like the effect though. The reason why I limit the design to two coloured scales is to encourage everyone to join the pool. If I allow the more complicated design and it's most likely the more experienced people will upload their works firstly, then the other people, who are less experienced or who are making their very first thimbles will not feel very comfortable to share their works. I intend to continue hosting the programme and I may open to more complicated designs like my pin cushion above in the future. Until then, it's two coloured scales.

Thirdly, you only have to leave a comment when you would like to enter the draw. One entry by one comment for one upload. Even if you uploaded multiple thimbles and left only one comment, then it's one entry.

Lastly, the closing date is 21st of December. Please note that I live in Japan and it's 9 hours ahead of GMT here. I am sorry but I cannot give you the exact time when I will close the pool. Most likely in the evening is all I can say.

I hope I made everything clear and wait for your participation.
Happy stitching.

chocolate covered strawberries

2009-12-07T11:18:00.004+09:00

I love chocolate covered strawberries. I love it best when the chocolate is still a bit gooey rather than firmly set, so I prepared them just before serving instead of making them in advance.What you need is chocolate and strawberries, it's easy to make and everyone loves them.

Wash strawberries in a cold water and dry them thoroughly with paper towel. Chop your chocolate finely, finer the better. Put them in the bowl and put the bowl over the small pan with hot water until half of the chocolate is melt. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir well until all the chocolate is melt. Dip strawberries in the chocolate. Do not put them in the fridge, the chocolate becomes too hard and loose it's beautiful luster. So essentially you cannot prepare them in advance but it won't take much time. Just wash the berries and store them in the fridge, and chop the chocolate in advance. Just before serving, put the chocolate over the pan of hot water and dip your strawberries. Since the berries are kept in the fridge, the chocolate will very quickly set. Enjoy!

Share Your Thimbles - December 2009

2009-12-01T10:01:00.008+09:00

Following the previous posts about how to make thimbles, it's a great pleasure for me to announce that I have launched the first ever Share Your Thimble photo pool at Flickr. This is the scheme where everyone can upload their thimbles for any one's views; this is open to public, both participants and viewers. You can jump to Share Your Thimbles from here although at the moment there are only one picture there.

This is to promote traditional Japanese silk stitched thimbles and to encourage everyone to start making their own. There is only two rules; firstly it has to be a thimble you yourself made which can be uploaded. I don't think anyone would steal someone else's work but just in case. Secondly you will state the circumference of the mould you used, the material you used for the padding, and the kind of thread you used in the description field as you can see in my picture. Other than that, you can upload as many as you would like.

Here is how it works in case you are not familiar with Flickr; as a matter of fact I was not and I still am not, though. As far as I understand, firstly you have to create your own account. Since I had already had Yahoo account, I didn't need to enter much details and I don't think if you do not have Yahoo! ID to start with, it won't require much. Then, upload your photos and when you open the uploaded photo, there is a "send to group" button between the title and the picture.

As this is the first pool, I would like to limit the design to bi-coloured scales only. As I told you before this design is the easiest and at the same time the most difficult one so it's a challenge for everyone, from the very first time beginners to the very skilled thimble makers. To encourage your participation, I am offering a give away. When I close the pool on 21st of December, I will draw one lucky person who can choose one small pin cushion from my Etsy shop, on the condition that s/he will not sell it away. At the moment there are 17 there and even if, and it's a big if, I made big sales, I would make sure that lucky person could chose from at least from a dozen. To enter the draw, please leave a comment here, to this post, that you have uploaded your thimble. One entry per one upload, so if you uploaded two photos, then you have to leave two comments for two entries. Please note, this is not a competition, but a simple draw.

Closing date is 21st of December, three weeks from now. I know for a fact that some of the you are thimble makers and some of you are thinking of making one. I would be greatly disappointed if you won't participate in. This is open to anyone, so please tell your friends and invite them for me.