CATS 2001 Ornament

This year's contest was sponsored, once again, by the great folks at Kreinik. It was a "holiday ornament" contest--an ornament for any holiday could be submitted. The only requirements were that it use Kreinik silk or metallics and be less than 4" in size.

I chose to do a Christmas Temari ball with plenty of sparkle! Temari is an ancient Japanese art form that literally means, "thread ball." When their kimonos would become worn, they would unravel them and wrap the thread to form balls, on which they would stitch decorative patterns. The design I chose was from an issue of Embroidery & Cross Stitch magazine from Australia. However, a similar design may be found in Diana Vandervoort's first book, Temari: How to Make Japanese Thread Balls (see it on Amazon). Diana's site is excellent, but if you'd like to know more, might I also recommend Judy Shorten's site. I have probably learned more there than in the three books I own. It is a wonderful site to visit and "look at the pretty pictures," even if you never intend to stitch a Temari!

I used 002HL blending filament to wrap the ball, #4 very fine braid to divide the ball and #12 tapestry braid to stitch on it. I did also use a small bit of DMC metallic pearl cotton because I didn't want to buy another spool of #12 tapestry braid. It was a rather expensive ball to make...in all, I used three spools of blending filament and four spools of #12 braid! I would have used one more spool of #12 to complete the design, but I ran out and didn't have time to run to the store for more!

Here's a picture of the wonderful basket of Kreinik silks, metallics, kit and book I won, along with the cool ribbon! I now have every color of blending filament, #4 braid and cord, plus some ribbon! The prize did not come with the storage boxes (except the silk gauze "Classic Santa" kit)...I purchased those at the Container Store.

Here's a little closer view of my ornament.