Part 2 : Vacation in California: some of my work

While in California we decided to get a few pictures of things I had made for my Vo-va in the past.

About five Christmases back, when I lived with my in-laws, I made everyone in the family (and a lot of our friends) glass ornaments covered in crochet. Some of the ornaments where frosted glass and some hand blown. Some had intricate shapes like stars, drops, hearts, trees, snowmen, the list went on and on.

They where all crocheted in just one color. My husband's siblings all received white ornaments because before Christmas I decorated my-in-laws tree with them and wanted them to sorta match. They where lots of different shapes, though, to make them different. My siblings and cousins and family received all kinds of different colors, but theirs had to go through the mail that year, so I made theirs all the same shape. This made for ease in shipping and none of them broke. This is the one my Vo-va choose. For the ones in California, my older sister and Vo-va got to pick the ones they wanted, the rest all had labels. Meaning if they didn't like the one that I had picked for them, they got to change the label to the one they liked. My Vo-va chose one that had Irish Crochet on it and was blue like the dishes she likes so much.

The ones on the left are how she keeps them in one of her china cupboards. The pictures on the right are the photos I took when I removed them from the cupboard and placed them on the tree so I could have a more natural light photo.

In this same cupboard was a Koma I had made for my Vo-va
one Easter. A Koma, if you don't happen to know, is a Japanese spinning top. This one is for decorative purposes only and doesn't function as a top. It is a type of thread work similar to a Temari. While there that Easter, I also made a few others, but I don't know what happened to them as they where just study tops to show one of my cousin's kids how to make one; while showing my cousin I was also showing my Vo-va.

There is a small Christmas tree in this cupboard made out of Romania Lace from an image I saw on the internet. When making it, I used antique variegated green and white, size 30, crochet thread. My Vo-va keeps it pinned to the Temari ball that is also in this cupboard.

Lastly, the sister to the Koma is the Temari Ball, which you already know is in this cupboard as well. I made this one for her for a Mother's Day gift one year. There are other things I made in this cupboard, like some hand made wax ornaments in the shape of an Angel and a Nutcracker, but I forgot to take pictures of those items. Ceramic cookie molds where used to make those. Maybe next time I go that way I will get them in a photo for you to see. My Vo-va was a master florist, and I worked my way through collage being a florist. So I figured it was only fitting to put flowers on hers. The base of her ball is a traditional pattern in Temari. The rest of the ball the silk ribbon embroidery, known as free-form Temari. This is one on my most favorite balls I have ever made. I worked on this for over a month. I have never been able to get a real good picture of it that I like. For some reason, it is like an elusive photo that I just can't seem to take. So in real life this is much prettier than it looks.