Swirly stars

I just finished a temari I've been planning to stitch for quite some time. Barbara Suess published the pattern on her blog last December and I had to learn a few things before I could try it. Things like how to make a really large ball. This one has a circumference of 43 cm/17".

I also had to learn about swirl stitches, which form the first layer of this ball. I think I can still learn a lot about how to make the swirl stitches neat but I think the finished ball came out looking cool in spite of my less than perfect stitching.

I chose my own colors and couldn't help thinking about a grade school teacher that claimed that red and pink just could not be used together. Ha!
   Adding the last step of white continuous path stitching is almost magical in how it makes the stars  appear more and more clearly. Thanks for a lovely pattern, Barb!