New Years greetings!

Happy New Year from the Land of the Rising Sun!

The sun has risen here in Japan though Tetsu and I didn't get up to welcome it until it was up a ways in the sky.

We have eaten our pounded rice cakes and the mailman has already delivered this year's New Year Cards.  In Japan they all come at the same time... That means the post office has been holding these billions of cards for the past couple weeks and have hired part time people to get them all delivered before noon today.

Our family has always followed the Japanese tradition of sending our New Year cards rather than Christmas cards and we have 31 cards framed and up on our hallway wall.  We started with just our family photo and then there were years when we added stickers of pets.  The years when Takumi and Leiya went to America we made a composite photo with my brother's family (where Takumi was staying) and Leiya's homestay family, and gradually I've gotten better at designing my own collage and getting photos of our pet family incorporated into the overall card.

This year I used the photo of the family dressed up to go to the Magic Castle and also made an extra card of my brother's family and ours around Grandma for the family friends in America who always ask about my mother.

So.....  With both cards, Tetsu and I wish all my blog friends a very Happy New Year and blessings in the following days of 2017!

Projects in 2016

Last night Yuma-kun stayed overnight and he is playing with Mi as I write this post.  He came over at 9:00 yesterday morning to do a bit of studying and went home for a few hours.  He asked if he could come back in the evening and though I didn't think his family would let him as he is supposed to be intensively studying for high school entrance exams, he showed up before dinner time.  I am very flattered that he likes to spend so much time at our house but it is not helping him much with his high school future.  Mostly we played Canasta and took Choco for a walk together. 

I have no idea how long he is planning to stay today...

I have gone through my photos to see how many quilts I worked on in 2016 and was a bit disheartened about how little I got done...  Quite a few of my quilts are joint projects in which I "participated" but certainly I only did a minimum of the work.

From the upper left-hand corner. 

This was actually the last quilting project I worked on with my friends.  A welcome back/housewarming gift for Marlene.

The Dodecahedron quilt I made for Takumi and I was pleased that he has it up on his wall in his apartment.

The green quilt I made for my nephew Colin and he chose the pattern.  I didn't see him using it when I went back in November but then again, I didn't go back into his bedroom to look either.

The bag shouldn't really be in this group as it isn't a quilt...  Mrs. Furui and friends from the kindergarten made this for the pastor's wife.  The pattern is a wheat stalk which we thought appropriate ("Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground...")

The Hawaiian quilt is a smallish quilt that I used to demonstrate the technique to friends who made their own.

The Around the World quilt was one I made also as a demonstration for teaching machine quilting.  I donated the finished quilt to Tetsu's Day Care Service.

Only one of the three strips is mine.  Another machine quilting demonstration that turned into a table runner.

The New Testament Sampler quilt was made for the pastor and his family on their transfer to another church.  I made only one of the blocks in this quilt...

The beautiful diamond Liberty Quilt was another one that Mrs. Furui and I helped make for the hospital waiting room. 

The Storm and Sea was another demonstration quilt.

I guess I should be grateful that I have people that I am teaching to quilt otherwise I wouldn't have made many quilts at all!!!  And then there are the fabric postcards, the New York Beauty blocks, (that haven't turned into anything) a huge Irish Chain flimsy that has yet to be sandwiched, Bunny Hill blocks, beading, tatting and knitting.  I keep busy though maybe don't have that many finishes to brag about.  I honestly worry that I will leave this world with a bunch of Works In Progress left for someone else to toss out.

2017 has the Irish Chain waiting for me.  There is also an applique quilt that I haven't yet shown yet but am now at the quilting stage.  Mrs. Furui is talking about another Liberty Quilt for the hospital.  We have some Bunny Hill blocks that need to get put into a quilt and I am researching the stained glass quilting technique for next year's fabric postcards...

Getting ready for the New Year countdown!

2016 Fabric Postcards

I should be tidying up for the new year and decided to first of all work on backing up 2016's photo files. 

My mother is celebrating her 95th birthday today and I guess Marcy will be Facetime-ing me later so that I can sing Happy Birthday.  December's fabric card, which also served as a birthday card, has been sent and so I successfully got all of Grandma's fabric cards to her in 2016.  This morning I made a collage of the cards.

I am already agonizing over how I'm going to follow 2016's endeavor with more cards in 2017... It was so nice to be able to go to Allie-Oops' and Jenny of Elefantz's blogs each month and download their embroidery postcard patterns this year.  What am I going to do as a follow-up act?
 

Winter fields

Just as I was getting ready to put my quilting down and head up to bed last night, the TV started bleeping and then Tetsu and my cell phones began zipping alarmingly.  Earthquake warning!  (I actually have an earthquake warning app on my iPhone and it starts sending me English notices saying "An earthquake is coming!".  Like maybe I should expect an unwelcome guest?)  The cats scrambled under chairs and sofas as they are Pavlov reactive to the cell phone alarms.  Tetsu grabbed the kerosene stove and dowsed the flames with a twist of the knob and I headed into the kitchen to make sure nothing had been left cooking on the stove.  By that time the room was rocking and the two of us just grabbed door jams and hoped things wouldn't start falling.  The earthquake was magnitude 6.3, though in our town there doesn't seem to have been much damage.  Memories of the big one in 2011 though and we stayed close to the TV for the next hour!  When I finally went up to bed I found the overhead florescent light fixture's lid had fallen onto the bed but that was the only thing that needed to be set right again.

This morning was cold and icy but the sky was turning a beautiful shade of purple and so Choco and Tetsu and I headed out with our cameras.  At the fields the icy ground crunched underfoot. 

 The dampness in the fields turns to miniature ice pillars.

Winter is upon us!

Christmastime

Christmas has come and gone and in Japan we are getting ready to welcome in the new year... Mostly TV programs give tips on how to do your end-of-the-year cleaning properly.  I (and most of the TV watchers) spend more time watching how to clean than really cleaning!

Some rather miscellaneous photos in my files today....  I haven't really mastered the skill of controlling Choco and carrying a camera at the same time when I go out on my walks...

We celebrated Tetsu's mother's 92nd birthday by bringing her a Christmas cake.  Conveniently Tetsu's mother's birthday is on the December 23rd (same as the Emperor's birthday) and as Japanese bakeries start supplying Christmas cakes on this day, I order a cake from our Japanese sweet shop and take it to Obaachan's house. 

When our children were little, ours was the only family that didn't celebrate Christmas with a Christmas cake as I claimed that wasn't one of my Christmas traditions (purely Japanese).  We made Christmas cookies and put up a Christmas tree instead.  But since I've been working as a crosswalk guard I feel as if I should support the neighborhood sweet shop and so for the past 6 years I've always bought a cake... to take to Tetsu's mother.

Tetsu's mother claimed she was 93 but Tetsu insisted that she was 92... and depending on whose counting, I suppose both are correct.  Older Japanese (and at 92 I guess that is old) consider themselves to be 1 years old at birth... thus by Obaachan's counting she is 93.  She can be whatever age she wants to be!  (As an aside... MY mother's birthday is tomorrow and she will be 95... by both our calendars.)

On Christmas Day, Tetsu and I stopped at our good friends the Yamadas for a quick lunch and good company.  We are so glad the Yamadas are now back permanently from Hong Kong.

And here is Tetsu's vest that I made for him this Christmas.  A bit on the snug size but not as off as I'd been fearing.  No comment about the bright colors and I think he will get some use out of it this season.

You DO realize that Tetsu frowns upon public displays of affection.  The only reason we got this photo is because he feels rather relaxed in the Yamadas presence and can pretend that he is not really in Japan.

NHK TV program

Merry Christmas!

It is already the 26th in Japan but I can imagine my friends in other parts of the world just ending their Christmas celebrations and traditions.  Tetsu and I played it very low this year with praising the Lord at church and a sandwich lunch with our good friends the Yamadas.

I haven't been getting out with my camera much yet but I did want to post pictures that I took from the NHK TV program that was aired on the morning of the 24th...

Do you know who this is?  Yes, you do!  I can recognize her distinctly!  Add a few more years (maybe 50...)

 Ahh..  How about this one?  Now... let's see...  Where is Norie-san?

 Okay!  Here we are at present day!  Yes!  That's Julie Fukuda from My Quilt Diary!

Julie was interviewed earlier this month by Japan's National Broadcasting Corporation the largest in Japan and she was featured on their early Saturday morning program called Good Morning Japan.  The special program corner was about what foreigners find interesting/charming about Tokyo and as Julie has lived in Tokyo for 50 some years, she was highlighted!

The TV program began with Julie and her dog Nikko (sorry, Nikko!  I didn't get a shot of you!) and focused on Julie's quilting and patchwork and her church.  The reporters followed her home and interviewed her neighbor and then Julie showed them many of her quilts and delicate applique.  So many of her pieces use Japanese fabrics and they were all stunning!

I had been alerted to the broadcast earlier and so Tetsu and I settled in front of the TV and clapped when Julie first appeared (Tetsu had never met Julie but I talk about her enough that he feels like he knows her).  And then the telephone rang!

"Leave it!  I'm not talking to anyone til the program is over!"

Tetsu however did pick up the phone and it was obvious from the background conversation that it was Mrs. Furui.  He told her we were watching the program and that I'd call back afterwards.  Mrs. Furui (who HAS met Julie) was floored to be watching Saturday morning NHK and suddenly have Julie on her TV screen and she wanted to be sure that I had my TV on also!

Julie was beautiful and poised and her cheerfulness and caring exuded from the TV!  I know Carin was watching and other of Julie's Japan friends but I was sorry the rest of Julie's blog friends weren't aware of her small stardom.  And that's why I'm posting photos today.

Our very wonderful blog friend and quilter... Julie Fukuda!
 

Some things work out... and some don't

Some of my blog friends may remember that in November I was knitting.  Tetsu's vest got made though I haven't given it to him yet, and then I started a vest/sweater for myself from Marcy's mother's old yarn.  I was working on that steadily throughout the rest of my California stay and once back in Japan and relegated to the sofa I finally finished it off.

I had wanted to make a longish vest or sweater for myself as there was a lot of yarn in the bag. I found a pattern for something called a Gotland Long Cardi on the Ravelry website and I happily knitted away...  And knitted and knitted.  At one point Marcy watched me for a few minutes...

"That sure is a lot of work, Tani.  I could never be so patient."

The implication was that for all the time and work that I was putting into knitting something, I could just as easily run down the street to the mall and have a nice sweater in less than 30 minutes...  True...

But I knitted...  Putting in pockets was a bit of a challenge...  And at one point I decided since I still had yarn that I might as well make this a sweater rather than just a big vest so I spent more time knitting sleeves.

And now my sweater is finished.

It is BIG.  What more can I say?

Why on earth did I want a big sweater?  Why didn't I consider the measurements while I was knitting?  Just because a pattern says cast on 150 stitches, a normal knitter would think,

"Hmm..  That looks like it is going to turn out to be larger than the given measurements.  Maybe I'd better adjust my stitch count."

I guess I am not a normal knitter as I didn't do the above and just kept knitting.  The bigger the better mindset.

This sweater is HUGE!!!  I could put a couple of pillows into it and masquerade as a sports mascot!  And LONG!  I can't even reach the bottom buttons!  Really...  What was a thinking?  I wonder if I'm ever going to wear this thing...  It sort of looks like a deflated balloon.

Maybe next time I'll just go buy myself a sweater...  one that fits.
 

Different religions

I'm not doing much more than running errands this week.  Buying kitchen supplies, visiting the apple orchard, running around apologizing to people for taking so much time off from work.  Not much that is photogenic.

On Sunday Tetsu and I went to a home goods store to just browse.  This is a mega store that sells gardening supplies and flowers, household cleaning goods and pharmacy items, tools and lumber, carpets and wallpaper, pet paraphernalia and household renovation furnishings, stationery items and silk flowers, tires and groceries.  About anything that one can think of can be found in this store and there is a food court to boot!

And when I say ANYTHING, I mean ANYTHING.  One interesting section was the Buddhist altar department.  Though I know these things need to be purchased, I would have thought that the religious furniture and items would be sold at a Buddhist temple but there they were lined up in the middle of the mega store (across from the backpack section).  There were price tags on everything and one can buy an altar set with everything you might need at bargain price.  The altar itself is a closable cabinet with a low stool and other items such as candle holders, statues, bells and incense burners.

These were actually larger Buddhist altars and there was another row of very small Buddhist altars about the size of a bread box which might be convenient in small apartments and condominiums.

And on the other side of the wall were Shinto altars!  Japanese normally will mix their religions and most of the homes I have visited will have a Buddhist altar and over it a smaller Shinto altar.  I'm afraid I don't really understand the differences though Shinto is considered the inherent religion of Japan.  Buddhism was brought in from India through China and Korea...

As for Christianity, the Christian population is still about only 1 percent though many young couples will have a pseudo Christian wedding with white gowns and tuxedos.   I say pseudo because usually the wedding will take place at a wedding center with a lacy decorated chapel, and a foreign pastor officiating the weddings will who speak nominal Japanese...  Why this makes it more official, I don't know...

I haven't met many Muslims in Japan though I did have a friend from Pakistan who told me there was a mosque in a nearby town...  He also said he was able to purchase Halal products that were trucked in from Tokyo.

For the most part, if asked what their religious affiliation is, Japanese will tell you that they have a Buddhist altar and a Shinto altar...  

Christmas decorations

I went over to Mrs. Furui's yesterday to catch up on last month's news.  She and I both commiserated about how little patchwork we've gotten done since we last saw each other.  Well, I was knitting for much of the time and I find that Mrs. Furui was making Christmas decorations to sell at the hospital bazaar.  It is no wonder that she doesn't get around to doing her patchwork!

Someone had donated warehouse sized spools of decorative thread with spangles along the strands to the hospital and Mrs. Furui figured out a project to use some of the thread!  Hanging around her windows and in her ceramic bowls were loads of these little string balls that she had been busy making.  She had bought mini balloons that she'd blown up with a bicycle pump (not enough lung power to do it by mouth) and then had wrapped the balloon balls with the thread and then painted them with diluted Elmer's glue.  After drying and removing the balloons she also used a clear glue to give a hardened shellac type finish.  Her sparkly ornaments are wonderful!

Another craft that Mrs. Furui had spent a lot of time making was paper stars... supposedly German in origin though Mrs. Furui found the instructions in a Japanese craft magazine. 

These are made of four strips of paper (in this case a washi paper) that have been folded over and under in different directions to make the stars...   

Mrs. Furui had lots of different colors of this somewhat transparent paper on hand...  She said that she had saved the colorful sheets of paper that flower bouquets are wrapped in and I laughed at how many times she'd gotten flowers!  She said that most of papers she'd saved from the retirement parties that had been given to her husband a couple of years ago...  Mrs. Furui is notorious for not throwing ANYTHING away!   Now she's inspired me to start saving flower bouquet papers!

Of course if we are just going to sit and chat for an hour or so I had to keep my hands busy so I made my own paper star while at Mrs. Furui's house.  I'm not sure I could do it again by myself!  (I'm going to try again tonight.)

And then there was also a series of Christmas cards that Mrs. Furui had been making...  A cute snowman and when opened a three dimensional snow scene opened out... She'd made use of the punch cutouts for the trees and Santa Claus.

I can see why Mrs. Furui has little time to be doing patchwork...  Well, I got my dose of Christmas cheer yesterday at her house.  Which is good as we never put up any decorations at all this year in our own...

Up and at 'um!

I have returned my crutches to the doctor and gotten a stamp of health,  I have been to the swimming pool twice and consider it a new form of physical therapy.  (And found I'd gained 5 pounds during my stay in California and convalescence!  Another thing I'll have to work on!)  I've gone to church and sung my praises and thanksgiving. And this morning I've even gone to the crosswalk to serve in a volunteer position for the rest of the school term (another three days).

My California fall sure cut into my regular activities but I think I'll be able to begin anew...  I'm finding it most difficult to add steps to my pedometer as I walk slower than I did, plus the fact that though Choco isn't to blame, I don't feel real confident about taking her out for a walk.  She and I make potty stops in the forest across the street.  She for the potty, me for the fresh air.

This morning at the crosswalk a few of the children looked at me bewildered.  Have they forgotten me in 6 weeks?!  Or maybe it might be that without my uniform and hair pulled under the traffic officer's hat that they didn't recognize me...  But how many foreigners wishing them "Good morning!" in English do they meet at the crosswalk? 

Still, there were a couple of girls who pointed at my hand made crosswalk flag and asked if I'd made it myself.  Before I ever started working for the city as a crosswalk guard, I spent 7 years on volunteer crosswalk duty for our small neighborhood.  I paper pieced my crosswalk flag back then but it was retired for the official flag (with an incorporated whistle) the past 5 years.

I will finish out the week with my hand made flag in a volunteer position again and though it was hard to go out into the cold this morning it was great to be able to be useful again!

The last of the embroidery

Okay...  Late on one card but early on the other.

I have spent the past two days embroidering the last Bible verse cards for my mother.  The BOM patterns were offered this year by Allie-Oops and Jenny of Elefantz and I have enjoyed making the cards though they did require more work than I've put in before... October's card got made and sent just days before I went to the States myself and I had hoped that I would get November's card made while I was by my mother's bedside.  However, there were numerous computer glitches this time around and I never could get my brother's printer to work with my computer.  For that matter, he couldn't get it to work with HIS computer either and so I couldn't print out the pattern while in California.  Finally I've been back in my own house with my own computer and printer... but I couldn't get back up to the sewing room where Tetsu had put everything away for me.

However since Tuesday my horizons have been widening, what with feeding the upstairs cats and hanging out laundry, and I ventured back into my sewing room to collect embroidery supplies.

My goodness!  How did that sewing room end up looking like a storage area?  While Takumi was around we'd pushed things from his old room into the sewing room and then Tetsu took the mattress off the bed when he went to America so that the cats wouldn't puke all over it.  The mattress is standing on it's side in the sewing room and all the stuff from INSIDE our suitcases is piled around the sewing room PLUS the suitcases themselves!  No respect for this quilter and her sewing room!  Putting the sewing room in order will be the next chore to do once I am moving even more freely...

Back to the embroidery.  I spent two days working on the last two cards simultaneously and last night finished off the edges.  I can't reach my sewing machine yet so I button-hole stitched November's card and for a bit of variety added trim to December's card.

I will send out November's card as soon as I'm back to driving (hopefully by Monday) and December's card will go out at the end of the week.

The next question is...  What sort of fabric cards will I be making next year?

I've kept up this tradition for three years now and whether my mother really enjoys receiving cards or not, I'm not sure.  But... as long as she is there to receive them I'm going to send them!   Any suggestions for fabric cards or BOM cards?

Playing together

Let's see...  Here I sit.  I'm moving around more though...  I have gotten up to the kitties that are upstairs now (formally Toi and Patora lived in the cat house outside.  For the winter they live upstairs with heated mats).  I have started helping with breakfast and dinner preparations, cutting fruit and vegetables etc. 

Today it is a rainy day with even a wind factor and so I begged Tetsu to leave Choco inside with me saying that surely I'll be able to take her outside once for a potty break without doing myself any major damage.  Choco has taken advantage of the inside by immediately claiming the sofa.  She must feel like she has suddenly landed in heaven!

*********************************

So what else can I write about...

While in America, and especially after Leiya arrived in California, our family spent many evenings playing games.  I have always been a game buff and every summer would buy a game or two, sometimes to take home with me to Japan, sometimes to leave with my American family.  Both Takumi and Leiya love games too and Takumi carries on the tradition by bringing a new game or two to my brother's house and teaching everyone to play.  I guess my brother is pretty game enthusiastic too because although his face doesn't show it, he was willing to play any game that got pulled out this visit.

 An old favorite is Blokus.

I purchased the game Pandemic this time around and it took us a good four or five times playing before we really figured out what we were doing.  Most of us went,

"Um...  I don't understand how my player is supposed to move?  What do I do next?"

I'm afraid the extended part of our family, Colin's girlfriend and even Julieta-san, don't get quite the thrill that the rest of us get when playing games.  They were good sports though.

Takumi enjoyed Pandemic immensely and wanted to keep on playing, so in the end I handed it to him and told him it was his Christmas present this year.

Leiya loves Canasta and has fond memories of the weekends in her childhood when the Watanabe family played...  Actually Tetsu and I don't remember those evenings so much but Takumi and Leiya insisted that we were regular Canasta players...

 "The family that plays together stays together."  Wasn't that a saying once?

SO...  Last week when Marlene and her husband invited us over for dinner I took three packs of cards with me and proceeded to teach the Yamadas how to play Canasta.  I hoped that Marlene would enjoy a game night as many Americans do have that culture but I wasn't sure about Kohei-san.  Japanese just do not play games!  It is considered childish and though men may go for Mahjong which has a gambling overtone to it, Japanese families don't really "play" together. 

Canasta night with the Yamadas was successful however and we may have made a new tradition!