Finished with time to spare

The quilting was just a simple heart in each square and I finished on Sunday. I had planned to purchase binding on my way home from school Monday, but it was beginning to rain and I had not gone out in the morning with my umbrella.  Tuesday Nikko and I walked one station over to the local shop and I picked out some pink binding that matched the color of the blossoms.

This afternoon I finished turning the binding and tonight I will take the quilt to choir and turn it over to the choir president. The idea is to  have the choir members sign on the hand prints. I have signed mine ... a left hand of course.

The batting I used is #60  Thinsulate. It doesn't really need a lot of quilting to keep it from shifting as I think it is intended to be used in clothing.

I placed the blocks facing up and down, left and right, so that there would be no top or bottom other than how the quilt is used. I also hope it will be used to play "I Spy", as words are the most important thing you can give a child. (and this child will be in a bi-lingual home.) There are plenty of items that might be counted too so I hope it will add a bit of fun.

This week as I sat beside four non-sleepers during "nap-time" I couldn't help recalling my own childhood. Our school used woven straw mats instead of the cushions these kids have and no blankets for covering... and certainly there were no cuddly stuffed animals, but I am sure I was a non-sleeper too. I remember being placed in the cloak-room where I wouldn't disturb others.  No cloak room in our school but I'll bet those kids would have had fun counting cats or frogs or stars or bunnies or just hunting for items. I remember being separated from my twin at home and being entertained by the quilt on my parent's bed ... following the rows of stitches with my finger and finding and counting matching fabrics.

And ... now that this project is done, I am getting excited about the next thing on my list ... the belated Christmas present for my dear #3 daughter! Time to go up and sort scraps again and hope to find the items I need.

All done!

Finished Friday night and the label added this morning. I was hoping for a bit of sun for a more colourful picture but since rain is predicted, I thought it would be better to grab a shot while I could and pass the quilt to the new owner on Sunday.

I never know if or how a quilt is used when it leaves my hands. It is said the most valuable thing a parent can give their child is words. Well, this quilt is full of words. Since I was a non-napper as a child, I would have loved napping on a quilt like this ... counting cats, finding matching fabrics, following the stitches with my finger ... I do hope it will find a use in it's new home.

Looking back, I remember how many times I have finished a hexagon quilt and said "Never again"!
Figuring out which way to iron all those seams and then quilting through them is a challenge.
Looking back, I wish I had turned the wave pattern to face the inner border rather than the outer edge.
Anyway, it is done and I gave it my best shot.

I had used the last of my thinsulate, and having several more quilts lined up, my daughter gave a call to the Yuzawaya in Kamata to see if they had a supply in stock. They said they had plenty, so yesterday I made the long trip through town to pick up a few rolls. Since it involved a long walk, I made it worth my while by buying two rolls of the 60-weight and one of the 40-weight. I think there are ten meters on a blot so they should last a while.

Made by 3M, it is probably intended for clothing but it is easy to piece, slightly tacky in texture so does not shift ... even basted with pins, and nice to quilt through. Even the 40 weight has a nice loft.
I also like the fact that there is hardly any waste the way I use it.

Today I will pull out my kid-friendly bin and pull out fabrics for an alphabet quilt for the next baby on my list.... and my second daughter also reminds me she is still waiting for her tissue box cover.

Meanwhile, the cacti are putting on a show.
If I don't look each day, I will miss these beauties.

Buds in the background so more to come.

And here is a bit of competition on another step.

And this sweet little guy puts out a lovely show every year.


And these flowers last more than a day so I don't miss them.

Maybe that is why it is such a favourite.

And out in the rain, the Easter cactus has finally figured out it is a bit past time for a show.


I have another small one hanging outside my front door and I see it is also in bloom.

These sit outside all year long and don't seem to mind the winter cold or even a day or two of snow.



Next will be the prickly pear...
But that one most often blooms during my week at Scout camp.

I don't think I will put that big spiny fellow in my car and take it along just so I can catch a picture.  Well, this is the return I get for selecting plants that don't mind heat or cold and thrive on neglect!

Tomorrow is "Choir Sunday" my voice has returned from the woods and I will not mind if it is raining because all our hard work will come to fruition and be given in joy.

Complaining fingers

Can you hear it ?

My middle finger has a hole in the nail and is crying loudly "PLEASE GET THE INTERNET CONNECTIONS BACK!!!!"

I have tried a metal thimble but that only serves to avoid using that finger entirely (making my index finger complain ... with holes in the pad)

The leather thimble works OK but it falls off between every stitch.

The rubber thimble is most comfortable but it is made more for gripping the needle than protecting the finger.    At any rate, without much reliable connectivity, a lot of the border is getting finished.

I am on the third border now and about to mark the last side in case I have some extra time before choir tonight.

I will probably just use the little rubber thimble. Once the needle pokes through the nail and makes a hole, the needle seems to find that spot over and over again. It not only un-threads the needle in the process but it really hurts. (and no bleeding allowed on the quilt so delays the progress)

Though rain is in tomorrow's forecast, today is a lovely day.

I will get a daughter-fix.

See an art show.

And, I am already enjoying these fox-gloves that were given to me for mother's day a number of years ago by my granddaughter.

The telephone was re-connected last Friday.
So far, two calls from my daughter and one that didn't speak English.

Next month sometime, the internet may return. It will be nice to do my browsing on my own time rather than rush to the laptop when I hear the neighbor's door close. Hope to see you all soon.

It's in the hoop!

No internet connection for nearly a week means more quilting.

The lighting wasn't very good on the fence when I went out to get a picture, but this is what the I-Spy quilt is looking like ... only much brighter.

Last Friday I had my Cub Scout meeting followed by a trip to camp for an "OA" weekend. OA is Order of the Arrow and it was my duty to do the "Brotherhood walk" (The last step for those completing the level of Brotherhood after being an "Ordeal member for almost a year)

I take the candidates through a back trail that is never used and most know nothing about, and deliver them to the area of the ceremonial fire. Luckily, I checked out the trail earlier in the day because a large tree had fallen across the trail. It was way too large to be moved so I returned to the quartermaster in the main area to pick up a saw and some shears and hiked back out to clear the trail enough to crawl under the tree.

Since I had to attend an early choir practice on Sunday, I returned home late Saturday night. There was still no internet connection. In fact, the neighbor, whose internet I borrow, seems to have been away all week ... so no connection.

I was out Monday for school and Tuesday for another scheduled activity, but there was still no connection whenever I checked. Just as I was about to take the dog on her evening trip and go to bed, I heard the neighbor's door shut so I opened my laptop to see if  the service had returned with him. Sure enough, weak but there. Now it is well past my bedtime and, though I wish I could check out all the blog-hopping I have missed, I really need to hit the sack.
Hopefully there will still be connections tomorrow ... well, actually it IS tomorrow right now!

The internet company will come on Friday to restore my telephone line. Though they claimed I could not have my former phone number back, my son-in-law had negotiated with them to restore it. We shall see .... As to the internet, it will take until the middle of June to get that back. I honestly can't see why they could turn off the connections because they were in my husband's name and couldn't just switch names instead of starting all over from scratch. After all, the cable and modem are still in place. For a country where service is always so quick and accommodating, this is certainly not what anyone would expect.

So ... the quilt is moving through the hoop. Quilting in the ditch is about all that is needed and I will use a wave pattern for the outer border. From Friday evening I will be back at camp for a Cub Camp where I am in charge of the nature walk.  ... and I have promised my Pack I will bring my box oven so we can bake a cake for dessert Saturday evening. No internet on weekends anyway ....

Progress on the door

Well, the I-Spy quilt is slowly moving along.

Yesterday I sewed the five rows together.

Now I have to resolve the odd edges.
They will all end with stars so that means I will 60+ little triangles to draw on to the yellow fabric and cut out.

Then I will have to decide on what to use for the borders. At this point the size is about 40" x 42".

I think it will be about 44" square by the time I get the inner edge done, then a small sashing and a wider border ... not yet selected from my stash.

I have about 48 hexagons left from those I started with so I could add more, though most of those are fabrics I have already used ... some more than once as you might be able to see. I had been trying to keep a reasonable balance of color and repeats.

Norie and Leia came on Friday night and we had an early mother's day on Saturday.

Leia found a pattern for a parachute in one of my craft books and we hunted up the various components to make it.

She sewed a little drawstring bag of fabric and stuffed it with beans and wadding, decorated a cut plastic bag with markers, and fixed carefully measured and cut string to each point.

We took it outside to try out. Tossed it from the neighboring walk-up, the top of the slide in the park, rescued it from tree branches, and...

... Just as Leia was running to catch it at about knee high off the ground, it began to rise.

First we were afraid it would be caught in the tree but it cleared the tree tops and kept climbing and moving to the northwest.

Just as it neared an apartment building across the street, it rose higher and sailed above the buildings.

We dashed to the back street but it had not come down anywhere we could see ... and in fact, though I have kept my eyes open, it has not appeared in any of the trees or balconies in the direction it took off in.

We did make another one ... that one too rescued from a tree by Leia who shinnied right up to the top while I held my breath and wondered if I would be able to catch her should she fall...
For good measure, I suggested she fold it up and take it home and find a larger space to play with it.
Keep looking up ... you may see that first one on it's continuing adventure.

Plan as you go .....?

This is the fabric I selected for the nine-patch border.

It is darker than the small sashing but has some of the same blue ... kind of an all-over non-directional print that will be easy to join at the corners.

Following some good advice, I took the quilt in progress up and laid it out on the bed to see how much I might need to add to make it fit well.

It will probably not need much of a border for that bed other than to make it look finished.

The quilt itself has piecing that is one or two, inch blocks and the small nine-patches are three inches.
I will have to think about the quilting as part of the plan. The stitching won't really show against this print so making a wide border that needs lots of quilting doesn't make much sense unless I needed the quilt to be much bigger.

Laid out here is three inches and I could make it four inches.  it might be a bit difficult to mark a fancy quilt pattern on this print but I could do something simple like hearts or a zig-zag. I could probably squeeze out another one-inch strip of that light blue print for an outer border ... with a lot of piecing ... (those scraps have no particular plan to fill).

And ... talk about "Plan as you go" ..
Maybe all my quilts could have that name.

While looking through my kid-friendly bin, I found a pack of already cut hexagons left over from an I Spy quilt.

I have made three of these, two for family and one as a baby quilt for the friend who is getting the just finished baby quilt. I don't remember which these were left over from as I think one was a bigger size cut.
Anyway, I decided these will go well with the left-over fabric from the last quilt. I like to have some take-along work so have begun to sew these into larger hexagon blocks.

I could keep these as is and add yellow triangles in between if I need to make it bigger. I still have no idea how big the pieces I have will make it. (that would involve more math than I am capable of).

I certainly have enough kid-friendly prints to cut more and my templates were in the baggy with the pieces.

I could also just add a section between each of the big pieces in the end, keeping it take along work for a longer time.

Once it gets too big, I really can't work on it during a train ride.
(or sitting in a meeting)

Since this is for a little boy who is already about three or four months old, I don't want to dilly-dally too long. I enjoy the journey but I do have to think a bit about the destination.
(At one point I-Spy quilts become less fun).
I think by the time my kids were six months old they were using words ... some were actually using sentences by then ... so I think this planning has to get moving so I can keep moving too.

Should something begin to look like a UFO ... it is only still in the planning stage.

It's a finish!

Do you think I'll get kicked out of the Slowpoke Quilters?  Begun on September 28th, I think this is the fastest I have managed to put something this size together either by hand or machine.

Of course, those child-friendly hexagons were all cut and marked and that was not only the inspiration, but a time-saver.

The size is about 47 x 48 inches ... about as square as I could get with hexagons.

I added writing in the turquoise strip ...
"I Spy .. a teddy bear, a kitty sitting on a chair,
 A boat, a truck, a car, a train,
 A lion with a fluffy mane,
 Fish with bubbles, fish with flowers,
The face of a clock showing hours,
Postage stamps to send the mail,
A lizard with a curly tail,
Bugs that fly and buzz and crawl,
 A ripened pumpkin in the Fall,
An elephant, some yummy fruit, a froggy playing on a flute.  Love in every stitch ..October 2012

The backing is made of tenugui. I had to add a dragon for a dragon-year baby and this was the only one that didn't look too scary in my collection. I thought the maple leaf print would be good for fall and the other two are typical Japanese prints

Here it is ... hanging on the park fence among the goya

Your botanic lesson for today...
A male flower...

A female flower...

The "fruit"...

This is on the park-side of the fence so I am not sure if it will be picked by the plant owner or by a park visitor or just left to ripen and drop seeds.

Where often the vine seems used for shade, this one may be providing some privacy for the house-owner adjoining the park.
Looks like a win-win to me and that wall of green gives a feeling of "cool", something we can use on these hot humid days of early fall.

And, in my own "garden", The favorite of the season...
the "Higanbana".

"Higan" is the Autumnal Equinox, which is an important Buddhist festival for the dead. The flowers are often found planted around cemeteries, rice paddies, and edges of fields.

Lycoris radiata, belongs to the family, Amarrillidaceae.
The genus name comes from Lycoris, the beautiful Greek Goddess of the Sea.

The flowers come first, poking up rather quickly on their stems and burst into bloom before you have even noticed them among the shrubbery. The leaves will come later after the flowers fade.
I have read that the bulb is poisonous.

My red ones are sharing a pot with a pineapple lily.
Some people don't like these in their garden because of the association with death. One of the common names is "Shibito-bana", literally, flower of the dead.

Obviously, I do not have those hang-ups. I love seeing them in the fall as a harbinger of cooler days to come.

As an aside, I grew up in a home where plants were often referred to by their Latin names. When my own children were growing up, I was shocked to hear the headmaster of their school state that using those Latin names was a way scientists talked in order to sound snobbish.
I have told my children and my Scouts not to be afraid of those Latin names, they are the true names of the plant. Once you know that Latin name, you can see how it is related to other plants all over the world. ... even more than looking at the leaves or bark of a tree, once you find that name, you can get a big "Ahah" moment. You even find out how many trees and flowers have common names that are mis-leading.... like the hundreds of trees called "cedar".
(and that goes for birds too which are sometimes victims of mis-naming).

A rose by any other name smells just as sweet. Yes, and my dad loved roses,  but he passed the love of nature to all his children and a certain curiosity to learn the rest of the story. Thanks Dad!

Friendship quilts

In recent posts by friends, I have seen a number of "Friendship" quilts. Then I was reminded that this week's "Themed contest" on Quilting Gallery, is friendship quilts. I thought it a good time to visit the park with this quilt to get a digital picture. This is the non-blurry camera's interpretation.

A number of years ago when my group was bigger, I gave one meter of the feature fabric to each member with the request to make 12 blocks in their design of choice using that fabric and any other of their choice. 

We then passed one block to each member of the group, keeping one for ourselves. I think every member put together a quilt and all were so different in setting and choice of fabrics.  I wanted mine large enough for the guestroom bed and I think every guest to my house has slept under this one. I call it "All My Friends are Stars". (my block was the flower basket).

A few days before my summer trip, I received a pattern in the post for a friendship block to be made for my friend, Georgia. I wanted to make something using Japanese yukata fabrics and found some with butterflies.

I knew that, as a missionary, my friend would understand that choice as a symbol for "hidden" Christians.

As a small "aside", when I first came to Japan 50 years ago, there were young people all over wearing large flashy crosses. They had no particular meaning other than as a fashion statement. From then on, I found a tiny gold butterfly and have worn it replacing a silver Celtic cross that I had worn many years.  It reminds me that I will not be so much defined by what I wear but what I do.

(I don't know why pictures that appear upright in my files, post rotated. I notice others have this problem too. Move left or right, change the size, add properties, but don't rotate. Hmmm)

Anyway, my friend had flown and took with her many more blocks from friends who will miss her too. Will she have a friendship quilt one of these days? I hope so.

And after one week, quilting has begun on the baby quilt. I put together tenugui for the backing, one with a friendly dragon for a dragon-year baby, and some with fall leaves on red and orange. The good thing about small projects is the speed that they go together. Yesterday I had a long bus ride and added the borders.

I went to a lovely quit show and wish I could show you the fantastic Japanese quilts, scenes of Japan and Fuji and Japanese children's songs all so cleverly done. NO PICTURES ALLOWED! I have to keep all that inspiration to myself!

Tomorrow the Bible quilt group meets. AND also from Friday you can go to the Quilting Gallery and check out the friendship quilts and vote.

Making use of time and scraps

Projects pause but time marches on. After cutting out the kasuri pieces I had a chance to talk with my daughter about the kind of bag she wants and she decided she would like the muted solids to set the kasuri. Now, that is fine with me but at that point, the project ground to a halt because she needs to come by and pick out the colors that will best go with whatever she plans to use the bag with. I still don't have a clear idea of size and shape so no point in sitting around waiting. Kasuri carton returns to the second floor cupboard.

 As the week went on, I could see the weekend looming ahead with loooong bus and train rides and meetings.

So ... I needed something to make that time go faster. I thought of a church friend who is having a baby next month. This friend has helped me with the planning for Vacation Bible School and we have worked together on committees. I had remembered seeing a zip-lock baggy of pieces that were left over from an "I Spy" quilt I made many years ago for the grand kids.
They were all cut out and ready to put together ... cute little kid-friendly prints.
I pulled out some yellow solid and marked off some triangles to sew them together and stuck them in my back pack.

I have to say it was a good thing too, because to save money, I tool a very long bus ride and three trains to get to the Railroad museum where my Cub Scouts were gathering. I had lots of extra time there while all the boys took turns driving every simulated train in the whole place. Oh, what a lot of hands-on stuff there was too! Then, there was the long way home plus a 48 minute wait for the bus and heavy traffic back home.

Sunday after church I also had two meetings to sit through plus the hour trip each way. Above is what I got done. It is not a very big piece but I will finish off the star points and add some borders. I am thinking of a little quilt that can be used in a stroller or to put the baby on for changing or to cover when napping, maybe around 45" square. My friend is expecting a little girl and I thought the red heart print would show less dirt than a pink. I would say, a few more trips and meetings and this shouldn't take too long. (If I keep the size under control, I will even be able to baste it without clearing the whole living room of furniture).

There seems to be a new fad in my neighborhood. Many houses with enough ground to plant a "garden", have this vine growing wildly all over the place.

Between my house and the train station I am hardly out of sight of one of these. This picture is the barber shop. The rice shop has one too. It is a very aggressive vine and full of little yellow flowers.

The interesting thing is why it is growing in so many places.

Here is the "fruit" (if you can call it that). It looks like a little warty cucumber.

The plant is Momordica charantia. In Japanese it is called "Goya", a name that comes from Okinawa.
In English it is called, among other names, "Bitter Melon".  And, believe me. that is a very apropos name because it is the bitterest of all fall fruits.

The rice store lady sings its praises, telling me it is picked small and cut and sauteed  with meat. The only times I have tasted it, it was quite bitter no matter how it was prepared.

I think of my #2 daughter's garden in the Boston Fens and all the delicious produce she has for eating and giving away ... no goya ... give me zucchini any day, a few cucumbers and summer summer squash and perhaps a handful of cherry tomatoes. Yummmm!

All shook up but moving on

Inch by inch is the ultimate scrap quilt. Back in 2002 I was saving any scrap down to one inch triangles. These bits went with me to meetings, train, and bus rides in a zip-lock baggie and served as a take-along work for quite a while. There was no real plan other than to use up bits and pieces from other projects. The final result covers the back of my old sofa where it looks better than it does hanging on the fence. Last week it made a trip to the pre-school class for a game of I-spy. Today when I took it to the park to take a digital photo, it was suddenly surrounded by kids looking for cats and bears, hearts and stars, and showing off their English. Finally we had one day of sun and warm weather. I had been waiting for this chance to give Nikko a bath. I need to rub her down outside until she is dry. The reason you can see behind me. That is NOT snow, but dog hair. The bag by my stool is full of hair and she has plenty left over. After a couple of hours of rubbing she got a walk to the park and I had to clean up the neighborhood. Some escaped in the wind and is probably half way to Oregon as I write. Amid the occasional quakes, the morning brought two Brown-eared Bulbuls to my wall. Usually they come alone and chase others away from the food but today they sat glaring into my window from the top of the empty cup as I uncovered the canary and seemed to be saying,"How about us? Where is our breakfast?" Today I saw bugs flying in the park and expect these visits to end soon. One violet (which is actually a weed) has managed to make it to a hanging flower pot outside my front door. Having done better than the original owner of the pot, it seemed to say,"You wouldn't dare pull me out" and it is correct. Spring is the season of "Hana-mi" or flower-viewing. Monday I lunched with the pre-school kids under the cherry trees with pale pink petals drifting down. This annual rite is a symbol of Japanese culture, helping to throw off the winter blues and reset one's mental and emotional attitudes. With the tragedies of the past month, people are wondering if it is right to celebrate or if those flower-viewing parties should be banned all together. This might just be a good time to reconsider the brevity of life and reassess the beauty of each passing moment. The sorrow and anguish and anxiety people feel will not vanish just by looking at pretty blossoms but returning to these customs gives us a much needed break.


Quilting Gallery's Weekly Theme contest this week is "scrappy". I'm sure there will be some good posts to enjoy. Not being much of a computer wizard, you can get there by clicking on the Quilting gallery logo as I just can't get the weekly theme button posted.

I Spy quilt ... I Spy Spring

This morning as I ran out the door, I grabbed my old quilt from the sofa and chucked it in my pack. The whole quilt can be seen with my 2002 quilts but I have no digital photos as yet. I guess it might be a good idea to take a few as the fabric is beginning to fade in spots.

To control the scrap department, I take left-over scraps and cut them into squares depending on how much is left, four and a half, three and a half, two and a half, and one and a half inch. Anything smaller than that I throw away. These squares go into a tin sorted by size and get used in projects that come along. If the scrap has some cute picture I often fussy-cut it. The piles in the tin are in baggies by color and wait there patiently for a need to arise. The sofa quilt protects (or hides) the very worn places on our old sofa and was assembled without much thought when the tin got too full.

This morning I was off to school and thought the kids might have fun learning a new game. I was right. We spread the quilt on the floor and the kids sat around the edge. When I said, "I Spy a cat.", all the kids began looking for a square with a cat. When they found one, they put their finger on the square and called "I spy a cat". The first to call got to call the next picture. The children really had fun hunting objects and playing a new game with new rules. The teacher asked me to leave the quilt at school for the rest of the week. She is also a quilter and helped with the auction quilt during rest time when she could get away.

Although we are one week into April, the weather is still cold. Today was the first hint of spring weather but you can see the cherry trees are still in a tentative mood. The two trees on the roof-top playground were holding off and even those on the south side of the road were waiting a bit longer to show their true glory. Along the street the pansies and primroses smiled up at passers-by and the ornamental kale stretched upward after a winter of huddling in its cabbage-like ball.

Next week the petting zoo will come for the children to enjoy so today out came all the animal books and puzzles. As I watched them being assembled on the floor I couldn't help thinking this one might make a cute quilt. Too bad I really don't need another project at the moment.

Leia's Quilt 2008

After swearing off hexagons forever, here I am back going going crazy again. Norie liked the I Spy I had made for Julie's boys and I didn't have to do any fabric shopping thus an alphabet for the center. I thought it only fair to put the Hiragana around the edge.


The plans changed when Norie wanted the 1 inch pieces added because the border was now too small. Kato-san gave me some fabric out of her stash of a similar color and the 1-10 counting filled those areas along with name in the upper right and date of birth in the lower left.

Norie got the organic cotton backing. It is soft and shows off my crooked quilting. From a technical standpoint this is the worst quilt I ever made. I was ready to toss it at several points. I hope my darling granddaughter will look at the love and not the imperfections.

68" x 82.5" (173 cm x 210cm)

Kaiea' Birthday Quilt 2004

Inch By Inch 2002

I SPY 2001