Spring rain

Actually, spring seems to be having second thoughts. Though the cherries have bloomed and it was looking as if spring was well on its way, March seems to have returned for another blast.

Last week the air was filled with cherry petals. They drifted like pink snow along our street even though the nearest trees are over a block away.

Over the weekend the petals began coming from the camellias in the garden to our north... a bit larger and darker but easier to sweep up.

Now the stuff falling from the sky is cold rain. From a warm day yesterday it is getting colder by the hour. Tomorrow it is predicted to drop to 5 degrees centigrade. Guess I won't pack up my winter clothes yet.

Several of my friends have blogged pictures of their lovely grape hyacinths. All of them had large flower heads and stand-up leaves. I don't know why the difference but these are the ones that come up in my garden planters. They are very hardy volunteers but those leaves are so stringy.

Last week was a very frustrating and challenging week for me. My little laptop is a Dell,Inspiron duo. I had had a Dell before and chose this one mostly because it is small and light and my son could get it for me in the States. It is sold in Tokyo but the entry language is all Japanese. The shops that handle the Japanese version won't even look at any problems I may be having.

Well, what I might have pushed accidentally ... or Nikko might have pushed while putting her nose in my lap ,,, I have no idea, but my system went to a touch screen only... no cursor... and all the writing so close together that trying to touch anything to make fixes was an exercise in frustration. Finally, on Friday, my son called from DC and very patiently talked me through a fix. It must have taken over an hour on the phone because many times it took countless trial and error to bring up the selections and then touch the proper place on the screen. Oh, how happy I was to get my cursor back!

I am still having one frustrating problem in regard to blogging. Three of my regular blogging friends have told me I am appearing as a no reply blogger. I do not know why it is on some blogs and not on others. I thought it might have something to do with the switch to google plus. I tried turning off the google plus but that didn't seem to work ... or it turned itself back on. I tried adding my yahoo e-mail address to the juliefukudasenior google address but that doesn't seem to have helped either. On my post page there is no place I can find to access or change my profile so I am completely stymied.

I keep telling myself that most people my age don't even have a computer, let alone a blog, so be patient and hope an answer will come. Meanwhile, I thank my friends for kindly letting me know. If it is a fight between google plus and yahoo or bloglovin, I wish they would stop fixing things that weren't broke to begin with.

While waiting for more snowflakes to be added to the Christmas tree skirt, I thought I would
take advantage of the bedding being moved off the loft bed to lay out the blocks for the book club books. Hard to get much of a picture under the eves.

As it happened, the posts ended with the 17th book. I miss those book club posts and had been enjoying the discussion and suggestions of books to read. I also miss the Starwood Quilter posts.
I hope some day Susan will return to the blogging world.

Living in Tokyo, it is not unusual to have friends come and go, but when friends on line leave the blogging world, one tends to worry about what may be happening in their lives and hope the reasons are good ones.

Well, I think putting the blocks on point might work best.

I want to add sashing and wonder what color to use.

I am thinking of adding triangles in the border spaces. Solid? Print? Pieced? Solid with applique? I am Completely open to suggestions.

All the blocks contain one piece of a dark paisley fabric containing  dark red ,brown, dark green, navy, and outlines in black and white.

The piece remaining is about 15 x 13 inches in size. I chose to use it because the first book we read was the Persian Pickle Club and I thought I would have enough to put a little bit into each block.

It is very old and though I looked in several shops I couldn't find any paisley in similar colors.

There is probably enough to include somehow in the triangular pieces.
I think the colors in this picture are pretty close to the fabric.


A few pieces use the light blue so that might work for the sashing. Only a few blocks contain yellow so I might want to use some of that somewhere in the triangles. Then the whole thing will need a border. The blocks will finish at 12 inches so If I add 2 inch sashing and maybe a two inch border, the quilt should finish off at a single bed size.

I really need to move on with this project while I am waiting to find the perfect purple and lime green print for the border of my grandson's quilt and get snowflakes in the mail.... lest these WIPs begin to feel like UFOs. Thanks for any ideas you may offer.

Tomorrow will be rain again, so a good day to do some cutting and sewing.

This last picture is of some volunteers that I moved into a pot outside my door.

I have no idea what they are or where they came from. They are slightly tinted with a pale blue and only three or so inches high. The leaves were out all winter ... in fact, the pot never was completely without leaves. I was expecting something else with red flowers. I have another plant that looks and behaves the same (flowers closing at night) but it is in the border and grows about a foot high. The flowers come from little bulbs. Anyway, they look happy here greeting those who come to my door. Now they are greeting you.