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.

creative problem solving

Here we are in May, and in Japan, the middle of "Golden Week".

With a number of holidays falling here and there, mixed with weekends, it makes one long week of days off from work and school.

Of course, when all help is on holiday, it is not a very good week to have problems.

The first problem was my wi-fi.
Suddenly, with no warning, all connections were shut off.
This caused for a very quiet week because my telephone line is also connected to that server.

I was able to get in touch with daughter Norie and she called the server to find out I will have to re-apply and wait anywhere from a week to a month or two.

I can see some of my e-mail on my cell phone but many of those I can not open and it is not very handy to text on that little screen.
Well, my young neighbor to the rescue. He told Norie I could piggy-back off his server and gave her the password.  So... after five frustrating days ... I am back on line ... kind-of.

The server-on-loan is very very SLOW. It is very true that one does not realize what is important until it is gone. After all, I was able to live over half my life without the internet or even a computer.

Anyway, I had plenty of time for other things ... keeping busy to aid my frustration. The last few days have been sunny and I was able to wash and put away my warm sweatsuits. I put my sleeping bag out in the blustery balcony to air and then packed it up for the season.

In the winter my greenhouse is quite cold so I sleep in a sleeping bag with a down comforter over top and blankets as needed. Now it was time to take out my quilts so I pulled out the one in the picture above to spread on my futon.

Many years ago, I taught classes in "Quilt-as-you-go" for the women's society at church and the Tokyo American club. This quilt was one of the demonstration quilts made in 1994 and 1995.
Since these classes were mostly for foreigners, I chose Japanese patterns which I drafted into 12-inch blocks. There was a series of 9 classes, beginning with choosing fabrics and maps of where to look for and buy fabric, hand piecing, applique, adding sashing and preparing for quilting, quilting and couching, joining blocks, adding borders, then making and adding and turning binding.

The students had patterns for anything from a table runner to a wall quilt to a full size bed cover and could decide how much time they wanted to spend to make something using the techniques. (I think there were a few runners, a few baby quilts, and many full sized bed quilts finished. )

Well, this quilt is still in pretty good shape considering the years of use, but this morning in the light of day, I found the places sewed with purple thread are all coming apart.

I was not sure how the very slow connection would impact blogging so decided to take a picture of my mending challenge and give it a try.

Of course, while waiting for things to happen, I have sewed an entire block for the I-spy quilt.
I will also have to figure out if I can fix the couching as I had used a gold thread over a gold cord to add designs to some of the blocks, and that thread has not held up well. Some broken thread can be seen along the top edge of the floral fabric on the fan... so this will be the block I begin to fix.

After a night of rain, the sun is out. The wind is blasting all the plums off the tree, but otherwise this is about the quietest golden week I can remember. Maybe it was planned this way. Frustrations are falling away and problems are being taken care of. Gotta get creative if you walk in my shoes.