A bit of sun!

I was wondering if I added all the hours of clear blue sky we have had in October, would it even come to a total day's worth. Well, I think the six hours we have had so far today might push it up to that much.

At least the inside time has allowed me to finish up sewing all those little letters on to the banner.

I still have some words to go but I have decided to embroider them in a curve below the rainbow. Appliquéing all those curvy lower case letters was more of a challenge than I wanted.

I will also add details to the church building with stitchery.

After taking this picture to send to the committee, I spread it out on the floor and basted the sandwich. Now I will be able to move this to take-along work ... starting tomorrow on the way to Gotemba for the choir retreat. As I recall, at last year's retreat I was working on the quilting on last year's project.

So, here is the basted piece. This is far from my favourite but if it meets expectations, I will be satisfied. I do miss my husband who could take the drawing and have it enlarged to make a pattern.

Now, maybe I should find an excuse to go outside and grab a bit of that sun before the next typhoon moves in....

It has been a while ....

Not much quilting to report ...
even though my last post was ten days ago.

We have had rain, rain, and more rain, and it seems to be fogging up my brain. The 13th was my regular Cub Scout pack meeting and it was after 11:pm when I got home. I was to go to the Boy Scout Friendship Patrol-o-ree but decided to get some sleep and leave early Saturday morning.

I woke several times to the pounding of rain on the roof above my futon, and though I had set the alarm for an early rise, I over-slept. Then, I couldn't find my car keys. I thought I might have left them in the car when I went to get the camping gear organized the day before so Nikko and I set off to the car park. Nope! No keys there. Then I walked along our dog-walking route to see if I might have dropped the keys on the roundabout way home. Nope, no keys. Then I came back home and went through all the bags and pockets again. Yep, at the very bottom of my rain jacket. Bad me! I usually hang the keys on the hook right inside the front door when I come in but with the dog and carrying stuff from the car, my attention to detail was not working.

By the time I set off, the traffic was super heavy so I ended up taking the "expensive" route using the expressway. Even that was slow with traffic, and when I finally got through the gate to the camp, the cars were stopped on the lower road because there was a cross-country run going on.  I have to admit I was not a lot of use to the program once I got there, but it was really nice to meet so many of my Scouting friends ... some of the Japanese Scouters I had not seen in many years. I had to leave before the campfire ... no idea how that went as it was dumping rain all weekend ... I had to have Nikko walked and be out the door by 7:00 am Sunday, because the choir was singing at the early service. I was glad I didn't have to find some place to dry and fold a wet tent as we have only had half a day of sun all week.

Monday I overslept again and ran out with Nikko for rice delivery. I was an hour and a half later than usual but with heavy rain, even though the trains had begun running, there were lots of homeless in the B1 and B2 basements and 30 packs went out quickly. It was much later than usual when I returned home so I grabbed a quick bite and set out for school, happy for the water-proof shoes my son bought me a few years ago.

Nothing getting done on the mola ... It is time for making the next Stewardship banner so I have been measuring and marking and cutting and now beginning to sew. I have been dragging my feet on this one as the theme selected is "Renew". The church basement/fellowship hall is in process of renovation so the committee thought it a good theme. I am wondering what "renew" might mean to those who have never made any commitment in the first place ... but dithering has put me behind the curve. So ... if there are no posts for another ten days, don't be surprised.

I woke to rain on the roof today and it is still raining. This weekend ... from tonight through Sunday ... is another Scout event ... the Order of the Arrow ... that I always take part in, leading the "Brotherhood walk". It was still not known last night if there were any Brotherhood candidates going to be there so one of my brother scouts sent a message that he would take my place if needed. I will be glad to stay home tomorrow ... skype with the kids ... teach english, and SEW! There is a typhoon heading in our direction ... supposed to arrive in time for rice delivery on Monday. Hopefully my brain won't get any more mushy than it already is.

Where does time go?

Well, I do know where some of it went. The weekend of the 30th was the fall cub rally. Since Nikko went along, it involved driving, and though I have driven there a number of times in the past, the roads keep changing as well as the access to the campsite which used to be part of some military housing area. The trip, even with the navigator on my i-phone, took about 4 hours.

A new Stewardship banner has to be made and I have not been happy with the theme, so getting my act together has involved some meetings and discussions and sketches. In the end, I do not have a program to design graphics on my laptop. I used to turn the plans over to my husband for that aspect.

Finally this week I am getting some help from someone who can do that part ... but it means the design is getting changed too. Hopefully Sunday we will look at all the plans and decide so I can get going on this one.

Monday was a holiday, so no school.

I still had to go out at 4:am for "rice delivery". Actually, since the church kitchen is involved in the basement renovations, the team could not meet to make the onigiri and what I delivered were packs of 5 small bean-jam buns.
After a summer break, it was interesting that on the first day of deliveries, those homeless spotted me ... that old lady with the white dog has got the goods ... and all 30 packs found welcoming hands.

We took advantage of the day off for our Halloween cookie factory.

Aunt Marie had sent some fancy sprinkles from Boston and we made good use of the variety.
We had a skype visit with daughters and cousins in Oregon.

Leia went home that evening with two boxes of fancy cookies to share with her friends.

The day went by so quickly.

I have to admit, I spent (wasted) so much time looking for things that I put somewhere two weeks ago when "tidying up" for the quilt group visit.

Some things I just have not been able to find ... mostly things that had been living on my coffee table right under my nose for the entire summer.
Even fabrics I had laid out to use on my mola have walked off.

I added a bit of fill-in design but I spent a lot of time un-sewing things I didn't like after putting them on.

This weekend is the boy scout friendship Patrol-o-ree with Japanese scouts and before running off there, I have my pack meeting.

Choir will sing at the early service Sunday and I will be very lucky to have even one back-up tenor ... and even luckier if that person comes for rehearsal before-hand.


Fall is a busy time of year with scouting starting up, school starting up, choir practice picking up, rice delivery starting up,  and meetings for planning of all kinds of things. The sweet olive that perfumes the air took clues from the spider lilies and is dropping its tiny orange flowers weeks before it usually blooms. The toad lily has buds so still something to look forward to beforeI begin sweeping up fallen leaves.