Staying indoors

There are certain advantages of the heat wave. One is staying indoors and getting things done. No, not a lot of house-cleaning, but some stitching. This morning, I finished turning the binding on the "crumb-quilt"
If you have not been following this adventure, you may wonder what makes this so crummy. Well, a while ago, my left-handed quilting friend, challenged her readers to try her pattern with different color background. I had a rather large chunk of this mottled-purplish-black that I thought needed to be used. For scraps, I cut my bits and pieces into the smallest square, so instead of machine-piecing crumb blocks, I pulled out my scrap collection and used the 1.2.and 3-inch bits. "Organized crumbs"?

Though I had planned for a feathered quilted border, after starting the feathers in the four corners, it was clearly a waste of time and thread, as nothing was going to show.

I thought with all the squares, it needed something curved and I think this cable worked as well as anything I might have chosen.

For the backing, I used a large piece of mottled light purple, and framed it with tenugui.

These two are the Seven Deities of Good Fortune.
These deities are aboard a treasure ship. It is said that placing a picture such as this under one's pillow on the night of 1 or 2 January, will insure that the year's first dream will be a lucky one.  (nothing said about covering one's self with it)

These deities are, Fukurokuju, deity of long life (recognized by large head).
Jurojin, another deity of long life, accompanied by a deer.
Benzaiten, deity of water and music (plays a biwa ... a kind of lute)
Bishamonten, another deity of good fortune dressed in armor.
Hotei, a deity of good fortune and happiness, known for large stomach.
Daikokuten, a deity of wealth stands on a bag of rice.
And, last of all, Ebisu, a deity of wealth and fishing carries a large fish.

Interestingly, this group dates back to the 15th to 17th century and includes gods and sages of Indian, Chinese, and Japanese origin. Also interestingly, yesterday, I passed a shrine to these gods. There were separate sculptures all dressed in red hats and bibs. I took a picture on my cell phone but have had trouble transferring it ti my laptop.  Anyway, this is probably more than one needs to know.

Meanwhile, the piecing of black and white blocks is moving along. Train rides add to the blocks.

Yesterday I hung a sheet from the door frame and pinned the finished blocks on to it with a half-inch overlap.

Each block is six inches square finished.

So far, what was done at that time was 36" x 54".

The blocks will need some rearranging once they are all done.
I still have a small pile of medium tone fabrics I have not used yet and about a dozen sets cut and in the tin for take-along work.

I have not yet found something suitable for the border but it won't be needed for some time yet.
So far, each fabric has only been used once, (used as both a dark and a light in two blocks, or only once with another single fabric.

I am still thinking about a row of navy and white along the borders, but I also like the consistency
of the black and white ... and find the off-whites fit in better than I thought they would.

Rain is predicted to come and cool things off on the weekend ... but some was predicted yesterday and though the sky did spit out a few random drops, there were more drops falling from my eyebrows on to the inside of my glasses than what fell from the sky. Carrying an umbrella was a waste of space in my bag, as the spitting stopped before I might have dug it out and opened it up!

Back to the cutting board ... and maybe a label for the finished quilt.