It's in the hoop

Finally the backing was assembled and the quilting has begun.

I did have one big snafu though.

I have a container with fabric marking tools, pens and pencils.

For the darker fabrics, I love my karisma pencil with the thin white lead ... even though it gets used quickly and the last centimeter will not hold so has to be tossed out.

Karisma makes leads in yellow and blue for lighter fabrics but they don't come off as easily as the white which disappears as you stitch over it. Well, in my container there are a number of pens, blue and purple, made by several companies. The blue comes out with time and the purple stays longer but both wash out with a touch of water.

Well, I started with the purple because often the blue lines fade away before i get to them. The first pen I used was a bit tired and soon gave out so I reached in the box for another one. OOPS! when I went to wash out the ink with a paintbrush dipped in water, the lines did not disappear. Looking at the pen again, I found somehow a permanent marker had been stashed in the container.

Well, I am not going to redo the whole #7. Maybe it will fade with time. I don't think the baby will be bothered by the lines but I am a bit miffed that I made the mistake. There are many kinds of pens and the writing is all in Japanese. It may be that someone else moved that pen to my box as I doubt I ever even bought a purple permanent marker with two sized points.

The plum tree is still blooming in a wild and disorderly way.

I think this is what happens when you can't afford a professional tree trimmer and your ladder is too short to reach the upper branches.

Anyway, I am still enjoying the sweet scent of those little flowers.

This picture was taken during days of cold and rain.

Note the pink snow on the street below.

And as you may notice my sweeping duty will go a long way up the street as there is just as much on my neighbor's pavement as mine.

Neighbors in the other direction seem to have planted some bulbs in their weed bed.


(As a weed-aholic I always find this long bed of weeds hard to pass by ... and admit to reaching in and removing some that were tossing seeds along our street).

These are very tiny and look like what we used to call, "Johnny jump-ups".
Since each is single, they are probably just small daffodils, but they were a joyful surprise this spring. Now, if only this family would get serious about the weeds in the other ten meters or so...

The magnolias on the street to the station have begun to open their blooms.


They always start with the tree to the East that gets the most sun.

And last night's Cub Pack meeting took longer than expected.

I had made five kits of stools for the cubs to assemble as a team.
They had to saw the long bars for the sides and bottom, sand the pieces, and glue and nail the sections together.

The hardest part was hammering in those nails without bending them. They did work together well as a team, and even were able to decide who would get to take the finished stool home.

That meeting was LOOOOONG and I arrived home long after bedtime. I gave up the idea of dinner, walked Nikko around the block and went to bed.

This has been a busy week but all the stuff on the list has been done except for one ... that is a Skype call with the kids. (not easy when we are taking in areas between Boston and Tokyo.) well, and then the rest of the day's items and maybe even a bit of quilting ....

Surviving the rain ... what do you do?

Yesterday, a record was set for rain in April, and it is still falling and expected to get worse as the day goes on.

Friday evening was my cub scout pack meeting. I furnished newspaper, tape, staples, and scissors.

The challenge was for each den to construct a costume for a fashion show.

The Bear den, nearest the flag, made a neat tidy outfit, even including a necktie and shoes The Tiger in the middle went the samurai route and even wears a sword. The Wolves went overboard and made two outfits, on the right ... while the Webelo standing next to the neat and tidy Bear, looks very scrappy.
Anyway, a great time was had and we ran out of time for the rest of the plan which was to dress their leader.

Saturday was a Boy Scout camp out and pig roast.

The pig went under the charcoal in the morning and the rain stopped after lunch in time for the nature walk/hike.

The goal was a five mile hike to meet one requirement and identifying ten native plants and animals.

The plants could have been done in the first 20 paces but finding ten wild animals while hiking on well used trails was a bigger challenge. (especially with a group of  talking boys). Therefore, I went along on the hike, taught them to listen and identify birds by their calls, and where to look to see them.  Of course, by the time we returned to camp, we had covered about 7 miles ... as recorded by one leader's gizmo.

The rain started up again upon our return and after dinner and the following ceremonies, I headed back home. Hail was bouncing off my windshield for the first 45 minutes of the drive and I was thankful for choir duty calling me home. The hail turned to rain upon my turn off the main road and when I came out of the last tunnel leading to home, the streets were dry! I haven't heard what the weather at camp was that night but the sun came out for a few hours in the morning on Sunday.

Sunday evening we got together to celebrate two April birthdays, My Sister-in-law turned 89 on the 7th of April and husband, Paul, turns 78 the 14th (today).

It was an interesting meal with buckwheat crapes wrapped around a variety of fillings.

I can't say it was my favorite meal but then, I was still tired from Saturday's hike.

The rain held off until just as we returned from Monday rice patrol.

I wanted to work on my book club quilt and began searching through my stash for a particular fabric I wanted to use in the sashing.

I do not want to buy any more fabric but that means I will have to find both something that works and I have enough of.

None of my dark fabrics worked against the variety of blocks so I found a medium blue, thinking of adding cornerstones. But where have I hidden that fabric I have in mind?

Meanwhile in my search, I found some camera print and decided it was time to put together another "follower's" block.  This one represents a blogger who always puts a smile on my face. JoAnn at Scene Through My Eyes is a genius with a camera. Flower mosaics and birds in motion,  barns, dolls, party table settings ... no lovely scene escapes her camera.

I was not completely happy with the background color but the camera print was asking to be used. I am now awaiting some more snowflakes of the paper kind. There is enough stuff falling from the sky today. We may have to go to "plan B " for the birthday celebration. Meanwhile, back to the fabric hunt. (I knew exactly where it was until the family visit so it shouldn't be buried all that deep)!

The sun wins!

Early in the summer, my cub pack set up a schedule for activities. lots of things to go and see and do. Our final event was a family campout at Yamanaka, at the foot of Mt Fuji.

As the weekend neared, the weatherman began to predict a change from the hot sunny days we have had in excess. Unfortunately, that prediction included rain storms.

Although I have no problem camping in the rain with Boy Scouts, Cubs and parents with younger siblings ... not my idea of a fun event when rain is included.

I packed my van Friday night and set out early Saturday morning to my parking lot, Nikko's leash on one arm, pack on my back, craft supplies over one shoulder, and a big umbrella in my hand. It was dumping down huge drops of rain and our narrow lane without drains was a lake. BUT, by the time I had reached the car, the sun was back out.

I picked up my assistant near the highway entrance and there were off and on sprinkles but by the time we reached the camp, there were patches of blue sky between the clouds. We rented a huge canvas fly and got it set up ... just in case. That did it! The weather cleared up completely.

My assistant leader brought some really great activities. One was this string on two rods. and a magic formula of soap and starch and glycerin for making these huge bubbles. Another set of rods had the string tied in little loops and made hundreds of bubbles in one wave. Everyone got plenty of chances to try and some of those giant bubbles were well over six feet long.

  I brought knives and saws and the boys tried their hands at making  owl neckerchief slides from natural materials. This one was made by a seven-year-old Cub.

My assistant prepared a nature BINGO for using on a hike. They had to actually be looking at the object as they checked it off. The parent leaders set off with the kids and I was well aware of their return because the last item was a "dog" and they all knew where to find Nikko.

The nature around Mt Fuji is beautiful every time of year. Sunday morning the families climbed to the top of the building for a view of Fuji while I enjoyed some of the wild flowers, boiled a bit of water for some coffee, and worked on my quilt border.

It took about as long to take down the rain fly and pack it all back up to return as it did to set it up ... well, maybe longer. I was just glad that we hadn't needed it.

I returned home in the late afternoon after dropping my assistant off at the train station. These flowers were waiting as I un-loaded my car. There were also messages on my e-mail from the family groups saying they had had a great time. One father sent terrific pictures of the activities and campfire. My camera has had a lot of very hard wear. It is also used by other family members so I do not know what treatment it gets but clearly, something is wrong with the lens and only a small part of any picture is in focus.

The last blurry picture I will show is my finished flimsy. This is already a big enough quilt but I really wanted a border of some kind to frame it. I didn't have any really big pieces of fabric but there was enough of this grey-blue to go around. I stuck in a few spare cornerstones where I had to join the pieces together to make the border long enough..  Now the piece is 293'' square and I will have to hunt around for something to use for the backing. I will have plenty of time to find a basting location and this will be a good quilting project once it gets cooler.

I hope the next picture of this will be taken with a new or repaired camera.

Weekend challenges

If you are wondering what this thing is and what it is all about, I have put the story on my Scouting blog, http://awhittlescouting.blogspot.com
This is my medicine pouch, holding things special to me in my Scouting experience, and the beads are memory beads, each one representing some event in my Scout life. The small blue bead represents this past weekend where I was to teach the craft section.

 I will not repeat the story here but when I heard there were 200 walking sticks and six classes of 30 Cubs each, and the idea was to take magic markers and "decorate" those sticks in the appointed time (One hour and ten minutes) I knew there had to be a better plan or we would be facing a lot of weaponry. Even Nikko shuddered at the thought of those sticks in the hands of so many Cub-age kids.

What started out with rain on the windshield turned into a lovely night and sunny day. I was up past midnight prepping feathers  and returned home with not much voice left for Sunday's singing. (reciting the story and instructions to a large group ... and the attending parents... and leading the campfire singing kind of pushed the limit, as I was afraid it might)

A long meeting and an even longer ride home added to my + and x blocks ... now up to 193.
There was some kind of matsuri with slow-moving portable shrines that completely stopped all traffic for nearly an additional hour. I could have gotten off the bus and walked, had I known!

While I was at camp, I almost missed the flowers at home. Several cacti are putting on a show.

These flowers only last a day or two.

These too...

These form a halo around the top of the cactus for many days.

And the cymbidium on my roof has begun to bloom. I have four pots but the winter was very harsh and I didn't think I would see any flowers this year. Now, that is the kind of surprise I can deal with.

Boys with sticks? That takes a whole lot more doing!

Basking in the glow

Friday, what a great day! Certainly being the 13th was not unlucky for me.
The Bible quilt class worked on the second two blocks. The Garden of Eden and Children of Israel blocks are done. Too bad I didn't get out my camera before the David and Goliath block was packed up for homework but you can see Jacob's Ladder going up into the starry sky.

Since this will be a quilt-as-you-go project, the backing needed to be a busy non-directional print. Our hostess found the perfect fabric for that. I think I will mark and cut a few more blocks so we can move a bit faster now that the class has had the experience of doing those tasks.

That was the activity for the first half of the day. I came home and threw my stuff together for my Cub Scout pack meeting. Then, it was off on the train, back into town. Thanks to Lis, I got no patchwork done. She brought me three wonderful quilt magazines which I needed to devour as quickly as possible.

And, here is how the pack meeting went...
We had one new Cub just joining "Tigers" so we began with the flag ceremony and the Cub Scout promise and the Law of the Pack.
The Cub Scout follows Akela. Who is "Akela"? The leader? your parent? the teacher? I wonder why I kept hearing a father calling "wait, wait" at the obstacle course less than a week ago?
The Cub Scout helps the pack go. Yep, thanks, guys, for coming to all our activities.(and to parents for bringing them ... because I know it isn't easy when we all live so far apart and there are younger siblings to think of).
The Pack helps the Cub Scout grow. This is not about getting bigger or older, that will happen without Scouting. These boys are growing in all kinds of ways. In the past two weeks we have gone to disaster and safety training and used physical skills on an obstacle course, and tonight we will learn a new skill because sewing is not just for girls.
The Cub Scout gives good will. One Cub guessed it was to "be" good, but I suggested ways they could "do" good.
We ended with the Cub Scout "sign", two fingers raised = listen up!
Then I explained the project and how we would proceed.

I had cut red felt into pieces that would make a vest. All the boys needed to do, was sew the shoulder seams and hammer eyelets for the ties. The Cubs are beginning to get patches and a patch vest is available for sale, but it is such a simple thing to make. The felt was washable and colorfast and the boy will have something that will remind him of his capability. (as a child, I was more often reminded of my failures so I put high importance on this kind of activity)

Note ... mothers are assisting and giving support but NOT doing the sewing FOR the Cubs.

Hammering in the eyelets... And what was even more rewarding, when there was need for quiet, all I had to do was raise two fingers! I wish I had lined up the boys in their new vests for a picture. The new Cub was the first to finish and he did everything himself. I couldn't have been prouder of "my" boys.

By the closing circle, my assistant had checked all the books. We passed our beads and patches and advancements, then passed "the squeeze" around the circle of boys and parents and siblings and leaders, shouted "DO YOUR BEST"and went out into the real world where the rain had begun.

Today is my husband's birthday but he is off to the opening ceremony for this year's Asian Rural Institute class and won't return until bedtime, Lis is off on her adventure, it is too cold and wet to shampoo the dog ... no matter how badly she needs it... so... guess it is time for some quilting.

The plot thickens

Thanks to the help of my blogging friends, a plan is falling into place. This past week I have been sewing the three inch blocks together. On Thursday and Friday I marked letters on white fabric and basted them on to the blocks. By Sunday night I was able to snatch enough time to finish appliqueing the letters in place and add a one inch border.

Linda, of "Eat Sleep Quilt" has suggested piano keys for the signature blocks. I have toyed with a few other ideas but I think she is right and that would be easy enough for beginners to do and give plenty of spaces for people to sign.
My plan is to cut the pieces to be used on the border and mark them with pencil.

Next I need to find something in my stash large enough to use as a backing.
I really do not want to make any purchases for this banner. I have found a few pieces large enough but not really suitable...One a big dark blue batik with elephants from East Asia and of questionable colorfastness.

My plan is to assemble the banner with backing large enough to take in the borders, add a thin batting and baste the sandwich. That way, the borders can be added as they are finished and the members of the class can also practice quilting and sashiko. Depending on the size of the group, we can add the borders to sides or just top and bottom. I can finish the remaining borders and binding later. There will be enough done to hang the work in progress.

I am really a plan-ahead kind of person and, until I can see the end in sight,
I become rather anxious. Today is cloudy and dark so the picture, taken on my sliding door, is not as bright as the hanging actually looks.

As to Pack meeting activities, I ended up with two games and, although the turnout was small, those that participated had a blast.

I have had several packs of construction paper on my shelf for many years. It was badly faded and aged to the point that it really had no use as art. Still, I hesitated to throw it out. Then a PLAN fell into place. I divided the group of boys into two teams and assigned each group one adult. Since I had three colors of paper, I made a group of mothers and siblings.

Each group got 30 sheets of paper. The object was to see which group could build the highest tower. No glue or tape, just by folding.
These guys got right to work. Interestingly, the youngest Tiger Cub
came up with an accordion fold which worked so well that the other teams, taking note, followed after their plan didn't work as well.


Here is the last layer going on to the winning tower. Good thing to have a tall dad. The boys celebrated so vigorously they almost knocked it down.

The dark blue group had to re-build several times but came in with a respectable seven layers,

And, the mothers, using a triangular fold did a respectable finish too.

This was really a lot of fun for all and kept everyone engaged. I think we might have a few future engineers in the group.

We really didn't need the second game but tried it out anyway. It involved rolling golf balls to see who could get closest to a target ball. The floor, it turned out, was not level and this would have worked better on a carpeted floor. We may try again later.

I always say running a Pack meeting is something like hanging, it feels so good when it is over. There is a challenge of keeping the boys engaged for an hour. The activity has to be interesting enough to hold the older boys yet safe enough and not too difficult for the younger ones. In my group, language ability can also be an issue. I love the way this group listens to the rules so attentively and eagerly attacks the
challenge. These youth are our future. I really think they are off to a good start.