Another Banner

Today I added the hanging sleeve and took this banner to the park for a photo opp. Not too easy getting a good picture in the wind blowing through the fence.

 This is the 13th banner over the years, and I am finding it harder each year to work with a committee, especially a committee that wants some "feel good" sentiment. We have added lots of new people to our congregation, and feeling welcome is important, but getting involved is much more what I would like to see. Most of the suggestions were themes we have done over and  over. Why bother making a new banner?

"Where will you fit? was rejected because it might hurt someone's feelings. Really?

After spending a good part of what might have been my dinner time, and with the help of my daughter, I got the EMS postal form filled out and printed up to send the labyrinth to Boston.Today I walked all the way to the big PO and waited in line, only to have my form rejected. It was in a B4 brown envelope, but not paper, as the computer choice expected. A complete waste of an hour and a half, not to mention getting the form filled out and printed. There is no choice for "quilted fabric or wall hanging"

The anniversary banner went to church last Friday, and was hung on Sunday, gathering a few more signatures. I added vines with leaves that could be signed in the empty spaces, but have no idea how many more signatures it might collect. October 1st and 2nd are the "big" days, so I will know soon.

Indoor work

When typhoons bring wind and rain, sometimes it works for the best.

In preparation for the typhoon, I checked up on my outdoor plants.

This night-blooming cereus has been producing a big bud, and since I missed the bloom on the last one, I didn't want this one ruined by wind and rain so I brought it inside and put it on the bookcase above my futon.

Lots of things were cancelled because of the looming storm, but I decided to go on with my Cub pack meeting on Friday evening. We cancelled our raingutter regatta because it needs to take place outside on the roof of the American Club and not so good in wind and rain.
The regular meeting went well with new members joining, and we ended in time for families to go home without worry of storms.

Saturday, I was to sing with a small choral group at a wedding. It was probably a good call, but sad that the wedding was postponed. I feel sorry for the family who had put so much into the planning, but I enjoyed being able to attend my English class and be nearby for any possible wind events.

As it turned out, my area was not hit hard. Lots of rain fell, and as I was taking Nikko out regularly for her business trips, I was able to clear the sewer drains to keep the walkways from becoming lakes.

The wind gusts were not so hard, but I could hear much stronger wind screaming high above. None of the plants blew off the wall. One wet dog spent her time inside.

 The night-blooming cereus rewarded me for it's rescue...

and, to tell the truth, I might have missed the bloom had it been outside.

I have to admit it was a bit hard to turn off the light and shut my eyes.

It blows my mind that a flower this lovely only opens in the dark of night and blooms for only a few hours. By morning it was a hanging finished bulb.

It causes me to wonder what beauty we miss each day because our attention is elsewhere ...
so many things that are here and gone before getting our attention...
even people who are here and gone before we really get to know them...






Morning brought bright blue skies and sun. Though many trains were not yet running, I was able to attend church, and there were enough parts in the choir to sing Monteverdi's beautiful "Beatus vir" with flute and violin joining the accompaniment.

With extra indoor time, I was able to work on this year's Stewardship banner.

The quilted words at the bottom, "Anywhere, Lord, any time, don't show up with this lighting but will be at eye level when it is hung.

This is taken from the spiritual. I added a few extra four-letter words to fill the cross.

I thought the background would be more interesting than a solid color, and in a way, represents the theme as it takes a variety of many colors to make a rainbow and a variety of talents to keep a church active.

I still need to add the hanging sleeves and buy some dowels.


I took Nikko to the park water tap and gave her a shampoo so she could dry out in the sun and washed down the genkan and entryway tiles.

Seven rows of feedsack stars are sewed together ... thanks to being able to actually sit on the train with connecting lines being down and people staying home.
And ... what should really be getting my attention? The giant spoon syndrome that had turned my livingroom into an indoor disaster. 

The banner is done

Last night I finished turning the binding.  Looking at other banners over the years, I had made too many with white and blue so I decided to go with lavender. I think it shows off the blank person where we should view ourselves.

Today I added the sleeves and found that I had purchased extra dowels some time before. Great! I won't have to go shopping in the heat of day. The last part will be to saw off the extra length of dowel and add eye screws to the one on top. I figure ten minutes at the most including clean-up time.

Rally Day is a week from next Sunday so the deadline has been met with time to spare.

Next ... Here is a blogging issue that challenges my patience.

A while back when Google added Google plus to the blog, things began to happen that I neither like or understand. I am not now or ever will be a computer guru. I often get help from fellow bloggers and when that doesn't work, cry on the shoulder of my guru son.

The first thing that happened was that suddenly I came off as a no-reply blogger. I noticed that the same happened to many of my fellow blogging friends. It was not a huge problem because I had contacts for them. It only has consequences when I want to reply to comments of those whose e-mail address I do not know. 

Friends sent links for advice on how to fix it but the site pictures telling where to click did not match my screen. Finally, I gave in and went to Google plus. (magically fixed) At that time I began to notice that many of the no-reply were non-google addresses. Maybe a coincidence? 

Well, the next problem soon arrived. Every comment I sent off came back to my in-box saying Delivery failure as they could not accept my yahoo address. I did go back to check and indeed, the comments had gone through. Some of my blogging friends did tell me that the comment had come but not to their in-box. Looking this over again, I noticed there was a direct relationship to my yahoo e-mail address.

Well, my son looked at this a number of times and since I have a g-mail address too (juliefukudasenior@gmail.com) which was set up for our family blog to avoid confusion with my daughter who shares the name. I really didn't want to give in and change my e-mail address but my son gave that a try. Magic? Suddenly, the delivery failure notices stopped coming.

BUT ... now, my blogging friends are getting a message saying their comments had delivery failure because my in-box is full. That is also a bunch of baloney because when I went to check the comment section of that post, all the messages were there ... and all had arrived in my in-box.

I don't like to make judgements but it does look to me like Mr. Google is trying to undo his competition in a nasty way. All the comments who got those messages were non-google addresses. 

At first it seemed a war between yahoo and google but now it seems to be attacking other correspondence addresses. 

Some of my blogging friends have switched from blogger to other sites such as word press. It might make a bit of confusion for followers but I don't know how these things work.

I am wondering if I am the only one with these problems and it is something I am doing wrong.

I know change happens ... whether we want it or not ... but why keep fixing things that ain't broke?

I might even have more time for quilting without these frustrations!

One day's work

12 hours have passed since I set my goal for the day.

Actually, my goal was just to make progress on the quilting of the banner but at this point, I think I am done.

My major concern was that the pieced center section might not lie flat. I was thinking of quilting all the pieced segments in the ditch, but just quilting the rays from the center out, seems to have done the job.

I quilted around the figures but not inside other than the arms, and around the letters. Looking at it hanging from my curtain rod, I think that much quilting is balanced and enough. Now I have to just add the binding and the hanging sleeves at top and bottom.

As it turns out, though I measured the fabric many times, I didn't add properly and the piece is a few inches longer than I intended. That means I don't need to add a border. I am thinking of binding it with a light turquoise or pale purple. Tomorrow Nikko and I will walk to the shop near the next station and try a few colors to see what looks best.

These days, local flower shops are selling little pots with one miniature sunflower. They are so pretty but I do like the real thing a lot better.

These are growing along the fence at the kindergarten along the car street.

There must have been 15 or 20 of them growing and maybe nine or ten feet tall.
They do have some of a smaller variety too but these are the real thing.
Good thing we haven't had a typhoon go through as yet.

The day was off and on sun with a few sprinkles thrown in.

We really could use a bit of real rain.
Maybe tomorrow will deliver a bit.

Several varieties of hostas are now competing with each other, and the crape myrtle in the park is putting on a grand show.

Hibiscus flowers are in bloom around the neighbourhood...
more noticeable for their droppings. The most dramatic ones are sitting in the local flower shop, begging to be bought.

The salvias in the weed lot are wanting rain ... or I will have to carry a bucket of water to them tomorrow.

As a person who hates working to deadlines, I am feeling pretty happy to see the banner so far along and may just reward myself with a few stitches in the nine-patch before I hit the sack.

Pictures to make me smile

The yellow material is still in hiding but plan B is in motion.


A few years ago I made a banner with hands joined in a circle and white fabric that I had tie-dyed to keep the center white while dying the rest yellow.

I thought this time with the circle representing the sun, I would piece the center with gradated shades of white and white-on-white prints.

Yesterday I added the circle of  arms and from today I will begin making applique heads.

I have traced the sketch I made on to paper for patterns.

One head is to be left plane ... maybe wanting the observer to put themselves into the picture.


Once these are done, I will figure out where to put the lettering. The sketch I was given had the lettering in the center and a lot of the listed activities around the edges.

The words are "Shine Together" and I plan to put the lettering above and below. Then, quilt from the center in rays out to the edges.

I am not sure the due date but sometime around the end of the month. I should be able to do it all from what is in my stash.

The fabric I am using is a bit shorter than the former banners and I am thinking of piecing blocks of the body colors mixed with the remaining yellow to add to the top and bottom. Often former banners are hanging in the entry and I think if they are all the same size, it makes them easier to hang and move.

Sunday I stayed later at church to set up my game area for this week's Vacation Bible School. Since I missed my usual bus, I went another way and came upon this display at Takashimaya Department store. I didn't have a camera along so after VBS today, I went back to take a few pictures.

Sometimes we do "junk-art" at school so I am often saving spools and objects I think the kids would have fun using.

This display takes "Junk-art" to a whole new level.

Tin cans, buckets, garden rakes, cell phones, bottle caps ... you name it! I even saw some tins like the ones I use to store my fabrics in.

A mother pig with her babies ....

And a rhino!


All these are life size.

Note the water tap eye and the frying pan along the side.

Here is another view of that big rhino.

You can see the contents of his tummy...
He takes his tea, kettle and all.

And here is a tortoise ...

Watches and a bicycle chain among his scales...

looks like a drain in case he gets too wet.

And how about those camel feet?

A plunger and a funnel and two light fixtures.

There were three or four monkey-type figures hanging from the wall




and a lizard climbing up a tree.



Forks seem to make nice hands and feet and the tail looked like a bottle brush.

 This is the sign above with the artist's name.

The exhibit is about to end so I am glad I made it back with my camera.

The area is a passage way between the up and down escalators.

The curtains behind add to the artistic effect.

And one more picture that made me smile ... this one sent by my daughters in Portland Oregon.

Over the weekend they were celebrating "Obon".
It is the time when the spirits of the dead return... actually a time of celebration with festivals and dancing.

My daughters had one of the lanterns dedicated to their father.

You can notice those lanterns hanging all around the festival area ... and at night they would be lit.
Last week would have been our 53rd wedding anniversary so this festival is very timely.

I think I see Paul smiling down on those below and wishing them a fine festival.

(with some yummy treats).