earthquake update

For my blogging friends, I thank you for your expressions of concern. Certainly that is the biggest quake I have ever experienced in my 48 years here. Standing in the open doorway with the crashing sounds of flying objects and rattle of walls and windows, it seemed like a never-ending amusement park ride. (and I don't like that kind of ride)

Trains stopped and many people were stuck. Fifty people sought refuge overnight at the church.
Most of the injuries this distance from the epi-center were caused by falling objects. With many activities cancelled today, there will be plenty of time to clean up. For a city the size of Tokyo we got off fairly easy this time and the TV footage makes us aware of how blessed we are.

Nature inspires

Well, the kimono quilt has been delayed by a day so today we will have a bit of a nature lesson. This little bird is a Mejiro, or known in English as a Japanese white-eye. A common garden bird throughout Japan, they are easily attracted in winter with a piece of fruit, apples or tangerine skewered on some nails poking up through a board on my garden wall. The applique was my first attempt, not too accurate, but after a number of appearances in quilts has gotten better. The carved Mejiro came out of a scrap of wood at the summer jamboree with no photo reference. I have made several low relief carvings of Mejiro as gifts but have no pictures.

The Brown-eared bulbul or Hiodori is another resident that loves a taste of fruit on the feeder.

At my former house I put out a glass of juice and these birds drank it to the very bottom every day, perching on the rim and reaching for the last drop.

This group of pictures are carved in low relief and painted with acrylics. Other birds are three Sparrows and an Oriental greenfinch. Only the Bulbul has yet to make it into a quilt.

"Going Green" going to a festival

Here is a quilt worthy of any quilt festival but a good place to start is the Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010. amyscreativeside.com.

This quilt was created by a group of mothers from the American School In Japan as one of the prizes for a silent auction at the 2009 Spring Gala.

The Gala theme was "Going Green" I and two other planners pulled out a selection of green fabrics and arranged them into sections. I drew sketches of various seasonal flowers and we selected material for the aplique.

Some of the members of the group who had sewing experience helped aplique the blocks. Those who could do basic sewing joined the blocks or pieced the border.

When the top was assembled we met to quilt in the ditch. Between sessions I took the quilt home and worked the larger areas with Japanese style motifs. Our little group met somewhat weekly, with gaps for holidays, beginning in late November and finishing in early March.

Our first auction quilt was in '04 and with each year our plans have varied but we always start out with non-quilters and end up with great satisfaction and sense of comraderie. This quilt was 211.5cm x 226cm and brought a handsome sum.

If I am able to post this in the festival, it will be thanks to Liz at quilteriehttp://quilterie.blogspot.com who has coached me from afar.

Finished Fall Runner

I haven't figured out how to get these pictures arranged on the page but here they are as the computer wants them!

Quilting tomorrow

Tomorrow my quilt group meets here. Time to make a dessert and de-dog-hair the house.

At least I have a project to work on. The quilted leaves in each diamond are rather labor intensive but I like the result.

Vines and leaves have been added and the top is finished! I have been giving the backing some thought. My friend gives English commentary for Kabuki ear-phone-guide. Her husband comes from a samurai family. I have decided to use traditional tenugui and piece them together .

I have collected some Kabuki ones and some of the traditional family crests. I know I have a few of the designs that suggest long life and happiness.

Today was not the day to hunt through my collection as I was awakened in the wee hours with a call to teach, going in for a teacher who was out for the day. What fun to spend a whole day with kids and although the weather in Tokyo is still quite hot there was a nice breeze blowing through the downtown area. Tomorrow is a holiday ... autumnal equinox ... and a good day to begin the challenge of reverse-side planning.

My quilt group = my inspiration

The Tokyo International Quilters is really the collected remnants of assorted quilt groups. When you live in a place like Tokyo, you say good-bye, it seems, more than you say hello and we have said plenty of good-byes. Still a small core of avid quilters remains and we meet every-other-Friday at one of the member's homes and enjoy quilting, fellowship, obento, and dessert.

Yesterday I arrived a bit late and found, to my extreme joy, a very special visitor ...a kindred spirit, really... I had not seen in months. It was all I could do to tear myself away at the end of the afternoon.

I will need to buy more green thread to finish sewing the leaves but I spent the time sewing a two-inch border outside the bear paw blocks. I think this not only brings a bit of the orange and yellow to the edge but helps to control those bears who were flexing their seems and behaving like twelve and a half wannabes.

Friday is my quilt group meeting. I need something to work on and just the project to meet that need. Over a year ago I was in the wedding party of a very dear friend, a fellow Scouter. She was marrying another fellow Scouter and both were members of a Woodbadge Bear patrol.

I decided a Bear Paw quilt would be the perfect gift but nothing this big is made by hand in such a short time. I drew up a plan on graph paper and marked out leaf shapes on assorted green scraps. Those I took to the wedding and asked guests to sign them with names and wishes.

After finding out my friend and especially her new husband liked earth tones, I pulled out my collection of greens and browns and cut out the pieces for 24 12in. bear paw blocks... light on dark and dark on light. Imagine having a stash that big! It hardly made a dent.

After the border blocks were finished I drew up a template for the lone star. All the patterns I had in books were for machine piecing so this was a bit taxing to my non-math brain. Now star and inner borders are done and today I finished sewing the blocks around the outer edge. Now it is time to applique the vine and leaves. (I probably should have done this before assembly but I wanted more control over the final placement) Meanwhile, I have enough of the leaf print fabric to add a small border to the outer edge. I am already wondering where I will ever find floor space big enough to lay this out for basting.

Bird Quilt 2004

Cat Baby Quilt 2003

Hawaiian Wedding 2002

Amish Tulips 2001

To Everything there is a Season 2000

My Tithe 1996

Pearl and Friends 1993

Sunny Glade 1990