New beginnings and work in progress

The first day of the second half of the year is here. Lucciano is celebrating with a clean cage and new tail feathers. He is still working on new wing feathers and I miss his usual amount of singing. I gave him a nail trim and he certainly deserves an A+ in patience. I keep wondering how long this old cage will hold up. I have not seen any like it for many years. Long ago it had a stand that could be moved around the room but for this tiny room, the window is perfect. He has a good view of the wild birds on the feeder and the neighborhood cats on the garden wall.

Over the weekend I did a bit of baby sitting. It felt like old times rocking my little sweetie in my comfy chair and using the time for a bit of quilting.

Leia leaps into life at full tilt, always on the move.(I call her "the blur" because every picture of her shows her in motion... if you can get a picture at all...) Then comes the crash. A few songs and she is out. Ah, to be three!

I still have a long way to go on this big quilt and it is going to have to step aside this month for a banner that has a deadline of September.

I am quilting the flowers in the border fabric with colored thread and repeating the flower in the 8inch blocks. I have yet to decide what to do with the large blocks.

Plan A .. a larger flower

Plan B.. the same size flower with an outer ring of petals

Plan C.. four smaller flowers

Plan D.. a cluster of the smaller flowers as seen in the border


There is still plenty to do while I am mulling this over in my mind. In spite of its summery look, this is a very warm quilt. My daughter knows she will not be getting it any time soon, still, the idea of having a nice sunny quilt on those gray Portland winter days makes me want to push a bit harder.

The Party runner is finished

The party runner is finished! Not in time to reach Marie on her birthday but in time to send her a picture. This is the last in the series of runners I made for my #2 daughter. The other four were seasonal runners for her small table but when she has guests she puts two cubes together to make the table bigger, thus, the longer runner. She, after some prodding, suggested Japanese indigo fabrics would be nice.

In the early '90s I had gone to the fabric outlet area of Tokyo looking for Japanese fabric and
stopped in a kimono shop to see if they had any sample books to sell cheaply. The books are made up of pieces of fabric from the end of the roll, the width of the fabric (about 13-14 inches) and about the same in length. They are sewed into a pile with one large stitch, maybe 20 or so in a "book".

The store did not have any for sale but took my name and address and telephone number and said they might let me know if they did.

Much much later, a package arrived in the post from that shop and in it were some assorted fabrics and fabric sample books. Now, on many of the samples, as you might see in a wall paper sample book, were scribbled notes with black marker. Many of the prettiest fabrics were so marked but I saved the lot and have found ways those fabrics can be cut around the ink and used in projects. These are what I dug out for this runner.

I drafted simple square in a square five inch blocks and arranged them light on dark and dark on light. After considerable trial and error I finally came up with an arrangement I liked. I had considered quilting this with sashiko stitches but was afraid that might detract from the fabrics but used a typical pattern of interlocking circles for the quilting. I like the result and am thinking some day I might make one for my own coffee table.

I am still reminded of the day Marie was born. It was the year of the "Fire Horse" which was considered the worst possible year for a girl baby to be born. Very few risked having a girl and the maternity wards were rather empty. I was near the window of a 6-bed ward and all the babies were kept down the hall in a nursery. At feeding time the infants were put on a cart and rolled into the ward to be handed out to the waiting mothers. BUT ... Ahead of the cart came a nurse carrying one screaming baby which she placed in my arms. Small but mighty, she was! And the nursing staff always "forgot" to pick her up at the end of the session (or maybe that was intended)

Marie liked to be held. Unlike the doll that closes it's eyes as you lay it down, her eyes would fly open no matter how gently you placed her and the screams would follow. Living in a neighborhood where houses are poorly insulated and only three or four feet apart, I spent the next year and a half carrying that fire-horse everywhere. I learned how to do every task with a babe in arms. I sang every lullaby I knew over and over. I'll bet I have the best repertoire of lullabies of anyone my age. Is it any wonder that that daughter turned out to be musically gifted!
Maybe she was making her own music in self defence. So... one more runner for the birthday girl.

Outside our front gate is this pineapple lily. We had a clump of them in our last house and they were frequently the victims of the plant vandal. Before we moved I separated the group into several bunches and placed them out of reach. I must have brought one tiny bulb with me because I notices the fleshy leaves last year among the agapanthus and gave the bulb a pot of its own. I noticed last week there was a small bud and took this first picture.

Today, when I went to the park to see if I could get a better picture of the runner, I noticed the lily had begun to bloom. I'm so happy to have this reminder of the years spent at the Suginami house. I also noticed when I was there a little more than a week ago, that the plants had buds that were not vandalized. Hooray for small blessings!

and the winner is....

How could I possibly select a name from among all these kind and wonderful bloggers?
That is what assistants are for. Luckily, this assistant will do anything I ask for a piece of cheese.
Nikko was told to "Wait!" while I wrote the names on slips of note card and taped each one around a piece of cheese. She was very excited at the possibilities of a reward. (in fact, she can hear the refrigerator drawer being opened from any room in the house and comes to check if cheese is being removed)

The word,"Stay!" is a bit open-ended for her to take seriously but "Wait" has the connotation of a reward for being patient. (and patience is something she has perfected over nine years of trial and error.



The objects of desire were then placed in her dish. I tried to get most of the names hidden so she could not read them. I saw Nikko looking over my shoulder at the comments to see who had left her compliments and I didn't want her to play favorites.

The magic word for helping herself to goodies is "Itadakimasu". This is a word that is always spoken before taking the first bite. It means, I am about to partake.



Oh no, Nikko, you greedy dog, you have taken two names! And, how cleaver of you, both those names are people who have left you compliments.

Well, give them to me and you can try again. After all, I have only one give-away.

So, here they are ... Cheryl and Rose Marie. I am not going to tell you which is which but now please try again and only pick ONE!

And... the winner is... Cheryl of Cheryl's Teapots 2 Quilting.

So, Rose Marie and all my dear friends, I still love all your comments and support and help. Thank you for making this a very special year. And, if you are not happy with the results, blame the dog. She is very good at accepting blame.

And now ... back to quilting!

My quilt room/space/corner

From time to time I get a blogging glimpse of quilter's "studios" or "rooms", their lovely design walls and shelves of organized stash. I see the latest machines that do everything but wash the dishes.

Well, here I am in my chair, my machines connected to my arms (and they also wash the dishes) and my trusty helper at my side. My husband at the shutter saying,"why would anyone want a picture of this!"

But, my friends, THIS is the world's most comfortable chair! And, it has a story.

When I was teaching in the public schools, the Board of Education took money from our scant pay and put it into a retirement fund rather than social security. You can bet it wasn't much since the starting salary was only three thousand dollars a year. In the late 60s when I was back in the States, I checked up to see how much I had in my retirement account and I was told $135.00 and it would never amount to more no matter how long it sat there so I decided to take the money out and buy something I really wanted, a wing rocker. Because of a crooked spine, there are not many chairs I can lean back in but this chair is perfect for me. $134 well spent!

It lived in my bedroom for years and I rocked and nursed babies here. It sat in other rooms in other houses and we piled in with kids to the side and kids on the lap and read thousands of stories. The upholstery wore to shreds and we had it re-covered. This time the foot stool and the arms got some quilted covers to protect them. Now it sits in the corner of my living room. to the right is the entryway. To the left are some drawers for my rulers and sewing things and my Ott light. My quilting waits in the bag I used to carry it to my group meeting on Friday.

The light is special to me too because years ago I quilted a quilt for a friend who said she would pay me. I kept a record of the hours I spent working on her lovely quilt but had no idea what my time might be worth. In the end, I had seen the Ott light advertised in quilt magazines and really wanted a lamp that would give good light for judging color at night.(which was the time of day mothers of large families had for quilting) I cut out the page with the ad and gave it to my friend, who had a APO address and could get things from the states, when I returned the finished quilt. I believe there were three sizes of lamps and I would have been happy with any but she bought me the floor model and an extra bulb. The lamp has lived beside my chair ever since.

For a room so tiny as our living room, this chair is really too big an object but my husband has a massage chair that is even bigger so I feel a bit justified and it is a comfortable place to sew. The only trouble being, since it is by the door, things tend to get piled on it when people come in.

And now for the next project in the lineup. For my daughter's final runner, I wanted to make her one double length size for when she adds a cube for parties. She wanted some traditional Japanese indigo fabrics so I drafted this simple five inch block and alternated dark and light fabrics.

All the blocks are complete so I laid them out on my bed/futon (the only horizontal place in the house of any size without a layer of dog hair) to see if I can come up with an arrangement. I'm still not completely satisfied. Here is where a design wall might come in handy. In this room the ceiling slants down to only about two feet above my pillow, a bit hard to get the whole view.

The typhoon, "Ma-On", is bringing rain to my garden after a long dry spell. It is not clear yet where or if it will land but rain is predicted for the next two days. I wish I could say it has brought cooler air but with the windows shut against the rain, the house is hot and muggy as usual.

A "reversable" runner?

This is not the last of the runners that I am making for my daughter for her birthday, but it is the last of the seasonal ones. I'm not sure it was much of a success because trying to make it reversible was something like trying to serve two masters at once.

The Christmas fabrics went together fairly well and I was pretty satisfied with the variety of color and size. Since New Years is the big holiday in Japan, my idea was to use a printed panel of the twelve zodiac animals for the reverse side. The sizes of the two were close enough and I thought I would quilt the back with the frames and animals ... so far, so good


























I used a gold metallic thread for quilting because there was a thin gold outline on the pictures of the panel.

I started with the frames around the animals but found the outer edges fell inside the green outer border on the Christmas side. Oops. So, I quilted those parts just through the top and batting.

Next I quilted around the writing. Well, it didn't look bad on the other side but it was a bit distracting and I began to think that quilting the fussy details of those twelve animals might not bring the effect I had in mind.

So... I turned the runner back to the Christmas side and quilted in the ditch around the squares, being careful not to go all the way through in the places that might mess up the animals.

This runner might have been a bit better with more quilting but I decided to quit while I was ahead.

Every year I attend at least one quilt show in Japan that displays the work of Emiko Toda Loeb. Her quilts are usually hung at the end of a section so that the viewers can enjoy both the front and the back. Indeed, it would be difficult to figure out which was intended as the front because her work is completely reversible in design as well as quilting. Next time I will have to study her work more closely and see how she does it. So far, she has no competition from me!

I am intending to make one more runner for my daughter to use at partys when she adds a cube to her narrow table. She likes Japanese indigos so that is what I am planning to use ... now that she has put up with the three and two-half runners I have sent. With her birthday a little over a week away, the last one is going to be late. Sorry, Marie, I can't even say,"it's in the mail".




Last week I posted a picture of the first bloom on my prickly pear cactus that Morishita-san had given me. Last Friday I went back to my old neighborhood while my car was having its yearly inspection and stopped at Morishita-san's house to give him the pictures I took. He was so delighted and said he felt like a grandchild was coming home. Here on his porch is the big grandpa cactus. It is almost finished blooming for the season but you can see what an impressive plant my little fellow has to look up to.

As I write this last bit, the table is dancing and the light fixture is swinging and the dog is trembling at my knees because we are having an earthquake.

Turning on the TV, I see the quake was centered to the north of Tokyo near where Tanya (Taniwa) lives and had a magnitude of 5 on the Japanese scale of 7.
There is no danger of tsunami but landslides are always a problem and the trains are stopped until they are all checked. This is not an activity one can "get used to"!

An anniversary give-away for my blogging friends

Little did I know, or even imagine, a year ago when my son suggested scanning my paper diary and putting it on a blog, what the consequences would be. I could see that the paper book is beginning to fall apart. I could also understand that my kids wanted to see what I was up to.
I knew very little about even the basics like posting a picture and still have not figured out how to get those pictures and writing arranged the way I want them. Beyond my own children, I had no idea of what a "follower" might be and "comments" were what family members wrote about cute pictures of the little ones.

So, my friends, you can see this past year has been a steep learning curve but every step of the way, there has been a dear blogging buddy or a caring child to give me help, coaching, assistance, or a shove in the right direction.

Even my non-quilting readers have commented to me on what caring, compassionate, and supporting people quilting bloggers are as indicated by their comments. Truly I have been richly blessed by you all.

So, as my first anniversary approaches, I have been giving thought as to how I might thank my fellow bloggers and followers. It is not my intention to gain more followers ... I have no idea why people choose to follow other than by how I might decide and I have more than one way of following...

I have gathered together a few things that are very Japanese. I googled Japanese taupes and found pictures of what the internet says they are and the first item in the package is a set of 100 ten cm. square "taupe" fabrics. I also selected 8 rolls of traditional Japanese prints in shades of tan/brown. I'm not sure the size but about 12"x 10 or 12". Then there is a set of ten pieces of "kasuri". They are around 13"x 9", and my personal favorites. The thread is indigo dyed before being woven into the designs and the ones I have selected are the more traditional patterns. These days they are valued highly by Japanese quilters and since they are not being made so much any more, are becoming harder and harder to find without buying antique clothing and cutting it apart. The last items are two printed panels. One is a welcoming cat panel with two cats and the other, the twelve animals of the oriental zodiac.

On my blog anniversary, which is on July 23rd U.S. east coast time, I will draw a name from among those who are interested and send a package out. If you are a follower, I will put your name in the "pot" twice. Please let me know if you are interested in the drawing. I wish I could afford to send more to thank you all.

Grabbing patterns from here and there

I have seen on, assorted blogs , photographs taken of mosaics in Italy and tiles in Czechoslovakia and wrought iron work and barn sidings and all kinds of designs in nature and thought ... now, wouldn't that make an interesting quilt pattern... Actually, I was rather relieved to see that I am not the only nut out there taking pictures of sidewalks.

So ... as I began to think of the next runner in the season series, I decided to try and make one that is reversible with Christmas fabric on one side and a Japanese panel of the zodiac animals on the reverse side. I wanted to quilt the printed animals so needed something for the other side that might not look too strange with quilting that is rather random. I pulled out my camera and looked back through those assorted pictures and found this one taken in the subway underpass near my church where three train lines meet. It is a very busy station and I remember the reaction of the passers-by seeing this weird foreigner taking pictures of the paving blocks.

A bit of graph paper and a search of the Christmas fabric and I was prepared with carry-along work for last night's long train and bus ride into town and an even longer District Committee Meeting.

Actually, I was rather glad for this bit of work because we had to say good-bye to three Scouters who have been a big part of the Japan District. Saying good-bye is something we do a lot in the ex-pat community here in Japan but it is never easy.

Having a little project helps to keep me together.

I am enjoying the look so far and hope the plan will work as intended.

It might seem a bit funny to be working on something for Christmas in the burning heat of summer but that way it will get done in time to hit the post.

Satisfied.

The fall runner is finished and ready to mail.
Although there was some advice to un-sew and add more rows of leaves, and I did seriously consider that option, I am not unhappy with the way it turned out.

It would have been possible to do the un-sewing but there was no guarantee that the added leaves would look better since this is a pattern where the arrangement can not be decided by just two, or in this case, three rows but especially when repeating fabrics as I would have to have done. My quilt group liked the result and I am sure my darling daughter will say she loves it, as she has the first two.

One interesting thing that happened makes me wonder if this change of plans was really a mistake. As I came to quilt the end pieces, I found the space was just right to quilt the words from Ecclesiastes, "To every thing there is a season, (and) a time for every purpose under heaven.." As I finished quilting the phrase and added the binding I felt that maybe what I had thought to be a mistake was just an opportunity for something else if only I could keep my mind tuned to higher things than always being in control.

My number three daughter states this would also be a good runner idea in shades of green. At this point I am wondering how my sister managed to make a whole quilt using this pattern. Although I had stated I would never do this pattern again, never is a LOOOOOONG time!

The flowers on the Mother-in-law's tongue, (or any of the other names this plant goes by as certainly my own mother-in-law was the kindest most loving mother one might wish for) have begun to open. Green on green is not so flashy but they are lacy and charming. They also look like they are sweating in the Tokyo heat.

One more plant has blessed us with a flower. When we lived in Suginami Ward, my neighbor across the street had a huge prickly pear cactus on his front porch and every year it was covered with blooms. At one point I asked Morishita-san if, when he was pruning that cactus, he might give me a piece to root. Better than that, one day before we moved, he turned up at my door carrying a pot and plant he had already rooted. I now have several offspring of that plant. (I can't seem to throw away the pieces that accidentally get broken off) The plant sits up on my balcony all year but since this winter was particularly cold, I brought it inside for a few months. It still gets to freezing many nights but it seemed a bit happier than the year before. Now, for the first time, I have been rewarded with this lovely flower. Friday I shall return to my old neighborhood and I plan to take a picture to my friend and thank him again.

When the brain takes a vacation

OOPS!!

I was so happy to add that last leaf to the fall runner. Tomorrow is my quilt group meeting and I will have a small piece all basted and ready to begin quilting.

Dig out some backing ... plenty to choose from ...

Whole roll of batting to cut ... no problem there,

lay it all out to prepare for basting ... Find the measure to check that it is straight ...

Huh?

The width is right but the length is supposed to be 38 inches. It is six inches too short!

Get out the notebook with the plan to check. Yep, no problem there. I remember how pleased I was to come up with a design that just fit the dimensions but ... oh no, I left off two rows of leaves.

Now, what?

Well, I could leave it as is and just quilt it ... but it would be the wrong size. Or ... I could un-sew the last two rows and add ten more leaves ... but I have done more than enough un-sewing already. Or ... I could just add two borders on the ends ... I have lots of leaf prints.

So I auditioned a few and this maple leaf print in fall colors seemed to fit, but I thought of my blogging friends and wondered what they would do.

Am I the only one who makes this kind of mistake? Does your brain ever melt down in the heat of summer? Can you think of another "plan B" ... or maybe "C" or "D". Ah well, "The best laid plans of mice and men ..." Perhaps the more mistakes one makes, the better one gets at fixing them.

A bit of progress from the quilting Scouter

Scout camp turned out to be rainy and sunny, hot and cool, fun and work, and a lot was accomplished during (and before) the Scouts' attendance.

Not finding a clean, large, work space, I finally shoved five tables together in the craft room (six would have still been too small an area) and basted the batik quilt. Since the space was too small for the entire quilt it was a bit hard to get the batting pieced to my satisfaction.

For the basting I had to place the top down and struggle a bit with the softer tenugui up on top. I pinned it first and then had to crawl up on the table tops to baste it in sections
I guess the whole thing took about five hours but I was happy that all parts seem to come out flat and even. The room is very poorly lit even in brightest daytime and I used the evening hours when other duties were out of the way.

I also used odd moments during the week to work on the third edition of the table runners. For fall, I decided to use an idea once passed to me by my sister for tessellating maple leaves. I had tried this once before and ended up making it into a bag.

My favorite patchwork is making blocks and then laying them all out and arranging them to my satisfaction. This pattern is the antithesis of that, as each block has to include a piece from two of it's neighboring blocks. Even with the pieces all pinned in groups, I had to un-sew a number of seams as I put the wrong neighbor in several times no matter how carefully I planned. The total will be fifty blocks plus a border so the top is more than half done. With HOT weather setting in, this will be better than quilting the big bed cover. I remember vowing never to do this pattern again after the first time but that is what I said about several other patterns in the past and ended up eating my words.

As for the toe, I got by. Flip-flops were a bit more comfortable. By Wednesday I tried boots and Friday sandals with my Scout socks. Today it was crocks. I have no idea what I will try for tomorrow when I go to school. Whatever it is, we don't wear shoes in the classroom anyway. I am hoping this will not last too long as my back hurts from limping along.



Saturday I arrived home only to dump my gear and head off to an obstacle course with my Cub pack. It is part of our summer program and the rain held off long enough for the boys to have a blast. It was fun to watch the boys try the obstacles so carefully at first and then ,by the time they were playing the closing music, to see them racing madly to try things one more time. If I could capture that energy and sell it I would make a fortune!

My lily was nice enough to hold off for my return. It was tall but still in bud as I carried things from my car to the door but this first picture was taken Sunday morning as I left for Church. I ran (hobbled) back in to get my camera lest it be bashed to bits by someone on a bike while I was away.



When I returned later in the day, I found some string and tied it to the fence. In store-bought lilies used in arrangements, the ends of the stamens bearing the pollen are all removed so the dark pollen will not soil whatever it might touch. I am happy to be living in a neighborhood where my flowering plants are not vandalized.
At my last house we also had plants along the street and someone passing in the early morning ripped off the flowers on almost every plant just as they were about to open. It was very sad and frustrating even when I had tied things back away from the street.











You can see there is still a lot to look forward to on this mighty lily.

Also, there are a few more getting ready to do their stuff. You might also notice the gardenia adding it's perfume to the scene.






Lastly, I was in for another surprise. The plant my Grandmother called "rabbit ears" and others called "mother-in-law's-tongue", "snake plant", or in Japan, "tiger's tail", (Sansevieria trifasciata) ... was sitting in my upstairs window with a flower spike! I have had that plant forever in windows of every house but never seen any sign of a flower. I looked on line to see if that was common and noticed in Chinese it is called "Tiger's tail orchid" and there was a picture of an opened flower, a rather orchid-like spike. I don't advise running out to buy one and waiting thirty years or so for it to bloom unless you have a space that can use a tall bit of green. On the other hand, here is one plant that thrives on neglect and I learned it is also one of the best plants for improving indoor air quality by passively absorbing toxins. That, in itself, is enough but it seems I am to be blessed with flowers as well.

It's in the mail

Today is my quilting day but yesterday I hurt my little toe and walking is rather painful. If I go to the doctor he will want an x-ray (not cheap) and put on a huge wrap and tell me to come back every day for the next few weeks. Actually, there is nothing to be done for a broken toe but ice it and possibly tape it to the neighboring toe. I am more concerned as to what I will wear for shoes at camp as flip-flops feel best but are frowned on as camp wear.

Hanging on the front gate is the second installment of the birthday runners for my daughter. A little over a week ago she sent the family pictures of
her beautiful and productive garden in the Boston Fens. Although not overly creative, I was able to come up with enough different fruit and vegetable prints to assemble in four-inch blocks so she will have plenty of food on the table.

I used very thin thinsulate batting and quilted flowers in each block. For the reverse side I auditioned several large scraps and decided on this multi-colored print. Perhaps it wanted to be selected because it was almost exactly the right size.

Out of six children I have a few that go almost to the point of taking over a project ... fabric ... pattern ... even backing. Then, again, there are those who seem to be happy with whatever I come up with.

This daughter seems to be happy with the idea of the series of runners. She has not said to stop or make a different size or asked for different colors so I plough onward and have cut about half of the pieces for the fall edition. These I will take with me to camp just in case I have spare time.

Also going to camp will be the Batik quilt, now waiting in the car. I am hoping that sometime during the week I will be able to find a place large enough and clean enough to lay it out and, if possible, baste it. I plan to use safety pins first in case I don't have time to baste the whole thing. I expect it to take about three hours and might have to pick it up during that time.

The lilies are holding off as it has been dreary rainy weather. I'm not sure if I should wish for sun during camp or hope this weather delays the blooms until I get back.


As a child, my mother loved petunias but I was less enthusiastic because the sticky wilted blooms had to be picked off each day so it would continue to bloom. Modern varieties have changed my opinion as they manage to bloom for two seasons in these hanging pots.

This wall separates my house from the neighbor on the North. Although it belongs to the neighbor, I am using it for my hanging garden. To the left of the pot you can see a section of the wall that is grooved into the post. During the quake, the street-side section slipped out of the groove and I notice a number of cracks in the stucco finish along the street. One of the things you learn in emergency prep is not to run out into the street during a quake as many injuries occur from falling walls. On March 11 the wall several houses down lost big hunks of stucco and another, across the street, chunks of concrete blocks although neither wall fell.

Finally. here is another little bloomer. Since my bedroom is in a greenhouse on the roof and it gets very cold in winter and very very hot in summer, I have been enjoying raising various varieties of cactus. This is the first time that this one has bloomed. I thought it was a gonner over the winter.

Several other varieties have big buds and I expect them to bloom while I am away. Luckily they thrive on neglect so will not miss me in the least.

So ... It's off to the woods with the guys. No currant bushes there. I will miss my friends as much as I do the plants but Nikko sees her food container getting packed and is excited to go. Did you notice that round yellow sticker on the gate? That indicates Nikko is registered with all her shots so if you open the door and she runs out to bite you, no danger of getting rabbies. To tell the truth, you are more likely to get licked to death than bitten.

Perhaps next week I will have a basted quilt to report on?

Pearl and Friends

I have seen a run on cat quilts out in the blogging world and realized I have no digital pictures of my cat quilt. I may have to wait and try again when the rainy season is over.

Many years ago someone offered my family a lovely black kitten with bright yellow eyes. We were only a week away from leaving for a summer holiday so I said if the kitten was still available when we got back, we would be glad to adopt it. Of course someone snatched it up during the time we were gone but we still wished for a kitten to share our home.


About the end of October that same year, I was working in the library when someone came in and said, "does anyone want a cat?"to which I replied, "I do, but not just any cat. It should be all black with yellow eyes or all white with one blue eye and one gold eye." The lady said the cat was all white with one gold eye and one blue eye, so I asked if it had a nice straight tail. In Japan, as a consequence of in-breeding, many cats have tails with kinks. The lady said, "Just a moment, I'll go and check" and soon she was back carrying a little white kitten with odd eyes and a tail, not quite straight but with a bend in the end". Thus, Pearl joined our family, a birthday gift to myself. Actually, she was an enchanted princess that only looked like a cat

Pearl lived with us for about 12 years and I wanted to make a quilt to celebrate her memory. Starting with squared paper I came up with this design for Pearl and Friends. Finding fabric to use was a bit tricky because each cat adjoins six others. I also discovered that each row moves over by the width of the tail so the sides became crooked. I ended up putting a border with two cats turned sideways and moving the balls into a straight line. I quilted a spool of thread into the border and pinned circles around, quilting around them with one continuous line with a needle at the other end.

Several friends in my quilt group have copied the templates and made full sized quilts using my pattern. Ever since I have been playing with the squared paper trying to come up with a pattern of both a cat and dog. This qult was hung in a quilt show back in the early 90s and though I had thought it might make a cute baby quilt, it is a little small (48.5"x56") and when the time came with a baby in mind, I had another plan in my notebook.

Now, here is another birthday present to myself. The year before last I had some points to spend at the garden shop. Lest they go un-used, I picked out five lily bulbs and brought them home to my little garden. They bloomed for the first time last summer and I had left a camera when I went off to the Jamboree, asking that someone take pictures so I wouldn't miss them. Well, that was not high on any one's agenda and I returned to finished flowers.

This summer I hope not to miss any but this weekend I will be off to Boy Scout camp and I see the first has begun to open and the others are lining up. This one has taken over the spot where the Iris stood a month ago. I am wondering what the other colors will be. My family didn't remember but the neighbors said they were beautiful. Maybe I should leave the camera with them this time?

This one might be next. It seems to be in competition with the Snake-bark maple tree, well over eight feet tall, and above the living room window. I hope I won't miss it!

A test of patience

Deciding not to spend money on fabric for the back of the batik quilt, I took out the pile of tenugui showing all kinds of children's games. My fourth daughter is an early-childhood teacher and I'm sure she will get a kick out of this collection of tenugui. Friday I made use of the floor space at my quilt friend's house to arrange the selection and began sewing the towels together by hand. There was a bit of a trick to this because the towels are not all the same length or width. Choosing pairs, I sewed them into strips which are close to the same length. This puts the center seam at different points down the center but one of the quilt ladies thought if I press the center seams open, the mis-match will probably not show much after quilting. That seems like the best plan of attack.


After joining the rows, I find that this section is still too narrow for the backing. Rather than add more of the children's towels sideways, I decided to use yukata fabric for the outside edges. I have a lovely floral but it is on dark blue and I think the bamboo on white looks a bit better.

With no place to spread out and arrange the borders, I spread a tarp on the street outside my house so I could figure out a plan. The tarp was too narrow so the yukata fabric is on the street. A light spring breeze kept turning the corners and before I was finished I had to fold it over several times to allow bikes to pass. The section of road behind the camera is only the size of the green tarp, about two meters. For that reason, at least, I did not have to deal with cars.

After looking at the size of the backing, it appears the towel section is too long by about half the width of a row of tenugui. Rather than trim the lower row of children, I decided to remove the second row from the bottom since those children are a bit larger in size. Then I re-positioned the bottom row and added the bamboo to the lower edge as well as the sides. I will not feel as bad about cutting off part of the bamboo as I would spoiling the children in play.

The thing is, now that I sit and look at this picture, I recall the yukata fabric I used for the border of the kaleidoscope quilt (a kind of braided link design) that is just about the width that I need and I bet I have just enough already cut too. Then, again, that might be just a bit too strong a pattern. Un-sewing and re-sewing seams of several meters takes a lot longer by hand so I want to be sure before I go that far. This is the time I really wish for a very large empty room.

Scouting is a World of Friends

Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the early start to the "rainy season", That is what the weekend held. Because of cancellations of activities after the earthquake, everything got tossed into the pot and the former Cub Scout Family Camping was stretched to include American and Japanese Boy Scouts as well as Girl Scouts. Friday night I set up the craft area and spent the hours until bedtime preparing for ten craft sessions. The craft planned for the cubs was not suitable for Girl Scouts and the older Scouts so there was a hurried cutting of leather for those participants to make wrist bands.

Stations were set up with stamps for letters and numbers as well as decorative stamps, snap-setting station, dying and finishing stations. I went to my sleeping bag thinking all was ready. Alas, during the night came the soft pitter patter of rain. Well, rain is fine for the big guys but Cubs and siblings and Moms and Dads... not too great.

In the morning I got the final count and schedule for the day. We raised the flags in a light mist and set off to the craft area. (or what had been planned as the craft area) I must say there are very few buildings where one can get out of the rain and suddenly there was some kind of a tent building activity squeezed into the craft room as well. Now imagine groups of 15 to 20 kids hammering away on leather and Scout leaders shouting out orders on tent building. Add to that parents yakking and others joining the melee to get in a dry place. Nikko checked out the situation and opted for the space under the finishing table where there would be no hammering. One lucky factor was that I got the world's greatest assistant, a fellow teacher of all age levels, crafty as the day is long and fluent in Japanese. It was a long day but we survived. Well, the patch they issued said "Family Camp Survivoree". No picture but that was truer than fiction.



After dinner we gathered in the light rain to enjoy the campfire. Leading the opening song didn't do a whole lot for my voice but there was still a bit left at the end for the quilt presentation. At the start I told about my friendship quilt and collecting the signatures of friends at various Scouting events, the Scouts from over 60 countries and all of the States. Although I have many signatures from top Scouters, the signature I told them about was one of my former Cubs and Scouts who had signed his name, the date, and "Friends Forever". Nearly 20 years have passed but we are still friends and "Forever" is a long time.

I quoted part of the poem that begins, "I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you". and asked them to think about the friends that bring out the best in them. I also asked them to think about what kind of a friend they were to others




At the end I brought out the wedding quilt as a celebration of friendship and presented it to the couple who had worked so hard and long to put on that event, whom I had known through Scouting long before they even knew each other, and were unselfish in their love and devotion to the welfare of others.
When I left in the evening they were still reading and commenting on the messages written on the leaves. I gave them a sign-pen so they could add more signatures to the blank leaves. I feel very happy I could make the presentation and grateful to those of you who sent words of encouragement.

The pictures here are details of the Scout Friendship quilt. The reverse side has neckerchiefs from many of the events where I collected signatures.

The center has the World Crest with the words, Scouting is a world of friends, quilted around.

I embroidered a few Scout emblems from different countries. The USA and Japan were the most complicated and in order to get the details I had to use only one strand of embroidery thread.

Well, the rainy season that usually begins in mid June got off to an early start and below is the reason why!!! Honestly, why would someone select a design for a T-shirt for Cub camp with thunder clouds and lightening?? It sure looks to me like someone was tempting fate! "Extreme Cub Camps"?? The edge of a typhoon? Maybe we were luckier than we deserved.

Sunday morning, off to choir, but after shouting above the noise all day and leading songs I had very little voice left .

bits if progress, one step at a time

This weekend I am off to Cub camp where I will be teaching crafts to Cubs, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts. It is always a challenge to take a craft and tweak it up or down to make it easy enough for first graders and challenging enough for the older Scouts. We are expecting rain to add to the challenge.

The big event at the back of my mind will be the presentation of the Wedding quilt. I have asked to give "the Scoutmaster's minute" at the closing campfire. As much as I dread speaking in front of a group, I want to tell the youth about the importance of friendship, picking friends, keeping friends, and being a worthy friend. I hope I can pull it off.

Since that quilt was finished I have been working on several projects. Last year I made a table cloth for my son as a birthday present. This year my giftee is my number two daughter and I wanted to make something quilty for her
but she does not have a dining room table but uses a small coffee table for meals. I thought I might make her a series of runners for different seasons and began with some floral prints and some fabric left from my Son's wedding quilt and a border from one of my first quilts. I like quilted runners in my house because they protect the table from scratches and spills but I was not sure I was heading in the right direction for my daughter's house so I sent this one off and asked if she would like more or for me to make something else. This week word came back that it is a "go" and I will have fun making a series for the year. It makes good take-along work. I have lots of ideas. And, her birthday isn't until late in the summer.


Meanwhile I have been working on the border of the batik quilt. I could not find any fabric I could afford for the border but the floral print is almost like batik. I took scraps left from the blocks and cut assorted circles to applique over the centers of the flowers. I am thinking of using colored or variegated thread to quilt those flowers and quilt bigger flowers into the squares.

One reason I dragged out the tenugui is that my daughter is a teacher and might enjoy the series of children's games if there are enough to cover the back. This is the time I could use a very large design wall! It may take a bit of doing to figure this out but I still have three sides of border to complete before I get there. So... It's off to play Scouts... one step at a time.

The art of the Japanese Tenugui

In earlier posts I have sometimes shown a quilt backing which has been composed of Japanese tenugui or cotton towels. Indeed, many of the quilts I have made use tenugui either on the back or as part of the design. Sometimes I get questions about tenugui so today I thought it would be fun to show and tell more than you may wish to know about the art of tenugui, and indeed, it is an art.

I have sometimes referred to tenugui to be seen along the lines of postage stamps. Although I was a poor student of history and geography, I loved to collect postage stamps. They were like tiny travel posters showing the nature, historical events, places and people that defined a country.
Each country puts out lovely commemorative issues and they may be used on letters as regular postage or kept as collectors items. We can learn a lot by examining these stamps and they are small enough to be stored in albums.

Tenugui are rectangular cotton hand towels. They were sometimes distributed as gifts by shops or firms commemorating their opening and may contain addresses or the phone number of the shop. The tenugui of yesterday has gradually been replaced by terrycloth towels and handkerchiefs and many of today's tenugui are pure art to be looked at as well as used. We used to have a tenugui of the Tokyo Tower that had been framed and hung as a picture by my Father-in-law. Sometimes they are sewed into bags or cushions or noren, a strip curtain dividing rooms. They are often used as stage props in kabuki, rakugo (comical storytelling), and Japanese dancing.

The process by which these towels are made is as fascinating as the towels themselves. Both Yukata (a cotton summer kimono) and tenugui are dyed as a strip of fabric. That bolt or roll is anywhere from thirteen and a half to about fifteen inches in width. The cloth is stenciled with a kind of paste that works much like wax in batik. It is done in sections and folded back over itself like an accordion. The length might vary depending on the ultimate use but one roll is usually enough to make one yukata with some bit left over.

After each application of paste, the dye is put on top of the pile of fabric over a vat of the same width and sucked through the pile. Then the excess dye and paste are washed out, and the fabric dried and re-wound for further dying or cutting into lengths.



The price can range from around five hundred yen for a two color towel of simple design to thousands of yen for real works of art.
The series of childrens' games on my last post cost around one thousand two hundred per towel a few years back when the dollar/yen was about 100 yen to the dollar.

The small kaleidoscope quilt has five towels on the back. The writing on the red one is a poem or song. The other four show a sense of humor, such as advice on manners and replies to requests and the like.


I have photographed some un-cut towels and you can see how each section is the reverse of the one before. If the design includes writing, one has to be careful to put the right side facing up as it is impossible to tell one side from the other by just looking at the pattern.

The two top towels have a design depicting strips of cloth being stretched out to dry. The blue and white towel can be folded in half lengthwise and then accordion folded to form a cloth book. This piece of art shows the variety of ways to use a tenugui, from a blindfold for a children's game, a head scarf, exercising, fishing, bathing and even picking fruit. The towel with many people is of a festival. The people are carrying portable shrines and they are all wearing tenugui as hachimaki or headbands to keep the perspiration from their eyes. The lower towel with the red character says "matsuri" or festival and that is the type of towel most often worn as a hachimaki.


Here are a few more forms of towel containing writing. The top is advice on how to live a long life. Actually, it is a list of funny excuses to give when your maker comes to call you home. The dark blue is writing by someone having reached the auspicious age of 88. The iris on white is the name of a Sumo wrestler who may have presented these to his fans upon being promoted to a higher rank. The beige towels show some folk art.

This year many of the places selling the towels had a selection of rabbits as this is the rabbit year by the oriental zodiac. Several quilts I have made for my grandchildren feature zodiac animal towels on the back. On one I asked family members to sign their names on their animal.

Just like stash, these towels tend to grow in numbers in dark places. Unlike postage stamps they take up more room. I have a set of three plastic stacking drawers and in true librarian fashion, the towels are folded and placed by topic. They might be festivals like those above, famous kabuki scenes, sumo wrestlers' hand prints, scenes from famous places, flowers of various seasons, and just like postage stamps, interesting bits of culture. Some may find their way to the backs of quilts. Others are old that have been given me by people clearing out their cupboards. I once made a purple quilt for my SIL who loves purple and just went through the pile pulling out any towel with purple for the back. Most of those were from Japanese dance school recitals or kabuki actors assuming a family name.

The cloth tends to be more loosely woven that modern print cotton. It is surprisingly durable and the colors are fast. It is quite soft and less likely to slide off a child's bed. Because of the variety of lengths and widths it is not easy to piece into one large back. It can be pieced along with yukata fabric but is noticeably different from regular cotton prints in texture. I would offer some to anyone interested if they thought they might be able to find a use for it. Then, again, I still have three cat panels looking for a home.