Hurrah!

Little by little I am getting things back to my old-fashioned normal.

My recent goal being to sort out the picture problem.

Ta da! How is this for a picture?
I don't know what these flowers are. They bloom along the wall in the spring and again in the late summer.

They seem to have been happy that the rain brought a bit cooler weather.

There is a yellow version too ...

And I think, in the past, there were some lavender ones as well.

Thursday I met up with a few members of my new quilt group and went to a wonderful quilt show at Seibu Department Store in Ikebukuro.

Of course, no pictures were allowed but there were attendants with gloves who would turn a quilt so the reverse side could be seen and lots of good close-up viewing.

The show lasted 8 days and included work by many well-known Japanese quilters and their disciples. Most were large quilts. Some were group quilts and there were some small items and framed smaller quilts. There was also a section of the show that seemed to be a collection of vintage quilts. There was no information in English, but even so, it was a very well attended and enjoyable show.

There were many booths of items for sale in the area outside the show. After a little lunch and chat with the friends, I went back to look over the shops. Some of them were connected to well known quilters and I could enjoy a bit of a chat with those I see from show to show. I saw a number of lovely packs of coordinated fabrics, but I was able to resist buying anything. After all, I will have to live to at least 200 to use up what I have.

I added a narrow outer border and have finished quilting a bit over three of the borders on the rainbow quilt.

Using my template and starting in the center of one side, I was able to make all the corners come together in a neat arrangement.


All the main part of the quilt is quilted in the ditch so I think the large cable is a good balance.

I haven't made the binding yet but am thinking of a medium purple that will fit the backing as well.  There is still a few day's worth of work until I get to that part so plenty of time to think it over.

There was sad news that the Yokohama quilt show will not take place. It seems "Quilts Tsushin", a wonderful quilt magazine, has gone out of business ... and I think they were the sponsor. The show was held at a large conference center and though it was labeled "Quilt Week" , it usually was only three or four days. I think vendors don't start turning a profit until the 4th day so that may have been a problem. Even the Tokyo Dome show was cut shorter ... I heard because of a sporting event. After all, it is really a baseball stadium. The over-seas vendors were having second thoughts on that one too.
Gossip has it that tourist companies that had booked a tour from Australia to include the show in Yokohama are now scrambling to find activities to fill their agenda. I can't imagine what effect this will have on the Dome show. A few years ago, another quilt show that regularly was held at Shibuya, also was discontinued. Certainly there is no shortage of quilts waiting to be displayed.

One more x-ray tomorrow and I am hoping to say goodbye to tape and bandages and have a lovely long-awaited soak ... and I don't mean in the rain either.

Happy Dance

I am so very grateful for my blogging friends.

I have only met a few, but every single one of those was as wonderful as I had imagined.

Last night I was in tears trying to just write an e-mail and make a post.
This morning I am in tears of gratitude for the sympathy and support I woke to find.

JoAnn ... the "revert" was found and it worked!
I still have a lot of messing around to do to get some things back, but at least now I have a better idea of where to look.

The typhoon brought rain. BUT ... I found a large pair of my husband's boots that will fit over the foot bandages. I will not have to sit in a meeting with wet feet. (and a bandaged foot will not get you a seat on the train anyway ... because all those kids sitting in the silver seats are too busy texting on their cell phones to even notice someone with crutches).

My sincerest blessings to you all!
Fondly, Julie

Jumping through new hoops

Last week I made a BIG mistake!
Being offered a free up-date to windows 10, I thought it might be better than the windows 7 I have been using,

Ever since then, my little laptop is angry with me. "What? You didn't like me the way I was? OK! Now you are going to pay BIG TIME!"

It is a Dell lap-top but Mr. Dell is gone ... there is no longer that icon I could click on to find things on the computer. Now Mr. Windows is in charge of everything. And Mr. Windows does not give pictures to blogger. (Also Mr. Windows did not just add the three new pictures from my camera, it had to download all 2090+ that were in the camera. BUT ... no access to them. Oh, I can click on the picture icon on blogger and download those three pictures to that select form but then the whole thing ... including this pace freezes up.
The result is ... no pictures can be posted.

Of course, since Mr. Windows took over, all my other files are hidden if they do still exist.

Mr. Windows  also does not like Mr. Yahoo. I can still get to my mail with some difficulty but reading it is a challenge and answering or writing even the shortest message is an exercise in patience. (why did I choose that as my focus word this year???)

That little hourglass pops up between every letter typed in. And if the hourglass actually meant to wait and the letter would appear, I might be able to hang in there, but no, left click and try again maybe 20 or 30 times before getting the next letter, then try to remember what I was trying to say.
I wrote my grandson a birthday greeting and two sentences took over half an hour!

I thought it might be easier to answer mail in my cell phone. Yes, it was a wee bit faster but very hard to touch the right letters or scroll the screen without losing the whole thing and having to start all over.

Before all this, my biggest problem was trying to fix the no-reply. My son tried to help me. After all, he was the one to set up my blog for me ... but when he logged on from Colorado, using my password, Mr. Google blocked him and bragged to me that it had caught him at it ... and ... made me change my password. Gosh, I have so many passwords they take up two pages in my notebook (and my notebook cannot be left within reach because Nikko is sure to eat it while I am sleeping.

Oh, there is more ... much more ... but I have probably ranted enough for one sitting. I have managed ... thanks to that hourglass ... to finish quilting three borders on the rainbow quilt. From tomorrow school starts with a teacher's meeting. I am looking forward to working with little kids again. Also, the coming typhoon has pushed some cooler air into our neighborhood. (though I am hoping to make the walking ends tomorrow without a wet foot as it will be another week before I can get into boots or shoes that fit, and my sandals won't be much help if we get the rain that comes with it). My flowers (which are hiding on the windows file) are celebrating the cooler weather and the gardenia is full of buds.
My greetings to all my friends whether I can reply or not, and my advice will be not to fix anything that ain't broke

Singin' in the rain....

Well, at least my garden is.

I think we have some kind of record going for the number of days with high heat and no rain.

Oh, so hot and humid, like living in a sauna.


Starting last Monday, I was engaged with Vacation Bible School at our church. The enrollment had to be closed a week before because classes were full and indeed for the space available we were pretty tight.

The whole interior was turned into a jungle with hanging vines separating work areas. I was in charge of games and basket weaving.

Creating games to fit the available space ... simple enough to understand and active but safe and easy for one person to control... as I had no assistant this year ... it was a challenge.

The basket weaving had been a big hit last year so they decided I would do that again too. It kept me running from place to place and assigned helpers had never made a basket so I was teaching new people every day.

At the last minute, I was given one more day of games and ended up staying up until after midnight preparing the game parts. My husband came the last hour of the last day and after watching said. "Now I know why you come home so exhausted".  Well, it is all over now and I got the cast off my foot on Saturday. (Of course there is still a lot of wrapping and I was told not to walk around) Hah!

Last night around midnight the rain rolled in. Good thing I don't have to wade in the puddles, but after a week away during the day, the laundry had to be done. The laundry poles and clippies were not going to work today.

So, there, among the plants in my greenhouse/ bedroom is a bit of added humidity.

Meanwhile, all the blocks in the rainbow quilt have been quilted in the ditch. I had to remove the basting around the edges and work to smooth wrinkles out of the backing.

There are a few tricky spots but I am thinking of re-basting the border before quilting it. I have begun working on a simple cable template and hope I can get it basted and marked this week.

This time of year is "Obon", a big summer holiday. Many shops are closed for a few days and travel is heavy. My car is out with my daughter from last week and I have no plan of going anywhere. Wouldn't it be nice to have  finished border to show off by next week?

Not melted yet

Oh, but it is HOT here in Tokyo!

Within the past week, 11,672 people were taken to the hospital with heat prostration.
That is up from 7,743 people the week before.
Of those, 25 have died and 312 are in serious condition requiring at least three weeks hospital stay.
Of those affected, 5,689 are age 65 or above and Tokyo had the largest number of all the prefectures with 1,095.

This morning, Nikko and I walked behind a woman carrying an umbrella for shade and wearing gloves that covered her entire arms to above the elbows. I am wearing shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt and carrying a towel to keep the perspiration from dripping onto my glasses. Though the temperatures are in the mid-30s, that is the average and the neighboring area next to us is much hotter.

Tuesday we escaped to the city, where we met one of my "old" scouting buddies. (actually, I was the oldest one there) We have been friends since the early 80's when he was in Japan with the navy. He and his lovely wife helped us celebrate our anniversary with a delicious meal and fried ice cream, while we caught up on several year's time and gossiped about our mutual scouting friends.

My friend had made a trip to the World Jamboree.

I had been half hoping to go ... I had attended the Japanese Jamboree at the same location two years before and, looking back to that week without shade and flooded campsites ... though I would have liked the experience, the lack of information about what might be different (other than thousands more people) along with the price in yen, gave me cause to reconsider.

Well, I got the first-hand report from my friend.

The next day, I also got a first-day-cover ... a real neat gift if you are a stamp collector. (my husband went over to our post office and brought back a sheet of stamps) These will go into my album of scout stamps from around the world. My friend and my husband both know how to make me happy.

This past week I have been working on an extension to the Women's Conference banner.

The end of this month, the church will have what they call a "Rally Day".

After the service, different ministries of the church have displays showing what activities are available.

In the old days, this was a good opportunity to get people involved in the activities of the church and show new members what goes on during  the year.  The last two years it has become just a day to walk around and have a look.

That day I have a scout event to attend so I added a pocket to the banner that can hold the printed brochures for those who want to know more.

I am not a fan of acronyms and this event has become WOCON.

For that reason I put those letters larger and darker fabric.

The owl fabric is the pocket.

The colored piano-key blocks are for attendees to sign their names so I added a few more around the pocket.

The park (where I borrow the fence for picture taking) was very hot in the morning sun but the Saru-suberi tree was bursting with blooms.

In Japanese this tree is called monkey-slip tree because of the very smooth bark.

Crape Myrtle is a tree I wish we saw more of in the city.
It comes in such a variety of colors and blooms throughout the summer and into the fall.
The tree takes in the pollutants which are flaked off in the bark. It can also be pruned way back to the main branches during the winter and yet come back with lots of shade and blooms in the next summer. I suppose it drops a lot of petals and flowers but both Linden and Zelkova drop sticky stuff and they are used for street trees anyway.

And one more piece of trivia ...

Sunday night ... or early Monday morning we had a "Blue Moon". Well, in Tokyo it really was rather orange and I thought I might take a picture of it dangling between the power lines outside my greenhouse windows.

For that, I needed to open the window.

Well, the camera was not keen on being awakened in the middle of the night and got confused about what I was focusing on.  I gave up.

BUT ... the mosquitoes didn't mind being awakened and took advantage of the open window,  I took a picture to show how tiny these critters are ... especially if you are used to those blood-sucking helicopters they have in Minnesota.

If they bite and you refrain from scratching, they do not itch for long. BUT, they never seem to bite me (like the nurse, they can't seem to find any blood), they just fly around singing in my ears and driving me nuts.  This one wouldn't sit down so I could swat it so I had to turn on the lights and pick it out of the air.
We do have bigger mosquitoes in the city and one park was closed part of last summer because those "Tiger Mosquitoes carry Dengue fever. These tiny ones are more common and can breed in the smallest amount of standing water.

I am still sitting with my foot up. The blocks on Ben's quilt are almost all quilted and by tomorrow I will think about how I want to do the border.  And while I am wiping my sweaty brow, I am thinking of my son, Ken, fighting fires in Washington State ... Maybe I don't really know what HOT is ... and I don't want to find out. Stay safe, big boy!

Serious holes

In 1993, I made a quilt using a friendship star variation, and using a variety of plaid scraps. It was finished in August and named "Paul's Plaid Stars". It was presented to my husband on August 4th as a 30th year anniversary present.

As another anniversary nears, I am looking at this old quilt ... well used, but also chewed all over by Nikko. (The pink and blue clothes clips indicate all the areas that have been chewed)

Our queen-sized bed had a quilt made in 2001 that Nikko had chewed one hole in while I was away.
I was able to patch that hole with spare blocks, left over from when the quilt was made.

When we moved back to our small rabbit hutch, there was no room for that lovely big bed and the quilt went off to Oregon for one of my daughters to use. Paul got the small bedroom and I use a futon on the floor of the greenhouse.
Nikko sleeps on the landing outside Paul's door at the foot of the stairs to my "room". BUT ... you can see by the holes, when I am away, Nikki likes to sneak on to Paul's bed. That might be OK except Paul tends to go to bed around two or three or four AM and then sleep late. Nikko, like me, tends to go up to bed at ten PM after her evening walk and get up early. On days I am away, separation anxiety sets in ... papa is not responding ... and the quilt is chewed. "Please do not let Nikko on the bed", is heard but ... maybe thought ... well, just this once... and here it is, 11 holes later.

After having read Cheryl's  wonderful post about repairs she made to a dog-chewed quilt, I am wondering if I would have the patience to attempt these repairs. Somewhere in a small tin, I have spare blocks I did not use in the quilt. The border would need complete replacing as well. At any rate, it will not be something to present as a 52nd anniversary present. ( and will Nikko just wangle her way on to his bed and repeat the crime?)

Meanwhile, Ben's rainbow quilt is moving along nicely. So far the quilting lines up pretty well with the backing blocks. I have removed the basting as I reached the wrinkles and stretched and smoothed in the hoop.
I still have the tree skirt to work on and those two items will be going to the same home address so I should get them done together.

Also, I need to do a bit of work on a hanging that will advertise the Women's Conference. I am planning to make a pocket that can hang from the rod at the bottom edge to hold hand-outs giving details of next winter's gathering.

I guess that is enough to keep me busy while I am sitting with my foot elevated (ha ha).

Facing challenges

I am always impressed by my many blogging friends who love to join in to all kinds of challenges.

There are block swaps and all kinds of group challenges involving the creation of blocks or even whole quilts. I browse these posts with a great deal of awe.

Sometimes it is all I can do to manage the assorted challenges that life tosses my way ...
without looking for more.

Continuing challenge #1 is the tucks in the basted backing of Ben's rainbow quilt. I have now quilted most of the center. I started with the center two blocks and have been going around those two, increasing one row at a time. So far I am satisfied that the quilting on the back is coming out relatively square. As I near the borders, I have reached the places where there are tucks in the basted back.

Yesterday I began the outer row and so far I have been able to remove all the basting and smooth out the tucks in the hoop as I go. This challenge is one block at a time. It means a lot more stopping and starting than I like (I usually work with a very long piece of thread so I don't have to stop and start so often). This way I work the rows leading to the border and then do the cross rows one-by-one.

The nice thing is that now I am nearing the edge, there is less quilt to sit under. Seeing the progress encourages me to keep going and dreaming of the day Ben can take the baby quilt off his bed and have a big-boy quilt to replace it.

Yesterday I added another challenge to the equation.  I had a date set up with one of my best friends who came to Japan for the up-coming World Scout Jamboree.

He will be off to the site tomorrow and had brought me a huge shopping bag of fabric that his mother was cutting from her stash.

Of course this is not the first "gift" she has sent.
Last time I needed to drive my car to pick up the many boxes he brought. (In fact, this may be her way of getting me to live to 200 just to use it all).

I figured one large shopping bag could be put into my roller bag and I could tale the train for free with only a short walk to the meeting spot.

Rushing around to get things organized so I could get out the door in a timely fashion, I kicked something. I can't even remember what it was ... a chair leg ... a corner of the furniture ... the door frame ... but when I finally stopped long enough to look, my little toe was sticking straight out at 45degrees from my foot. Oh, that does not look good. I tried pushing it back so I could put on some shoes. Nope, not going to work. Well I was pressed for time but I hopped on my bike and pedaled
off to the local clinic.

So much for my schedule. x-rays did not look good and it took several sets of x-rays and a lot of pulling and twisting before the toe was back on the right direction. Then a partial cast and all kinds of instructions about not walking and elevating my foot etc. etc. I barely had time left when I got home to change my clothes and grab my roller bag and rush out to the train station, calling my friend to say I might be a wee bit late. Actually the 15 minute walk didn't take so much longer so I was still in time.

One thing though, Those "Silver Seats" which are reserved for the elderly, physically handicapped, pregnant women, etc mean NOTHING to the average rider. They may line up while waiting for the train to arrive, but once the doors open ... it is everyone for himself ... the fastest and pushiest get any free seats. The rest are squashed in and you are lucky to end up with your body relatively above your feet or with a grip within reach. Crutches, walking sticks, casts on feet, mean nothing

When my kids were young and paying half fare, I told them I never wanted to see them sitting as long as there was someone older standing. Travelling with them yet today I notice they hardly ever sit. However, when the seat was offered to a mother with little kids, she would put the kid on the seat and remain standing. Japan has raised several generations of kids who still feel entitled to sit. Since they are all sleeping or texting or reading cartoon magazines or playing games in their i-pads, they conveniently can not notice anyone standing. Well, the train ride was only 29 minutes each way so not too bad.

Sunday I attended with our choir, a memorial service for a long-time member who had recently passed away.

At the end, those in the congregation followed the Japanese tradition of putting flowers on the table in front of the picture of the deceased.

The florist had provided  large white chrysanthemums all in a uniform size. They must have been imported because this is hardly the time of year for chrysanthemums. As we were leaving after the fellowship hour at the end, we were offered flowers to take home. Those Japanese members of the group would never take them home so the foreigners were pressed with big bunches. Well, why not?
Mine went into the entry-way where I can enjoy them coming and going and considering the heat, they have lasted quite well.

The final challenge is the silkworms.

There are still 12 cocoons that have not hatched. I rather doubt that they will as some are way too unfinished or have signs that the efforts to get out didn't work. (dark spots indicate the liquid emitted to dissolve the silk at the opening did not work.

Note the wimpy wings on this little lady.
The eggs are a bit smaller than poppy seeds.

I will put them in a zip=lock baggy and stick them at the back of the vegetable drawer until next summer. It might pe a bit of a challenge to get things right to raise another generation.

Enjoy all your challenges ... the most frustrating one of mine is not doing vacation bible school games with my foot in a cast, it is facing the continuing problem of being no-reply on many of my long-tram favorite blogs.

more silkworm trivia

Yesterday I had an early start to my day.

I left before 7:am for a pre-school who had expressed some interest in interviewing me for a job. Though the interview was around noon, I wanted to have a look at the school and see how the classes were run. Luckily I was able to spend time during the morning in a class with kids and teachers. Two to four year olds have a lot of energy but they are fun to be with and the morning flew by.

I was able to get a more complete tour of the school after the interview. The building used to be apartments and my son-in-law was the architect who converted the space into class rooms and activity areas. Though space was small compared to other schools in the area, the space they did have was very efficiently used and well organized. The director held my SIL in high regard. I think it will be an interesting place to work on a part-time basis,

When I returned home in the afternoon, two of the silkworms had hatched out and were sitting on the side of their apartments. This morning, 14 more crept out of their cocoons. I had never in the past paid much attention to the schedule but it took from four to five weeks for caterpillar to cocoon and a little over two weeks for hatching to begin.

This morning, before I even came downstairs, the first two pairs had formed. These moths look well developed but are unable to fly.

More often they have stubby wings like the one in this picture


So far, there are only two pairs.
Those  others are sitting around waiting for a partner to hatch out.

Just like the caterpillars that patiently sit and wait for leaves to drop on their heads, the moths patiently sit and await a mate.

Though it is getting very hot and humid for sitting under a hoop, I have completed quilting 31 blocks.

Checking the back, I have not yet arrived at the problem areas but so far, what I had considered a possible problem of crooked quilt lines on the back side, seem to be not as expected. If this might be used as a reversible quilt, I worried about how the quilting would line up.

So far, so good.

We are enjoying another very hot sunny day but a typhoon is moving in from the south-east and should make changes by tonight. (hopefully with enough warning to run and shut windows).

Fun on a rainy day

Thursday, with a short one-day notice, my #3 daughter, Norie, set up an outing with friends to an art exhibit.

One of these friends I see rather regularly for visiting art exhibits but two others I had not seen for many years.

The group was made of pre-school teachers ... one new acquaintance and three retired teachers that I have worked with at the American School. The show was the work of two artists and a Ikebana master.
When we stepped off the elevator into the exhibition hall, my first reaction was WOW! There was so much to see ... artwork everywhere calling out for your attention.

To the right are the elevator doors and a counter with guest books to be signed.  Two of the artists were on duty and more than willing to show us around, answer questions, and engage in conversation.

The largest amount of work was by Atsushi Inada, a very versatile artist, with paintings, soft sculpture, stitchery, and a number of objects, some small that could be purchased and taken with you. It seemed his main topic was cats.

Though some were in a rather contemporary design, all were whimsical and identifiable as cats. I asked Inada-sensei if he kept cats and he said he had three.  Certainly he had captured their poses and personality in his art.

This was one of my favorites. The paint seems to be dry-brushed .




The cat looks quite contented in it's chosen pose.

This cat was all hand stitched.



He said his mother sewed kimonos and he learned to sew early in childhood.

There were a few stitched pictures  and when I went to take a picture of this one, there was a hanging cat which he moved out of the way. it was a shoulder bag and the tail was the strap. It was like many of his soft sculptures, decorated with beads and buttons and the like.

  Here is a sample of the sculpture.


Norie and I both thought of #4 daughter, Kimie's friend who holds workshops in her craft shop in Portland OR for making creative art. I once made a garden elf in one of her workshops and her stock of supplies must be quite similar to what this artist was using ... yarns and beads and a variety of felt and fabrics.



The second artist, Keisuke Kawakami exhibited a number of paintings that reminded me of fabric art.

The detail was amazing and the colors, so rich.



Here is one of Imada's soft sculpture cats guarding a three-panel work.

And a few more of his paintings.



I should have taken close-ups of the detail
but you can get the idea,












The Ikebana was everywhere. setting off the exhibition atmosphere. Tatuhiko Matsui seems to be a creative flower arranger belonging to no particular school. He began in 1985 making arrangements for the Hotel New Otani. I do remember back then admiring the large showy displays in the hotel lobby. In those days I was studying Ikebana with the Sogetsu school which also tended to be rather more creative than traditional schools.

I was amused by this tub of cut tree branches covered with lichen and moss and mushrooms yet quite attractive in design and texture.


I'm not certain how long we all stayed but it was hard to leave that amazing display.

Before leaving we had a photo op.

The cat artist is the gentleman in front and the other painter behind him. You can see ikebana mobiles swirling above our heads.


We followed this event with a lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant the cat artist showed us to.

The rain fell all day ... not too hard but persistent.

In the evening I went to choir practice, again wading my way along but it was a waste of time because the practice had been cancelled. I was not the only member who made the mistake so probably the notice had been delivered in Japanese when we were not paying attention. The Sunday bulletin claimed "music practice"and we should have taken note of the word "music" replacing "Choir" Well, isn't choir music?

Ah well,

This morning we were greeted with only clouds which soon parted to give a glimpse of the sun.

Yes, it is still out there.

We have enjoyed cool days and by now I have managed to quilt 16 of the center blocks on Ben's quilt.

The first typhoon of three ended up heading to Taiwan and it looks like the next one may be going to Shanghai. More rain is predicted here. Today was warm in the sun but with so many houses so close together, our room gets very little sun. The windows behind me face south and the time was around 5:pm but very little light makes it inside. I will keep working until it gets too hot to work. It is always nice to have a bit of stitching waiting for me while I ponder the fun of a day with friends.

I think I'm done

Kind of a dark picture for a dark rainy day but this is what I came up with for my "Partnership Quilt Block".

The theme for the nest Dome show is "Music". (Well, the x is pretty close to the s, and spell check won't help this time).

I found the background print on my last trip to Nippori (fabric town), and I just had to use it.

My first plan was a dancing cat in a top hat but when I saw Tanya musing in her blog about what to do ... the word "bird" popped out.

Well, I don't think Northern Cardinals are the most musical of birds but it is one variety where both male and female birds sing ... and since I am originally from Ohio ... and the Cardinal is the State Bird ... I thought I would give him a bit of show time.

I thought of writing something on the cover of the song book but it would have to be in Japanese because in the U.S.,that would be the back of the book. Must be poor planning on my part because I doubt that Ohio bird can read Japanese any better than I can.

My brain is rusting with all the rain.

Back to normal

Well, here is the picture I couldn't share yesterday.

Today my screen returned to its former configuration and I decided to give my camera another try.

It was nice and quiet basting here on the floor. No one came into the room to see what was going on.

If I do this again though, I will bring a needle threader. The lighting was not all that good and each time I put in a new thread I wasted a lot of time.

Today I decided to try in-the-ditch quilting. My concern was how it would look on the back if the top was not straight.

I began with my large hoop and quilted the two blocks in the center.

I plan to work my way out and think I can correct the wrinkles in the backing, as they are all around the edges ... by just removing the basting once it is in the hoop.

The stitching seems to be straight enough in lining up with the back blocks.

That is a big relief because I really find in-the-ditch quilting the easiest way to go.


It is getting warm and quite muggy so I don't think much will get done during the summer but it is nice having it all set to go when the spirit moves.

Meanwhile, I have begun working on my partnership block for the Tokyo Dome show.
There is a deadline for when it must reach NHK by the 31st of August. It won't take me that long but I hate waiting until the last minute. In that regard, I am my father's daughter.

And here are the cocoons.

Out of 50 eggs that came in the mail, 44 made it to this stage.
Two chose not to use an apartment  but spun in the corners. Some of these may still be spinning, making the cocoons stronger. For a while you can see them moving inside when the light comes through.

During summer, our church goes from two to one service, starting earlier than usual. That means choir practice will begin at 8:45 ... an early rise for me ... and I am not the only member living out in the boonies so I shouldn't complain. We will follow the service with a choir picnic. I hope the weather will cooperate but last prediction I heard was rain. My plants are very happy though, and the agapanthus  is blooming in two planters.

What's up?

Yesterday I left home at 1:pm with my bag filled with quilt top and backing, my sewing kit and big scissors, my basting thread, tape, and a big roll of thinsulate #60 batting.
I was able to tape the backing to the floor in the quiet fellowship hall and layer the batting and quilt top. I spent the afternoon until 6:30 (which is choir rehearsal time) on my elbows and knees, basting the quilt together.

When I turned it over to put it in my bag for the return trip. I noticed four or five places where the backing was not completely flat. Maybe I should have taken duct tape instead of what I had. In the past I have pin-basted first and checked the back for tucks but I was so sure this time the tape would hold the backing flat.

Sometimes I can work out minor glitches with the hoop while quilting so I will have to see. I sure would hate to have to take it all out and start over.

I am also thinking of how to quilt it. I am an in-the-ditch type of quilter and I had been thinking I might quilt the little patches on the diagonal this time. But, thinking it over, I would be working through a lot of seams and the stitches across the darker fabrics would show. I am also thinking that in-the-ditch would be more stable.

While I was out ... Mr. Dell did another up-date to my laptop. The minute I opened my laptop, I noticed the sign-in/password space had changed. And, when I plugged in my camera with pictures of the basted quilt ... the usual icon for downloading was gone. This is the same problem that happened a month or two ago. It drove me nuts for a week or so, and then righted itself. I really don't want to wait a week again but flinging my laptop across the room is not likely to help the situation.

A little notice in the upper corner of my screen is boasting that Mr Dell has upgraded my system on 6/2/15 and I can expect another in 6/9/15. By then I hope things will be fixed ... but I'm not holding my breath.

The last silkworm had crawled into an apartment by my return last night and was beginning to weave a cocoon. I am very happy I do not have to go out in the pouring rain to hunt fresh mulberry leaves.
The last cocoons are getting stronger as the weaving progresses and the quiet munching sounds are over. I can't remember how long they spend in their cocoons but the next sounds will be the fluttering of stubby wings.  Hopefully by then, a photo or two.... Mr.Dell willing.

Rainy day plans

Well, the backing for the quilt is assembled.

I took it to the park yesterday afternoon for a picture and was planning to take the supplies to our church and borrow the floor of the fellowship hall to do the basting today.

BUT... Today it is raining and I have reconsidered, thinking of the walk to and from the stations at each end, carrying everything plus an umbrella.
Tomorrow I have to go for choir practice anyway so I may as well go four or five hours earlier and do it then.

The photo is not very true with either the purples or the lime greens and the balance could have been better if I could have seen the whole thing at once for making the arrangements.

Anyway, I went with plan "B" which was a trip to the barber for a haircut. The boy cut is only 1.000 yen so I got a nice crew cut that should be good for the hot summer and last through October.

I picked three fresh mulberry leaves along the way home for the last two silkworms. When I put them on top of the two lingering munchers, the one caterpillar that had been checking out the apartments, came back down for a snack. All the others in the group are weaving or resting in their cocoons.

On the home front, the bulletin board has been re-set in it's new spot. The head of the neighborhood association has agreed for the neighborhood to pay for the work.

I say it is ridiculous that we pay for the Ku's poor planning ... or total lack of planning. I have talked with housewives in the area and they all think it is stupid the way the work is being done but no one ... including my husband, wants to rock the boat by objecting... or cause trouble for the association head.

Meanwhile, there is more trouble.

When the corner house was rebuilt, the city grabbed a meter of property from both the south side, causing the bulletin board incident, and another meter from the west side.

They paved a new section, removing the driveway entrance for the house and putting in a curb ... but, because the rest of the street is still the old width and the sewer is now a meter from the curb, the street became a lake. They had to come back and remove the street they put in and dig under the old street to add a length to the sewer. At this point it is raining and the new sewer sitting high above the street surrounded by curbs to the east and west.  A good example of the old saying, "Fail to plan, plan to fail". Of course the electric poles remain in the same location so the street is only a meter wider for a few meter's length.

Design window Monday

This weekend I began sorting and measuring my green and purple fabrics and sewing them together in bits and pieces.

There is really no place in my house I can lay them out while deciding what to put where.

The upper left corner and the lower right corner are together and am still interviewing scraps and measuring  and pinning and sewing.

Once I decide what to put where, I can use the sections as take-along work. Everything was drawn out on graph paper but I am altering the plans as I go out of necessity ... why cut and sew if I can find something that fits ?  So far, so good, and I am able to fit in those purples that are toward the red side as well as the bluer ones. The batik segments help work things out.

Saturday afternoon Nikko and I took a very long walk looking for more mulberry leaves. Many of those trees I had been relying on were cut down while I was at camp. They grow fast once they get established and are considered weeds or "Junk trees". Once they begin to grow, the new branches can reach over a meter and then they get noticed and cut down.

When I returned, some of the caterpillars had moved into the apartments I had created Friday night by toilet paper tubes cut in thirds.

Today all three apartment blocks had critters moving in, though there are still a few chomping. I am relieved that it seems I will have enough supply of leaves to get them through their last phase.

Notice how those critters seem to like the upper stories. I doubt it is for the view but I am thinking of flipping the section once the top is full.

Someone asked what I would do with the cocoons. Of course I have no plans to weave silk.

I tape those inside a large paper bag and clip it closed.

When the cocoons hatch, the moths are big and fat with short stubby wings and cannot fly. They sit in the bag and wait.When a moth of the opposite sex hatches out, they get very excited and flap the wings, walking to join the partner and mate. They mate, lay eggs on the side of the bag, and die.

I will cut out the egg patches and put them in a zip-lock bag, and stick them in the back of the vegetable drawer in the fridge until next May when the trees brake out with new leaves.

The cocoons can be used for crafts and finger puppets. A few cocoons fail to hatch out and a few caterpillars have died along the way. I have to be careful to protect them from ants that often get into the house. I did find a small ant along with one dead caterpillar and know from experience they can kill a whole tray over night. I saw some reporting on CNN while working today about silk worm production. I saw the man giving whole branches rather than single leaves ... but I knew that. I would have liked to ask about how they keep the critters safe from ants ... but that topic didn't come up.

Aren't they cute?

Maybe you don't like bugs but they are soft and cool to the touch and completely helpless...

Here they sit, quietly munching,
or perhaps inspecting an apartment,

relying totally on my ability to spot a mulberry leaf poking out of a hedge or along a park wall ...

To pick the good ones and wash them and keep them fresh in the fridge ... noticing when they need more...
Nice to have a pet that is not dropping hair all over the house either.

Moving along

I was able to mark the border fabric for Ben's quilt on Tuesday evening  ... big table  and I was already there for a meeting.

Since then, I managed to sew on all four borders and I like the results.

The flimsy is 72 inches wide and 91 inches long.

The big-boy quilt I made for his brother is 76 x 86
and the book club quilt on my futon is 63 x 83.

I laid this out on the double bed in the loft and there seems to be enough length to tuck in. Right now the boys are sharing a bunk so for now it should be big enough for a growing teen.


The  rain was just beginning when I hustled out to the park to get a picture. Nikko says, "Hurry up and let's get out'a here. I'm getting damp and so is the quilt".

At Monday's group gathering, Kuraishi sensei demonstrated a way to piece the backing.

She whipped this up in no time at all with a machine and a rotary cutter.

For combining random blocks it seemed very handy.

Looking through my bits and pieces, I have set out 5 greens, about 9 purples, and three combinations plus the border fabric.

I would like a mixture of sizes and to put each fabric in at least two places for balance. One advantage of using sensei's plan is I would not have to worry about making all those corners meet exactly.  One disadvantage is I would have to drag out my tiny machine and find a space to leave it while I work ... if the machine still actually runs.

I have seen another idea where you cut all the fabric the same size and then cut it several times with a rotary cutter and then take different fabrics from the pile while assembling the blocks, Of course that is assuming all of the scraps I have chosen are the same size and shape ... which they are not.

Another way might be to cut them in multiples of the same number, like 12 x 12 and 6 x 18 and the like. Depending on size, I could use some of the larger scraps to fill big areas and it would be easier to quilt through with fewer seams.  That is the way I am leaning at this point. Maybe if I set the back on point, the quilting on the top would go better ... or at least look better on the back.

It is a sure thing the backing will be pieced. It will meet Ben's request for purple and lime green so if he wants, he can use that as the top side. I should be able to get something together for quilting once the hot summer is over.

The silk worms are really gobbling the leaves now and I had to take the bike out to hunt more supplies mulberry leaves. At this point, I can actually hear them chomping, a rather peaceful sound.

While at camp, I was interviewed for a TV program. I don't know how it turned out as it was for the channel used on the military bases. I have no idea why they selected some old lady to interview but I did have an opportunity to express the importance of experiencing nature first hand, even in the rain.
If I couldn't spot a mulberry tree at a distance, there would be a lot of unhappy critters, and they do pose a lesson for the next generations.

Return to the real world?

When they say, "rainy season", there is a reason.
Last Monday after early morning rice delivery, I parked my van a bit closer to my home and carried the supplies needed for teaching woodcarving and leatherwork, plus stuff needed to camp in a tent for a week. The day was sunny and very hot.

At camp I set up the tables and benches in the craft area and unloaded the supplies from the van, got the needed items set up from the craft lockers, and then fixed up my tent and cot and a sleeping corner for Nikko. There were plenty of mulberry trees outside and the silkworms got plenty of fresh food. We had a staff dinner and meetings and ended the day with an opening campfire. So far, so good.

Because of the early-morning rice delivery and lugging all that heavy stuff to and from my van, moving heavy furniture in the craft room, and a fall coming down my pie-shaped stairs carrying stuff, I was more than ready to hit the sack. That was Monday ... and I don't know if it even waited until Tuesday before the rain began. (sometime during the night ... and the tent leaked)

Usually the rainy season has frequent light showers but what we got was in the pouring category. The run-offs during the week were like Niagara-wanna-be. I was probably lucky to have an indoor job, even with an old leaky roof. The classes were very full and it was a big challenge to watch all those teenage boys with sharp knives ... even with help from older youth and one adult three periods.
I was afraid few scouts would finish but in the end, there were only three incompletes.

I had taken quilt stuff, hoping to use the large tables to mark and cut the border fabric and the backing pieces for Ben's quilt. I didn't even get it out of the van. Lunch and evening times were spend doing board-of-review for advancing scouts. One afternoon and evening I had to lead a Brotherhood walk  for the Order of the Arrow (Scout's National Honor Society  ... and something that can only be done by those who have gone before) In the same society, I spent Thursday night doing a Vigil for another honor Scouter. Meanwhile the rain kept coming and hardly stopped until Saturday when we could dry the tents and pack up the van. As I left camp, I gathered mulberry leaves along the road winding down to the gate,

The silkworms had completed another instar while in camp and were eating more.

I have begun to worry about keeping them fed until they are ready to spin.

I moved them to a bigger container, easy to keep clean. This picture is how they look when fed. About 50 worms with 25 large mulberry leaves piled on their heads.

And, this is all that is left an hour later.


Of course they are very patient and do not crawl out of the container looking for more food. They just sit there and wait for more leaves to be dumped on their heads.

This is only about 50 critters and I can't imagine the work that goes into raising them for an industry!


Saturday I returned in the afternoon and was able to unload the van rather near my home. I carried all the gear back to my second floor work area. I was looking forward to putting my wet clothing into the wash and getting a good rest since Sunday was an early rise for choir singing in the first service, and a Cub Scout Leader's meeting in the afternoon.

Alas, when I got to my third floor greenhouse/bedroom. there was standing water on the floor and my bedding, my clothing, my bookcase were sopping wet. No wash got done and I spent the rest of the day trying to rescue my books and mop up the floor. I suppose I should have given my husband a call to close the windows. He claims he did but I suspect it was after the rain and he didn't notice the standing water on the floor. Needless to say,no quilting got done.

Monday I left early for a quilt group meeting, a long walk from Ichikawa station. It was fun to get together. I didn't get my fabric marked but Kuraishi Sensei demonstrated an easy way to put the backing together. Of course she whipped it up in no time on her machine.

Tuesday was spent with more cleaning and getting musty soggy clothing and bedding through the washer. No quilting ... and I am still very behind even looking at blogs to see what I have missed.
I did leave early to a meeting at church so I could take advantage of table space there. The border is now marked ans waiting for cutting.

This morning Nikko and I went out to scout out more mulberry trees ... well, I scouted the trees and she scouted the smells she had missed.

I hope next blog I can show off a bit of quilting progress.

Miscellaneous stuff

Maybe I should name this post "Greetings from no-man's-land".


If you read the TV story, (and it is still sitting on the curb) you will have seen how we can have an address in Nerima ward but not be a part of it.

Well, the plot thickens. Our neighbors at the end of the street decided to build a house on part of their property for their son to live in.  It is a nice handsome  house but in the process, the government took away a meter of their property along each street. Even though this road goes nowhere, the plan is to eventually have the street wide enough for cars to use.

The same thing happened when our house was rebuilt. We lost a meter on both the east and west sides of the property. The East side now has a road that cars can go down but our west side will never be that wide until all the houses are rebuilt ... so not in my lifetime.

In this picture, the blue net is covering garbage waiting for collection and lying in front is the community bulletin board. When the road was widened, the bulletin board was taken down from along the old fence line. The city came in and put in a curb and sewer. Of course they didn't move the electric poles so the street is no wider than it was to begin with.

The cones are there because the work has not been finished. The city was supposed to come and install the bulletin board in its new location. The neighborhood association was even given a date.

But wait ... Now the ward says it will cost too much to install that bulletin board and the residents will have to pay.

What? We have to pay because they couldn't get their act together when they repaved the street? I told my husband to tell the neighbor head to go back to the ward and tell them no way we pay for their poor planning.
(My husband was surprised at my reaction ... Japanese are so quiet and never make waves so I wonder if the message will get passed along)

Looking down the street, one can notice how much of the street is yet to be claimed by the government.

It is possible for one car to go down the street and the new house on the right hand corner has a parking space.

My house is the pink one to the right of the end wall and my bike is parked between the telephone pole and the wall on the left (next to the junked TV.

This is our street, my bike on the left.

50 years ago, this was a dirt path. I can reach out sideways and touch the walls on both sides.
There is enough space for a person on a bike to pass a walker. Two people walking with umbrellas have to shuffle past.

This is never going to be big enough for auto access ... and there is no point because there a road on the front side of all these houses. This has always been a back ally. But it is not part of Nerima-ku. If we have to wade through a pond each time it rains, that is because there are no drains and nowhere for the water to go when it runs off the roofs. But Nerima sure isn't going to fix this because it is not their problem.  So, I guess if we live in a no-man's-land, why should we pay for a bulletin board on the edge of a Nerima street?

Well, just a strange piece of information.
Now I am all packed up to hit the road for scout camp. Nikko will go with me.

And so will my other little pets,

Only around 15 days old and they are consuming mulberry leaves at a rapid rate.

I am so glad that there are mulberry trees right outside the craft area.

I have moved them to a larger basket and set it in a pan of water to protect the worms from ants.

Also I will be taking the dark batik fabric so I can begin measuring and sewing the quilt borders.

The days are getting hotter and more humid with each rain. At least I won't have to carry a sweater at camp because there is no air conditioning.

Hope you all have a good week and I'll see you when I return.