Tokyo Dome part 2

Still on day one, after looking at the large collection of traditional quilts, Queenie and I decided to check out the "Partnership" quilts. Queenie has written a wonderful post about these quilts and after all, it was her information that connected me with this project.

I had been seeing these group quilts for years but didn't have much of an idea of how they had been assembled.

Queenie mentioned that she had participated each year and shared the information on how to go about taking part.
In early July I posted a picture of my contributing block. The theme was "Flowers" and the quilts were assembled by Kathy Nakajima and her crew.

It must have been quite a task because they assembled and quilted 86 quilts, all but two with 130 blocks per quilt.

Toward the end of the summer, I received a post card with the information that my block would appear in quilt #17.
You can see it in the top row, just right of the center, a basket of roses. Beside each quilt is a little chart telling the names and locations of each donor. This quilt seemed to take many yellow blocks and arrange them getting lighter toward the center. It was difficult to get a picture here because this was a busy pathway with shops on the other side crammed with shoppers. Queenie and I looked at many of these quilts, trying to figure out how which blocks were selected for which quilt.  With something over 10,500 blocks, it must have been a monumental task! I stopped by Kathy Nakajima's shop to thank her for all that work.

After taking a look at #17, we hunted down #28 to find Queenie's block.

And here is my dear friend, celebrating opening day in her Swedish costume.

Her block has a white dove in flight carrying an olive branch and trailing a Swedish flag.

And, here is a bit closer view.


We discussed the blocks selected for this quilt and thought many of them had been selected because they contained various birds and animals ... in addition to the floral theme.

 Here is a quilt made of all the same block in different color selections but with blue backgrounds.


The NHK TV program about the making of these blocks used this pattern and was taught by Kathy Nakajima.


Some of these quilts seem to have blocks made  as a group effort.

On some of the quilt information posters, there is also a picture of a group of women ... perhaps those who assembled and quilted that particular quilt?

A variety of patterns and colors
were used in this arrangement.

And yet another quilt made from the same block in different colors.

Inside walls and walls around the outer edge of the stadium were used to display these many quilts.

They were listed as "charity" quilts and are to be raffled off. At a booth near the entrance, one can purchase a ticket for 500 yen.

Half of the ticket has a place to write your name and phone number. That half you tear off and drop into the box next to the quilt you would like to take a chance on.

The other half, you keep ... just in case you are lucky enough to win the drawing.

Well, Sunday, while I was out with the Scouts, Nikko ate most of the ticket stub. She did manage to leave the edge with the numbers on it. Wouldn't that be funny to win and turn in a chewed up ticket?

I am still trying to put names with my pictures or decide to just post the pictures and let the blog-world guess who made what!

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2014 (Tokyo Dome show) part 1

Long awaited with much anticipation, the week-long show has begun.
For me, it was as much about friendship as it was about quilts.

"Queenie" and I had plotted and planned for weeks ahead to meet for the day, beginning with the opening ceremony. Because of her work behind the scenes and connections, she as able to supply me with free tickets so I could really enjoy the show more than once.

The opening was attended by the organizers, The ambassador and his wife from Finland, and even an Imperial Princess. In this picture after all the speeches were made they are cutting the ribbon in the opening ceremony. NHK was busy filming assorted aspects of the show and later my husband watched events on TV at home.

On opening day, there was a bit of time to view the show before the general public was let in.
Who needs a princess when you have a queen to shadow?  We set off to view the "traditional" Quilt Category.

One of my frustrations of the past 12 years is the practice of putting all information  ... title ... maker's name ... and other details in Japanese ONLY. This year was no improvement. Even the catalogs of the show are all in Japanese.

I am certain every one of these participants knows how to write her name in "Romaji" or Roman script. It is difficult enough to translate the quilt titles into English, but names are a challenge even for Japanese. (whenever you fill out a form of some kind, there is a space above the written name to note the pronunciation ... since many characters can be pronounced more than one way) Even so, s simple common name like Sato could also be written Satoh. Only the person possessing the name would know.
There were very few foreign quilts so where are the "International" aspects? Only in the public that attends?

This "Flower Garden I long for" was made by Michie Arai.

Here is a detail of the hand applique and embroidery.

Although machine quilting is beginning to make inroads to Japan, the traditional category was mostly hand pieced or applique and hand quilted.

It is hard to imagine the amount of time these quilts would take to complete.

This "Wreath and Small Birds" is the work of Sachiko Serizawa.

Each of these little birds was carefully appliqued in a different combination of fabrics.




Note the fine hand quilting.

"Blue Forest" by Sawada-san uses those same types of "Japanese Taupe" fabrics and is a masterpiece of detail in piecing and quilting.

This "Everybody Shining"

was made by a person whose name could be read either Shioya or Shiotani.

Even the Japanese viewers probably don't know her name by reading the kanji.

At any rate, it is a quilt with quite a lot of work involved.


Note the poor lighting caused shadows on many of the quilts. I guess I shouldn't complain because it has only been in the last few years that photographs have been allowed.

"Moment of Heightened Pleasure"

is a simple Amish style quilt that is anything but simple.


Created by Satomi Makino, it is closely quilted in trapunto.

Check out this detail!!!

Here is a detail of  a quilt called "Heart Compass"

By Masako Yoshihara.

Look how she fussy-cut the fabric on each of those rays!

And if you like sunburst or compass patterns, here is another detail of "The Sun of Tenochtitlan"

The center star has a huge Aztec figure and you can see smaller figures embroidered in the corners.

Note those tiny mola border blocks and fine quilting.

This is the creation of Miki Kanno.

"Cool Breeze of Highland" was another quilt with fine detail.



This one was made by Kazuko Ito.

Loosely translated title of " Harmony towards Reconstruction"


Well, even titles like names are sometimes difficult to figure out.

This quilt with many tiny pieces was made by Chieko Kudo.























By this time in the show, the thundering hoards had arrived and it became more and more difficult to take pictures without heads and elbows or whole bodies covering them.

For many years I had given up trying to see these shows with other members of my quilt group. It is hard to keep a group together under the crowded conditions and many people are interested in only parts of the exhibit or shopping in the stores. It has been a joy to go along with Queenie to more than one show. We move at about the same pace and both of us notice different things even in the same quilt. Often her observations give me cause to take a second look and find things that attract me in quilts I might have otherwise passed by. She is also a font of information so please pop over to her posts queeniepatch.blogspot.com . Also check out my friend,
Tania bytaniwa.blogspot.com, who met with us the following day. (Yes, two days so far and I have only covered the first hour spent there).

For now, this is probably enough to whet your whistle. Tomorrow after church, I will be doing nature study with the scouts. (my other life) My camera took quite a while to down-load so you can imagine there is a lot more to come.

How did I get here?

In the late 1980's I bought a blank notebook thinking I could use it as an album for quilt pictures and some details about the quilts in my life.

I referred to that as "my quilt diary". Not all the quilts I have been involved with have made it into that notebook. Some had the final stitches put in place only minutes before they were passed to the new owner and many had no  photographic record made ... but by in large, most items made it into the record book. I guess it is a good thing there is some record because most have no labels at all.

This poor notebook was not designed to have photos pasted in but it was well made and stitched and has held up remarkably well, considering.

Each time I traveled to the States, my kids requested me to bring my quilt diary so they could see what I was up to. Note the small blue strip.
That is the original back of the notebook. Yes, it was falling apart and consigned to a zipper pouch to save it from further damage.

Last week, I cut a new cardboard spine and using some old denim from recycled jeans, added a new back to hold the book together. A cloth ribbon keeps the denim from fraying. Hopefully, the notebook will hold up until the last dozen or so pages are filled.

It was a number of years ago, while I was attending a Scout Jamboree in Virginia that my son took the diary and scanned it and put it on a blog. We have a family blog to share photos and events and as far as I knew about blogs and blogging, this was a way my kids could keep up with my quilting.
Other than our family's, I had never seen any blogs (about quilting or anything). To improve the design, my son added a side bar with some other quilt blogs he had found.

One of those other blogs was "Taniwa", so before I even knew what a "follower" was, I was following Tanya's blog. I think it is quite accurate to say, Tanya was my blogging "sensei"... and she didn't even know it. She posted nearly every day and I not only learned about writing replies, but I checked out those who wrote comments I found interesting and made new friends through her blog. Over the years we have become virtual friends. There is a beautiful table runner on the table in front of me that was a gift made by Tanya. It keeps a smile on my face each day that it greets me.

I have been blessed to meet a few blogging friends and every one has been as wonderful in person as in the virtual world. Starting Thursday, Tokyo Dome will hold the annual week-long quilt show. It is always a super event but this year offers a bigger reward than looking at spectacular quilts. The opening ceremony will be a special treat with my blogging-buddy-turned real-life-friend, "Queenie" (also known in real life as Carin) ... And the next day, the two of us will be lurking at the entrance to meet Tanya and her friends. Would that make you excited? Well, it does me! Thank you, Jon! (I wonder if you knew where this all was leading).

This past Friday was also special in that I was invited to visit a group of women that also meet to quilt or stitch and share some fellowship right here in Tokyo. It was lots of fun and there were a few people I already knew. I plan to continue meeting with this group and am looking forward to making new friends.

I took along my homework for the Gala quilt and managed to put together all 11 blocks. I think marking and cutting them was the hardest part and that had been done for the most part on Wednesday afternoon.


We still have a rough up-hill challenge to finish but we are on the way.

I hope you all have a great week! I know I will!

Something to be happy about....

I am so happy to have this piece finished.

All that is needed now is to add a hanging sleeve and remove a ton of dog hair.

I think I need to look over my left-over stash of panels because the size plus the three inches of border is almost a perfect fit for my coffee table.



I used the same gray color for the lettering as for the binding. I think it shows up well enough.


This promises to be a busy week so I am glad that I won't have to worry about finding time for this project.

The "Gala" quilt group meets Wednesday so I suppose there will be homework pending.

The Tokyo Dome quilt show is nearing and I am especially excited at the promise of meeting up with blogging friends one of those days.

And quilting class sign-ups are on Thursday.
I plan to go with samples and answers to any questions.

The other thing that is making me smile is this picture my son posted on the family blog today.


All that is missing of my Oregon bunch are two sons-in-law.

Kimie and Julie Alice made the trip from Portland with a car full of kids to visit Ken and Zia and baby Ryden in Grants Pass.

I wish I could have been a mouse in the corner but this picture is the next best thing to being there.

I hope this week brings you all some smiles too.

After a busy week....

Friday night was my Pack meeting and our theme for the year is "Onward and upward".

Have you ever tried to build a tower using spaghetti and mini-marshmallows? Well, it is not as easy as you might think.

We had six teams seeing which could build the highest tower... three teams of Tiger cubs, one of Wolves and Bears, one of Webelos, and one of Dads. At one time or another, each team was ahead.

If you are tempted to try this, I would advise using the larger marshmallows. Three tiers and a spire were about all those little ones could support.

As I left the American Club at the end of the meeting, the Tokyo Tower seemed to be flaunting it's height.

Well, yeah ... but you are not built with marshmallows!


Today was bright and sunny and when I stepped outside to sweep the street, I was surprised to find it warmer outside than it was in the house. With the new buildings going up, we get only about ten minutes of sunshine coming in the diningroom window each day and slightly under twenty minutes in the livingroom. The sun does hit the greenhouse on the roof so I decided to take down the decorative lights outside and put them away in the storage area.  Today, the door behaved a bit better and after five or six tries, went in place.

I actually had a good chunk of the day left to work on the gift runner.

I have finished a light gray binding. I had a choice between that and navy but I think the gray looks better with the rainbow border.

I decided to go with the Bible verse from Ecclesiastes, "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."

I have begun to quilt in the text using light gray thread.

The coming week has lots of activities lining up, so I am glad this task is on the way.

Oh look, my holiday runner is still on the coffee table ... maybe it needs to be washed and put away too. At least it doesn't have to go into THAT cupboard! Whew!

storage challenges

When we were building this house, I think I drove the carpenters a bit nuts trying to make use of every tiny space. There is storage under the stairs, accessible to both sides and drawers in the stairs that are too low to put things under.

There is a porch on the third floor roof where clothes are hung to dry and that has been turned into a greenhouse... or maybe solarium sounds a bit more fancy.

That is where I sleep. It is very hot in the summer and cold in the winter but sunny and pleasant on a sunny winter day like today. I decided it would be a good time to put away the Christmas decorations while it is light and warm.

Well, see those doors? As wonderful as the storage space is, the two doors will try the patience of a saint ... and I am no saint! First, my futon has to be folded up and moved out of the way. Then the section on the left is removed by lifting it by the two handles and pulling the bottom toward the room and out of the groove at the top. That takes no time at all.

The things I store in this space are holiday items/decorations. Christmas, New Years, Girl's day, boy's day, Halloween, Thanksgiving,   etc. This is NOT an everyday closet. The reason is, getting those two doors back in the grooves and standing straight is the most frustrating, time consuming project one could imagine! The door to the right keeps rocking over to block fitting the left door in place. holding the door by those handles and trying to aim it into the groove at the top is hard enough but kicking the bottom into the lower groove without getting the top out of place takes a few hundred tries and more luck than I can muster. I also manage to leave several knuckles worth of skin on the door frame. I think if the back part of the upper groove came lower it would be easier to find a position and probably my very talented son-in-law could fix it for me. The thing is, taking it open to show him the problem means picking up my bedding so that there is a place to stand and then putting the whole thing back in place.

Well, the stuff got put back ... I thought ...   and I put my semi-single futon back. My sleeping bag enjoyed an airing in the brisk winter wind.

Now I have come back down as the sun is setting and the room is getting darker and colder, and what do I find???

Two wreaths forgotten on the front gate and garden door.

Well, Hina matsuri is about two months off. Maybe I should wait until then. I have had enough of the storage challenge for today!

The other day I finished the rainbow border on the gift I am making. 

Saturday I bought a roll of 40 weight thinsulate and pieced some yukata fabric for the backing. 

I had plenty of fabric I could have used but I thought a speaker coming all the way to Japan might like something that will remind her of her visit.

I am now quilting the last Kanji (spring) with gold thread. Every time I use this, I say it is the last because it is hard to quilt with even the best metallic thread. I am using Coats, which is better than some others I have tried, but it is not easy, especially if, like me, you like to use a rather long length of thread. I don't think I would choose this other than the panel is printed with gold outlines on the pictures. I will quilt the border in the ditch with white thread. I have a choice of navy or gray for the binding.

Next I need to put a bible verse. Last year's I put "To everything there is a season...." I really have to check with the committee. Trouble is, when Yahoo made the most recent non-asked-for changes, my contact list went bye-bye. Well, all the e-mail addresses are there but how many people use their names as e-mail addresses. It used to be, all I had to do was type in the name of the person and the address went to the out-box. 

Who was it that said, "some kind of help is the kind of help that helping's all about, and some kind of help is the kind of help we all can do without"? Thanks but no thanks, Mr. Yahoo!

And someone else said, "Never do today, what you can put off 'till tomorrow". Guess I'll quilt things now and worry about the rest tomorrow.

Onward, into the New Year

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
"Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown".

And he replied, "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be better than a light and safer than a known way".

For many years, I have kept a small notebook of quotes and this one seems to fit what the year ahead has to offer. There is more unknown to face than ever before in my life and it is stuff over which I have no control.

My focus word for the year is "acceptance".

The picture is what I have begun working on as a gift for the speaker at the Women's Conference at the end of January. I had one more panel , the same as I used last year. After reading the "Who am I?" sketch by Sharon Draper, our speaker, she mentions seeing rainbows where others see rain, and tells of her love of seasons. The panel contains the kanji for the seasons and I will add one more inch of color strips to the rainbow border.

Once that is done, I will quilt the kanji and ass a bible verse. At this point, I am thinking of the same verse I used last year ... To everything there is a season.....
I think the finished piece can be used as either a table runner or a wall hanging.
I really don't like the pressure of deadlines, but I think I can get this finished by the end of the month.

Last month, when I was feeling depressed at the lookout for the future, my quilting friend shared this piece with me that she had received from another friend....

"I have come to  accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight.
And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you are going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you."           Joybell

I hope I will do better this year with acceptance than I did last year with encouragement.
My notebook will be a good reminder.
Warmest wishes for the New Year to all my blogging friends.

\\\\\\

Last finish of the year...

This was probably the oldest UFO ever to be dug out and finished. This doll quilt was begun well over twenty years ago while I still had children playing with these dolls. Over the years it had been set aside and almost forgotten until Leia began playing with the dolls each visit.

I was reminded of my own childhood, playing with my mother's doll, Lily, each and every visit to my grandmother's house. Lily had a lovely wooden cradle and her own bedding where she could wait comfortably between visits.

With a twin brother, and another brother four years younger, I spent my hours with my dolls. They were my playmates and best friends. I sewed clothing for them and took them everywhere. My sisters were so much younger and though they may have played with dolls, certainly never to the degree that I did. We had adventures!

When I was no longer playing with my Lily, my grandmother had a visit from someone looking for antiques to buy, and talked my grandmother into selling her Lily and the bed. My mother was very upset when she found out. She had three dolls (I was named for her doll, Carol, as my middle name but never allowed to even touch that doll). Somewhere, she found a reproduction doll similar to Lily.

I was recruited to make a dress for the new Lily.

Here she sits on the new quilt. I have removed the dress and petticoats now because I see they are badly in need of a wash.

After my mother died, my father brought the three dolls to a family reunion for us three girls to pick one. My sisters got first choice and the Lily stand-in was all that was left. I have never seen or held the other two and I don't know which sister has Carol. Of course my sisters don't know either because they were not as obsessed as I was with dolls. They only know they got a real antique and I got the stand-in.

The two dolls Leia plays with, I made many years ago when my own girls were small. The head is made of paper mache. Once, one of the children bit the nose off of the girl doll, and I had to re-build her face.

When the dolls were made, their bodies were sewed of deerskin. About seven or eight years ago, the leather began to fall apart so I bought some cotton to replace the leather.

The arms and legs are carved out of wood. That wood came from old wooden sliding doors from our house as they were being repaired. The size of the pieces limited the size of the doll's feet.

I note that the ceramic feet on Lily are also small in size so I rather guess someone not knowing their history might think they are vintage too.

When I was growing up, if you wanted something, you figured out how to make it. I began sewing clothing for my dolls at age four, as they came with only what they were wearing when purchased, and needed changes for other occasions. These dolls also have many changes.

Now Annabelle and Bert will finally have their own bed cover when Leia comes to play.

I noticed they were changed into night clothing and then back into different clothing while Leia was last here.

I'm sure Bert was glad to get out of his tuxedo into something more relaxing to face the new year.

As for the "quilt", I do not recall where the fabric came from. It is just a print that was quilted along the lines in the design. The batting was very primitive, bought before the days that quilting became popular in Japan.

As the new year nears, everyone is in preparation mode. Spring cleaning cannot wait until spring. One must go into the new year with great preparation. I saw my neighbor out scrubbing his window screens today. My windows could use a bit of attention too ... but maybe I had better begin on a quilted gift for the Women's Conference speaker ... just a month away ... and unlike the doll quilt, there is a deadline.

December book club block is finished.

Considering all the trouble I had drafting this feathered star for a twelve inch block, I am satisfied... and a little surprised at how nicely all those little pieces went together. Yes, fabric is forgiving.

I considered doing some applique in the corners, but I think I like it as is.

If you read "The Christmas Quilt" by Jennifer Chiaverini, you will understand the significance of the eight-pointed star with red tips, and the feather star block. It is a fairly easy read, since I have managed to finish it within the month. My copy was sent me by my elder son and also includes "The New Year's Quilt" which I have almost finished. I am enjoying the Quilter's Book Club reads and some day may even have a reading quilt to snuggle in.

Yesterday was "mochi pounding" with the Scouts. Every year the Japanese Scouts invite our group to their Taito group 4 event.

Rice is steamed and then pounded in these "usu", mortars made from tree trunks. The sticky paste then goes into delicious soup or is eaten with an assortment of garnishes such as seaweed or bean paste.
The American scouts take Christmas cookies to share and we enjoy the cultural exchange, We even get some mochi to take home and we enjoyed some with our breakfast soup.

 There is a bit of seasonal entertainment on the temple stairs.

There was singing (I led one song ... repeat-after-me ... with lots of motions), and some presentations and speeches.

Many members of my Cub Pack travel over the holidays so we bring in other packs from the Tokyo Zone to share the festivities.

I don't remember how long ago we began this activity, but probably from the beginning of the current emperor's reign, 25 years ago, as this event is held on the emperor's birthday which is a national holiday.

The first three scouters in this picture and the lady just left of me have been my friends for all those years. The young man with arms folded is my Committee Chairman and assistant Cubmaster and the reason I still survive as a leader at all.


One benefit of the long ride there and back was time to finish the next bit of Gala quilt homework.

Too bad I only had eight blocks to complete. Other members of the group also took blocks to work on and this is all I could gather up. They look a bit washed out on the sunny floor of my greenhouse bedroom.

The turkey has flown in the door. Several church services await my singing, and tomorrow promises to be a busy day with family and friends'

Here's wishing a Blessed Christmas to my blogging friends.

Where did the week go?

I had promised my little assistant that this weekend, we would make Christmas cookies.

She arrived Friday evening and, after dinner, we mixed up the cookie dough to chill overnight and she dressed the dolls in their nightwear so they could get a good sleep and be ready to enjoy the Saturday activity.

Since my kitchen is really too tight a fit for more than one person at a time, after breakfast we cleared the dining room table to make enough room for our cookie factory.

I dug out the box of cookie cutters and Leia looked them over, deciding which ones would be good for the season.

We made "painted cookies". I mixed an egg yolk with food coloring, red, yellow, blue, and since I was all out of green, mixed blue and yellow on the forth cup.

Each color got one paintbrush and the colors were painted on the cookies once I had them cut and on the cookie sheet.

In addition to the painting, there were all kinds of sprinkles to add.

HOWEVER, these were not sprinkled but carefully placed on each cookie.

It is expected that a child can work on a project for about as many minutes as they are years old, but this is the kid who started taking the ornaments off the tree so she could keep doing the trimming.

We made a double recipe so there were cookies for Leia to take home and some for me to take to the Scout activity tomorrow... and a few to keep and eat here.

We actually spent hours decorating cookies and even the very last cookie was given attention down to the last detail.

Yes, I had to paint a few too. After all, I needed some to take tomorrow, and Norie shared some of the rolling and cutting and decorating, or we would have taken all night.

While I was cleaning up, Leia went off to the corner rice shop to take some cookies to that special neighbor.

The cookies were carefully packed for travel, after sampling a few. Leia has friends in her neighborhood to share with too.

Yes, I think there will be enough to share.  See how many she made? Yes, every expertly made cookie in that box!

I'll bet it won't take a fraction of the time it took to make them, for a bunch of Scouts to finish these off!











Today was not all that much quieter. Church choir, caroling in front of the church, and the walk to the bus stop.

This is how the street in front of our church looks during the daytime without the lighting.



The church is just the other side of Louis Vuitton.

And this is who was walking past, enjoying the singing.


Well, I doubt they came for the singing....
Perhaps it was a dog party of some kind because as I was about to put me camera away, along came another group.

 There were a few little dogs but most were huskies. I don't think a dog with so much fur needed all that fancy clothing.

Now that the activities are over until tomorrow, I had time to work on my book club block.

While reading Jennifer Chiaverini's "The Christmas Quilt" I decided to make an eight pointed star.

Then, as I was reading "An Elm Creek Quilts Companion", which was sent to me by StarwoodQuilter
our book club organizer, I found a picture of the feathered star featured in the story, and decided to make that one for my book club block.

Looking through my patterns, I found no instructions for a 12 inch feathered star. I decided I would draft my own pattern... but that is not as easy as I thought it would be... and what a lot of tiny pieces! I drew it out on a 12 inch square of paper. Then I traced the segments on to yellow plastic to make templates. Because the pattern was hand drawn, none of the segments in the drawing were the same size. Well, I figured fabric is forgiving and I would pick the most even segment and use that for a template. Well, so far, so good.

Now I need to draft the center which will be the paisley fabric. I have been thinking about this and finally I think I have a plan that will work. If I make a circle, four inches in diameter and divide it into eight sections, then cut straight from one section to the next one, it should make an octagon that will fit those points.  I am lousy at math but if it works, my block for December might actually be finished before the month is out.

I may add some applique in the corners, but then again, maybe I should stop while I am ahead.