Out with the old ... in with the new

Or ... In with the old, out with the new!

The tiny  Kinmokusei flowers of last week are now decorating the moss in our ally. They used all their power to perfume the air and gave in to the first rain.

 Two new cyclamen joined the planter flowers.

I used to get large pots of cyclamen as gifts in the old days of entertaining. They were so beautiful while they lasted but ever so fussy to care for.

This garden variety, on the other hand, thrives on neglect. They don't mind pot or planter or sharing space with a summer blooming petunia. As the summer draws to a close, the leaves push up and flowers soon follow. These hardy little fellows will be putting on a show all winter.

Today, with the help of my trusty garden assistant, the little front bed was weeded and trimmed and lily bulbs were planted ... an early birthday present to a lily-loving grandma.


The old is out and the new is in and the promise of things to come ....

And here is the old that came in this week, two boxes of fabrics that got cleaned out of a friend's mother-in-law's home.

I hardly need more stash but... can I say "No thank you"?
So here it is, lots of light solids, gingham in assorted colors, and a few prints as well.

It will be a while before it is turned into "new" but I do see something in the future ... if I can just figure out where to put it..

.And ... as long as we are adding fabric, here is a bit of new that flew in the other day from Erin, of "My Patchwork Life"http://vesuviusmama.blogspot.com

I know this will go with a special group of fabrics I have been assembling for a project I have in mind and it will be fun to look at it and think of my blogging friend.





I missed out on the bloggers quilt festival this year. I just waited too long and then something went wrong with the router and there was no e-mail connections.

Here is what we did instead of sitting by the computer.

Leia came with a super-big (at least for Japan) pumpkin.

We scooped out lots of innards.

She drew a sketch of the face she wanted,
and we carved it!

Here she is, drawing in hand....





Pumpkin is lit.

Grandma gets the hug ...

The old is in with the hugger and the new is out on the gate post for the neighborhood to enjoy.

Time flies when you're having fun

Has it really been over two weeks since I last posted?

I knew it was a while but it seems time really got away from me. Our church celebrated it's 140th anniversary with many activities. I had a pack meeting with my Cub Scouts so couldn't make one of the events but the choir held a concert and there were many long-time friends returning for the festivities. I cut strips of white fabric and left them to be signed by those attending. I have some ideas in my head for a quilted banner using those strips but haven't picked them up yet.
I have to admit, when you have said good-bye to so many people over the years, it is quite a blessing to see them again, even for a short time.

In the midst of this, my daughter's best friend was in town and I had saved days to spend with her (Above is the view from her hotel room window. These buildings are so unusual in shape but certainly hard to find at ground level.) One trip was to the fabric wholesale district, "fabric town", and I was pretty proud that I managed to come away without buying more than two tiny pieces of fabric for my polka-dot stash. As for the friend, after that trip I had to take her shopping for another suitcase! We had a great time and some great food, joined by my food-loving husband, and I do believe my daughter is an expert at picking friends.

 This past weekend was our choir retreat. Our site is at the foot of Mt. Fuji. The weather couldn't have been nicer. Here is a view from the window at the foot of my bed. Now, THAT is something to wake up to!

Each year we return to the YMCA facility to work on our music for "Choir Sunday" ,in early December. This year we are singing The Magnificat by John Rutter. I have sung it several times in the past so it was not such hard work for me. The fellowship is always great and that choir knows how to party!

I cut sashing from a piece of blue fabric that had come from a friend. I have lots of solid blues but this was the shade that seemed to go best with those blocks.
(and it was right there for take-along work).

There is a slight problem, however. As you can see by the picture, the fabric has faded streaks where it has been folded and possibly left in the sun. It isn't a problem for cutting five inch sashing bits and I can probably manage the 18 inches across without difficulty.
There is no difference between the back and front except the back is less faded. Getting a long strip for each side might be a stretch

I tried laying it out with cornerstones. I still have lots of one-inch pieces but I thought the effect was a bit distracting. Someone suggested red cornerstones but I am not sure I want to add another color. I may just go with the faded fabric and cut very carefully.

I am rather pleased with the random blocks. I have four left over and am now thinking of bringing that number up to nine and making a pillow cover to match the table runner. Today, after a lovely visit with Cynthia , http://aquilterbynight.blogspot.com and a small group of her friends, I stopped off at "Blue and White" (sorry, I don't have the link) as they have a basket of scraps. I was happy to see Amy Katoh, the owner, there and we had a nice chat which ended in a gift of a few more scraps ... seen in the picture above. A pillow cover is now looking even more possible.

And now, for today's flower. This is the season for Kin-mokusei. I think I posted about this last year.
Osmanthus fragrans , is called Sweet Olive in English and you smell it long before you see it hiding among the leaves. This particular plant is growing in a large pot in front of a neighborhood garage. It is about six feet tall and has a Southern exposure and it is the most flower-covered specimen I have ever seen.

This is a hardy garden evergreen plant originally from China. I understand that in warm climates, this plant shows its relationship to the olive by developing small purple-black fruits. Interestingly, most mokusei plants in Japan are male.

Fall brings cooler weather which is such a relief from the hot humid days of summer. The leaves only have a hint of fall color as yet. First to turn are the dogwoods and first to bloom are the spider-lilies. Now we will have the
Sweet Olive until rain washes them all away and soon the other leaves will begin to turn. Halloween decorations are in the shop windows all over town. Friends are getting together after a summer away and following my birthday, I will have a visit from my first son and his wife. If posts don't happen, you will know I am still busy having fun.

Blue and white scraps

As I may have mentioned in earlier posts, I like to organize my scraps. When I have bits and pieces left over from other projects, I mark them and cut them into whatever size will comfortably fit on the scrap, and store them in a tin. I have a tin of 4x4" pieces, 3x3' pieces, 2x2" pieces and lots of one inch sorted into baggies by color.

When it comes to tenugui and yukata fabrics, I cut those scraps within an inch (not only squares but 4x2" or 3x2" and the like). Those I put together in a container with no plan in mind other than not to waste them.

Friday my quilt group met and I needed something to work on so I took out the little box and laid a bunch of those bits and pieces into five inch squares. One of my friends went off and returned with a few more yukata scraps she had been saving. I don't have so many of these scraps saved but I might end up with enough five-inch blocks to make a table runner. Here they are laid out on my design table. Some were made yesterday and some were done today while at the school's "Taisokai".

Every October, Jiyu Gakkuen, where I teach an English group, holds a gymnastics/sports day.

This Saturday started out cloudy with the prediction of rain but around the starting time, the sun came out.

There were races beginning with the pre-school and those have not changed at all in format since my eldest daughter was three ... over 40 years ago!

The Jr. and Sr. high students do Danish gymnastics and a May pole dance is always part of the program.

The campus buildings were all built by disciples of Frank Lloyd Wright, who built the first building on the then main campus in Mejiro, while in Tokyo building the Imperial Hotel. His hotel building has been partly moved to an architectural  village. It was used as headquarters during the Tokyo Olympics and later taken down to make a larger building. The school campus is in a beautiful setting and the buildings, though old, are very "Wrightish" or "Wrightesque"?.

The grass field is a bit greener than it appears in the picture. It was torn up in the spring to fix a channel for a stream that runs underneath,

All the buildings and grounds are maintained by the students. They weed this field and rake any leaves that fall. In autumn they pick up ginkgo nuts and clean them. They also have garden plots where they grow some produce that is used in meals.

This area has a history going back to Jomon days and there is a wonderful collection of pottery from this sight. In order to build any modern building, a certain amount of time has to be spent on a "dig". To some degree I believe the students get to take part and the school is allowed to display the items found.

Here are a few more gymnastics by ... I think, college boys.

This is part of the afternoon program. The sky clouded over and there were a very few sprinkles.

Because the rain was expected, the afternoon program was moved up by half an hour. I saw a bit of lightening far off to the west but before the program was over, the sun came back out.

The marching band that had led the parade of students on to the field at the start, played for the final march-by and the school flag was retired.


To some degree or other, this is a scene that plays out in every school throughout Japan during the first few weeks of October. These students practiced very hard and considering not every kid is an athlete or a dancer, the group effort was stunning.

My husband is a graduate of this school and my eldest daughter went to the pre-school here. I have had an association here through the College Women's Association of Japan, and teaching in the high school. This is a place that knows how to make people feel welcome and this crowd of over 2700 people had a fine day.

It's a finish!

Do you think I'll get kicked out of the Slowpoke Quilters?  Begun on September 28th, I think this is the fastest I have managed to put something this size together either by hand or machine.

Of course, those child-friendly hexagons were all cut and marked and that was not only the inspiration, but a time-saver.

The size is about 47 x 48 inches ... about as square as I could get with hexagons.

I added writing in the turquoise strip ...
"I Spy .. a teddy bear, a kitty sitting on a chair,
 A boat, a truck, a car, a train,
 A lion with a fluffy mane,
 Fish with bubbles, fish with flowers,
The face of a clock showing hours,
Postage stamps to send the mail,
A lizard with a curly tail,
Bugs that fly and buzz and crawl,
 A ripened pumpkin in the Fall,
An elephant, some yummy fruit, a froggy playing on a flute.  Love in every stitch ..October 2012

The backing is made of tenugui. I had to add a dragon for a dragon-year baby and this was the only one that didn't look too scary in my collection. I thought the maple leaf print would be good for fall and the other two are typical Japanese prints

Here it is ... hanging on the park fence among the goya

Your botanic lesson for today...
A male flower...

A female flower...

The "fruit"...

This is on the park-side of the fence so I am not sure if it will be picked by the plant owner or by a park visitor or just left to ripen and drop seeds.

Where often the vine seems used for shade, this one may be providing some privacy for the house-owner adjoining the park.
Looks like a win-win to me and that wall of green gives a feeling of "cool", something we can use on these hot humid days of early fall.

And, in my own "garden", The favorite of the season...
the "Higanbana".

"Higan" is the Autumnal Equinox, which is an important Buddhist festival for the dead. The flowers are often found planted around cemeteries, rice paddies, and edges of fields.

Lycoris radiata, belongs to the family, Amarrillidaceae.
The genus name comes from Lycoris, the beautiful Greek Goddess of the Sea.

The flowers come first, poking up rather quickly on their stems and burst into bloom before you have even noticed them among the shrubbery. The leaves will come later after the flowers fade.
I have read that the bulb is poisonous.

My red ones are sharing a pot with a pineapple lily.
Some people don't like these in their garden because of the association with death. One of the common names is "Shibito-bana", literally, flower of the dead.

Obviously, I do not have those hang-ups. I love seeing them in the fall as a harbinger of cooler days to come.

As an aside, I grew up in a home where plants were often referred to by their Latin names. When my own children were growing up, I was shocked to hear the headmaster of their school state that using those Latin names was a way scientists talked in order to sound snobbish.
I have told my children and my Scouts not to be afraid of those Latin names, they are the true names of the plant. Once you know that Latin name, you can see how it is related to other plants all over the world. ... even more than looking at the leaves or bark of a tree, once you find that name, you can get a big "Ahah" moment. You even find out how many trees and flowers have common names that are mis-leading.... like the hundreds of trees called "cedar".
(and that goes for birds too which are sometimes victims of mis-naming).

A rose by any other name smells just as sweet. Yes, and my dad loved roses,  but he passed the love of nature to all his children and a certain curiosity to learn the rest of the story. Thanks Dad!

Let's hear it for weekends!

Friday, the Bible quilt group met. This is a quilt-as-you-go project and at this session we began to join the blocks and quilt the sashing. These women are very fast learners and in one session, a lot was accomplished.

In this neighborhood there is more goya . In addition to the "fruit", this plant seems to be used as a sun-screen for South facing windows. Even behind me as I took the picture of the bible quilt, the view from the window was a big goya hanging for all to admire.

Even on the second floor balcony of this apartment, you can see that goya taking over. I learned also that the bright yellow flowers are the male flower. The female flower is very small and hardly noticeable.

Saturday I had set up a date with my friend who runs the rice store to borrow her big eight-mat tatami room for basting my big quilt.

I spread out the backing but did not want to tape it down to the mats. Then I unrolled the batting and pieced enough to cover the backing.

It took a lot of crawling around on the floor to get that far.

After I got the top spread out, I began to baste but soon found areas where the backing had bunched up or the batting was wrinkled.

I flipped the whole thing over and fixed the problems with the backing by pulling out the basting. Then I put in safety pins and flipped it back to the top.

There were still adjustments to be re-done on the top and more moving of pins. In the end, I had spent over four hours and ended up with only pins in place. I decided that if I begin quilting in the center and work outward, it will probably be OK with just the pins.

My friend's house is a very old style and probably one of the first built in this area when it was moving from farm land.

To the North is a cupboard for storing bedding and cushions and the like, a family shrine area and a open space to hang a scroll and place a flower arrangement. (and the modern addition of a big flat-screen TV).

Entering the room by double sliding doors from the East, there are four sliding doors along the South side with open wood carvings above them to let the air circulate to the adjoining room. That room might be a six or another eight-mat room so when you need to entertain a big group, the whole place can be opened up.

The rooms are connected also by a wooden hallway to the west and beyond that is the garden. The shop is on the north side and the owner has her goya growing there for the public to enjoy. Along the garden openings are large rush mats that shield the room from the afternoon sun.

I remember when most houses in the area were that style. It was a very pleasant place to work. My friend brought me cold mugi-cha (barley tea) about half way through and treated me to some "Macha" (green tea) ice cream when I finished. In Japanese style, I took her a box of Japanese sweets, some made specially for the moon viewing on the first full moon after the equinox (Sunday evening).

I returned home with my quilt ready for cooler days of quilting and blisters on the tops of my feet and toes. In the early days of my life in Japan, I was always embarrassed when summer dress revealed the callouses on the tops of my feet and knees. In those days, though, we all sat on tatami. No protection by callouses these days and some blisters had already broken while I was working.

Sunday, a big typhoon was expected and I set out to church with my rain gear and umbrella.

After the service, though the storm was predicted to begin around three, some local shrines were having a festival.

While taking a water break, kids were beating the drum, boom boom, click click, boom boom boom, click click.

Even the little portable shrine with a golden phoenix on top gets a comfortable resting place in the shade.

"Five minutes to departure" calls a man with a bull horn and the stands are picked up and stashed and the shrines are ready to be lifted to the shoulders and carried along the street  with cheerful chants.

The typhoon can wait a little longer.











My afternoon was spent with a group of Cub Scouts meeting emergency preparedness  requirements for advancement. The wind and rain were picking up as I left the meeting place, and by the time I returned home, the typhoon had hit. Trains were stopped above ground and there were many delays being announced. Taxi drivers were doing a good business with people wishing not to get stuck in the middle of nowhere.
All night long we listened to the howling and rattling and beating of rain. Still, all plants survived and only my bike cover got shredded.

At four in the morning as we drove out to deliver rice balls to the homeless, the air was clean and clear and the big full harvest moon was putting on a show in the western sky. If you go to Taniwa's blog, you can see her view.  (Much prettier than Tokyo). I wonder if my friend could rise early and enjoy those sweets in the full moon?
As for down town, the streets were littered with bent and broken umbrellas and I suppose China will be doing a healthy business in days to come.

Friendship quilts

In recent posts by friends, I have seen a number of "Friendship" quilts. Then I was reminded that this week's "Themed contest" on Quilting Gallery, is friendship quilts. I thought it a good time to visit the park with this quilt to get a digital picture. This is the non-blurry camera's interpretation.

A number of years ago when my group was bigger, I gave one meter of the feature fabric to each member with the request to make 12 blocks in their design of choice using that fabric and any other of their choice. 

We then passed one block to each member of the group, keeping one for ourselves. I think every member put together a quilt and all were so different in setting and choice of fabrics.  I wanted mine large enough for the guestroom bed and I think every guest to my house has slept under this one. I call it "All My Friends are Stars". (my block was the flower basket).

A few days before my summer trip, I received a pattern in the post for a friendship block to be made for my friend, Georgia. I wanted to make something using Japanese yukata fabrics and found some with butterflies.

I knew that, as a missionary, my friend would understand that choice as a symbol for "hidden" Christians.

As a small "aside", when I first came to Japan 50 years ago, there were young people all over wearing large flashy crosses. They had no particular meaning other than as a fashion statement. From then on, I found a tiny gold butterfly and have worn it replacing a silver Celtic cross that I had worn many years.  It reminds me that I will not be so much defined by what I wear but what I do.

(I don't know why pictures that appear upright in my files, post rotated. I notice others have this problem too. Move left or right, change the size, add properties, but don't rotate. Hmmm)

Anyway, my friend had flown and took with her many more blocks from friends who will miss her too. Will she have a friendship quilt one of these days? I hope so.

And after one week, quilting has begun on the baby quilt. I put together tenugui for the backing, one with a friendly dragon for a dragon-year baby, and some with fall leaves on red and orange. The good thing about small projects is the speed that they go together. Yesterday I had a long bus ride and added the borders.

I went to a lovely quit show and wish I could show you the fantastic Japanese quilts, scenes of Japan and Fuji and Japanese children's songs all so cleverly done. NO PICTURES ALLOWED! I have to keep all that inspiration to myself!

Tomorrow the Bible quilt group meets. AND also from Friday you can go to the Quilting Gallery and check out the friendship quilts and vote.

Making use of time and scraps

Projects pause but time marches on. After cutting out the kasuri pieces I had a chance to talk with my daughter about the kind of bag she wants and she decided she would like the muted solids to set the kasuri. Now, that is fine with me but at that point, the project ground to a halt because she needs to come by and pick out the colors that will best go with whatever she plans to use the bag with. I still don't have a clear idea of size and shape so no point in sitting around waiting. Kasuri carton returns to the second floor cupboard.

 As the week went on, I could see the weekend looming ahead with loooong bus and train rides and meetings.

So ... I needed something to make that time go faster. I thought of a church friend who is having a baby next month. This friend has helped me with the planning for Vacation Bible School and we have worked together on committees. I had remembered seeing a zip-lock baggy of pieces that were left over from an "I Spy" quilt I made many years ago for the grand kids.
They were all cut out and ready to put together ... cute little kid-friendly prints.
I pulled out some yellow solid and marked off some triangles to sew them together and stuck them in my back pack.

I have to say it was a good thing too, because to save money, I tool a very long bus ride and three trains to get to the Railroad museum where my Cub Scouts were gathering. I had lots of extra time there while all the boys took turns driving every simulated train in the whole place. Oh, what a lot of hands-on stuff there was too! Then, there was the long way home plus a 48 minute wait for the bus and heavy traffic back home.

Sunday after church I also had two meetings to sit through plus the hour trip each way. Above is what I got done. It is not a very big piece but I will finish off the star points and add some borders. I am thinking of a little quilt that can be used in a stroller or to put the baby on for changing or to cover when napping, maybe around 45" square. My friend is expecting a little girl and I thought the red heart print would show less dirt than a pink. I would say, a few more trips and meetings and this shouldn't take too long. (If I keep the size under control, I will even be able to baste it without clearing the whole living room of furniture).

There seems to be a new fad in my neighborhood. Many houses with enough ground to plant a "garden", have this vine growing wildly all over the place.

Between my house and the train station I am hardly out of sight of one of these. This picture is the barber shop. The rice shop has one too. It is a very aggressive vine and full of little yellow flowers.

The interesting thing is why it is growing in so many places.

Here is the "fruit" (if you can call it that). It looks like a little warty cucumber.

The plant is Momordica charantia. In Japanese it is called "Goya", a name that comes from Okinawa.
In English it is called, among other names, "Bitter Melon".  And, believe me. that is a very apropos name because it is the bitterest of all fall fruits.

The rice store lady sings its praises, telling me it is picked small and cut and sauteed  with meat. The only times I have tasted it, it was quite bitter no matter how it was prepared.

I think of my #2 daughter's garden in the Boston Fens and all the delicious produce she has for eating and giving away ... no goya ... give me zucchini any day, a few cucumbers and summer summer squash and perhaps a handful of cherry tomatoes. Yummmm!

My love affair with Kasuri

I am not sure how many of my blogging friends are familiar with "Kasuri". I don't even know how much of it is being produced today. All my bits of that fabric have been picked up from shrine sales (the Japanese flea market) or used bins in stores carrying old stuff or picked apart work clothing.

The fabric is hand woven. The warp and weft threads are dyed before the loom is set up. The skeins of thread are tied off at intervals to resist the dye and left white ... but in some cases, dyed other colors.
The most common color is indigo and white but sometimes other colors are added.

The thread used is slightly heaver than ordinary cotton fabric and was commonly used for work clothing. I have bought several worn pairs of "mompei", long over-pants for working in the fields, and yesterday spent some time picking out the thread to return them to a usable fabric.

Here are some fine weaves that are a bit older. You can see that the color chosen is not always indigo but sometimes light blue, gray, or browns.

The whites are very old and hemp fabric rather than cotton. They were probably used in summer yukata or even night wear.

These whites are woven with brown or gray.

Sometimes the designs can get very intricate and amazing. It is hard for me to imagine measuring and dying a piece if thread so that when you put it to the loom, it would produce such an intricate design.

All that work for a strip of cloth about 13 inches wide which is then sewed into work clothes!

(well, probably not some of this fancier weave).

My #3 daughter has been wishing for a bigger bag for carrying her stuff and I thought this sturdy fabric would hold up pretty well and not show the dirt.

Yesterday I did a bit of un-picking and washed and ironed some of these kasuri pieces, cutting around the worn places into three inch blocks (and the scraps into one inch).

I thought I might sew them together alternating with nine-patches of other fabrics from yukata or tenugui.

I like the idea of nine-patch blocks for take-along work but I am not certain this is the best way to show off those kasuri fabrics.

A few years ago, I was asked to make a prayer book cover for a speaker at the Women's Conference. Before setting off, I tried my hand at making a cover for my own Bible.

This poor book was presented to me in 1944 at my confirmation. Those were war years and though the binding has held up well, the fake leather (cardboard) cover has completely crumbled.

Although I used one-inch squares of kasuri, I alternated them with a similar fabric made much the same way. The warp threads are one color. (usually indigo or black) and the weft are colored. The weight of this fabric is quite the same, as is the width of the piece.

I picked out a piece with a butterfly which was a symbol used by the "hidden Christians", as it represented to them the resurrection.  I chose the kasuri because, at least to me, this fabric represents a great act of faith ... that after all the work of dying that thread and stringing the loom, that when woven, the design will come out as planned.

Now that I look at this old piece of work, I begin to think that those solid colored fabrics might show off the kasuri a bit better than those nine-patches.

Thanks for any feed-back.

A finish and another fuzzy picture

This week I finished quilting the border of this year's Women's  Conference banner.

It was a bit sad to quilt along each signature and realize how many of those friends have left us since January.

On the other hand, there is hope to add more names as next years conference gears up.

I used variegated blue pearl cotton and large stitching on the water. That was my first attempt and I held off to the last to attack it. I don't think this is my favorite technique.

My husband says the water doesn't look still enough but too still might equal stagnant.

I also added "Psalm 23" to the lower corner. I hope by hanging this in various international churches, along with the information for next years retreat, we will attract more participants to share this weekend of inspiration and Christian fellowship.

The sun wins!

Early in the summer, my cub pack set up a schedule for activities. lots of things to go and see and do. Our final event was a family campout at Yamanaka, at the foot of Mt Fuji.

As the weekend neared, the weatherman began to predict a change from the hot sunny days we have had in excess. Unfortunately, that prediction included rain storms.

Although I have no problem camping in the rain with Boy Scouts, Cubs and parents with younger siblings ... not my idea of a fun event when rain is included.

I packed my van Friday night and set out early Saturday morning to my parking lot, Nikko's leash on one arm, pack on my back, craft supplies over one shoulder, and a big umbrella in my hand. It was dumping down huge drops of rain and our narrow lane without drains was a lake. BUT, by the time I had reached the car, the sun was back out.

I picked up my assistant near the highway entrance and there were off and on sprinkles but by the time we reached the camp, there were patches of blue sky between the clouds. We rented a huge canvas fly and got it set up ... just in case. That did it! The weather cleared up completely.

My assistant leader brought some really great activities. One was this string on two rods. and a magic formula of soap and starch and glycerin for making these huge bubbles. Another set of rods had the string tied in little loops and made hundreds of bubbles in one wave. Everyone got plenty of chances to try and some of those giant bubbles were well over six feet long.

  I brought knives and saws and the boys tried their hands at making  owl neckerchief slides from natural materials. This one was made by a seven-year-old Cub.

My assistant prepared a nature BINGO for using on a hike. They had to actually be looking at the object as they checked it off. The parent leaders set off with the kids and I was well aware of their return because the last item was a "dog" and they all knew where to find Nikko.

The nature around Mt Fuji is beautiful every time of year. Sunday morning the families climbed to the top of the building for a view of Fuji while I enjoyed some of the wild flowers, boiled a bit of water for some coffee, and worked on my quilt border.

It took about as long to take down the rain fly and pack it all back up to return as it did to set it up ... well, maybe longer. I was just glad that we hadn't needed it.

I returned home in the late afternoon after dropping my assistant off at the train station. These flowers were waiting as I un-loaded my car. There were also messages on my e-mail from the family groups saying they had had a great time. One father sent terrific pictures of the activities and campfire. My camera has had a lot of very hard wear. It is also used by other family members so I do not know what treatment it gets but clearly, something is wrong with the lens and only a small part of any picture is in focus.

The last blurry picture I will show is my finished flimsy. This is already a big enough quilt but I really wanted a border of some kind to frame it. I didn't have any really big pieces of fabric but there was enough of this grey-blue to go around. I stuck in a few spare cornerstones where I had to join the pieces together to make the border long enough..  Now the piece is 293'' square and I will have to hunt around for something to use for the backing. I will have plenty of time to find a basting location and this will be a good quilting project once it gets cooler.

I hope the next picture of this will be taken with a new or repaired camera.