A Birthday Celebration

 I have to admit that Halloween has never been the best choice for a birthday.

When I was a kid, we could never sit through a whole meal without jumping up to answer the doorbell many times over.

It also meant all kinds of nicknames like Witchy, Batty, and Bones.

In Tokyo we used to live in a small community with about 30 houses built for foreigners and the neighborhood kids came trick-or-treating and often were joined by Japanese kids who knew about the possibilities of getting candy ... but basically that custom is not well known and Halloween is a time for dressing up in costumes and walking in parades.

I think many stores take advantage of the holiday. Sales people could be found in costume ... even in the fabric store where they had Halloween fabrics and items for sale. Flower shops ... grocery stores with American style pumpkins (Japanese ones are not for carving but sweet to eat and the color is a dark green) There are gourds like mini-pumpkins, toys and costumes and of course sweets.

Norie, Hiro, and Leia came for dinner and to spend the night. Leia and I had a cookie date for Saturday all set up.

I had seen one of Leia's school projects where she had arranged color tiles in an interesting pattern, so I pulled out my cut fabric tins ... the 2x2, 4x4, and 1x2 and 1x4. I thought Leia might enjoy arranging them in patches of 4 two inch and 1 4 inch blocks. Oh, nothing that simple ... this was a great math problem and after it was all laid out, she began to sew the pieces together.

You would never to know to look at the finished piece that it was done by a seven-year-old, The stitches were straight along the marked lines, about six or seven to the inch, and the corners met with precision.
I helped her join the rows together and she decided on a white cotton backing. She did not want the back turned to make a binding so we sewed the piece along the border and then turned it right-side-out.

Her plan is to use it for a luncheon mat and it needs to be thin enough to fold up in her lunch bag so no batting or quilting was needed.

While she was putting the finishing touches on the cookies, I hand stitched around the edge just inside of the border.

Here she is with the finished product.
I would like to be a mouse in the corner when she shows up at school with that.

And here is the cookie master with one tray left to decorate.

Lots of pumpkins, cats, witches, ghosts, owls, and moons.
Some of those cookie cutters I made from tuna cans back when her mother was into cookie decorating.

Now all is packed up and ready to take for sharing.

What a nice way to spend a birthday.... and as you may notice, I have learned a trick to get to my pictures. It is still not as convenient as my old laptop but I am happy ...

and even happier because my Daughter and family brought me a CD player that I can plug into my laptop and use to read my mother's diary which my brother had scanned and sent to me over a year ago.

Nothing like a distraction or two to set my quilting on hold....


I hope your Halloween is just as much fun.

Jumping through hoops

Or maybe the title should be ... finding the hoops to jump through.

Well, I finally got a picture to post, though I have not yet figured out how to edit or crop it.

While I have been without anything other than my mobile phone, I have had more time to work on this project.

This banner may be more of a compromise  than other years. Last year I almost quit because I did not want to waste my time adding more words, knowing they would have to be too small and not likely to even be read by people passing through the church foyer.

As it turned out, the pastor asked me to finish it as planned and give it to him. It has been hanging in view now for a year and many people liked it the best of all I have made.

However, this year's theme is the Shinkan-sen or bullet train. Since I was not overly enthralled about the image of jumping on the bullet train ... even if it might be heading for heaven ... I was removed from the committee.

A few weeks ago I was asked by the pastor if I was making a banner for this year. I told him I had been removed from the committee and had not been asked. Then a week or so after that, the committee head came to me and asked if I would make a banner. I told her I didn't want to make a bullet train and she could probably go to JR and get a poster of the Shinkan-sen that she could use.
There is some artist who is making projections that show the train tracks running off the top that have been shown during the service.

She has a fine connection with JR and her voice is one of the first things you hear when the English announcements begin as the train starts to pull out of the station. However, buying an expensive ticket and being then entitled to a comfortable seat, eating or napping or enjoying the scenery, is not an image that speaks to me ... and my train is usually the cheapie one where I stand and just try to keep my body above my feet while lurching from station to station.

Still, she wanted a banner and asked if I would agree to a bible verse ... to which I replied I'd give it a look and decide. Well, this is what she sent me. "Prepare the way". And this is what I could come up with from my stash. I had good advice on the quilting design from my husband and the choir members at the retreat. It was finished Saturday evening during our party and I picked up bias tape on my way home Sunday. My husband bought two dowels for hanging while I was at school yesterday. Tonight I will pass it to the church office.

At the choir retreat, one 14 year old son of two members came along and was kind to give me some time to show me where to find things on my new laptop. It is the same he uses for school but other than e-mail, the applications he uses are not the same as I use.

I wish I had taken my notebook along and written things down. He was quite fast to try things when what he could see didn't work. It did make me a bit braver to try without giving up. Even so, getting this one picture into a place where I could post it took enough effort and I still don't know how I did it.

Now I am back to the Christmas tree skirt. My daughter sent me an envelope with two paper snowflakes to use as patterns. I traced the first one and while I was appliqueing the first one on to the skirt, Nikko took the envelope out of my file box and chewed it up, leaving only a tiny scrap of the second design.

I am also waiting for a few more from Jon's family. I can't complain because he was so quick to come up with this new laptop and whisk it into the post ... all set up and ready to use.

Then .... there is the Christmas hanging for Marie's door .... No more excuses, I have to get out my sketch book and get going.

It's been a while.....

At the end of September, I posted a picture of a baby quilt I was working on for one of the teachers at school.
That Friday, I went to school for half a day and when I left home, the quilt was lying on the sofa where I usually sit to work on it. My laptop was sitting beside it on the buckle box that holds my solid fabrics.
As I left, I said to my husband, "Please don't sit on the quilt. It has pins in it".  " Oh no, says he, I never sit on the sofa". Well, I know that is not exactly correct because that very morning I saw food crumbs and his coffee cup sitting on the table in front, next to my sewing box. Just in case, I put a box and a wastepaper can on the sofa to keep Nikko from climbing up and possibly eating my notebook, and went off to school.
When I returned and sat down to work on the quilt, I found it piled up on the back of the sofa and draped over the buckle box. No laptop in sight.
Well, the reason it was not in sight is that it had been shoved down inside the sofa, in the space between the back and seat.... and it was very hot. In fact it was a good thing it had not started a fire. Sadly, that was the end of my laptop.

The other day I got a phone call from one of my friends who must be watching my blog activity, wondering if I was OK.

Frustrated ... but OK. My cell phone could connect to my e-mail ... not open attachments or pictures, but I wasn't completely cut off. I don't know how those thousands of young people walk and ride the train and stand around texting because that is not my idea of fun!

I took the opportunity of extra computer-free time to finish up the quilt and took it to school on Monday, October 4th. I left it in the office with a sign-pen and a request for signatures and messages on the hands from the rest of the staff.

The following Monday I thought I would bring it home and take a picture of the finished quilt and the signed back, but when I stopped off at the office to get the address of the teacher, the secretary told me they had something to send also and would include the quilt.
I should have taken it to a sunny room and taken a photo but I didn't think of it until after I was on my way home.

This week I got a letter from the teacher saying she was so touched by the quilt and cried while reading the messages. I am so happy that she liked it.

Yesterday I had a wonderful package come through the door ... a new laptop sent from my Son in Colorado ... a MacBook Air ... and all set up with most of the things I use from day to day.
It will take a bit of getting used to but Jon called me today and talked me through some of the hoops.
Tomorrow I will figure out how to add some pictures and maybe sort them so I can locate them when I want them and put them on a post.

I was a bit surprised how much I got done on the Christmas tree skirt and another project while I had no distractions on the computer. Still .... I don't think THAT is the way to get extra time.

Thank you darling Jon!

A week ago ....

I returned from the gathering of teachers, having attended a baby shower for a fellow worker who was taking maternity leave shortly, her baby expected in November. I am a new part-timer to this school and was happy to be included in all the activities. If I had known sooner, I might have prepared a small gift for the expectant mother or the coming baby.

Well, I guess it is never too late to celebrate a baby so, after returning home, I went through my bin of child-friendly prints and dug out something for each alphabet letter.

Some of the collections are a bit thin considering the box is crammed. For some of those letters there was hardly any choice ... kanji for K, nest for N, origami for O ... well. they are more or less covered .

Sewing the rows got done on train rides, thanks to "silver week" seats.

Over the weekend I added the borders ... a little hard to see but consisting of rows of hearts.

I had planned to just quilt in the letters but over the weekend I cut them out from solid fabrics, thinking it would help balance the colors a bit better,

This hand print had come from a friend who was cleaning out her stash and has been just sitting in the bin for a year while I wondered how I would ever use it.

Well, suddenly I had a thought that instead of sewing zodiac tenugui together and having the teachers sign their animal as I have done in the past, why not use this for the backing and there are enough hands for each staff member to sign or write a little message.

Today I laid it all out plus a big piece of batting that had come from the same friend. I usually use thinsulate but this piece was exactly the right size and the price was right. In fact, except for the thread and time, this quilt will cost exactly nothing.

The batting seems to be poly and about the weight of felt. It isn't as puffy and easy to quilt as the thinsulate. I think it will be OK to use as a cover or to put down as a floor mat. I have basted it on the floor in the loft to avoid major dog hair issues and begun to quilt each block in the ditch. I will quilt around each letter and then maybe an inch and a half inside the picture blocks. I think that will be enough but I will see how it is when I get that far.

I will have to come up with a plan for quilting the border. I had thought of mitered corners but the scale of the hearts wouldn't work.

Maybe quilt half hearts left and right in a row.

I bet a machine quilter would have this whipped out in no time

I left two blank solids along the bottom edge thinking one could hold the baby's name and the other the date. One alphabet square and one number square finished that row,

Some folded and cut snowflakes arrived in the mail a week ago as well so it looks like I will have more to do in the coming weeks than pull weeds and pick up dog hair.

As I was putting on my shoes to leave school Monday, I noticed a small framed message surrounded by photos of school children sitting on the counter above where I had left my shoes.

                                                  You are ....

                                                  Braver than you believe

                                                  Stronger than you seem

                                                  Smarter than you think

                                                  Loved more than you know.

                                                                          A A Milne

What a refreshing message to carry home! 

Enjoy!

Silver week? What's that?

"Golden Week"? Now, that is a holiday I know.
It happens in May and includes the former emperor's birthday and what used to be Boy's Festival but now is referred to "Children's Day". (I guess that was easier than turning "Girls' Day" into a day off) Anyway, the days in between get sucked in to the holiday spirit and everyone ends up with time off.

Recently another holiday, "Silver Week" has been added to the equation. I was rather relieved to read in Tanya's post that I was not the only one not having heard of this holiday.

Respect for the aged day and the autumnal equinox have now been lumped together to make a long holiday ... week? ... well, we are also tossing in the weekend.

So, how to celebrate? I was asked to come in to school on Monday and Tuesday. Hmmm. The kids were off and I had no idea why or what I would be doing.

Monday begins early with rice patrol, leaving home no later than 4:am. Heading off to school was not so hard as I was already awake and dressed. It turned out the two days were a teacher's work shop. As a part-timer it was nice to have been included ... to talk to other part-timers and compare notes ... to get to know some of the teachers and staff when not trying to keep kids on task ... and to play a few team-building games and planning activities.   Another surprise was that, because of the holiday week, the train was not a sardine can as usual but I could actually sit!

When I returned home Tuesday evening, I had a message to "call Teddy". (Teddy is a long-time friend and former fellow tenor in the choir) He is now only part time in Tokyo for his business of decorating and was in a pinch, trying to do a job with people away on holiday ... and regular help occupied elsewhere. Would I help him out? He knows I sew and he needed some sewing done.

Oh boy, what we do for our friends!!! The sewing was 12 large outdoor drapes to hang around two, what Japanese call "pagolas" on an apartment balcony. Well, I met Teddy in front of the church Wednesday morning and went to see what it was he was needing. Then, using the large floor of the apartment, we measured and cut the pieces of what turned out to be heavy canvass-like material,

Then, stopping off to buy thread in a suitable color, I went home to see what I could do. No way all that could be hemmed and sewed by hand so the first thing was to locate the little Brother machine. Well, I thought it was on the shelf in my work-room closet, Nope! The last time I had it out was about 4 years ago when my daughter used it. Finally I found it stashed in the storage loft and dragged it out. Oh, it is all in Japanese and I can't remember which button does what. Finally I got it moving more or less, wound the bobbin, pinned the first hem along the edge of the heavy two and a half meters of fabric, and pushed the sew button. "NO WAY!" says that machine. "I am only a baby brother and I cannot chew that heavy stuff"!!!!

Back to the drawing board .... I had been given a Singer machine as a wedding present from my folks but the last time I used it was in 2003 and it barely chugged along. No longer anywhere to have it fixed, I reluctantly said goodbye to it earlier this year when we had to sort stored stuff and find a place for it. There was one more machine I had never used. It had been given me by a scouter who had left Japan. It was in a box and I had pushed that box to the back of a shelf without even looking at the machine.

Since it was a bigger machine, I decided to give it a try before calling Teddy and saying the task was impossible. Imagine my surprise to find that machine still in the box, taped up and like new. It is a very pretty singer and all the instructions were there in English, Spanish, and Italian. It took a few hours to read up and figure out how to use it. BUT, it reluctantly took on the task and by the end of the day, some of those heavy drapes had the sides hemmed. I also made one tie (out of 8 needed to pull the drapes back at the corners of the pagola.

Thursday night before choir practice, I was able to pass a few of the finished drapes to Teddy and he was pleased with them. Thursday evening I ran out of thread and I still had the remaining hems to sew and seven of the eight ties. Of course the thread store was closed so I measured, cut, and pinned the ties. Friday morning Paul went out to find me some more thread and I took the drapes up to the floor of the loft and measured and pinned the hems.

Friday after putting the new thread ... a little different color than the first but luckily not noticeable ...
I sewed like crazy. That machine really didn't like sewing through those thick seams. I broke one needle and found one a bit stronger among the spares that came with the machine. My dining table is round and it was hard to keep the heavy drapes from falling off to the side and making the stitches crooked.  No dining at the table  ... I stitched all day long and finished up in the evening thinking I would meet Teddy back near the site. Giving him a call, I found he was at a different site and, since Paul had a meeting at church in the morning, he would pick them up from him today. Whew!!!

It sure was lucky I had a machine I could use. I am glad I could help my friend in a pinch, but I will never sew for a profession. (Teddy hinted at another pending job but I suggested he book his regular guy right away) As I was carefully packing up the machine to return it to its box I noticed the instructions had settings for quilting. No thank you. I will be happy to return to sewing for pleasure.
I guess I will be getting some pay but it will go for road tax that is way overdue.

Meanwhile, new snowflake patterns have come from kids to add to the tree skirt. I have Marie's door hanging to plan. And I have begun an alphabet quilt for one of the teachers who is having a baby. I do love stuff I can take long ... and Nikko is glad to have her floor space back and no sounds of sewing.

Silver week???I guess I added a bit more silver to my hair and pocket but a holiday? Not really.

small stuff

Well, I spent some time chopping up bits and pieces of left-overs that were really too small to put back into the color bins.

I have a tin of pieces marked for four inch, three inch, two inch, and then one inch squares (my largest box at the back) and one inch strips cut into two, three, four, and five inch pieces. I have no plans as yet for using them. The rainbow quilt relieved the crowd in my one-inch box somewhat but what I added was only a small amount.

The other day I pulled out some scraps to make a pouch to hold my cell phone.

I have severe phone-phobia and tend to leave the phone at home more than I take it with me. I hate to have it ringing at inconvenient times, interrupting what I am doing, but there are times I really need to call home with a change of plans.

This owl will take care of the phone and I can hang it on the outside of my bag so I don't have to search everywhere for it.


I really had no idea what I was doing and there was probably an easier way, but it didn't take long and it works.

I had been to a show of vendors and seen several cute phone holders ... a bear and a dog. Well, why not try an owl ... my go to helper?

Here he is, hanging on my bag between the little pockets.

If I put the phone in bottom up, I can just plug in the charger without even removing it from the bag so am less likely to leave home without it.


I put a snap under the beak and the cord can be put over the strap and the owl pouch slipped through ... no fancy attachments, just stuff from my sewing box.

Though the weather is still hot and muggy, the first signs of fall are upon us.


This is my front door behind the opened gate and where the pineapple lily bloomed the last month, the spider lilies have begun to welcome the coming fall.

"Higan-bana" supposedly welcome the autumnal equinox.
Since that is coming soon,they are pretty well in time.

I have some planted on both the east and west sides of the house . They come up quietly before the leaves appear and suddenly burst into color.

One of my neighbors has white ones in a pot but I love the red and they are especially beautiful to see along the tree lines at the edge of the fields.

Happy equinox to all!

A window on the world

Here is my living room window on the west (street or ally or front side) of our house.

In front is our set-back garden, my 1st daughter's plum tree on the right and a shag-bark maple to the left.

On the right side window you can see the "window cafe" with bird seed for the tits to enjoy.

Through the curtains I can see the new neighbor's house across the street where my friends garden used to be.

I can also see neighbors walking by ...and at night they can probably look in to my lit room and see our messy room. I do have heavy drapes I can close if need be ... someone borrowing the sofa for the night ... but basically those drapes are seldom closed. When the weather is nice, we may slide the window open and use the screen while enjoying  a breeze.

To the right of the window are two shutters that can be slid across the windows. They may be used in case of a typhoon but though we have these on almost all our windows, we have never used them in all the time we have lived here.

Many homes close these windows every night. For privacy? protection? I am not sure, but in the late afternoons and early mornings, one can hear the shutters of surrounding homes being opened and closed. Some of those homes have frosted glass for extra privacy but when we were building, I opted for clear glass. I really want to see out ... the weather, the birds. the plants, and the world passing by.

This is my neighbor to the South. Instead of a garden, she uses her set-back space for parking her car.

Behind her car is her window. This shutter has never been opened since her house was re-built.  It is a mystery to me why there is a window at all.

Of course, our house is rather short on wall space. I had no place to put a piano as all my rooms have big windows on the outside walls and all the inside walls have hallways and doors.  But, why put a big floor to ceiling window if you never intend to use it???

And, here is the new house across the street.

Believe it or not, there is someone living here but ... the three windows in the downstairs have been shuttered ever since the house was built and the guy moved in. Two of those shuttered windows are patio sized.


There may be windows to the west and south but since they are only about a foot away from the neighboring houses, it would be hard to see if those sides even have windows.

I am wondering why anyone would bother putting windows in rooms if they never intend to use them. I know opening and closing those shutters is part of a Japanese culture I have never bothered with ... actually, I like wakening to natural light and only closed the shutters in out first apartment for a typhoon .. which blew out the shutters anyway, so never bothered again.

On another topic ...
I need ideas! I have made Advent calendars for Christmas each year for five of my kids, This year it is Marie's turn, but since she has no children and little wall space, she has requested instead something to hang out to decorate her door for the season.

Her apartment is above a converted carriage house and opens into a hallway so the item does not need to face Boston winter weather. Here in Tokyo, our door gets a holiday wreath that is changed out after Christmas for a traditional Japanese New Year's hanging.

At first I was thinking of maybe an advent wreath with numbered holly leaves that could be added with round red buttons. Hmmm, that sounds like a lot of work and would she want to button on a leaf each day ... or maybe flip one over ?
Or maybe a small hanging with a wreath on one side and the new years ornaments on the back?

I am still working on the tree skirt so there will have to be two items ready to be mailed out before the end of November. The count-down has begun.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Any ideas as to how big to make something for a door would be helpful too. Have you any ideas or seen any patterns that might fit the bill?

Home in the choir room

Last night the cushion  went with me to choir practice.

It passed the sit test.
Yes, I could actually sit during the practice and concentrate on my singing rather than my sitting.


The choir librarian laughed at the 21 quilted into the center square. Before she passes out the music, she pulls out the 21 and hands it to me.

The sopranos just couldn't figure out why I am so fixated on #21. I showed them a copy of my music with the tenor part highlighted with side notes ... turn quickly  ... and watch here.

And, here is a view of the back side. The zipper is installed just above the keyboard print.

Behind the chair is another family member.

I am not a pianist, but the very first thing I saved for after coming to Japan was a used piano, setting aside one thousand yen from my English teaching each week.

That piano lasted a long time including a trip to the states and back.  When it began to have issues, I traded it in on another piano ... a bit newer, German but assembled in Japan.

When we moved back to our small house, there was no wall space for it to live. I decided rather than trying to sell it, I would donate it to the church. The lady who kept the piano tuned twice a year, went to our church and tested all the pianos they had. It was determined this was better than all the others and it went to the choir room. Now I get to see and hear it twice a week. I miss having a piano at home but I am happy that it is appreciated and used more than I ever would have. I wonder if the cushion and piano are comparing notes when no one is around....

Tonight Cub Pack 51 meets to start our new season. Games are ready to go. am I??? That is to be seen.

Drip, drip, drip!

I guess with all the problems others are having with the typhoons swirling over Japan, I have no right to complain.

Tokyo is on the Kanto plain and fairly flat.

Nerima, where I live, is far from the rising ocean tides.

The nearest river, the Shakuji-gawa, passes several blocks away and in the past few years they have built over-flow underground water storage so we are relatively safe from the river.

And, now that my toe has no more bandages, the boots fit.

Yes, there are problems in an old house with leaky places but compared to floods and landslides, we are safe ... maybe damp, but more dry than not.

When I wrote in a post about a TV dumped in the street, I mentioned the "Ku" or ward, would not
remove it as our little street is not considered part of the Ku. (Forget that our house has the address of Nerima-ku, since our little road is to small for cars, we are in no-man's land.

Here is the view of our little street. The sign says basically, no cars beyond here ... but, does that mean they are not going to try? Oh no. Even trucks give it a try, scraping along the wall and ripping branches off the plum tree at the corner (showing just above the wall) My neighbor has a tiny car and parks it just beyond the sign on the power pole.

When we came here over 50 years ago, this was a dirt ally.

Real roads had open gutters along the sides to catch the rain.
Gradually they were covered, first by concrete slabs, and then turned into real sewers. The new house across the street from ours has a real gutter and drain (at the far corner). This has helped to relieve the small lake at out doorstep. If someone were to dump an un-wanted TV there, I  am not sure the ward would remove it. Does having a drainage system put you in the ward? How about half a drainage system" (on the other side of the road?)

Here is the alternative drainage system for those in the "no-man's-land. Under these man-hole covers is a sewer.  See that tiny hole?
Well, the rain water can drain down that hole ... so when I go out to sweep the street, I always un-plug those holes from rocks and leaves and other debris.  Trouble is, those little drains are usually in the highest part of the street and not where the water tends to collect. (you can see the drain in the first picture sitting high and dry above the gathering puddle.)

The sewer seems to end here just beyond our house.

There is a manhole cover along the wall but it has no hole.

If you have good balance you can walk along that wall to avoid the deepest part of the puddle but you need a good leap when you reach the end.

I guess I should be glad it is not mud as in the "old days" but in order for this to become a "real" road, all the houses on both sides will have to be re-built so the city can grab a meter on each side. I really can't see this happening in my lifetime.

Of course if I live to be 200 in order to use up all my stash...



So, that being the case, I am taking advantage of the rainy days to get something done.

Yesterday, on the way home from school, I stopped off and bought a zipper at the next train station shopping area.


Now it is installed and here is my cushion sitting on the desk chair,

Tonight it will go to it's new home in the choir room.

Considering I didn't know what I was doing, I think it looks pretty good ... and the pillow fit inside and the zipper closed.

Maybe I can get a picture of it in the new location.
I had cool fabric to use on the back ... and it was just the right size. Maybe I can show it off too.


Go visit Tanya and sympathize with her. maybe one quiet shedding dog is not such a big problem.

Something for me.

This may sound like a funny story, but recently the church decided to replace all the old chairs with new ones.

Yes, the old ones were showing wear after about 30 years of use and they were a bit heavy for stacking and putting away.

Well, the new chairs came. They are certainly prettier and much lighter and stack nicely. The seat is also much larger and the choir is happy with the change ... all except me.

Now why is it that a person of my size and degree of padding can not sit for more than ten minutes in one of those chairs? I might blame my ADHD, but I never had a problem with the old chairs.  On the new ones the seat is not flat but is raised toward the front edge and the pressure on the lower side of my upper legs is so painful. I tried sitting on the front edge and sitting sideways but to tell the truth, standing or sitting on the floor would be better.

Last week I brought a small pillow and that helps a bit so I decided to make a pillow to leave on my choir chair.

Several times I have been attracted to "Swoon" blocks I have seen on other blogs. I made a sketch a few years ago in my graph-paper notebook and I decided to draft that pattern to fit a 16 inch pillow I have on hand that could be put to that purpose.

I dug out some musical prints and cut them up for take-along work. Above is what I came up with. The number on my choir robe and music is 21. It is kind of a joke because no one else minds which piece of music they get, but I have been singing these pieces for many years and have highlighted the tenor part and made notes where I need to pay extra attention. The other three parts may not care because the sopranos and altos are always written in the treble clef, and the bases always get the bass clef, but the tenors are forced to jump from one to the other at the convenience of the publisher... and often at very inconvenient parts when singing. Often when music is passed out, I begin calling out to see if anyone has #21 and it gets a lot of laughter. I am thinking I might applique or quilt a big 21 in the center of the cover. Good idea?

I brought three prints down to decide the outer light patches and this one is what my husband thought worked best. He usually doesn't pay much attention to what I am making but liked this fabric best when I told him I couldn't decide. I have another black music print with a keyboard and scattering of white notes that I plan to put on the under side of the cover, once I quilt the top. I am thinking of quilting this a quarter inch on each side of the seam line. The center square is four inches square and the largest piece. Should I applique the 21 or quilt it in ... well, even if I applique it, I would quilt around the edge.

I cut the templates out of green construction paper because I only planned to use them once but now that I see how fun it was to put this block together ... I might have to save them. A whole quilt of 16 inch blocks would go together much faster than all those one-inch pieces I just spent over a year on!

It's a finish!

Last night I put the final stitches in the rainbow quilt. That was the good thing about a day of rain ... in the end, you get the rainbow. Of course, by that time, there was no sun and I had to wait until today for a photo op.

Here is the front displayed on the park fence. The colors seem a bit washed out but I have better ones on another camera so those I print directly from that camera will go into my paper diary.
I am glad I added the outer light border and also I  am glad the binding covered the short-fall.

Today as I was cutting up the trimmed scraps to go into tins of various sizes, I was even more glad I had found a better solution.

And here is the back. Ben may choose this as the top because it is the purple and lime green he requested. The quilted stitches fall off the grid in a few places (mostly around the edges). I am satisfied though with the results and I hope Ben will be too. Finished size, 74" x 92".

When I made Ben's baby quilt so many years ago, he was just a promise ... a picture of a little baby waiting in Korea for a family to claim him. As I worked on this piece I was thinking of the boy I now know and love so much ... A fellow lefty and in his right mind, a kid who shares my love of woodcarving and can turn a block of wood into a cute owl in an afternoon. I wish I could fly to Oregon and deliver it in person. You can believe my hugs will go into the box with it.

As I was taking these pictures in the park, the window in the upstairs of the house behind slid open and a head came out. This house is actually across the street from where my in-laws used to live and the Obaasan stuck out her head and asked what I was doing.

I called up to her that I was taking a picture of a finished quilt that I planed to send to my grandson. "Oh, I want to see." and the window slid shut. Pretty soon, around the block and through through the park came the elderly lady. She helped me take the quilt down and fold it after examining it in detail.
She said her daughter is a quilter (and actually lives nearby). Maybe a new friend? (she is preparing something for January ... The Tokyo Dome show?) I hope some day I can meet her.

I was hoping by today my laptop would decide to accept my camera in a download. I went through the same steps already tried over and over. When I plugged my camera into the port it went "peep" so I know the camera greeted the computer ... but alas, the computer still could not recognize the camera. The message kept saying the same ... plug in camera, turn on, and click refresh. Nope nothing. I finally had my husband download them to his computer again and mail them to me as last time. Even that adds an hour or so of fiddling before they are accessible for me to use.  Why did something so easy before, become so difficult that now I have to rely on a step I have no control over?
Anyway, enjoy the pictures and celebrate with me the finish!

Creative solutions???

 I seem to be spending a lot of time fixing things that shouldn't be broken in the first place.

When I finished quilting the border around the rainbow quilt, I decided it would look better if it had a one-inch border on the outside edge rather than bind it directly.

On three edges it was quite easy because the backing extended beyond the quilt top.

One edge across the top was a problem. When I laid it out on the floor for basting, I placed the backing, then the batting, and then tried to position the top in the center. It might have been helpful to have someone assist me to lower the top onto the batting but I had to roll the top out, adjusting it as I went along. Meanwhile, the backing which I had taped to the floor, became un-stuck. That alone caused a few problems when quilting but I was able to get things smoothed out as I moved the quilt in the hoop, removing the basting when needed.

The only real problem when adding the outer border was that the backing edge, though OK with the cable border, was short about half to three fourths of an inch. As I was sewing that last strip, I was thinking I could add another inch of backing along that edge.

Then I got another plan. I decided to cut the binding for the top a bit wider so that I could turn it down to meet the fabric where it was short. You can see how it looks on the back in the above picture. I quilted it along the sewing line on the front so the total effect is no different from the regular binding.

I couldn't make a mitered corner with two different sizes of binding but I think this solution is working and will hardly be noticeable. (at least by a man riding by on a fast horse).

Two edges are now finished ... two more to go. 

I have to admit that I probably would have finished this up today had I never been tempted by windows 10 last week. One thing has not returned to normal yet.

In the past, when I wanted to download pictures from my camera, I would plug the camera into my laptop and turn it on, then go to the picture file. In the list would be the name of the camera and when I right-clicked that, I got to the place to download any recent pictures. My computer looked over the camera files and just took the new stuff, giving me the option to put a title on the download. Oh, so simple!

Since returning to windows 7, my picture section does not recognize my cameras. When I click on the import icon, a window pops up saying to plug in the camera and turn it on. Well, it does not work from that point on but there is a message saying if you don't see the camera identification, push refresh. No amount of refreshing would fix the problem.

After hours of working at trying everything to get the pictures to download, I took my camera to my husband at his computer and asked him to download those two pictures on to his computer and send them to me by e-mail. 

Well, they came in the mail by Jpeg and the next three or four hours were wasted getting them into a file where I could locate them to download to the blog. As a result you can see the pictures of my quilting solutions. The camera issues are still remaining. Please enjoy the pictures and appreciate the hoops I jumped through to do what was once a no-brainer. I really need a resident guru who speaks English. There has gotta be an easier way.

And another solution that seems to work ... you may recall that when Ben requested purple as one of his favorite colors, I had almost no purple fabric. Thanks to friends to the rescue, he will now have purple and lime green on the back.,,, but, when I went to my thread stash to find something for sewing the binding ... no purple there either! I did find a blue that is very close so that is what I am using . The blind stitching doesn't really show and I am not going to go out in the rain to find a store that carries purple thread. 

My #1 rule is ... if it works, it is the right way.

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.