Biding my time

    In a little over a week, Japan will celebrate "Respect for the Aged Day". Well into my 80s, I have been contemplating the challenges of growing old in Japan.

    My first challenge came at age 70. From then, and every three years after, I have been required to take a "Senior Driving Test". The first time was not too bad, rather a waste of time being lectured by a young man and driving a pretend roadway more like an amusement park.

    Over the years since, the test has become more and more demeaning, as if every elderly driver is in the last stages of dementia. 

    Trying to book the test, I was told there were no openings until the next year. My daughter tried to book it for me with no luck. It was my Son in law who finally got me a date ... not at the local school within walking distance, but far from home and hard to locate. Of course the test itself was no problem, but even with a score of 100%, I was told I had to go home and make a phone call to book the second half of the test. That segment was booked in a different location, but the test was easy ... if one doesn't mind driving the course in an unfamiliar vehicle. I said to the teacher,"It seems to me that you are making this test so hard to get, as to  discourage older drivers from taking it", to which he responded :You're right".

    Yes, senior drivers may have accidents, but my car has been hit three times by young drivers. Once I was parked and unloading my van, and a young driver ran into the back while searching on the floor of his car for his dropped cell phone. Twice my car was hit while stopped for a red light by men on cell phones. One guy got out of his car with the phone still to his ear, checked the damage to his own car, and when the light changed, took off like a shot. Since I drive a van, I can see down into other cars when stopped at lights. The number of young people texting with phones held below the window is absolutely scary.

    Another challenge of getting old ... when my 16 year old dog died in December, I began trying to find another dog. Walking the dog at least three times a day, keeps the elderly active and healthy. It also builds community with other dog owners. How sad it was to discover that being over 65, I am restricted from getting a dog. Even seeing a 10 year old dog advertised as looking for a new home, I was turned away as being too old. I am not sure how this makes sense.

    What else might we find to challenge old people? Tuesday, I happened to be out to a dental appointment, and since there was a branch of my bank near the station, rather than walk a long way in my area, I decided to stop there to withdraw a rather large amount of money to pay for the dental implant that is not covered by national health. Imagine my surprise when the machine rejected my request. Going to the teller's window, I was told that because I am over 80, I can only take out a 100,000 limit per day. What that meant was I would have to walk over an hour each day for four more days in the heat of summer before I could pay my bill. Is this a rule to save the elderly? Or kill them off in the heat, to keep them from earning 0.01 yen interest? Who makes these rules?

    Japan has a large aging population. Those elders who used to be respected are now looked down on as a "problem". Is history forgotten? This is the generation who rebuilt Japan after the war. Everyone who uses a credit card should be grateful to my husband who fought the big banks for universal acceptance, now taken for granted.

    Surely I am grateful to be able to buy a "Silver Pass" that allows me to ride the Toei lines and city busses for free. And then, there are those things called "Silver Seats", supposedly for the elderly and handicapped, but in truth, only for the youngest and most aggressive. Surely those young people on their cell phones or sleeping with earbuds have found a way not to see those elderly ... and we all know, if we don't see it, it doesn't exist. Of course I won't see it either because that tall guy standing in front of me with a backpack knocked my glasses to the floor. And to add to the challenge, what used to be 8 seats in each end of the train is being readjusted to three seats at one end and six at the other. 5 fewer chances to sit.

    "Respect".I looked it up in my 85 year old Children's Dictionary.... "To look up to" , "To esteem"... Are those young people sitting so they can look up at the elderly standing? I am wondering if those driving school people or pet rescue people, or the bankers, or even the commuters have ever thought that one day they, too, could be "elderly". As for me, I am rather tired of being judged entirely by my date of birth.

    In the USA, there is the AARP, American Association for Retired People, The AARP advocates for senior citizens making sure they get a fair deal. Perhaps it is time for seniors in Japan to organize and advocate for our rights.

    Meanwhile, my Coronaville is growing. What I thought would make a table runner now seems more likely to end up as a quilt. I am considering sashing between the blocks. I was thinking of alternating light and dark on each block but I do not want to spend money on any more fabric. I think I will wait until the blocks are together and then do the math to figure out what will work, I can adjust to outer row by putting some tree print  between them in a few places. Well, no rush. I have at least a hundred waiting to be arranged in blocks.

My homeless friends will be happy to get onigiri tomorrow after a long summer break. At least I am not too old to serve the homeless in the wee hours before dawn.

A quick finish

Just a little over three weeks from start to finish, this must be one of the quickest quilts in the collection.  It was on August second that our congregation voted on the choice of a new associate pastor. and the following day I heard he had a two year old son they were thinking of sending to a Japanese pre-school so he could learn Japanese.

That gave me the idea of the I-Spy. The basting went well on the 18th, even though the room was very hot and humid. Because I used #60 thinsulate, it rolled out smoothly over the flimsy back with all seams lying nicely. The "gifted" backing was just the right width, so didn't need to be pieced. I pin basted it and when I flipped it over, everything was fine and no adjustment needed.

Carrying things back, arms full, I slipped on the stairs at the bottom and hit my knee and toe.
Ouch! The knee wasn't that bad but I got out an ice pack for my toe. By the middle of the afternoon, though I was pretty sure it was not broken, I decided to go to the clinic for a check.

No, it wasn't broken this time. Actually it had been broken in the past and grown back stronger than before. Still, it was getting swollen and the color was spreading over the whole foot,
They put a cast on it and it has been getting regular ultrasonic treatment daily. The purple color has spread over a good part of the foot and all the toes. The cast made walking easier and has now been removed.

I have had plenty of time to sit and quilt. The blocks are all quilted in the ditch. Thinsulate will not shift as it is made for wearables, so within four inches is enough. I quilted the bamboo print in the border along most of the white lines. It gives it a nice texture.

The finished size is 49" x 59", good size to toss over a napping child but really not enough to tuck in on a single bed. I had been thinking something to toss over the back of a sofa, ready to play or use.

I still have the game to work on and have been making a list of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and numbers that can be combined in a game. I had been thinking of cards, but another idea might be a notebook with folded pages having english on one side and japanese on the other.  With restrictions on travel, it will be some time before this quilt can meet up with its new owners.

Now I am dithering over what to work on next. The houses are gathering into neighborhoods and the log cabin is waiting for decisions as to what it wants to become. Down the road is a big girl quilt for my eldest granddaughter. (I have an idea for a Hawaiian quilt ... her choice ... but would like to get a large piece of fabric, dyed from yellow to blue. I have seen that in some Hawaiian quilts and think it would be nice for the design.) I also need to put together a kotatsu cover for Norie's family and I have Marie's name for a Christmas gift. 

I know I am getting more done while in lockdown, but my motivation has declined in the heat and humidity. I began turning on the AC in the afternoons a few weeks ago but the electric bill shot up to the moon this month. Good thing I'm not made of butter!

A few weeks gone

The first Sunday this month, after our livestreamed church service, a congregational meeting was held on zoom to vote on the pastoral search committee choice for a new associate pastor.
The ballots were sent to our email which took some time, and we had until 5:pm to respond. I was away from home when the time was near  but luckily I was with my daughter who helped me to first get my mail into my call phone, and then vote. (no small task, as I had not been able to access my email on my device for years.)

The results were declared at a second zoom meeting at 7:pm. Over the past few weeks we have been able to learn more about our next pastor, though it may be a while until he and his family can come to Tokyo.  A team has been set up to assist the family when they do arrive. There was some mention of their two-year-old son learning Japanese. I thought right away of an I-Spy quilt, and dug out my tin of four-inch blocks. Last night I put the outer border on this quilt and now am thinking of where I can go to get this basted and ready to quilt. I have yet to check my supply of batting. I have some that was "gifted" but know nothing about what type it is. I may need to go shopping if I need more thinsulate but need to know if the store has a supply before setting out in the heat on a shopping trip.

So, this is what I have so far. The bamboo border is left-overs from my youngest grandson's quilt border. I thought that would be fitting for the family's Japan adventure. I used a few one and two inch  prints to make my scraps fit. I have some light violet binding and enough solid pale blue for the backing.
All I will need is space to lay it out for a few hours of basting. Maybe with the morning breeze I should see if there is enough floor space that is cool enough not to  drip sweat all over it while working.
Meanwhile I am thinking of creating a game with cards ... English on one side and Japanese on the other ... that they could draw with the Japanese side up and turn over to check if they found it. Maybe a set with colors or numbers or verbs or animal names. Well, I still have time ... lots of ot ... to work on the final plans.  Any ideas welcome

Another day down

Thursday mornings are my "park" day.
Last week was missed because of rain, though I have gone to the park when rain is rather light.

I take with me one of the bags that was used for my Monday morning onigiri delivery, and bring it home filled with weeds.

Park maintenance in my area ... and also in the last place I lived ... is very strange. They plant very fine grass, the kind one might see on a golf course. This grass grows by runners rather than going to seed.

The gardners come every other day or so and rake the leaves. Two guys mostly standing and talking, one with a bamboo broom and the other with a dustpan. They don't seem to throw out the leaves, but pile them up at the base of a tree.
About twice in the summer, they come with a weed whacker and cut all the grass, spreading the weed seeds all over. In all these years, I have never seen one gardner bend over and pull a weed.

The Thursday park has the good grass, but it has been taken over by weeds. This grass is still young, about a foot tall, but beginning to form weeds. Here I have pulled the front section of  a plot to give the good grass an equal chance.

Here is the other side of the grassy hill. The weeds were cut here once a few weeks ago.

The hedge is about three feet high, so those weeds are big enough to see and pull.

This is the left front of the park along the street.

Three years ago it was all knee-high weeds.
Last fall, my cub scouts came for a community service project and pulled all the weeds in this area.

I give it a "once over" each week but very few weeds have come back and, with the nice grass, which I was able to bring back by planting runners, the weeds are very easy to spot.

This is the right front of the park which was also knee-high weeds a few years ago. The bare area was a trash collection spot until last year.

All the grass around the sign was planted three years ago and toward the street are runners that have been added since this spring.

A few of the runners planted in the past month are beginning to take hold.

The biggest challenge now might be the gardeners with their bamboo rakes uncovering the grass roots.

This area has some plants that come up from small bulbs while the good grass is dormant. They don't seem to bother the grass at all.

This park was built with  water coming out from the top of the hill behind the hedges, running down a concrete path into a shallow pond with stepping stones and a small sculpture, then being pumped back to the top from the bottom drain.

I don't know whose idea this was, but for some reason it did not last more than a year or two. Maybe kids fell in the water or parents were afraid they might. Now the water just sits below the grate at the bottom and breeds mosquitoes. My nickname for this site is "Mosquito Park". The only people who I have seen here are truck drivers and construction workers coming to use the toilet, guys sitting on one of the rock seats to smoke, and people sometimes cutting through to the back road. Since it is along the road leading to a school, sometimes I see mothers dragging their kids out of the dry pond.

Here is one of the trees that gets the sweepings.

This is the park closest to my home. It seems the rotting leaves under the tree have made good compost for growing weeds ... and I see those weeds now creeping out into the grass.

This afternoon I spent three hours or more visiting the Toyota dealer to have my car inspected.
The car goes in every year at this time for a check up, and every three years that means an inspection.
It is never a cheap event. I will be sent a sticker to place on my front window, indicating it is in good running order. That is the way things are here in Japan.
Though it is expensive to own a car, it means the cars around you on the road are all in good working order.

Though there is a dealer within walking distance of my home, I have used this place about half an hour's drive to where we lived when I bought the car. They know me and they know my car. If there is anything to discuss, they call Norie and explain it to her. Last fall, when I went to have the break pads replaced, they gifted me a miniature potted rose. This morning, as I went out to the car park, I noticed that little rose had two buds, one beginning to open.

As to quilting ... While I was sitting in their over-cooled waiting room with a cup if iced coffee and a cookie, I managed to piece 8 new houses for my Coronaville. I had been thinking of making a runner for my coffee table, but now with close to 100 houses, it is looking like something a bit larger. (and the days continue to be piling up).

Well, time to hit the shower and call it a day.

Chopping wood

With no idea of what I am doing, I have been playing with log cabin blocks.

Hmm... random scraps might make a pattern hard to see.

I spent a whole day trying to sort the "gifted" stash. So much is cut with dangling pieces and bunched up in containers because it can't be folded.

I pulled out pieces, Ironed them, and trimmed off the strings that are too small to use. I suppose someone with a machine could make string blocks, but since I work by hand, I marked what was large enough into squares or strips, and anything smaller than a one-inch square, went into the trash. There is no way I can ever use all these fabrics, even if I live to 100. (or maybe 200) Some of the fabrics are large cuts and might be used for backings, but there are certainly a lot of random scraps.

My night-blooming cereus has a bud that is getting larger by the day.

It is promising a show one of these days.

 The tiny pot at the lower right is one of the plants I rescued from my friend Wally's garden.

There are about four or five different succulents in that pot and those tall flower spikes are coming from one  of them.

The green spiky plant behind it  has a number of red flower spikes coming up. I can't remember what it is, but it lives in damp moss rather than real soil.

The pineapple lily has sent out a big spike of flowers this year.
I think this is the biggest bloom it has ever had over the years.

And ... this has been a great year for the lily clan.

I was outside sweeping the street, and one of my neighbors who is an artist, brought out a painting to show me.

It was a lovely picture of a variety of flowers all gathered together. He pointed out one of a lily, saying he had taken a picture of one those in my garden to use as a model.

The flowers don't last long, but they are tall above everything else and very showy.

So ... the days drag by ... almost to the point I forget what day it is. This morning I had to drop everything and rush the "pura" out to the end of the street for the days collection ... before zooming in to  morning meeting. Tuesday I had to rush from a scout Executive Board meeting to another meeting without even time to fill my coffee cup. Sometime I get notices of meetings only a few hours before and by the time I check my email, I have missed the first half hour and missed the discussion point.
I'm beginning to wonder if I will be able to switch back to my former life once things reach a new normal ... if I even know what "normal" is...

Starring Feed Sacks

Friday, the 17th of July, I put the final stitches in the feedsack quilt. From then on it was sitting patiently on my sofa, waiting for a photo time. But... with all the rain ... even predicted through all  of next week ... I thought it might be quite a while before an opportunity might happen.

Surprise! When I brought my coffee cup to the coffee table and sat down with the morning paper, that quilt began nudging me and saying, Look! The sun is peeking out! You promised I could go to the park for a picture." Well, at least it let me finish my coffee before grabbing the stepladder and my camera and going off to the park.

Actually, it took a bit of walking to find a piece of fence that was tall enough and had the light coming from the right direction. This was my first time to try this section of the fence and it wasn't tall enough to take the picture with the quilt straight up. On the other hand, the fence was not all bent from kids kicking balls at it and the trees were not blocking the sun.

The direct sun doesn't show off the quilting much. I tried to keep it at a minimum as the center blocks are just quilted in the ditch plus a diamond shape in the center of the four inch feedsack prints.
I did not applique the yoyos, but tacked them down near the edges so things would not get caught on them as they might with a button.
Rain is predicted for most of next week so I may get to cuddle under this before the sauna weather sets in. For now, I'm glad it got its day in the sun.

This morning, the sayonara banner went of to its new family. I was not at the early service to see it go, but I was sent a photo of the smiling family.

Yesterday I began chopping logs to build a cabin, and with the silkworms off the coffee table, I laid out the coronaville houses to get an idea of how to put them together. It is looking more and more as if this down time is going to last long enough to make another bed cover... and those houses are only three by four inches! Ah well, tomorrow is another day.... If I need time to think, I am covered.

Playing with yoyos

Well, these are not the ones that swing around on strings...

I got a plastic yoyo maker (sold by clover) that makes the process fairly easy once I figured out the right-handed pictures that went with the instructions.

The device comes in three sizes and I wondered if I should have gotten the smaller one, but now these are in place, I think they will be OK.

So far I am using gingham and polka dot fabrics.

When I made the blocks, I picked up two colors from the feedsack print to make the setting star.
I am now trying to get a balance of those colors in the border.

The flower petals are made from small feed sack scraps.

I put the binding on when I was halfway through quilting the larger empty spaces in the border.
The backing was getting in the way while quilting, and since the border was basted anyway,  the binding in place sped up the process considerably.  Now I am thinking I might just take this WIP upstairs with me at night and sleep under it. But then again, that might be dangerous to the finishing process with diminished incentives.
Anyway, I can't take a picture of the finish quilt in all this rain ... so ... may as well keep on playing with yoyos....

Meeting expectations

When most of the church family knows you can make things, beware!

Last Monday a request came ... one family is leaving and will be at church next week for a sayonara blessing... could I make them a gift to thank them for their service.

Well, if I do make something, it will have to be finished by this Monday morning so I can leave it off when I go to pick up food items for the homeless mission.  Oh, I hate deadlines! Going to the end of the wire is just not my thing ... so I put down all I had been working on and hunted up some fabric that might work.

This family has been active in leading a program called "Saturday Night Out" or "SNO"

The first Saturday evening of each month, people gathered for fun and games, a nice meal, and while the kids had some entertainment, the adults had a video in a bible topic and a discussion.

I think  I attended every gathering from the beginning and enjoyed  the variety of food, the games, and getting to know members I don't often see when I am engaged in choir activities.

I picked out some night sky and stars for the border. The SNO letters got some red embroidery to help them stand out and the little letters cut from an alphabet print  got a gold outline on the family name and red on the rest.
The pink heart says "LOVE" in quilting and the long green says "and THANKS", with TUC in the left corner square.

I figured they could use this as a wall hanging or a table runner or toss it over the back of a chair.
Anyway, the expectations have been met and I didn't have to stay up past midnight to finish. I am wondering if, when we start back to gathering, this activity will be continued by someone else. This morning it was left in the postbox at the church.

Last Friday was my virtual Cub Pack meeting, We started with a game using a pencil, a meter of string, a paper clip, a scout cap, and a bottle with a narrow neck. The game was to put the pencil on one end of the string and clip the string to the cap brim, then stand and try to put the pencil into the bottle without using hands. Fastest and most successful was the only girl and it was fun to cheer them on.  As usual there was a lot of coaching once a system was discovered. When it comes to teamwork, my group is stronger then with competition.
Plans were made for a junk art challenge and a game that will meet advancement requirements. for the next meeting.
Another expectation checked off the list.

bits and pieces

Little by little things are getting checked off my list,

The feedsack quilt is all quilted in the border. I still have to add something in the more empty areas, put feelers on the butterflies, and make yoyos for the flower centers. Then add the binding.

Meanwhile, lest I fall too far behind, I have gone back to my "must do" list.
First was something for my birthday girl. (Our family draws names for Christmas and Birthdays, and this year I got #4 daughter, Kimie. ) She wanted a blue and white carrying cover for her laptop. Luckily her device is the same as mine so mine offered to sit as a model.

I dug out all my yukata scarps, turning all the space I had spent tidying into a mess.

This is what I came up with.

Last week I found a tenugui with the three comma crest. I added the triangles that makes it the same as the Fukuda family crest.

I thought Kimie might like the daruma with the"fuku" kanji and the beckoning cat.

I used a dark, rather traditional print for the lining.

I was thinking of adding a tie to be wrapped around a button but when I was going through my button collection to find something that would work, I came across the button in the shape of bamboo.

I decided to add a loop of elastic and that long button.





Below is a view of the back side with my laptop posing underneath.

I am thinking of making a drawstring bag to hold the cord and plug-in fixture.

This was a fun project and I spent the better part of the week laying out the scraps and sewing them together.

The binding was mostly stab-stitched to make it strong with many small stitches through a rather thick batting.

My other item on the to-do list was my block for the partnership quilts.
The deadline to make it to its destination is the end of the month ... and I can't say mail delivery is running smoothly or quickly.

The theme selected is "Love the Earth".

I really dithered over this one. Finally I dug out a background fabric with a map print and put my Ohio Cardinal over the center.

I'm not sure the background sets it off well, but stuck in a random fashion among 59 other blocks, who is going to notice?

Now I only have to fill out the form and get this into the mail. Maybe tomorrow ...

Time then to check in with Marie, who is my Christmas giftee, and see if there is something I might make for her. Judging how long it took for the koinobori to fly off to Oregon, there won't be a lot off time for dithering,

It's been a while...

Since my last post, the houses have been sitting in a tin, waiting for the silkworms to finish their feeding and free up the coffee table to test some layout designs. With little travel time into town and back, I have no take-along work prepared.

Most of my down time has been spent quilting the feedsacks in-the-ditch. I did add simple quilting in the center of each block.
Today I finished quilting around the applique on the first border.  There is a lot of empty space left over and I am thinking of what I could add in those spaces. Maybe I will finish all of this quilting and that will give me some time to come up with a plan.

I added a bit of quilting in each petal of the flowers, and put a vein in each leaf.

I tried to work without using a hoop and ended up un-quilting a section, as it was too wonky. My oval hoop is just too large and the borders are only lightly basted.

I ended up getting out a small hoop about 12 inches across and that seems to help.

I have been thinking of adding yoyos to the center of the flowers.

Those are a throw-back to my childhood when sometimes whole bed covers were made of yoyos.
(often of feedsacks too).

I saw a really nice embroidery stitch on Queenie's blog last week that also looks like it might work. It would probably be faster, but I am wondering how it might work on the back side of the quilt.
Well, I imagine it will be a while before I get all the borders this far and so there is time to think about that solution as well.

This is the season for the garden to show off,

The gardenias smell so strong, I could find my front gate blindfolded. Usually there is a problem with caterpillars chewing leaves and buds but this year all were left to bloom.

The lilies are also standing up and out. I had to tie them up as they were reaching to the west for more sun. They are all so very tall.

I had to turn the hosta planter sideways because those were also reaching out into the street to the west.

I have never had them bloom with so many stalks or this early in the year.
These were rescued from my neighbor's garden as the bulldozers were tearing it up. That was a number of years ago, but now they seem happy and used to being in a planter.

I have a few others of a different style on the north side of the house that have yet to bloom.

Days go by with lots of virtual activities. Zooming and skyping and facetiming and gotomeetings and livestreaming. My outings are sweeping the street to the corner and back ... sometimes twice a day ... and pulling weeds in the park at least once a week ... and of course hunting and gathering mulberry leaves for the caterpillar gang.
Twice I have made recordings to join our virtual choir. I have to admit I prefer singing with the group rather to my cell phone.
I have to let friends and family members know when I am going out so they won't panic when I don't answer a phone call or zoom in at the start of a community meeting
Our church will start up with a limited number of people allowed to join in person from tomorrow, but I think choir will be one of the last things to be added. I am still delivering onigiri to the homeless on Monday mornings, but as the weather gets hotter, that will temporarily end so as not to have the food go bad in the heat waiting in the cupboard for delivery.

The groups of young people that had lessened with closing of bars and karaoke places, have started to reappear in the morning hours. Most people are still wearing masks when out in public. I do not like trying to walk with my glasses fogged up. Can't see with them, can't see without them... and my ears are so wimpy it is hard to keep the masks on. I should probably come up with something that ties around the back because it looks as though masks will be part of the culture for a while yet.

So, that's about it from my neck of the woods.  I enjoy scrolling through my blog list to see how everyone else is filling their down time.

Changes

For weeks now, I have been seeing a notice saying "Try the new blogger". It has taken me forever to keep up with the changes blogger keeps making and so I have ignored that click spot.

Yesterday, when I logged on, there was a message saying the "new blogger" was going to take over in the coming month, so I decided to at least check it out. Well, that got me distracted and I wasted time looking for things that I might need for writing a post. In the end, I reverted back to the "Old" blogger and shut the computer.

Well, I really don't have a lot to post as I am slowly quilting my feedsack quilt ... mostly in the ditch where it is not going to show much.
Other time is spent tending silkworms and hunting for mulberry leaves to feed them, when I am not zooming and skypeing, and facetiming, and attending gotomeetings. I really needed a bit of handwork to do while at these meetings, and my bags of scraps came out because while checking what my blogging friends are up to, I came across the perfect bit of inspiration on Teresa's "Stitchin' Friends" blog... a corona village with a house representing each day of shutdown.

These little 4"x 3" houses might make a nice table runner or a border for a runner depending on how many days of shutdown they represent.

Or laid out in this topsy turvy way, and adding a one inch square in the middle or sashing, there are more possibilities.  They sure don't take as long to sew by hand as it does to mark and cut the scraps.

Of course I might be spending my time tidying up my messy room ... but then, it just gets messy right away again. With a bit of sewing instead, I have something to show for the time and a reminder of where I have been since mid February.

Thanks, Teresa, for your inspiration. (and an excuse not to do cleaning). Did you find the haunted house? Hopefully I will not celebrate my Halloween birthday still on lockdown.

A finish at last

Over the weekend, I finished the last stitches in the binding, and Monday Norie took this picture of the quilt on the park fence. My plan is to give this to the church to raffle or auction off to raise money for the library ... what may be needed to get it back up and running ... and the rest to the homeless mission.

The last quilts with this block were quilted with big stitch - light on dark and dark on light with sashiko thread. Because the backing of this one was all white, I decided to quilt butterflies in the block side pieces. I used dark thread on the very light blocks and light on the darker areas. I liked the idea of butterflies in the garden of floral prints and it is the symbol for the "hidden Christians".  I made a stencil for the small vine in the inner border and used linked hearts for the outer border with the idea we are all tied together by the love of God.

I picked blue for the binding, as it matched the blue in the border print. Maybe I should have chosen a darker rose, but I didn't want the quilt to look too "girly". Anyway, It is ready to go to the church once the new normal arrives.

Speaking of church, we were asked to take a picture of out communion table and send it to the church website. An assortment of pictures were showed this past Sunday during the organ piece.

As one might notice,  I enjoyed some red wine ... and the bread here was made by my daughter. Norie.
The lovely runner on my coffee table was made for me by Tanya Watanabe. It makes me happy everytime I sit beside it
You may notice my guests in the background ... plenty of silkworms. They have all moved up to larger containers over this past week.

Days go by with slight changes in schedule. Monday homeless is the same except what I am delivering now is crackers rather than onigiri. Tuesday Sermon Lab is on Zoom. I can do that without leaving home. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, there is a community meeting. We have been joined by people in the states who were once members and a lady who has never been to the church in person but has been attending since services became live streamed.

Last night was training to join the virtual choir ... not sure I can do it but if I can get earphones at the 100 yen shop, I will try. Tonight, My cub scouts will have a campout. They have been preparing for the last few weeks for campfire entertainment. It should be fun. Maybe more so than the Scout Board training coming up on Sunday ... as a result of the training team meeting last Saturday. Honestly, I am beginning to feel rather zoomed out!

Every day I sweep our street from one end to the other. We have a number of very messy trees dropping leaves, flowers, and seeds parts. Between sweeping and pulling weeds in the park, I contribute several large bags to the trash collection. I did notice that, with people wearing masks, the number of cigarette butts I sweep up has lessened lately.

On the other hand, Thursday is collection day for glass bottles, cans, and pet bottles.

Normally, that square blue folding net container is set out in the morning. The neighborhood members are to remove the lids (those go into the "pura" that is collected on Fridays), and squash the bottle, putting it in the net container.

I did notice the squashing rule is less met these days, but....










Looking up the street, even if those bottles were crushed, there are now way too many .

It is interesting that the numbers have increased to so much.

Of course people are staying home and drinking there.
I don't even remember when I last bought a drink in a pet bottle. I get drinks like milk or yoghurt or juice in paper cartons that can be washed, flattened and recycled.

I carry my own nylon shopping bag. I use the bags left from onigiri delivery for "Pura" plastic from all kinds of wrappers, the fastest to fill up maybe twice a month to the pick-up-site.
Paper, cardboard, and milk cartons are recycled on Fridays. (for me, once a month or less). and burnable trash and garbage on Wednesday and Saturday. I put the bag of weeds out then but a lot are composted and the wastepaper basket small stuff like sewing scraps fills the slowest of all along with unburnable maybe once every two months if that much.

I wonder if the change in trash has changed in other places as well. I wonder if people stuck at home are drinking more. I do notice my coffee is going faster now that I am home more.

Almost there..

I have turned the last corner while quilting the border on the floral quilt. Today I walked into town to the next station hoping to do some shopping for dinner items. Sadly the store was out of anything I needed.
I took a quick trip around the corner to the little sewing shop and was glad to see it opened. I went to the bias tape section. I found some nice blue that matches the blue in the outer border print. I will be all ready to take the next step this weekend when the border is finished.

It is that time of year for tending silkworms. There are many more than I have ever had in years before, and I have managed to locate a few more mulberry trees in the area.

They can turn leaves to lace in no time.

I have been experimenting with putting five critters out on a young tree in the garden. I just wanted to see how long they can survive in nature. One of the five dropped down by a silk thread to a lower plant. It was a Kerria bush ... not edible material, and after three days, expired. The others remained on the leaves at the end of the branch and went through another instar. There was a big lot of rain and the four made it through, but now another one has left the group.

As my paper diary has filled to the last page, I have begun a second book with photographs and descriptions.  I happened to notice that my finished mandala never got photographed with the binding added. That was way back in September of last year. Today, with a bit of sun, I took a photo on the fence in the park so I could add the record to my diary.

Here is how it came out. Whether walking a real labyrinth or following the winding trail with one's finger, we are led to the center. As in life, patiently putting one foot in front of the other, and trusting in a deeper process that takes us home. Centered and secure.

The buttons are points on the native American Medicine Wheel. The points are different for different people and tribes, but following each path to the center is a way to look at any situation from different angles and points of view. In this time of lockdown, it is nice to have an alternative to worry and frustration.

Zoom and Skype and go to meetings seem to grab my days. It is fun getting together with the kids. Tonight was an Eagle Scout board of review. There is a virtual birthday party coming up soon and some scout training plus a community gathering.  All this virtual stuff makes me appreciate the real person to person contacts all the more.

One down, one more to go

The inner border is done, and today I began working on the outer border.
This is a template I drafted in two sizes. The thing I like about these linked hearts is that, while cables need to be gone over with six or more threads, this will fill the space with only two.

I was able to layer this quilt nicely so that it only needed pin basting. After quilting all the blocks in the ditch, I thread-basted the outer border and removed the last of the pins. I can do this border quilting without using a hoop. I can use a long thread without it getting caught on things.

The silkworms are still hatching out. Norie sent a supply of mulberry leaves from her area. This morning I walked to the supermarket one stop over, looking for some food items before they were all sold out and the crowds arrived. The shelves were still being stocked but shoppers were very few. Now I know why.. The stuff I was looking for was still not there. Not sure how to get the timing right. At least I could find more milk and a coffee refill... And taking a different route home, I found a few mulberry trees in the gardens along the way home.

Mulberries are considered "junk trees" here in Japan. I am not sure why, as they are not so big as to take up much space. They attract small birds and the berries are delicious. Of course they don't all ripen at the same time so wouldn't be good for harvesting. They might be considered messy, but there are lots of persimmon trees that drop their fruit making a much bigger mess.

The park where I do most of my weeding has one young mulberry tree hidden behind a row of evergreens. The leaves are a nice size and shape for harvesting during silkworm season. From the fall, construction of two new houses began in the north side of the park fence, making that one tree a bit more visible.

I asked Leia to make me a sign to hang on the tree, saying the leaves were feeding silkworms, so please don't cut it down.

I am hoping if the tree is discovered by the gardeners, they will leave it alone.

It is strange to me that those hired as "gardeners" really don't seem to have any skills of tending a garden.
Mostly, they rake the leaves up into a pile, and when the weeds get knee-high, come out with a weedwacker and cut everything off ... spreading the weed seeds all over.

I have never seen them bend over and pull a weed. In fact, I have come to doubt they know which items are weeds.

These beautiful flowers are getting ready to put on a show.

Maybe the gardeners will be taking a stay-home break and we will actually get to see the blooms, but this is about the time each year they all get whacked off about two inches above the ground.

See why this rescue looks so happy?

They don't really ask for a big plot with tender loving care, just a place to hold their bulbs and greet the spring.


This week, as I go through fabrics looking for certain colors or designs among the gifted stuff,
I come up with all kinds of scraps, cut in weird shapes and bunched up in a heep of other bits and pieces.

I often pick out some to iron out and trim.

This scrap had a lot of useless bits, but I cut it up into as many squares as would fit, and tossed the rest out. I think one 4 inch, one three inch, two twos and 2 ones.

Those all went into the scrap tins and I have been seeing a number of scrappy quilt patterns that might inspire their use.

I have been having trouble lately with the comment section getting a bunch of spam.
I talked with my guru son, who was going to help fix it, but things I had removed earlier in the week, came back again.
I wish there was just some way to block those spam comments. I wonder if the "new" blogger would do that. I hesitate to go there and get myself in an even bigger mess. Ah, well, nothing is for sure, but change!

Moving on...

The last of the blocks have been quilted. Now I am moving on to the borders.

Usually I put just a one inch inner border and only quilt in the ditch on both sides. This time I used an inch and a half strip and thought it needed a bit more quilting.

Since the blocks are eight inches, I decided to draft a simple pattern I could quilt in a single line all the way around, divided in two inch segments. This is what I came up with. I had planned to melt the plastic template with my soldering iron but I have no idea where it has gone, and while I was lookin for my wood burning tool, I spied my proxon router. I can't say it worked perfectly, as some areas of the stencil are a bit rough and hard on my lead pencil, but it works well enough.

Now one long border is done. Turning the corner with three to go.

The silkworms are a bit of a distraction. about 60 more have hatched out today. I think last year I ended up with about 80 or so and now the number is over 200. These are going to be a challenge to feed if they all survive. The biggest task is moving them one-by-one to fresh leaves with a paintbrush. It is going to be a few weeks before they can manage on their own, and several instars before they are big enough to find and move by hand. I remember once I ordered 100 eggs from a breeder and they sent some kind of food that resembled hot dogs. The instructions said that once they switch to real leaves, they will not go back. I imagine that places that raise them for the silk must use that kind of food, because I can't imagine feeding thousands of silkworms in such a labor intensive way. Just think back to the days of the "silk road"! To think people back then could raise enough for making fabric! Must have kept them safe inside without the threat of a virus.

Gifts and rewards

The scaffolding has come down and sunlight has returned to my greenhouse/bedroom.
My plants are happy and even a few blooms here and there. The poinsettia is still putting on a show ... not like the big gaudy flowers found in a florists shop but maybe seven flowers of part green and part red petals greeting me each morning.

Along the wall on the east side of the house, I am enjoying the reward of a second year of blooms from these bulbs rescued from the weed lot on the park.

Though this end of the bed is only about six inches between the house and the wall, the plant has increased in size and numbers of blooms. I think it is happy that the guys with the weed whackers won't be showing up here and I don't mind if it takes over the whole space.

How is that for a flower just beginning to open? And there are a lot of promises in the bud too.

I am still going to the park on nice days to pull weeds.
It's not quite the same without my canine helper, but I prefer this exercise to radio gymnastics.

We are working on getting a new dog, but even the rescue places won't give dogs to old people. There is some kind of ban now on letting the elderly have dogs. It seems rather stupid to me because it gets those owners out for a walk at least twice a day,  and they also connect with the rest of the community on those walks.

Over the past number of years, my readers have heard about the "Weed Lot" on the corner of our street. A number of years ago it was knee-high weeds and collected lots of dog poop ... I suppose the dog owners thought no one would be walking there anyway so didn't pick it up. The feral cat population used it as a litter box too, and the wind blew plastic or people tossed trash and all that collected standing water for a mosquito farm.

After years of complaints, I decided to just pull the weeds, day by day, a little at a time, until the lot was pretty well under control.  What had been an eyesore for the whole neighborhood became very positive as I planted flowers along the borders each spring.

There was some negative, though, as the renter in the adjoining apartment didn't like me pulling weeds and would shout at me to go back to my own country and I was a "dorobo" burglar? For stealing weeds??? But basically, what had been negative, became positive.

Then, last year, the apartment was sold ... the guy moved out ... and the building was torn down.
Then, months of building began. The new house got bigger and bigger ... which means taller and taller because the space was really not that large. In the end, what stood on that weedlot was a house ... thankfully not another apartment ... but cutting off most of the sun coming from the south and west to my garden. I was a little sad last year to see only one flower on my row of azalea bushes, no flowers at all on the enkianthus, and even fewer on the hostas that don't seem to need a lot of sun.

So here in my small neighborhood was a plot of land swinging back and forth from good to bad.

Then, last fall, the property was finally sold. The neighborhood waited with curiosity. The flower box by the door got several rose bushes. There seemed to be a young couple coming and going.

Finally, I got some treats and took them one evening, after seeing lights on in the house, and rang the doorbell.  I introduced myself and told them I hoped they would feel welcome here.


Since then their little garden has continued to grow with planters and trellis added. The other evening, my doorbell rang and I went to the door to find the couple  bringing me these darling cookies they had made. I think it was the husband who did the decorating. Oh they are so cute I'm not sure I want to eat them.  Both the couple speak English. The husband went to school a year in Ohio, my home state.

I will see how my garden does with a bit less sun, and maybe plant some things that like shady spots, but in the balance, I will be enjoying the weed lot, now with the promise of rose blooms. And the nasty renter, having been replaced by a lovely young couple.
Things are changing all around us. The new "normal" will never be the old normal. I am hoping this experience is a sign to look for something better yet to come.

I hope you all are keeping safe and well. Nothing lasts forever. The floral quilt has only 8 blocks left to quilt and then it will be on to the borders.  I wil keep trying to see these days as a gift of time.

More of the same

This has been a hard week with the stink of paint coming from the house to the south.

When the weather was nice, I escaped to the park and filled a few bags with weeds.

Two of the areas I have been working on for a little over a year are looking quite nice with weeds well under control.

The "good grass" does not increase by flower and seed, but by runners. In those two areas, the weeds were so thick they had overcome the grass, so I selected runners from places where grass was creeping over cement and rocks and re-purposed them in the bare spaces. Without competition, those spaces are looking much better. One problem is the "gardeners" who come to rake the leaves and often dislodge the new runners. The trick is to get there before they do and remove the leaves from those spots.

My other outdoor activity is sweeping the street.
(if my narrow ally could be called that).

I start at my gate, all the way south to the park corner, on the left side, then back up on the right side, past my house to the small side street and back.
I clean the drains as I go, as the flower petals from the Illicium clog the drains causing a lake in the middle of the road each time it rains.


Narita-san to the north has a great big garden that always provides plenty of fallout in every season. Now that his plum is leafing out, the camellias are falling. Lots of petals blowing in the wind, and what I don't sweep up by his wall today, I will be sweeping up in front of my gate tomorrow. I like to get them before they are pounded into the pavement by walking feet.  I guess if you look at the bag you can see the color ... two of these trees and one white one that is yet to begin falling.

Yesterday my morning coffee was drunk to the tune of banging and clanging of more scaffolding being set up.

I had hoped the sound was it being taken down and went out to look. Nope. And why, with the curb space empty across the street, did they have to pile all those heavy metal poles on my flowers?

I was able to lift the smaller ones off but those long ones were just too heavy. Both the house to the south of mine and the one across the street belong to the same family. They carefully
covered the owners car each day ... and a good thing because they are not the neatest painters in the world ... paint splatters on the street where the tarp doesn't reach.

And, today, my kerria bush had one flower.

I guess it is following orders from the governor to keep apart from all others.

I think I heard other buds whispering to let them know when it was finished so that they could have their turn in the sun.

So... what do I do with the rest of my days?

The weight of Sunday's snow Pulled my planter off the wall, hooks and all. I put the plants back in the planter and set it up on top of my fish tank while waiting for the wall to dry so I could replace the hooks with cement glue.

Then, before I had a chance, the big wind came and blew the planter back to the ground. Oh my, what a mess.


Monday mornings as usual I will drive into town to deliver onigiri to my homeless friends.
During the week I will struggle with Mr. Zoom, trying to get into meetings if I can ... and sometimes give up when he doesn't like my password or name ... wondering why I bothered to record it all in my computer notebook if it only worked once...
After a few sunny days, the planter returned to it's space on the wall. The plants got rearranged and some went to the upstairs balcony that is a bit more sheltered and has more sun.

And, of course, a lot of quilting.

The last ones I made, I used big stitch, black on the light fabrics and white on the dark. Since the backing ended up being all white, it was not going to hide the stitches on the back, so I decided after quilting it all in the ditch that I would just use regular quilting.

I drafted a butterfly to fit the large areas and used colored thread on the light segments and white on the dark. It really does not show up very well.

So far I have 12 blocks quilted and still a lot to go. I am getting a bit faster with practice and I hope as I near the edges it will be a bit easier without so much bulk on my lap.

If I get tired, there is a lot of tidying up for me to do. And... a bit of mending ... wondering why the left knee of every pair of pants have holes or almost holes... Tomorrow looks like it will be sunny. Will the painters be back? I asked their schedule but they only said "soon".  It won't be too soon for me ... but the weeds are still growing and the quilt is waiting ... so ... we shall see

Hope you are all safe and keeping well.