Scrappy Mountain Majesties

Yesterday I spent most of the morning sewing blocks for the Mountain Majesties quilt and I think I am finished.  This is not going to make a big quilt but maybe it will be a nice size lap quilt. 

I found that pattern here at Bonnie Hunter's website.  36 blocks for a small quilt and they were a lot of fun to make.

Next week I will try to get a border on this before trying to figure out what I'm going to do for quilting.

Fabric postcard

So... I made the comment that I thought myself a practical quilter.  But sometimes you just have to break through your shell!

I have often admired bloggers' fabric postcards.

"I would love to do something like that...  Small, fun, quickly made."

I don't know how many times I've given it some thought but didn't have any real starting point.  I had also thought that my mother might appreciate a fun card now and then; she no longer reads my blog or writes letters etc.  Wouldn't it be fun to send her a fabric card every month!

I occurred to me yesterday morning that it was already the end of January and I'd never attempted a fabric postcard.  Did I even know how to make one?  And it was a little late to start combing the Internet.  My best bet was to just try and make one.

What did I want to make?  Hmmm.  A scenery card?  Could I get inspiration from my past photos?  Nah...  That would just send me back to the computer again.  I went upstairs to the sewing room and found Chip in one of my scrap baskets.  I snapped a picture.

Next I started cutting up fabric (no rough draft) and pretty soon I had THIS mess.  What on earth am I doing?

And then I quilted it up, adding batting.  I'm afraid I was REALLY  lazy and didn't bother to use glue or pins or anything.  This meant that as I free-hand quilted, the fabric shifted around...  This is what is called ABSTRACT free-hand quilting.  Every time the needle came down, the little pieces moved to a place of their own...

And then I zigzag stitched the whole MESS to a left-over New Year's card (I covered up our photos with the fabric collage!) and addressed it.

The next hurdle was to find out if the Japanese Post Office would even send my card!  My friendly post office girls were on their lunch break.  A older man who isn't used to my odd requests (I only want stamps on my packages) scratched his head and probably wished he were somewhere else.

"Can I send my postcard to the States this way?"

He was most confused with my SCRAPS on the card.  The green and pink there are hanging loose.  I thought it a nice realistic touch as the scraps in Chip's basket were escaping from between the slats but the post office man kept tugging at them suspiciously...

"If you want me to glue them down I can.  Or if you give me some scissors I'll just cut those two off right now."

The post office man telephoned someone higher up in the hierarchy and tried to describe my fabric post card.

"It is the size of a regulation postcard.  It is sewn ONTO a regulation postcard.  There is loose fabric hanging on it...  It is not really flat...  She wants to send it internationally."

Ah, the problems this foreigner causes!

My post office man came back smiling.  Yes!  I COULD send my postcard as-is, but, it would be regarded as a LETTER and it would cost me 260 yen (about $2.50) to send to America.  The post office man suggested that I send the post card enclosed in an envelope for the same fee and then it would be "protected".

I actually chose to send my postcard UNprotected... as-is, just to see what sort of state it will be in when it arrives in California.  I also asked if I could embellish cards further... with buttons etc. and whether fabric postcards could be sent in Japan... Yes, they can, but as soon as they are anything other than paper postcards they will be regarded as LETTERS.

Now I'm not really sure this was a successful attempt at fabric postcard making.  I probably need to use some sort of stabilizer.  I probably need to glue or baste pieces down.  I probably need to eliminate some of those frayed edges.  And the cost of 260 yen as opposed to 50 yen for a regular postcard makes me think twice...

It sort of depends on my mother's reaction when it arrives in her mailbox...

Quilt show impressions

Although it has been nearly a week since I went to the Tokyo Quilt Festival, I still wanted to share some of my impressions and maybe refer you to my friends' blogs who covered the exhibition aspect much better than I did.

My friends and I were at the Tokyo Quilt Festival a whole 4 hours.  That was a bit too short of a time for me...  I really could have spent quite a few more hours because I really didn't give the exhibition part of the festival the attention it deserved.  When Mrs. Okutomi and I went off on our own we made a quick trip down a couple of exhibition aisles and then I suggested we go look at the vendors booths.  And I said this with a bit of guilt because what are we doing at the quilt show to begin with?  We are supposed to be becoming inspired by the quilts!!  And I want to look at vendor booths?

But Mrs. Okutomi was of the same mind and seemed to appreciate my suggestion to plunge into the vendor section first... she made some comment that the quilts were much the same every year and though they were all wonderful, looking at them was overwhelming.  So instead of admiring quilts we fought our way through the vendor crowds (not that there weren't crowds around the exhibited quilts also).

As I mentioned, I bought next to nothing at the vendor booths.  It was just too hard to part the sea of people to get into a booth!  I did by chance pass a booth of a fabric artist that I remembered admiring before and practically fell into the few meters of space. 

Years ago someone had given me a children's book by this artist because the illustrations were in fabric and the story was about cats... 

I was delighted to find the artist's booth but decided that his applique and quilting process was much too intricate for my time schedule these days and thus I only bought post cards there.  I made the interesting discovery that the artist is male.  His name is Kenshi Yonekura and he has illustrated a number of children's books.  I had just assumed that the person was a woman...  Beautiful work.  I wonder if I'll regret not buying one of his kits...

So that was my purchase at the Quilt Festival.  Mrs. Okutomi also bought almost nothing.  She has come to the show many times and she pointed out that she still had purchases from other shows that she's never used.  Don't remind me.  I still have purchases in my drawers from three Long Beach Quilt Shows !

Meeting back with Mrs. Furui and other friends, I found them all tired out... and they had chosen to look at the exhibits and never got to the vendors at all!  I have a feeling Mrs. Furui and I are "practical" quilters because on the way home we observed that the exhibits that we saw we mostly art quilts and not really usable quilts...  My quilting group focuses mainly on completion... and in some cases the faster we can get something done, the more fulfilled we feel...   The art quilts seemed concentrated on details and more details. 

Does that makes me sound like the fox in the sour grapes fable?...  If I can't make something so exquisite then maybe it doesn't appeal to me.  Hmmm.  I don't know.  I love seeing the colors used and being wrapped in the atmosphere of creativity but I don't especially plan to make anything similar...

As I'd spent most of my time at the vendor booths and never got back to the exhibits as I'd intended, I really am in no position to critique...

I've actually seen more of the quilt show through Julie's posts. 
and through Queenie's posts.

If you wish to get a wonderful sample of the exhibits please visit Julie and Queenie.  They took so many wonderful pictures and there is so much to see in their blogs.  Maybe I should have visited the exhibition first...  I really seem to have missed a lot...

Keeping warm

We are still cold around here but maybe not as cold as other places in the world.  I've realized this after talking with Leiya and a blogger friend in Ohio.  It is just that I am aware of the cold in Celsius and when I hear Farenheit numbers I can't make the conversion in my head. 

But Japanese houses don't have central heating and we depend on these little kerosene heaters and electric rug heaters and wall air-conditioners that also heat.  This means that from room to room we go from hot to cold to hot to cold.  The bathroom area is freezing...  like stepping onto an ice-cube!  The bedroom is freezing and though under the covers it eventually warms up, our faces are chilled all night long.

The cats sleep with me or claim a lap but maybe it is not so much out of love as because humans make very nice hot water bottles.

Here is Tetsu watching TV.  He is cold, you can see, with a hat on his head and sitting as close to the kerosene heater as he can...  and he is on the floor because the rug heater is on high also.  There are two cats perched on his knee also seeking out the heat.

Is everyone keeping warm? 

A night festival

On Tetsu and my way back from the swan shoot we were detoured because of a town street fair.  Since we were hungry anyway, we found a place to park and began heading up the street.  Mostly food stalls with a few trinkets being sold.  Almost no hand made goods so actually I don't know if you can call this a street fair or not...  A few bonsai trees and a couple trucks of fruit saplings but that didn't seem to be the main event.  We asked, and someone said the festival was called a flower market but there didn't seem to be much in the way of flowers.  (Too cold for flowers anyway.)

Probably the festival was just a great excuse to get out and have some enjoyment for the town's people at least once in these cold months.

Tetsu chose to have a jumbo pack of fried noodles for dinner and I ate a steamed, buttered potato.  Along with everyone else, we walked along the street eating out of our plastic packs.  That's a lot of noodles but Tetsu ate them all!

Another favorite are octopus balls.  The merchant pours a batter into little half round holes in a grill and places cubes of octopus and vegetables in the dips and deftly cooks them while turning the batter until the octopus is enveloped in crispy ball shaped cakes.  Yum!

Here is another delicacy, salted ayu grilled over a hibachi.  It is pleasant to stand around the burning charcoals and bite into the fish...  By the way, most people will only have a stick left when they've finished eating their fish...

There was a whole intersection at the festival devoted to Daruma dolls.  These are paper-mache dolls, usually red, depicting a particular Zen Buddhist monk.  The dolls come in all sizes, from some that fit in your hand, to huge things that would be hard to get through a doorway.  The sellers are writing good luck wishes in gold on the back of the dolls, things like "Household Safety", "Examination Success", "Election Victory".  Another reason why daruma are popular as a goal setting symbol is because even if it is pushed over, it will right itself, a reminder that one should never give up no matter how many times misfortune strikes.

At the beginning of the year, many families will buy a daruma doll at a festival like this one or at a temple.  The daruma's eyes are bought blank and one eye will be painted black when a goal for the year is set...  At the completion of the goal, the other eye will be painted in and at the end of the year the daruma will be brought to the temple and burned in a bonfire.  (Remember Dontosai?) 

Here was another booth of colorful good luck charms.  I'm sorry I don't know what the symbolism is of all the hanging things.  They certainly caught the eyes of this little girl out for a late evening with her family. 

More swans

After our day trip to see the swans a few days ago, I made a special effort to thank Tetsu for taking me.

"I had so much fun trying to take pictures of the swans.  It's different from taking pictures of flowers and non-moving objects.  You never know what you're going to get until you get home and look on the computer."

Tetsu took my gratitude to heart and yesterday on our way back from a trip to Costco (another three hour drive) he pulled out a computer printout saying he thought we'd go look at another swan marsh.  (It seems all swans are visiting Japan.)

I couldn't very well say "Again?!" as I had expressed my appreciation...  but how many photos of swans does one need?

We arrived at the marsh around sunset (great timing).  But no swans.  A whole three.  But nearly a hundred people there and thousands of ducks.  Way off in the distance (white dots on the water) there WAS a flock of swans leisurely floating on the lake but they weren't interested in coming to the our side.  Some man was ready with two huge bags full of bread and he kept calling across the lake.

"K~~O~~~I~~~!!!  K~~~O~~~I~~~!!!"

The far away swans completely ignored him.  The humans stamped their feet in the cold and fed the three swans and the ducks for the next 30 minutes and finally a convoy of swans took to the air and headed in our direction.

"Oh good!  A photo chance."

Yes, A photo chance because the swans made two loops over the humans and headed back to their friends on the other side of the lake.  Maybe they weren't hungry that day?  Or maybe they were camera shy?  Tetsu and I gave up about then and headed back home but the man with the bread was still out there calling,

"K~~~O~~~I~~~!!!  K~~~O~~~I~~~!!"  his voice getting raspier and raspier.

I wonder if the swans ever decided to accept his invitation to dinner...

Tokyo International Quilt Festival

A late night post for me but I wanted to write about my great day before I go to bed.  Guess where I went today!   To the Tokyo International Quilt Festival!  Whoo-oo!

A couple of months ago Tetsu made the suggestion that I go the quilt show in January.  There was a bus tour on a Saturday and it would take me there and bring me back.  He suggested that I get Mrs. Furui to go along with me.

Mrs. Furui and I have talked about going to the quilt show every year for the past few years.  But it is held in the coldest season of the year, it is hard to get to.  When the time rolls around we always make excuses.  This time started out the same...

"A bus?  On Saturday?  Those buses are going to be coming in from all over Japan.  Think of the crowds!"

We consulted with Mrs. Harada who has been to the quilt show in recent years and with her encouragement we were able to challenge ourselves to try taking a train into Tokyo.  And inviting other patchwork friends resulted in 4 of us; Mrs. Furui, Mrs. Yamaguchi, Mrs. Sato and yours truly; traveling from Tochigi Prefecture and meeting up with two others in Tokyo.  Mrs. Harada was waiting for us at one of the crowded Tokyo train stations and took us through the maze of subways and ticket booths.  We met up with Mrs. Okutomi at around 12:30 after arriving at the Tokyo Dome (where the show was being held).

This is the sight that greeted us as we stepped through the doors to the Tokyo Dome (usually a baseball stadium.)  That's a lot of people down there!

The six of us quickly gave up the idea of wandering around together as a group and we split up into a buddy system, Mrs. Okutomi and I wandering the stalls and exhibits together.  

And what did we see?  A lot of heads...  There is the Grand Prize First Place quilt over there... over there... over there...

But Mrs. Okutomi and I had fun, barging our way through the crowds (not unlike salmon swimming upstream) and fighting our way into a booth or two. 

Here is Mrs. Okutomi trying out a long arm quilting machine that can also do couching.  Long arming still hasn't made it big yet in Japan.  As most Japanese quilters don't believe a quilt is their own until they've hand quilted it themselves, I can't see long-arming becoming a booming business in the near future.  (I'd sure like to try to change the trend though!)

After struggling through more crowds we met up with our friends again who were relaxing in the stadium stands.  Does everyone look tired already?

That will never do!  I had my biggest event of the day still ahead of me!  With friends in tow, I went off to meet Julie and Carin!!!!!!!  JULIE AND CARIN AND ME!!!  Three foreign wives living most of our lives in Japan enjoying needlework and blogging, counting the days until we could get together! We tried to figure out how long we have been keeping track of each other over our blogs...  6 years?  Yet, this was the first time for me to meet them (though Julie and Carin have gotten together a couple previous times as they live closer to each other.)

Lots of hugs and introductions and my patchwork friends waved goodbye to us, letting the three exhuberant foreigners spend the next half hour filling in the blanks in our friendship.  Yes, there was lots I didn't know about them, but do you know...  both Julie and Carin were exactly as I imagined they would be.  It is very interesting that a person's personality comes through so clearly over a blog and corresponding comments.  I had a wonderful time and the 30 minutes or so went by much too quickly.

Making our way back to my patchwork friends we were swamped by quilt show attendees who wanted to take Julie's picture.  Sort of like walking around with a celebrity.  People would tap me on the shoulder and ask if they might photo Julie... because... Julie had her BEAUTIFUL quilted coat/poncho/blanket on!  A walking quilt exhibit!

After more hugs and promises to get together again, I parted from Julie and Carin and joined my group to look at more of the quilt show exhibits.  There was a special exhibit of Moomin... a Scandinavian animation/cartoon.  Have you ever heard of these Moomin creatures?  I hadn't until I came to Japan so maybe they aren't well known in the States.  The special exhibit was wonderful though even if I wasn't familiar with the characters and their story...

This pretty applique wreath was made by Yoko Saito and it was used for the official 2014 quilt show pamphlet and reproductions were printed for official gift shop goods.  It was lovely but the details (in all her pieces) were mind boggling.

Here was another Moomin piece about the size of a wall.

Lots and lots of fabric flowers making a small field around the Moomin corner.

By about this time we were all a bit bushed and elected to leave the quilt show around 4:30 and head for a coffee shop for a little refreshment.  A last longing glance at the quilt show.  I wouldn't have minded staying a few more hours (or days) but there was still a three hour trip awaiting me in order to get home...

Mrs. Harada (our tour guide for the day) directed us to a Moomin coffee shop where we enjoyed cafe latte Moomin style with Moomin characters occupying empty chairs at various tables.  Do Mrs. Furui and I look tired?

Refortified, we parted from our tour guide and four of us headed back to Tochigi Prefecture, with me arriving home around 9:30.  I'm usually a 9:00 bedtime person, but here it is 11:00 and I actually feel invigorated from today's good companionship and the thrill of meeting new/old friends.

And you know... I really have very little to show in the way of purchases... A yard of white cloth.  Some postcards.  But my heart is filled to the brim!
 

Labels

Oh dear...

I'm posting about a label I saw... but I thought I ought to add a couple more just because...  Well, I'm a bit embarrassed.

Here is a nice innocuous "label" I often see on Suzuki brand cars.  The car is called Lapin which I think means rabbit in French.  Now if I were a real rabbit fan I think I'd like to have the car just because of the cute little rabbit ornaments.  The 'i' in the name and the rabbit ears on the handle.  If someone decided to name a car line "Chat" and added a couple of cat ornaments, I'd probably be one of the first buyers.  Spotting rabbit cars in front of me at the stoplight makes me smile.

Here is a label I've shown before.  In Japan we can get fish sausages (which I don't particularly like).  There are many brands and my cats absolutely love them.  Occasionally (but not often) I'll see this brand.  Homo Sausage.  Hmmm.  I'm glad I already don't like this sausage because I am NOT going to eat this.  I bought it especially for my cats (and to photo).

And this is actually the label that I am embarrassed to show...

I was in the handcraft shop looking for things to do with my English kids.  Can we use beads?  How about felt?  How about felt kits?  Whoa...  What is this?

I had to take a picture with my cell phone.  I didn't buy the kit.

This seems to be a felting kit with raw wool and a felting needle inside.  You are supposed to poke the prepared wool with the needle a thousand or so times to make cute little felt objects.  The idea is to "prick" the wool.  Got that?

Please tell me that you see the humor in this otherwise I'm going to wonder about the direction in which my brain wanders...

Wedding rings

Tetsu rather sheepishly handed me his wedding ring last night...  What's this?!

Tetsu has been having joint pain in his fingers and went to the doctors to have tests.  Arthritis?  No one's sure about that yet, but at any rate, his joints are growing knobby and it might not be long before he can't get that wedding ring on and off (not that I see why it needs to come on and off).  So he's given it back to me for safe keeping.

When we were engaged, Tetsu informed me that he didn't need a wedding ring.  Rings and jewelry in general were only for women.  A real Japanese man wouldn't wear jewelry!  (Of course these days Japanese men are sporting diamond rings in their ears.)  But I wasn't going to have any of that!  I expected my husband to wear a wedding ring!  At my insistence we were married with matching wedding rings and Tetsu never took his off...

BUT, when Takumi was around 3, Tetsu started talking him to a judo dojo (gym?) and the two of them bonded doing judo together.  But to do judo, no jewelry is allowed and the wedding ring was taken off and placed in the bottom of a shoe in a gym locker...  AND ONE DAY DISAPPEARED!!!  Whether it fell out of the shoes when Tetsu put them on... whether it was left in the locker...  we never knew.  Tetsu was horrified!  This may be grounds for divorce in his foreign wife's mind!

When I forgave him for losing the wedding ring he insisted that he didn't need another one, it wouldn't have the same meaning, but again, I made my own plans and enlisting the help of a friend got Tetsu's finger size and went off and ordered a men's wedding ring.  I presented it with a flair and Tetsu has worn it ever since.  There have been a few times when he has done judo and had to take the ring off again but he has been most careful about putting it back on his finger after a workout.

So this wedding ring is NOT the original, but it has served the same purpose.  Until last night...  I said that giving the wedding ring back to me was negating the point of wearing a wedding ring, (I want those other ladies to know that this man is TAKEN!) but Tetsu claims that since he has put it in my possession with an explanation then it is still around his finger in principle.  I guess I'll have to live with that theory...  Or hang it around his neck on a chain?  But Tetsu still doesn't do the jewelry thing...