Cemetery visit

The past couple of days have been rainy and neither Tetsu nor I feel like taking Choco for a long walk in the morning.  Choco doesn't wear a raincoat (see previous post...  one winter I did make Choco a fleece shirt but she ripped in up within minutes.  She made it plain that she doesn't want to wear clothes) so she probably doesn't really like getting wet in the rain either.  So instead of a 40 minute walk, we go across the street to the well kept cemetery for a short jaunt. 

The cemetery across the street is a small multi-faith cemetery (rather than one off to the side of a Buddhist temple) and it has only been there about 20 years.  People in my neighborhood have their graves there (pop across the street to take flowers) and I know some of the stories connected with the stones.  The cemetery keeps expanding so the grave stones are new and the designs are modern.  It is always interesting to wander through it and notice new things.

This week I went over and photoed some of the stones that have English on them.

This is a pretty stone with colorful cherry blossoms on it.  What does that message mean though?  An exercise enthusiast's grave?  And I think the correct English isn't supposed to be in plural... 

 

And maybe this might be more commonly seen as "an eternal home"?  (Which personally isn't too comforting to me.)

I found this same stone two or three places in this cemetery...  "The Memorial Tombs"...  The stone engravers must have a design book to chose from...  It sounds very formal...   But I can't read what is under that...  Does anyone know what language that is?

I know the story connected with this stone...  It certainly is a beautiful one with that rainbow!

And this stone also had a rainbow motif.  I suppose this is a message to the grave visitor...  Only making an appearance in one dream?

Having English engraved on your gravestone when it isn't your native language seems a bit risky to me...  But probably no worse than the strange Japanese characters I've seen on tattoos when I visit the States...

Fashion show

Choco and I were headed out for a walk when my neighbor and her daughter and her dog and her cat came home from shopping.  It seems that even the cat likes to go out for a drive when the family goes shopping.  (There is no way any of my cats would enjoy a drive!)

This is the neighbor that years and years ago contemplated adopting Mi when she turned up in our neighborhood.  Not long after they decided their family couldn't include a cat, the daughter brought home a dog.  And then a couple years later a cat showed up at their house (better theirs than mine!) and then another cat. 

My neighbor's dog and cats are fashionable.  They wear clothing.  It is not a custom that I will ever adopt and I wonder what the pets in the neighbor's house think about the practice.

Both dog and cat and the other cat that doesn't like riding in the car, let me take pictures while they modeled their outfits.  You will notice that the car riders wear matching sailor outfits.

 This is Shido, today modeling a crisp blue and white sailor shirt with an accenting neckerchief.

And here is Shido's counterpart, Azukin also modeling a sailor suit with stripes going in the opposite direction.  The trimmed necktie makes this outfit very trendy for the spring and summer.

And finally we have Nano who prefers to dress in formal party clothes.  Always ready for a party if it will come to her...  Nano doesn't deign to run around in noisy contraptions.

My Mi who has no interest in fashion is quite pleased that she was not adopted into this voguish family.
 

My friends' projects

Let's see...  What's going on today?  Golden Week has begun which means that many companies and businesses have a week or more of vacation but there is still school today though tomorrow is off...  During Golden Week it is best to just stay home and avoid the crowds and traffic jams as much as possible.  To me, Golden Week is a good time to start another quilt!

I haven't been keeping a proper record of what my two friends who come once a month on Friday's have been sewing.  They work at different speeds and while often projects get started at the same time, the completion comes months apart with new projects getting thrown in for whoever is ahead.

Rumi-san has finished a table runner that she was making.  She started off thinking that she was going to machine quilt this and she did get the straight lines in, but after the first few inches on the border she threw up her hands and ripped all her stitching out.  We drew in new quilting lines and she hand quilted the border.  That turned out very nicely and she is quite satisfied but it didn't give her any machine quilting practice. 

It is always a quandary...   If you've spent time and effort making something nice, do you really want to use it as a practice piece when it is at the quilting stage?  But if you don't use that piece then it means you have to make a whole other piece for quilting and it will probably turn out just as nice so that you don't want to practice machine quilting on IT either!  And so the cycle goes...

Mrs. Nakazawa has finished her table runner and decided to make a Scrappy Mountain Majesty quilt.  She has really put this together quickly.  She is getting so good on her sewing machine.  I forgot to take a picture of the flimsy now with a dark blue border on it, but this will really be a beauty.  Again...  How is this going to get quilted?

Mrs. Nakazawa wants to machine quilt this.  She is gung-ho on trying some feathers or swirls...  And I will back her all the way by giving advice and suggestions.  BUT...  (and I'm wondering if she is going to read this post...) trying to machine quilt a quilt this size is going to be a challenge...  I'm pretty experienced but even I have to take a deep breath and focus for a couple of weeks whenever I put a large quilt under the needle...  Mrs. Nakazawa has started small and machine quilted wall hangings and table runners so if she is ever going to bite the bullet, this is the time...  In the back of my mind though, I'm thinking I'll be ready to do the quilting for her if this becomes too challenging.  I'm not saying that out loud though...  We all have to go through the learning process.

And Rumi-san has also put the final stitches on her New Testament quilt.  This has been quite a while in the making and she had to redraw the quilting lines that faded in the border, but she did a beautiful job!  Maybe Rumi-san should just decide she is a hand-quilter and not worry about machine quilting...  On Friday she put on the binding (taking pictures of the process on her iPhone) and by next month she should have this up on her wall...  I will try to get a better picture then.  The minute the quilt was left alone on the table, Vel decided to use it as a napping spot.

Okay, I'm off to look through quilt patterns!

Breakfast out and Shibazakura

Tetsu and I took another jaunt out.  On weekends we often get an early start and go out for breakfast...   Breakfasts tend to be cheaper than lunch or dinner out.  Sometimes it is Denny's... but yesterday it was a traditional style Japanese meals, buffet place.

I chose grilled salted salmon (with some grated radish on the side), rice with fermented soy beans, and egg omelet, soy bean pulp and vegetables (called Yunohana), seaweed, macaroni salad, miso soup and a pickled plum.  Actually Tetsu and I shared the omelet and the macaroni salad.  My eyes were bigger than my stomach.  It was a big breakfast and we skipped lunch!

We ended up an hour and a half away at a Shibazakura park (and I've written about this park years ago in earlier blog post but it was so far back I'm showing this all again.)

The flowers weren't quite at their peak yet... another few days for the carpet to be solid.

As this is the beginning of Golden Week in Japan, the flying carp were soaring over the flower fields.

It was a really hot day, and people were out with sun parasols. 

Tetsa taking a short break in a gazebo.

The sun really did do us in though and we came home to take a nap!

April's Fabric Postcard

I decided to take the easy way out for my mother's fabric post card this month.

Liz in Canada had sent me many, many McKenna quilt kits and last summer Bianca made the full wisteria wall hanging.  I just loved the little bees on the quilt and so yesterday I just brought out the McKenna pattern and using my own fabrics made ONE wisteria blossom and ONE bee.

In a few more weeks the wisterias will be blooming around our area.  I don't know about my mother's area but she isn't going to get out to see them anyway.  I hope this will brighten the front of her refrigerator!
 

Sunflowers by the Road Quilt (aka Traffic Jam Quilt) FINISHED!

I finished the Traffic Jam quilt...  Maybe calling it Sunflowers By the Road....

 It has taken a couple of days to sew down the binding but that is done and the day was clear enough to go out and hang the quilt on a tree.

By the way, when I had finished the border quilting it didn't seem to have enough "umph" so I went around the whole quilt a second time putting in another line of stitching in each "petal".  It meant going in through the petal top... along the edge, but I didn't want another line of stitching on the inner side of the border... (I'd already changed my plan twice and had two lines of stitching.)  There...  That's better.  Oh... That's the back side of the quilt...

This is the front side of the quilt and since one can't even see the stitching, it doesn't really matter does it?

While I was hanging my quilt on a tree a farmer and his dog came by.  (I didn't know the farmer, but I knew his dog).

"Oh, you're taking pictures!  Do you want me to take your picture in front of your quilt?"  (He didn't call it a quilt...  "your pretty... thing?")

What a nice man to offer!  We tied his dog to another tree and I got photographed with the quilt.

"It sure is pretty.  All those flowers will sure brighten up a room."

I was so pleased he noticed the flowers...  In all that color and piecing I'd thought the quilting work had gotten lost.

The back shows the quilting much better...  And when I'd shown Mrs. Furui the half-finished quilt last week she hinted that she liked the back as much (or more) than the front!  Well, Mrs. Furui is a muted, natural sort of person anyway...  She tends to go to soft blues and greys...  And some of her soft color fabrics got used in my pieced back.

On the way home from the photo op I laid the quilt on the bank of a rice field (flooded!  I kept my fingers crossed that the wind wouldn't blow the quilt into the muddy water!)  All that yellow called to me!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

The spiders are setting up house for spring.

Tetsu wonders why I always take pictures of spider webs.

"Has it got something to do with sewing and thread?"

If I was a weaver the whole blog might be decorated with spider webs!
 

House repairs

We have lived in our house for over 20 years and it wasn't a new house to begin with.  And though Tetsu is a wonky carpenter, he doesn't much like spending money and doesn't see the need for house repairs.  I find this unbelievable but if he says we can't afford it I guess we can't...

Another reason why Tetsu drags his feet about house repairs is because of the cats.  He claims (and he's probably right) that no matter what we do to repair things, the cats will just tear it up again.  Our wallpaper is in shreds because of cat damage.  The felines regularly urp up on the carpets.  A couple cats who got locked up in the laundry room gnawed a hole through the linoleum!  I guess the reason why we have mats in front of most bedroom doors is because the cats didn't like being put in the bedroom and pulled up the carpets...  Tetsu's thinking is that we will be more upset about cat damage if we have fixed something.  Since I am the cat hoarder, I find it difficult to argue with him about house repairs.

We HAD a Japanese room.  It was the room with tatami mats and sliding paper window shades.  It had a formal alcove and a low table.  It has been the room where I've taught children English these many years.  Gradually it filled up with furniture though...  a cupboard in the alcove negating the alcove's purpose (a place to hang decorative scrolls and display flower arrangements.)  A bookshelf for English books.  A long table to hold the telephone and computer equipment (printers, external drive). 

After the alcove went, we got rid of the tatami mats.  Tatami mats are not conducive to housing cats.  Tetsu spent one summer taking up all the tatami mats, building a level floor (no insulation) and laying down rubberized carpet tiles that can be removed for cleaning.  Despite the fact that the room is now FREEZING in the winter, the removable carpet tiles have worked out well.  (So well, that Tetsu took out the carpeting in my sewing room and laid down carpet tiles there too one year.)

Then a wonky cat house got built onto the Japanese room which has worked out well for Toi and Patora but unfortunately cuts the light coming into the Japanese room.  And the paper screens always cut back half of the windows' already lessened light so in March we removed the paper screens and put in curtains. 

A new recycle shop light fixture went in, the game cupboard got gleaned of unusable games.  The windows open up wide to the beautiful forest behind us and to Choco who lives in the back yard.  The English children are still sitting on the floor for English class but with spring here, the room won't be as cold as it has been.

I am still negotiating for more house repairs but it is a start!

Basting a quilt

A friend is someone who will move furniture (and delay their husband's lunch) to spend a couple hours helping you baste a quilt.

My Pine Burr flimsy has been on my mind and on my shelf for the past few weeks waiting to be basted.   Mrs. Furui and I ordered wide backing (half for her to use, half for me) and I used up the last of my batting.  But for basting?  I really have no place to baste quilts.  In a pinch I will baste a large quilt on my dining room table with the quilt edges hanging over the ends of the table...  I worry about wrinkles being basted in, but it can be done.  Mrs. Furui suggested I bring the quilt to her house and she would help me baste it in her large room, so Friday I took batting, backing and flimsy to her house and we laid it all out.

It took us a couple of hours (just the two of us...  It is more fun and faster when there are 4 or 5 of us basting a quilt).  We crawled around on the floor, taking a short break for the obento box lunches I'd made (out of left-overs) and then back to basting.

Thanks to Mrs. Furui, my quilt is ready to have a few quilting stitches added any time my hands are free...

Happy Easter!

Wishing you an Easter full of blessings to everybody from Japan!  On the docket today has been a long walk in the morning (and it was VERY cold) and then church, and a curry lunch that one of the members is going to make.  Curry doesn't seem very Easterish but the purpose is for everyone to fellowship and spend an hour or so together after church.  We will probably visit Tetsu's mother and than go off for a swim at the pool.  Not really too different from most Sundays.

Our walk was overcast and misty, the sun nowhere in sight. 

 We practically ran into a man and his doggy friend.  Surprised them in the fog! 

Where is that Easter sun?

The daffodils are beginning to fade and the next round of scenery pictures is probably going to be flooded rice fields.  The farmers are out with their tractors and already a few fields are reflecting the forests and sky.

Tanya's Shirae

A rough cooking post.

A dish that I really like in Japan is Shirae.  It is often served in fancy Japanese restaurants as an elegant morsel in a tiny porcelain dish.  Traditionally it is made of tofu and sesame seed paste with seasonal greens and vegetables added.  When I tell my Japanese friends that I like Shirae and sometimes make it they are always surprised because it is somewhat of a bother to make.  One needs a mortar and pestle and a little man power.

The DIFFICULT way to make Shirae is to brown sesame seeds and then pound and grind them until they turn into a paste (or you could go out and buy tahini which is sesame paste).  After that the recipe is about the same I think.

MY way to make Shirae is to use...  PEANUT BUTTER!

 Ingredients:  1 block tofu, greens of any sort, 1 small carrot, mushrooms if desired.

•  Drain the block of tofu well.
•  Boil greens and chop. 
• Cut carrots and mushrooms into slivers and simmer in a light broth of water, soy sauce, sugar and mirin.  It is all eyeballed...  Simmering in plain water may work as well..
• The only important point that I can think of is SQUEEZE OUT THE WATER OR PAT DRY FROM ALL INGREDIENTS.  Slushy Shirae is not very good.
• Smash the tofu in the mortar until creamy.  Add a dollop of peanut butter and some sugar.  Smooth that all out adding salt to taste.  At the very last, stir in the greens and carrots and mushrooms.  Ta-da!

It occurs to me that one could probably make the tofu and peanut butter part with a blender but I love my mortar and pestle.  It makes me feel so "natural".  Served cold, this is a fantastic summer food.

I used chunky peanut butter which is crunchy and delicious but people will say...  "What's this?  You put peanuts in your Shirae?"

If you make it with creamy style peanut butter no one even realizes that the Shirae they are eating doesn't have sesame seeds in it!  (Not that I have anything against sesame seeds...  I just have a big container of peanut butter.)

Give it a try!

Traffic Jam quilt

Occasionally I get up to the sewing room for 30 minutes or so and do some machine quilting on the Traffic Jam quilt.  When I start a new quilt I am always uncertain about what the quilting pattern should be,  but once I know what I'm doing, I really enjoy it. 

I guess the cheery yellow fabric influenced me on the quilting pattern this time and I have been quilting sunny flowers on each block.  I don't do well with overall patterns but if I can think within a small space, I feel like each bit is manageable and I get satisfaction on seeing how much I have done and how much more I need to do.

For marking the flowers, I traced around a soup bowl in the center four squares to give me a shape to aim for.  I also ROUGHLY marked a curve line for the outer side of the petals to touch.

Then, starting from the center I free hand spiraled outward until I hit my marked lines... So some of the spirals are tight, and some of them are fairly loose according to my mood each day...  That's what happens when things are all free-hand.

From there I just started making petals and finally found a rhythm of 5 or 6 petals to a quarter of the flower.  (My first flower looked like a chrysanthemum with double the amount petals.  I hope that one flower doesn't stand out too much...)

Once all the flowers were quilted I stitched in the ditch along the sashings, and today I am making petals of a sort in the border.  The end is in sight!  This doesn't look much like a Traffic Jam quilt anymore...  What would be a better name for it?