Happy New Year!

We have always followed the Japanese custom of sending out New Year's cards rather than Christmas cards, and according to the Japanese custom, no matter when the cards got put in the mailbox they are all delivered on New Year's Day (unless of course like me, you miss the deadline for mailing which was 5 days ago).  At any rate, to all my Japanese friends our greetings are arriving in their mailboxes today or tomorrow.  This was our card for 2016.  Remember, it was Tetsu who thought the card should have all the animals on it again.  Not much space left for a message...

And as our summer family photo with my mother and brother's family was so nice, I did make up a few cards for people who ask after my mother.

Thank you for thinking of us and taking an interest in our lives.

Love,

2015 recap

We are rounding up 2015 and it is time for everyone to reflect.  While I didn't accomplish a great many things in the whole scheme of the world, in my own small corner I enjoyed 2015 and am grateful for God's daily blessings. 

I am grateful that all our animals made it through 2015.  I've been especially worried about Vel who at 17 is visibly slowing down.  Still he jumps up on the bed in the middle of the night and joins me under the covers so he isn't that feeble.  Winter is hard on the elderly, humans and animals alike.

Though Choco doesn't express an opinion one way or the other, I feel sorry for her being outside in the freezing weather and this week while I've been home and free she has been allowed to stay in the house.  She even got permission to wander around instead of being locked up and she took advantabe of that privilege by claiming my sewing chair.

"Hmmm...  You sure look comfortable.  Just while I'm not using it okay?"

When Chip gave Choco a whap on the nose Choco went back into her cage.  She is no match for bossy cats.

Ah, a last Christmas photo.  Mrs. Furui got to the hospital one last time and was able to photograph the Advent quilt we made for the Children's Ward.  (And the identical one for the kindergarten).  The members of the volunteer group added their star and present decorations daily.  You may see another quilt like this again next year as Tetsu really would like me to make him one...

And here is my yearly collage of quilts made over the year.  Not that they are in the right order but anyway... 

From the top left, there is the Pine Burr quilt I made for one of my children...  That hasn't been given to them yet. 

The one under that was the Split Nine-Patch donated to the Ronald McDonald House. 

The quilt under the tree was the Fruitti-Tutti quilt, also made for one of my children and still not passed along...  Supposedly those two quilts for my kids are their someday wedding quilts but since neither child has any plan to get married the quilts live in my closet...  This may not have been a good plan...

The long table runner was a sample quilt from Leah Day's website called Building Blocks.  It was made for the machine quilting classes I was teaching. 

The Christmas wreath quilt was made at the last minute this December.

Under that was the Stairway quilt that I quilted for the hospital... That one is not officially MY quilt... I was just consulted on the layout and did the machine quilting.

The tiny applique in the frame is just that.  Tiny.  I bought the kit last January at the Tokyo International Quilt Show.

Under that was a wall quilt designed for Leiya's friend who longs to return to Hawaii.

There is the quilt made for the kindergarten when they opened their nursery school in April.

The antique applique wall hanging was from a stash of old fabrics squares passed on to me years ago.

The two Christmas tree quilts were the ones that Mrs. Furui and I worked on together.

The modernish quilt was the one I made for my sister-in-law's brother while I was in the States this summer.

The zig-zag quilt was for a neighbor's niece's baby.

And the wool applique is still fresh from the embroidery needle.

That's pretty good for one year.  And though it wasn't a quilt, I am very pleased that I finished my grandmother's lace tablecloth in the autumn.  That was a project that had been hanging over my head for the past 30 years!

What will next year bring?  Makes me smile just to think of all the possibilities ahead!
 

RED!

Oh dear.  Another post about 90 plus ladies.  That is three in one week!

The other day I was out at a department store shopping and I decided to pick up some undies for myself.  New undies in the the new year seemed appropriate and while I was there I thought I might pick up some for Tetsu's mother too.  She hasn't been out shopping in years so I know she wouldn't have bought any herself.   Underwear for his mother isn't something that Tetsu is going to think of and even if he did he wouldn't step foot inside a ladies lingerie and foundation department.  So I found some undies for Tetsu's mother.  Nice big grandmotherly underwear, with lots of room for waist and nature's cushions too.

"Wait a minute...  Is she a size L or a size LL?  She isn't very big but with all the layers of clothing she wears and the way everything has to be tucked in and fluffed out just right maybe LL might be better...  Oh well, just call and ask!"

So I did.  (One of the few times I remembered to carry my cell phone with me.)

"Obaachan, I'm at the department store buying you underwear.  Do you want L size or LL size?"

"Oh Tani-chan, you really shouldn't.  You spend way too much money on me already.  Don't bother.  I can get along with old underwear."

"I'm buying some for myself too and I thought you might like something new for the new year.  Just tell me.  L or LL?"

"Well, if you insist.  L is fine.  Thank you.  ...And Tani-chan.  Would you buy me red underwear please?"

"RED?!"  I wasn't sure I heard her right.  "You want RED underwear?"

"Yes.  Red underwear is suppose to bring you good luck."

"Okay...  Red underwear it is."

I went around the store muttering 'red underwear...  red underwear' and finally found a clerk and related Obaachan's request.

"Oh yes, red underwear is very popular for the new year.  Your mother probably heard the play on words for the upcoming Year of the Monkey "Saru".  Saru means monkey but it also means "to go away" and thus people buy red things for the Year of the Monkey so that illness and unhappiness will go away.  (Byoki ga saru.  Yanakoto saru.)

I bought natural colored, pink colored and red colored underwear for Tetsu's mother.

Yesterday I took the underwear over to Obaachan's apartment.

"Oh Tani-chan!  This is just what I wanted. Everyone is wearing red underwear these days and I wanted some too (who all does Obaachan talk to that make up everyone?)  But you spent so much money and bought so many!  Here!  You take some to use yourself."

"No thank you.  These are grandmotherly underwear, Obaachan.  If I was going to buy myself red underwear I'd buy something a bit more sexy.  (That alone was a funny statement coming from me at age 60.  We both had a good laugh about that.)

Obaachan was very satisfied with her underwear, especially the red ones!

My mother's birthday

Today is my mother's 94th birthday.  I wonder if I should call her today or wait until Leiya arrives in California tomorrow...

I had to check my mother's birth date in a "Grandmother" book I had her write for me years ago...  That was a wonderful gift for her for reminiscing and now for me to have and read through.  Not many photos of her when she was a child though.

A couple of questions from the book:

What do you remember about your childhood home and neighborhood?

I don't remember much about our first home in Columbia City (Indiana), except that it was a big two-story house on South Main Street by a small stream called Eel River.  My mother told me that out of it once emerged a poisonous copperhead snake.  She snatched me, a toddler, out of danger just as I was heading out to investigate what it was.

From about age three, we lived at 344 North Main Street in a small two-bedroom house on the corner.  Two big maple trees shaded the front yard, another the side yard.  In the backyard were a cherry tree which bloomed profusely and produced wonderful sour cherries (great for pies!).  There was also a Bing cherry tree (which didn't produce much fruit) and a Bartlett pear tree which put market pears to shame in size and flavor.

Over the years the house was remodeled to expand the back bedroom, add a closet, and include a sun-room off the kitchen.  There my mother tended her potted plants with loving care.  A little pond with rocks all around it was added to the backyard, along with peonies, tulips, etc.

Up the street at the end of the block was a gas station where I was frequently sent to purchase milk at 10 cents a quart, and a loaf of bread for the same sum.  Beyond that on the east side was a farm.  We were pretty much living on the edge of town.

Grandma, what schools did you attend?

I attended elementary school (1-8) and high school (9-12) in Columbia City, Indiana.  I graduated from CCHS in 1939 --  the same high school my father had attended and graduated from a generation before.

I then went off to the College of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio.  This was a small, liberal arts school of about 1,000 students and with a Presbyterian background.  I spent four happy years there and graduated in 1943 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Phi Beta Kappa key (for scholastic excellence).

I had a seven-year working career with Scott, Foresman and Company (educational publishers) in Chicago -- first as a sales promotion correspondent, handling incoming mail from Indiana, and then as advertising copywriter.  Following a trip to Europe with a music-focused group, I attended the University of Chicago in the Dept. of Education.  I was admitted a month late, thanks to Dr. William S Gray, lead author of the Scott-Foresman "Dick and Jane" book, and long-time professor at the university.  I graduated from the U. of C. with a Master of Arts degree in 1950.

This led to working as a diagnostician for the U. of C. Reading Clinic, and eventually to a 24 year career of classroom teaching in the Covina-Valley Unified Schools. 

Sorry...  The above sounds a bit like a resume doesn't it...  I thought my friend, Pat in Columbia City might enjoy the first excerpt...

And so that this post will have something quilty about it, here is a collage of all the fabric cards I made for my mother this year.  Maybe she enjoyed getting the cards monthly...  They were fun to make (a bit pressed for ideas though) and my mom knows I was thinking about her though I rarely get on the telephone.  I think the cards are even in order there, starting from the left hand upper corner in January.

Happy Birthday Mother!  (though she doesn't remember that I keep a blog).

Last of the miscellany in December

Hmm...  I guess this will be a miscellaneous post.  I haven't been up in the sewing room for over a week now..  It is just too cold to do any sewing up there though I do have a small electric heater...  In the meantime I have been doing handwork downstairs.

I went home from the last patchwork gathering with more applique homework.  There was a time when I would tell people that I really disliked needleturn applique, actually any applique at all, but somewhere over the past years I have gained an appreciation for it and take pride in making smooth curves and small stitches.  The patchwork group I belong to decided to make up the kit that was sent to me and if and when it gets done we will raffle it off at some good cause.  Unlike some of our projects, we don't have a deadline on this and thus the progress is slow.  (Deadlines serve a purpose!)  And as I did long ago, many of my friends bemoan their needleturn skills and are struggling with their blocks.

This is from the Bunny Hill kit called Baltimore Bunnies.  I have claimed the blocks with the most leaves as leaf needleturn seems to be my friends' downfall.  I brought home another block to do over the winter holidays and I look forward to cozy evenings with heartwarming fabrics and patterns.

The cats upstairs have had their sitting space outfitted with a heated mat and a blanket over their cage, (during the day they can go in and out of the cage... at night they don't mind being closed up.)  I wouldn't say that they are exactly cozy but better upstairs in a sunny room with a heating mat than being outside in the freezing air in the cat house.  As my vet says..."It is not the best solution but it is the better solution."

The downstairs cats enjoy the warmth with the humans (when we are at home... when we aren't they have to cuddle) and they relax on the heated carpet or sit in front of the electric space heater. These three are warming their bums...

...while Chip refuses to be friendly and sits on the other side of the table.

And Tetsu wore his vest to church yesterday and agreed to pose with ice coffee in hand when we stopped for an interval between afternoon shopping.  I suppose the vest looks nice on him...  I could have suggested another shirt...   He appreciated the softness of the yarn as I did when knitting it for him.

Scenery in the morning light

Good morning!  We have already been out this morning enjoying the sunrise.  Tetsu says we are like grade school children with our cameras hanging around our necks looking for things to capture digitally (though grade school children might be out with sketch books hanging around their necks). 

Though I usually look for beautiful things to photograph, I found a flattened plastic bottle lying on a wall that seemed picture worthy.  In the frosty light, even trash appears attractive.

Coming down the way were two jr. high school girls on their way to morning sports practice.  I shot this from the hip and wasn't even sure if the bicycles got in the frame.

The distant mountain range had an interesting "obi" of shadow across it though there weren't any clouds overhead.  Probably the rising sun from the opposite direction had a band of clouds across it.

From the opposite direction.  Still no snow but for some reason a still flooded rice field was frozen this morning.  Usually the rice fields are drained and cut back for the winter so I don't know why this one still has water in it...  Or in this case, ice.

Though we are surrounded by fields and forests, there are a few residential neighborhoods here and there.  The lights from the home are reflected in the winter fields.

A farmer's small field with the tractor tracks accented with the frost.

The water in the stream that winds its way through the fields is warmer than the air and on winter mornings there is a strip of mist rising all along the field borders.

Tetsu photographed me as I sat by the stream trying to get the perfect picture.

We came back home cold but happy with today's photographic treasures.

Merry Christmas!

It is already the 25th in Japan and we are having a sunny warm Christmas Day.  Unfortunately Tetsu has gone off to work already and he doesn't get any vacation until next week for New Year's.  In the meantime I HOPE to get New Year cards addressed and maybe do some window washing...

Tetsu and I exchanged Christmas presents last night though I didn't get a photo of him in his vest yet.  It fits...sort of...  Every year when I make him a vest I realize what a large man he is...  Even enlarging the extra large pattern only barely covers him...  He said he'll wear the vest to church on Sunday and I'll try to get a picture then.

Tetsu and I went out and bought me a new iron for Christmas so now I'll have two... one for working with the ladies downstairs and one for the sewing room.  The reason I needed a new iron was because the last one I bought didn't have an automatic turn off and I don't know how many times I've turned around and come back home when suddenly realizing I haven't turned off the iron.  Or even more frustrating thinking that MAYBE I haven't turned off the iron and then get home and find that I have.  Or even more dangerous, not realizing I've forgotten to turn off the iron and a day and a half later go into the sewing room and find it still on.  When one gets a certain age, an automatic turn off on the iron is a necessity!

Tetsu also bought me the latest Japan Quilt magazine which is eye candy.  And I got a new hair brush, and swimming cap.

Let's see...  I bought Tetsu a new blanket, and I made him a card holder to carry his swimming membership card... and I extended his membership another year for him.  He nicely began going to the swimming pool years ago on January 3rd so it is an easy present to just renew his membership for him at Christmas.

Our most exciting gifts were from Takumi, and he arranged for Tetsu to be sent a mini-bonsai tree.  I've never heard Tetsu say he wanted to start doing bonsai, but with a tree from his son I can see him beginning a whole new hobby.  (And I love how the tree looks quite like the wire tree Takumi made this summer!)

And for me, Takumi sent me a blog book!  MY blog book!  From July to September of this year!  Starting with my birthday on July 1st and ending with the story of Tetsu's working life on September 30.  It is a lovely book and though it is vain to say so, I have already enjoyed browsing through it and rereading some of my own posts and admiring the photos.  It is a big book too and I realized again that I really do ramble along and write down everything... don't I?  And I also realized that I really like blogging just for my own enjoyment of writing and photographing and recording and then sometimes going back and reading again.  It is a shame that blogging is all about ME but at least I've come to the conclusion that I post to please myself and not attract an audience... It is easy to think..."well, if no one is really interested then maybe I don't need to blog anymore..." but I do it because I love it.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful family time Christmas.  Though we can't be with our children and extended family in person I have each and every one of them in my heart!

Merry Christmas!

Obaachan's birthday

December 23rd was the Emperor's birthday in Japan... and also my Mother-in-law's!  I think the Emperor turned 82.  Tetsu's mother turned 91. 

Tetsu and I picked up a Christmas cake that I'd ordered from the sweet shop corner where I stand every morning.  Japanese tradition is that everyone buys Christmas cakes for Christmas Eve and let me tell you, they cost a bundle!  Our family never had custom of eating Christmas cake and it is just since I began working as a crosswalk guard that I yearly order a Christmas cake from the sweet shop lady.  I sort of feel that they need all the customers they can get in this countryside town of mine and NOT being in a shopping district, people don't just wander buy and decide to buy a sweet or two.  So I spend $30 for a small cake that Tetsu and I don't even plan to eat and take it over to his mother's where we can celebrate her birthday together (or as in yesterday's case, leave the cake so that she and Tetsu's sister can share it later.)

As we drove the 30 minutes to Obaachan's house we made the observation that there were absolutely NO Japanese flags hanging by the doorways anymore.  I vaguely remember (from being in Japan 38 years) and Tetsu remembers well, how on the Emperor's birthday all the houses hung out flags as a sign of devotion or patriotism but that custom seems to have gone by the wayside.  We expected to see a couple flags out by the very old farm houses... maybe with the older generation which one time worshiped the emperor as a god still following the custom but there was nary a one.

Obaachan was happy with her birthday/Christmas cake and Tetsu had brought over vegetables and a new heater for her earlier this week so those were her birthday presents.  She looks pretty good for 91!  And still living alone! 

The last day of school

Winter vacation starts tomorrow for school children in our town.  This morning was the last day for me at the crosswalk until the first week of January.  Only in the past week has it been really icy cold but the weather is going to become even chillier in the next few weeks.  I'm glad I'll have a respite from standing on an icy street corner even for the short vacation.

From my crosswalk I get children coming from three different directions and they walk in a line on the sidewalk or along the roads normally used by the farmers.  I think the group farthest away walks nearly 30 minutes daily (and isn't it interesting that the closest group is usually the last to arrive at the crosswalk.)  A few of the groups are accompanied by grandparents or by "school guards", older volunteers that coordinate their morning walk with the school children. 

Each group has a leader and the children seem to have an appointed meeting place and time to gather and then walk together.  Some of the group leaders are very good about making the trek enjoyable by playing word games or pointing out interesting rocks or weeds (that get brought to the crosswalk and shown to me).  Some of the leaders have a time keeping the more rambunctious younger children in line and not just literally...  I am grateful to the 6th grade girl who makes one of the mischievous boys stand at attention when he gets to the crosswalk...  He horses around when he should be checking for oncoming traffic.

Each child carries a uniform size leather satchel but in recent years though they are the same size, they are becoming more colorful.  The boys have yellow caps and the girl have beret-like hats. 

Today's school children all managed to get to school a bit early...  They only have a half day of school and most of that time will be cleaning out desks and wiping down their classroom floors.  And then FREEDOM until January 8th!  Yeah!  I'm pretty happy about it too!
 

A weekend with Yuma-kun

Tetsu and I played grandparents this weekend with Yuma-kun with us for two nights.

Ever since Yuma-kun was in first grade, he has come to the Christmas Eve service at church.  Sometimes his mother would bring him, sometimes he chose to come to our house early in the morning and help us with cleaning and preparations at church etc.  The past couple of years we have been attending a larger church in the next city over and instead of an Eve service they rent a large auditorium and have a full Christmas program.  It runs somewhat late though and is another hour drive back to our little town and thus last year I invited Yuma-kun to stay overnight with us following the Christmas program.  He jumped at that chance last year and this year asked if he could stay over Friday night BEFORE the Christmas program... thus spending all day with us on Saturday.

I have mentioned to Yuma-kun that our favorite nabe "stew" dish, is Kimchee Nabe (the recipe is somewhere on my blog already).  Yuma-kun's reaction to some of the ingredients was,

"YUCK!  I doubt I'd like that!  But I'd be willing to try it."

So Kimchee Nabe was the menu for Friday night and though I doubled the recipe, it was barely enough.  I gather Yuma-kun liked Kimchee Nabe.

After dinner Yuma-kun and I played games while Tetsu watched TV.

Saturday morning the three of us and Choco went for an early morning walk together.  Yuma-kun was in charge of Choco.  He is the only child that I can trust Choco with and Yuma-kun was delighted to see that whereas Choco ignored Tetsu's commands, she was very responsive to Yuma-kun's.

"She thinks I'm her owner... not you."

Tetsu and I were happy to leave the pulling and tugging of Choco all up to Yuma-kun and we enjoyed our leisurely morning walk.

Instead of trying to fill Yuma-kun up with a homemade breakfast we went off to Coco's which has a buffet breakfast.  And after that we spent a couple of hours at the swimming pool together.

By late afternoon we joined the Yamadas and all of us drove in to the city together for the Christmas program.  I think Yuma-kun thoroughly enjoyed being the token grandchild to all four of us (none of us have our own yet) and he managed to get Tetsu's permission to stay another night with us after the Christmas program.

As Yuma-kung gets older he has picked up some social skills and though I still have to prod him to look at people in the eye when talking to them, he is getting better.  I'm sort of proud to be dragging him around with us.  I wonder how long he'll be willing to spend time with us old fogies?

December fabric card

I spent an hour or so on Thursday making this month's fabric post card for my mother.  December's card s definitely going to be have to sent in an envelope.  It is practically 3 dimensional!

A few months ago I saw the card design on a Pinterest like page (though I couldn't find the website when I needed it this month).  All I remembered was that torn strips of fabric were tied to a plastic drinking saw and then later decorated.  That seemed easy enough but when I went to make my card I realized I didn't have any drinking straws.  So I went out into the forest and cut a twig instead.  A nice natural look!

After that it was just a matter of ripping up fabric scraps.  After tying the scraps I added ribbon and then glued beads and bells with a glue gun.  All of that got glue gunned to a quickly made background base and that was that.  The card is bulky so I may have trouble even writing on the back but I will get it in the mail tomorrow.  (Not in time for Christmas.)

I showed my December card to my patchwork group and Mrs. Furui opened a box of her scrap selvages and suddenly we had a Christmas tree card decorating party! 

Mrs. Furui went out and cut twigs from her bay leaf tree and the trees even started to smell good!

I'm afraid I had to leave before my friends got to the decorating part but anyway we all had fun using up Mrs. Furui's selvages.

Because Mrs. Furui lived in Europe for quite a few years, her house is decorated with different Scandinavian and European Christmas ornaments in this season.

She also had some leftover wooden houses from her hospital bazaar and I jumped at those to bring home and decorate my own table center.  (I also got instructions on how to make a fabric Christmas tree so that will be part of next week's hand crafting.) 

The houses are covered in specialized masking tape!!!  Festivity!