John's life

Our days with John go by somewhat more smoothly...  I don't really notice much change in him but there must be some because I am not so frantic anymore...  I don't worry about him when we go out on a walk at all...

John joined our family at the end of October and he certainly wasn't the dog we were expecting to have in our old age!  We pictured long walks in the neighborhood and long drives with our doggie in the car.  We thought we were finally going to be able to take our dog with us when we went shopping in the home goods stores...  We pictured this new small dog sitting on our laps and being carried around the house like a furry waist pouch being introduced to guests.

John has been NOTHING like our expectations!  He growled (growls) and snapped (snaps) and lunged (occasionally lunges).  He did not like his new home at all!

Somewhere along the line our vet got word that we were having major problems with John and since that time Maya-sensei has been coming to our house regularly.  She works with John a bit, gives advice and suggestions, and in return we spend the hour talking about John and her work in English giving her a chance to use her English skills.

I also decided to keep a "John's Life Journal" so that I could report accurately on how we were fairing and I print it out so that Maya-sensei can read some English and get some new vocabulary...  John's life isn't very interesting though so I am running out of new vocabulary for Maya-sensei...

It is interesting to look back and see how I felt about John when he first arrived and how I write about him these days.

Saturday Dec. 8 

6:00 - no walk.  John was moody and growling.  He seemed happy when we got home and THEN he wanted a walk.  Nope! After breakfast. 

Tanya - walk with John at 8:00.  No problem. 

Tanya - 12:30 walk. Tanya and Tetsu - 5:30  BAD!!! I took John out of his circle and passed him to Tetsu.  In the genkan I reached down to pick up some gloves and John turned and attacked and kept lunging at me.  Tetsu took him for a walk. John was in a bad mood and growling all evening. 

But then, this week, three months later there is this entry.

February 22, Friday 

I was out for most of the day and Tetsu and John spent the day together.  Tetsu said he took John to a wide open field and since it was a very warm sunny day, the two of them sat on the grass (and then napped on the grass) and John wandered around but didn’t go far away.  In the end John and Tetsu laid out on the grass and enjoyed the good weather. 

Has John changed or have we only become better at reading him? He still barks incessantly when someone is visiting and this raises my stress levels as I am trying to teach and have conversations with people through all the noise. Maya-sensei suggested we put him in the bathroom farther away from the guests and to ignore him while he barks. John HAD learned to stop barking when he lived at her clinic for nearly a year so I guess he CAN learn.

Yesterday's entry.

February 27, Wednesday 

John stayed quiet in his circle for most of the day except for his morning, noon and evening walk. (Twenty minutes each). He is very cute walking briskly beside me and he looks at me often while we walk (probably expecting treats).  He gets treats when he pees immediately after coming outside, he gets treats whenever a car goes by and he doesn’t jump or bark at it. He still growls when getting put back in the circle but today he didn’t lunge or try to bite… 

I enjoy walking with John. Tetsu thinks he is very cute. If John starts growling we just flip the quilt over his circle and ignore him for awhile. One very good thing is that John doesn't hold a grudge and within 30 minutes his mood changes and he is happy again.

Don't you love that sideways glance of John's.  He looks like he is saying, "Yeah, yeah, get on with it!"
 

Sewing (some)

I am getting a bit of my own sewing done these days...  I should hope so!  My sewing room is a grand mess!!!

Upstairs on the ironing board I have embroidered blocks from the kitty quilt I've been working on and also some filler blocks for the same quilt.  Unfortunately this quilt is low on the priority list and I may have to pack it all away and make room for the other projects that are creeping over the table and onto the floor...

Downstairs I have occasionally been appliquing flower parts onto the someday Circle quilt that I started last month. 

Good glory!  All those little spiked pieces about killed me!  And I think there is another flower with the same spikes that will have to get done in the future!  At any rate, the first set of 8 flowers has been appliqued to this quilt...

I actually got way-laid on the applique because I've been hand piecing the little ribbon squares for the baby quilt I'm making... And that quilt has priority right now as I need to get it done and quilted and sent on to the baby!  I am sewing the blocks together by machine today but I am already thinking about a pieced border... which will take more time...   Should I make something that maybe will be prettier or stick with the schedule?

And I also want to start making squares for a signature quilt which is going to be next on the priority list as I'm hoping to take the squares to be signed at Leiya's wedding in May.  I need to get myself busy with that quilt too today!!!
 

Julie's quilting

Among the many workshops offered during the Women's Conference last weekend, Julie was in charge of a quilting workshop.  I came in as a sort of assistant to the 8 or 10 women who joined the hour long workshop.  Julie had made up small kits which included a square of plain fabric, four triangles of fabric with Japanese patterns, a square of batting and a square of backing.  She also had thread, needles, pins, sand paper and quilting motifs at the ready.  After a short demonstration on how to tie knots and how to do a running stitch, the ladies set about sewing triangles to the plain square.  Some of the more proficient even got to tracing the quilting motif to their patchworked square/triangles piece but most of the ladies were still sewing on triangles at the end of the hour...  Julie's comment...

"I guess I sew faster than most people...  An hour wasn't enough for this project."

I did later sit with one woman who quilted as she listened to the evening's speaker and she did get her mug rug bound and finished.  Thanks to Julie, one more quilter born!

The example of introducing quilting at the Women's conference is an old one.  Nearly 40 years ago when I was newly in Japan and working at a Christian center in Northern Japan, my missionary mentor attended this same Women's conference for a weekend.  When Martha returned, she brought along patchwork patterns from a workshop that had been offered on patchwork and the Bible.  One of the participants at the conference, Sandra Shigeno, had led a workshop with patterns that she had gathered on teaching Bible while sewing patchwork.  I think that Martha didn't actually take part in the workshop but she asked if she could have a set of the Bible patterns to bring back to me, whom she knew did patchwork.

I was excited to get the patterns and more excited to have the teaching plan for Sandra's patchwork and Bible class.  I went so far as to contact Sandra (in the days before internet and email) and she kindly gave me permission to use her patterns and plans for my personal use and for teaching others.  Using Sandra's New Testament patterns I have made quite a few New Testament quilts and have taught the patterns to many friends.  Even now there are two of the ladies who come to my house for English who have made New Testament quilts.

As far as we can work out, Julie also attended that women's conference some 40 years ago and though she doesn't remember meeting Martha, she did become inspired by Sandra Shigeno's Bible patchwork and Julie also brought home the patterns.  She too has made the Bible quilt (the whole quilt!) and taught others the patterns.  Even though Julie and I only met 7 or 8 years ago through blogging, we were connected to each other through Sandra (whom I've still never met though we exchange Christmas cards!)

This year, Julie brought along her Bible quilt and another quilt based on the Psalms to be displayed and Julie was also asked to speak a little about her patchwork and how and why she started.   I have made the bottom seven blocks in New Testament quilt I've taught.

Here is the Psalms quilt that Julie made using Psalm verses she cut out from a printed fabric.  She made the quilt to match the other Bible quilt.  She had stories to tell about how she designed the applique centers.

 One of the printed blocks...  Her use of fabrics makes the quilt shine!

By the way...  Julie has attended every Women's conference except one in all the years that she has been in Japan!  She is the most well-loved member of the conference and people flocked to her young and old.  She blesses those around her and in turn everyone looks out for her, wanting to be helpful, wanting to return a bit of all that she gives others.

I also asked Julie to bring along her Quilt Diary which I had glimpsed at when she brought it to the Tokyo Quilt Festival in January...  I wanted to get a proper look and I wanted to hear the stories involved in her treasured Diary. 

Ever since Julie began quilting, she has taken photos and written down stories of all her quilts in her diary.  It is ragged and falling apart and the width of the book as doubled.  It now needs to be held together with a piece of elastic!  Julie wonders what she is going to do when she gets to the last page of the book... and she isn't far from it!

A master quilter's hand.  Julie is left handed by the way.  It is this hand that has worked the hundreds of needles through countless quilts over the many, many years!

I'm pretty sure this is the first page of Julie's diary...  the date says begun 1988...  I'm annoyed that I cut off the bottom of the page in which recorded the finished date but I think I remember that it didn't take her even a year to finish it... (Julie, if you want to give us that information it would be appreciated!)  This too was a pattern that Julie got from Sandra at the Women's conference.  She made a pin cushion at the workshop, went home and cut up left-over fabric from all the clothes she had made for her 6 children.  How could you make this Cathedral Window quilt with 6 children under your feet!

 I boldly asked Julie which was her favorite quilt, or at least which quilt stuck in her mind the most.  She turned to this page which is a Boy Scout quilt she made in 1991 after getting signatures from boy scouts at a scouting Jamboree.  Interspersed through the pieced blocks are boy scout marks used all over the world with the World Scout mark in the center.

Julie's Quilt Diary is also what brought the two of us together.  Julie turned to this page to point out a quilt that she had made for her son in 2010.  When she visited her son and gave him this quilt for his birthday, he suggested that she really needed to keep a blog of all the quilting that she has done.  Not familiar with the blogging world, her son set up a blog for her and on a sidebar randomly chose a few blogs that she might like to read to get an idea of what one could blog about.  He must have searched blogs by American's in Japan, who are Quilters and Christian...  Anyway, he found my blog and just typed it in for Julie to check out.  WHICH SHE DID!!!  WHICH LED TO A BLOGGING FRIENDSHIP!!!  This is the link to Julie's blogging My Quilt Diary.

I was tickled to find a quilt that I own in Julie's Quilt Diary, the vegetable table runner!  If you read the story in the diary you will see that I had made a simple quilt for Julie using the Chinese characters of her last name Fukuda and I included Psalm 128:2 because Fukuda means "Happy Field".  I got the produce from Julie's field!!!

And this is Julie's most recent quilt made for her grandson and finished in the early hours of New Year's Day this year.  By the way, Julie is a completely hand pieced, hand quilted quilter.  No sewing machines for her!  Isn't she amazing!  This last entry isn't going to be the last for long because while at the Women's Conference she was putting in lots of stitches on another quilt for another grandson!  Its photo and story will soon be included in Julie's wonderful quilt diary!

Our dear Julie!

Women's Conference Schedule

There was a wonderful speaker who led the Women's Conference this past weekend, Sister Roni, a Benedictine sister who has worked in service as a teacher, a nurse and a nurse educator.  She also has a passion for health care in the US and in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Haiti. 

Oh my!  The stories Sister Roni had to tell!  The amazing work that she has been involved with!  Most interesting was that she served as a nurse to Mother Teresa in the last year of Mother Teresa's life.  It was such a humbling experience to hear of the work the sisters do in Calcutta, to have a glimpse of Mother Teresa's life through Sister Roni's eyes and also to understand Sister Roni's thoughts behind her service to vulnerable communities such as the homeless, HIV patients and criminal offenders.  Sister Roni has lived a very on-the-edge life!

During the other hours of the Women's Conference when Sister Roni wasn't speaking, there were numerous workshops offered and free time, and onsen visiting time, and singing time etc.

I participated in exercise time, farm work, labyrinth walking, quilting, weaving, and an onsen visit.  Other workshops included writing Haiku (a Japanese form of poetry) in English, dancing, hiking, puppetry and Rural Asian Institute history. 

I was extremely interested in the opportunity to walk the two labyrinths that were brought and set out during the Women's Conference.   I had never heard of this method of prayer/meditation and actually there doesn't seem to be any set way to walk a labyrinth.  I don't even think that labyrinths are Christian in origin though churches and cathedrals in Europe and in the States will sometimes have labyrinths on their grounds.  At any rate, the two labyrinths were set up at the Women's conference and we were invited to use the time following the path quietly and praying.

The labyrinth facilitator had brought her small reverie harp and she played random soft notes while people walked.  She said it was her own form of mediation.

A very small harp that could set on the table or on the player's lap.

The soft sounds contributed to the reflective atmosphere.  I'd be happy to hear if anyone else knows the history of labyrinth and the connections to Christian prayer...  And if anyone has experienced walking a labyrinth.

One lady had brought her small loom and set it up for people to come and weave for a few minutes, taking turns with others in the workshop.  By the end of the hour and a half there was a nice piece made from many people's contributions.

While we waited for our turn at the loom we were given cardboard and threads and were taught how to do a very basic type of weaving pulling yarn through the threads with a safety pin.  My creation... about the size of a coaster.

The puppet workshop put on a couple of small skits on the last evening of the conference...  The Haiku group read their poems.  The quilting group spent their time starting small mug rugs and Julie taught that group.  More about that tomorrow...  In the meantime after my weaving workshop and helping Julie, I sat by the wood burning stove...

I listened to a woman playing her large harp.

I admired the decorations on the walls...  Sorry the picture isn't good but this poster is so true of the motto of working together that the Rural Asian Institute stands by. 

Each table had peace cranes on it...  And I thought it appropriate that not just one crane is made from a piece of paper but three connecting peace cranes.

The chapel where I spent quite a bit of time on the labyrinth, was quiet and old and had minimal adornments.  Wheat (maybe from the field I'd stomped!)

Even the way the Bibles and hymnals were set out reminded me of when I first came to Japan and how the old churches had been.

Instead of a stained glass piece, this was a wood and glass piece that formed the window at the nave of the chapel.

Onsen in the evening was wonderful because it really was a cold weekend!  And so many of the non-Japanese ladies went on the onsen jaunt!  I bet the regular onsen guests were a bit alarmed when suddenly 17 of us mainly foreigners descended on the hot baths and chatted all in English while we soaked!  Is this really Japan?

Tomorrow I hope to write about quilting and the Women's Conference!

Asian Rural Institute

I'm back from my weekend spent with Julie and I have so much to say!  My blogging either seems to be no news or so much to write about it takes quite a few postings.  Today's post is probably going to be part of the latter!

Ever since I met Julie (and I only see her once a year at the Tokyo quilt show) she has invited me to a Women's Conference held by a Christian Women's association in Japan.  I had heard of the Women's Conference nearly 40 years ago when a missionary friend attended but I had never been myself.  Usually it is held in an area of Japan that is hard for me to get to and it is held in February...  As I already make the trip to Tokyo in January for the quilt show I didn't feel like I could take off again so soon...  I've always declined the invitation.

This year however, Julie sent me the pamphlet saying she was giving it a last try to get me to come and as the conference was being held an hour north of me, maybe it would be easier for me to attend.  Well!  If Julie is going to be THAT persistent I decided I'd give it a try and I soon signed up to attend.  The weekend was an opportunity to be with Julie of course, but also to be with other Christian Women in an English language atmosphere...

Let's see...  Do I begin with the conference or with the area where we stayed?  Okay, the facilities first....

This year's conference was held at the Asian Rural Institute in Nasu, about an hour north of me.  I have been to ARI a few times before... to visit missionary volunteers who were helping there for a few months.  Every year ARI holds an international festival with food and handcrafts supplied by their students, and I have been to the festival a couple of times also. 

ARI was founded by a Japanese pastor who wished to build an environmentally peaceful world with emphasis on training rural leaders for a life of sharing.  Most of the students are from Asia, Africa and the Pacific and they study grassroot farming methods with the purpose of taking back to their own countries and communities what they have learned.  The first time I visited ARI I was more than a little surprised to see how little the school had to work with!  No big machinery, no science labs and advanced technology, just small fields, a bunch of shovels, some animals, and very simple lives.  It makes sense...  why teach advanced technology and farming methods (which Japan obviously has) when the students would be returning to countries that didn't have access to the sources or money to pay for anything.  Rice fields were populated with ducks which naturally fertilized the fields and also kept the insect population down (or something)...

Anyway, this weekend spent at ARI was much the same.  We stayed in unheated dorm rooms with futon laid out on wooden floors.  Meals were made by groups of students (there are only about twenty students at the facilities at a time) and one night dinner was a curry supervised by a Sri Lankan girl.  Another lunch was concocted by a man from the Philippines.  A breakfast group was headed by a German volunteer.  Meals were simple.... a main dish, a side dish of boiled vegetables, a soup and rice.  And we were asked to always eat the rice that had been left over from the previous meal before starting in the freshly made rice.  Always the policy is to recycle, reuse, and reduce.  Except for the main dish, everything else was vegetarian oriented and a small portion of a vegetarian main dish was offered also for the vegans among the students, staff, and volunteers.

In the mornings we guests (about 60 women) were offered a chance to exercise with the ARI residents and we gathered outside at 6:00 AM to do Japanese Radio exercises which all Japanese are familiar with though the ARI version was in English...

After that, some of us joined one of the teachers for morning farm work and were led to a field... to stomp on wheat!  Sorry, I wouldn't have been able to recognize the wheat field if someone hadn't told me!  Did you know that stomping on wheat clumps make the wheat produce a hormone that develops strong roots?  And strongly rooted wheat clumps turn into strong wheat stalks!  Who'd have thought it!  Someone pointed out a parable while we all stomped..

In our lives, being stomped on a bit may help us to grow stronger.  (Nodding.)

Here are some other random photos from ARI.  Early morning.  It was COLD!  Remember, north of me!

There were goats...

 And chickens...

And three farm cats.

All meals were supplied by home grown vegetables and livestock...  This looks like the end of the Chinese cabbage season.

One group went out and collected leaves from the woods for making mulch.

Tools at the wood shed...

Drying pumpkin seeds for this spring's planting.

 Icicle radishes being dried to make pickles...

And beautiful scenery...

More tomorrow.