Flimsy finished!

I got the border put on the Log Cabin quilt that I was working on and now this flimsy will have to sit and marinate for awhile while I think about how to quilt it.  Time to get on with my other projects...

 I followed the pattern almost exactly.  Piano Key border.

There is no place to spread this quilt out in any room in my house and so I draped the finished flimsy over the sewing table and chair.

The quilt is called Raise the Roof and it was in the Miss Rosie's Spice of Life Quilts book.

I had a little bit of trouble figuring out how to make this quilt from just scraps as the instructions were given to  ...cut so many strips from width of fabric from each of 11 fabrics... etc.  I had to break it all down into how many lengths each of 1 1/2 inch strips etc.  But once I'd made the notations in the book the quilt got on fairly easily (though I still seem to have more strips and squares left over...  My poor counting abilities at fault...)

This book has given me two or three nice quilt patterns that I've been very pleased with.  I wonder if there is another one that I can convert to purely scrap usage...

The rest of yesterday I spent basting the Over and Under quilt that has been up on my wall for a month.  It won't get quilted up there!  One major drawback to social distancing is that I have to baste my quilts by myself and no space to do that either!  Usually I ask my quilting friends at Mrs. Furui's to help with this boring job and we get it done with many hands.  Alone I am board-basting this (still not done) and then I'll start machine quilting it.  I think I'm just going to go for stitch-in-the-ditch as I'd really like to fluff up the strips rather than pack them down with quilting... 

Schedule free

We woke up to SNOW on Sunday morning! 

Well!  Between the Coronavirus and snow I guess we aren't going to get to church today!!

This was rather discouraging to Tetsu who finds relief to our staying at home by working himself ragged in the yard.  He found his outlet by shoveling snow on the street in front of our house.

The winter view from our bedroom window now that the forest is gone.

Today is Tuesday and usually I have a ladies' English class but we have decided to restrict our activities throughout the month of April.  The two friends in their seventies are being asked by their families to STAY HOME!  I will try to instigate a communication between the seven of us so that we don't become too isolated. Tuesdays on the calendar will be blank for awhile.

Yesterday I met with an older friend to help her get her patchwork ready for some intensive handwork and she will be off to the northern parts of Japan to join her husband (a doctor working at a remote hospital) throughout April and May.  They want to stay as far away as they can from the Coronavirus.

Tetsu cancelled a check-up with his doctor for a gastroscopy exam.  No need to be going in to the doctor's office if it isn't an emergency right now.

So the days are blending into each other with only the sad news of more Coronavirus cases mounting, a well-loved Japanese comedian passing away from complications, scary predictions about the economy...

A friend from church called me to let me know that the women's group was going to start making masks to hand out to people.  We all have the attitude that maybe homemade masks don't really do much good but they are better than nothing and making them provides a sense of solidarity much like rolling bandages did in World War I.  I have the fabric but now have run out of elastic.  Maybe I'll start trying to make masks with ties...

I am looking for things to ENJOY in this time of seclusion...  Music.  Books (happy books!   Any recommendations?).  Sewing.  Cats purring on my lap.  Walking John.  Beautiful sunsets.  I wish I could add good food to this list but being house-bound makes cooking even more of a challenge for me!  Spaghetti...  Rice...  Bread...  Whatever happened to being gluten free?!

While I'm at home...

Like all good quilters everywhere during this pandemic, I am sewing.

I have three main projects going right now.  Downstairs I am hand quilting.  This is so filthy right now because it drags on the floor and has cats sleeping under it when stitches aren't being added.  Hopefully it will all wash out white and clean and fluffy.  I am past the halfway point on this now!

I also do tatting a bit because I've been teaching a young woman this past month (I haven't heard from her this week but maybe she is sheltering down.)  Interestingly, her father, who knows Tetsu, wanted his daughter to meet me because I am a knitter.  Well, Tetsu explained I'm not so much a knitter as a quilter.  That was okay.  The father thought his daughter would be interested in the quilting too, so he brought her over.  She was interested but seemed to think it was beyond her and while fishing around for something to talk about while we drank coffee, I showed her tatting.  I gave her basic instructions on using a tatting shuttle and offered to lend her my book and a shuttle and since then she every-so-often comes over for another tatting lesson. There are like 4 things to learn in tatting and the rest is basically practice and being able to count (my downfall) so when M-san comes over I assign "homework" and tell her when she's mastered it to give me another call.  It turns out that she LOVES tatting and as I've taught her about all I can I suggested patchwork next, but she is engrossed in tatting right now.  Our last bit of homework was to make a tatting edge for something (a handkerchief?  A blouse collar?) and I continue to tat when watching our church worship service online or watching the morning news...  (Quilting gets done in the evening.)

And my last project has been sewing the Log Cabin quilt from my scrap bin.  Funny how that scrap bin never empties...  I will be working on the border this week but the main part of this in now finished. 

I look at this and wonder how I'm ever going to carry a big quilt to the Tokyo Quilt Festival next year to show Carin and Julie and Cynthia.  Well, I still have a long way to go on this and the future is so up in the air...

Happy sewing!
 

My children

The news from Japan is that the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed and the metropolis of Tokyo has been put on self quarantine at least for the weekend.  Most cherry viewing venues have been closed off to the public and there have been reports of panic shopping before the weekend starts.  The international airports have officially closed and there is no more traveling for non-essential reasons.  I wonder what is considered an essential reason in these unfathomable times. 

That is the report from the Tokyo area.  In my area life is going on about as usual.  I did grocery shopping yesterday and the stores are still well stocked.  Restaurants are open and there seemed to be as many people in them as usual.  People are still visiting and meeting in their homes...

Takumi called and we had a video chat with him and Julieta-san for nearly an hour.  He had read my blog post about being irritable and of two minds during the pandemic and he was concerned with our mental well-being I guess.  Of course we are mostly concerned about the two of them as California has a much more severe state of affairs than we have in Japan and in our countryside area.  Takumi seems to have adopted the policy of not watching the news so he knew less about the California situation than we did.

We are SO grateful that he and Julieta are weathering out this storm together.  I have never been too supportive of this living-together lifestyle the new generation keeps but Tetsu and I are extremely happy that the two of them are together.  Somewhere along the line the dates of when the two of them are married or not have become blurred in my mind and I already consider Julieta my daughter-in-law...  my DAUGHTER!  I long for the day when I will have a picture of her in her wedding dress up on my wall, but even now my son and his wife are keeping each other afloat. 

I couldn't figure out how to take a screen shot of the two of them while we talked so I asked them to take a selfie and send it to us.

 Julieta sent us three pictures.  The two of her in the hat were taken before the lock-down.

 Julieta's comment was,

"No matter where we are as long as we're together I have a smile on my face."

If that doesn't make a mother feel relieved I don't know what does!

And while we were at it, I texted Leiya and asked her to send a selfie too.  Both my daughters sans make-up...  They are beautiful even in lock-down...  Tony looks tired.  He reports terrible situations at the hospital he works at.  And notice that most of his beard has been trimmed back.  Medical masks need to fit closely over nose and mouth thus Tony's new look.

I told Leiya that we were very worried about Tony at the front lines of the medical battlefield and for her too as she is still going to work at her logistics job.  She said that she and Tony were worried about US as "You guys are in the older bracket now."  Gulp.  Made me laugh though.
 
 My four children...  Never would I have thought that I couldn't just drop everything and be with them whenever I needed to or wanted to but there you have it.  I'm thanking the Lord though for practically instantaneous communication technology.  Praying for all them daily.

Flowers of the field

Hmmm.  My blog writing gets a little dull when so much of our time is spent indoors...  It has been nice that the weather is good and growing warmer day by day. 

John continues to be a moody doxie and he will only go out for a walk with me about half the times that I invite him...  I ended up going out without him yesterday but I took advantage of time alone to go looking for flowers to photograph.  I found quite a few!

The Rape blossoms in my neighbor's field are starting to bloom.  Before they bloom we have been eating them!

 These pretty wildflowers crop up at the edges of the forest.

And these "berries" or buds or whatever are deeper in the forest.  I never really pay attention to what they turn out to be later on in the year.

 A wild magnolia tree on the edge of a farmer's field.

 And I love these Grape Hyacinth that push up in farmers' gardens.

 Along the edge of a rice field I found daffodils finally!

 Another type of daffodil, much smaller and less showy.

But these many petaled daffodils are very striking!

And these daffodils were pretty just because there were so many!

There were some beautiful Christmas Rose in someone's garden.

And even in our own garden the Christmas Rose seems to be doing well this year.

We have a many petaled variety that after a number of years has finally decided to bloom.

So color is coming back into the countryside.  I hope the rest of the world will find some cheer soon too!. 

Nerves

It is hard not to get addicted to the news these days.  We have the TV on most of the day and unless I am upstairs sewing, the background voices of newscasters are always reaching my ears.  I find myself constantly checking the news apps that I have on my phone and on our iPad.  For all that, Japan is actually in a relatively calm state and it is the news I get about America and Europe that makes my brain reel with concern.

Japan has had schools closed for the last month but, at least this week, the Japanese government is considering reopening schools from the second week of April.  Businesses are still open, supermarkets are still well-stocked.  My friends report that Costco has a good supply of practically everything.  Sports events, concerts and festivals have been cancelled or are being held without spectators or audiences but no decision has been made on whether the Tokyo Olympics will be held (the people in charge were still holding out for having it on schedule but that plan is slipping away hourly...)

Japan is divided into two ways of thinking.  That the government should formally put the country on lock-down to decrease the spreading of the Corona virus OR that Japan is doing a really great job of holding the virus at bay and we can go on with our lives as usual.

Even in our own home of two, Tetsu and I are divided...  Actually, in my mind alone I am divided!  This is what I find the most wearing, the most discouraging.  That I can't even figure out myself how I should react to the virus!

Tetsu and I feel very blessed to be living out in the countryside.  Tetsu works in the yard for most of the day. 

I go upstairs and sew or walk John around the fields.  Life is pretty normal for us.

The prefecture all together has a population of about 2 million people and as of today, there have been four cases of Corona virus reported...  That gives us all a false (?) sense of security and everyone seems to be going along as usual.

I have felt that we should limit our activities in order to be responsible citizens.  It is not a hardship to settle down at home for us.  We don't have to miss work or inconvenience anyone.  Tetsu strongly felt that we shouldn't go to church last Sunday because of the fairly large congregation and that made me sad even though we were able to "attend" the live service online.

On the other hand, Tetsu continues to go to the pool, actually the spa bath every evening saying that there aren't any cases reported in our area, if there was even one person that possibly had been exposed to the virus then the pool would close immediately (they've warned us that that is what they will do).  I argue that going to the pool ISN'T the responsible thing to be doing even if the danger is minimal.

"We should be limiting our activities to only the things that are essential.  Work (pre-school for me) I will go to because I'm paid to go, but recreational activities like the pool's public bath and church aren't necessary.  We shouldn't be going to those things."

"Tanya, I can't believe you called going to church a recreational activity.  For you especially, that is a necessity."

"That's right!  It is!  But we don't want to catch Corona virus and we don't want to spread it before we know if we've been infected or not!  I'm willing to stay home as a responsible action!"

That was our Friday argument...

Saturday I had this enlightenment that hiding down in our house being scared and living in a psychological darkness wasn't going to do anyone any good and that we should be spreading a message of hope and cheer!

Me:  "Oh, let's just go to the bath and be happy and friendly to people we meet!"

Tetsu:  "Okay. Then let's go to church on Sunday and worship with friends!"

And that is what we did.  The bath was nice and calming.  Church and lunch with friends afterwards was wonderful and uplifting.  All is good.

But this morning, when talking with Leiya and Tony, Tony reported about the anxiety he feels in the hospital because patients who have the virus come in with family members who are doing nothing to protect themselves.  He says as a doctor, he finds the laissez faire attitude of the population upsetting when the hospital doesn't even have enough materials (masks etc.) to keep doctors and nurses safe.  When I mumbled something about our prefecture still having ONLY 4 cases and that was why we were going about our regular lives, Tony clipped  "That's how it all starts.  With only 1 or 4 CASES!"

So I am back to thinking I'll stay close to home again.  No more going out for any non-essentials.  Tetsu says that is fine for MY decision.  He is still planning to go to the pool bath as it is a "necessity" for him.  And I shot back that he should be happy he still has the choice of having that "necessity" because it probably won't be there anymore once the virus spreads into our countryside...

Arguing isn't going to help us but the Corona virus isn't doing our nerves any good.
 

Sigh

My dress is finished. 

Just in time for...  a wedding delay...
 
Julieta called me this morning and as you can imagine she was in a sad mood.  It has become inevitable that the May wedding plans have to be put on hold, though she and Takumi and her mother will make the final decision this weekend.  She just wanted to let me know that she didn't think it was going to be possible to continue any longer as planned.

Of course this is not a surprise.  It was rather, who was going to make the decision.  The governments?  The airlines?  Tetsu and me?  Takumi and Julieta?

I had already been considering what arrangements needed to be made for our animals in the event that we'd have to leave Japan suddenly and possibly not get back to Japan for months (if travel bans were begun while we were away).  My cat sitters promised to do whatever they could.  The vet promised to take John on a moment's notice.  Tetsu was urging me to go to the States alone as with US citizenship I could probably get into the country more easily, but I wasn't happy with that idea because if we were going to miss this wedding, I thought we should miss it together.  It would be too sad to leave Tetsu alone in Japan while the rest of us went to a wedding.  But there were the questions of airline cancellations, the problem of travel insurance during these times, family from other parts of the States trying to get to California and then Mexico...  It just seemed that the problems were piling up.

I think yesterday California was put on emergency status and it is no longer really possible for ANYONE to be flying to Mexico.  I suggested a small wedding in someone's backyard without Tetsu and me but Julieta said that groups of more than 10 people weren't being allowed and she didn't want her elderly relatives even trying to gather in small groups.  She was just too flustered to think things through this morning.  Maybe try for a December wedding?

I commiserated with her as well as I was able.  I suggested they go ahead and get married in the court and have their ceremony and reception NEXT year in May as a celebration of one year of marriage.  (I would never believe I actually suggested a court wedding as I've always believed the religious ceremony is the "real" wedding.)  I don't know what Takumi and Julieta are going to do...  And I feel very bad for Julieta.

But so far all of us are still healthy and that is something to be happy about.  Now to focus on STAYING healthy.  All of us!

So, yesterday I put the final stitches on the dress I had been making.  Mrs. Waki had been concerned too with getting this dress done in time in case I needed to fly away suddenly and she worked hard to get everything basted and ready for me to just do the final hem stitching.  She is such a professional!

As I worked, I noticed all the details that she put into this dress...

The basting along the inside of the hem slit...  She taught me how to do "star" stitching to tack down the lining so it doesn't fly away from the hem.  The "star" stitching are the little dots along the lining.  I removed the longer basting stitches from the lining and from the dress after I finished sewing the star stitching.

And inside the hem, in two or three places, I found this "string" of crocheted cording that Mrs. Waki made and sewed onto the seamline, also to keep the lining from riding up when putting on the dress.

But now my beautiful dress will be put away for a few months until the world heals itself and we can plan celebrations again. 

I have such mixed emotions today.  So sad that this happy occasion is on hold.  So happy that my children have found wonderful spouses to share trials and joys with.  Our love is not hindered by crisis.

Face masks

More thoughts about how the corona virus changes things.

In Japan, or at least in my part of the country, we are doing fairly well.  The cases are still countable in our prefecture and as I don't have to use public transportation, I don't have to worry about catching something in transit.  The supermarkets are still stocked with the normal amount of food and I even saw some rolls of toilet paper yesterday when I was out shopping.  No hand sanitizer or face masks...

The lack of face masks has sent me questioning my health care beliefs.  I have never liked face masks (as old time blog readers may remember my peeves in posts past) and I still don't think they do a bit of good at protecting the wearer from germs and viruses.  They have always seemed like a psychological barrier that people like to put up.

But Japanese have always loved face masks and swear by them during the hay fever season as well as the flu season (and I don't have hay fever either so I wouldn't know).  I can understand wearing a face mask if you are already sick and want to protect other people from catching your germs and of course I obey the rules when visiting someone in a hospital by bringing along my own mask or getting one from the nurses station.

However since the Corona virus pandemic, EVERYONE wears masks all the time!  And again, this may be just the Japanese being very considerate and thoughtful, not a protection measure for themselves.

"I'm not sick but I don't want you to worry that I might have something and so I will wear this mask for YOUR peace of mind."

It is a form of social etiquette.

At church I've noticed that during the service everyone but the foreigners are wearing masks.  Of course in the supermarkets everyone wears masks.  Even yesterday when the English ladies came, I noticed that they wore their masks throughout the lesson (except when drinking their coffee) and they've NEVER done that before!  K-san even gave me 5 masks that she keeps in her bag because I admitted that I only had one or two and at this late date they can no longer be purchased...  Yes, I feel like I really should have bought a supply of face masks!  I feel like I am being inconsiderate when I go into a store and am not wearing a mask!  (So for yesterday's grocery shopping I pulled on one that I had put in my handbag the last time I went with Tetsu to the hospital for his cataract surgery.)

I mentioned this mask dilemma to Tetsu this morning and he said that he has felt the same glares and frowns when he goes somewhere without a mask.  He said that when he went to the local clinic to pick up some medicine he was the only person in the waiting room without a mask and when he sat down, the man in the next seat immediately got up and moved to another chair in a more crowded area...  maybe because he was worried about catching something from Tetsu who wasn't wearing a mask?

"We are going to have to rethink this mask policy of ours...  At the Home Owners' Association meeting one of the members was sermonizing about the importance of hand washing AND WEARING MASKS to keep everyone healthy and I sort of shrank in my seat...  I think I'm going to need to wear a mask at the next meeting.  But where are we going to get masks now?  They are sold out in the stores."

Aha!  Don't I have all that fabric upstairs in the sewing room?  Granted, a home made face mask isn't going to save us from a serious virus but it WILL give the people around us peace of mind and at least show that we are trying to be considerate...  I will make a mask!

Cut a piece of fabric 15 inches by 7.5 inches.  Zig-zag the two narrow ends.

Fold the fabric in half lengthwise, right sides together, and mark 1 1/2 inches from the edge on both sides of the unfolded end.  Sew to the marks on both sides.

Press the seam open.

Turn right side out, and top stitch one side of the seam from edge to edge (I'm not sure why not top stitch both sides of this seam but I didn't.)   Mark 1/2 inch up from this seam and iron the piece on the marked line.  (This brings that opening 1/2 inch down rather being at the top.)

Stitch close to the edges on all sides.

Insert a twisty tie into that 1/2 area above the opening and then stitch over the bottom stitch line, enclosing the twisty tie into the narrow area.

(Like this...  Insert.... and when it is tucked away, sew it in.)

From the opening/seam line, mark lightly at one inch intervals on both sides.  These will be the pleat lines...  If you want more pleats mark the number of places accordingly.  I put in three pleats so pleated at the inch 1 mark bringing it to the 2 inch mark, then the 3 inch mark to the 4 inch mark, etc...

Yeah.  Pleats made and pressed.  That's good enough for me.  Maybe you like your pleats more even....  I can't figure out where the marks should be then...  The pleated piece measured 3 3/4 inches deep for this mask.  Sew along both sides at the ends.

I didn't bother with bias.  I cut two rectangles a bit longer than the mask width and 2 1/2 inches wide.  (I didn't have enough of the floral fabric so made do.)

Sew on the side strips, fold over to hide the mask edges and top stitch the ends.

Add 10 inches of thin elastic, feed through the sides of the mask and tie the ends hiding them inside the mask ends.

That twisty tie inserted and sewn in makes for a bendable edge that fits along the nose tightly.

And the open pocket inside can be used for extra protection if you want to add a disposable gauze insert.

OOooh!  Scary!  Well, it works if that's all one has!

I made three masks today.  The gray one is for Tetsu and he was delighted!  He is going to see if the 100 yen store has a package of twisty ties (for staking up vegetable vines of all things!) and then he wants me to make a few more masks!