The end of January

The month of January went by quickly though I'm not sure why as we really didn't do anything at all.  Maybe all the photos and videos of Luka made us expectant over and over for the upcoming day?

The Covid numbers are decreasing slightly in my prefecture and the officials are even considering loosening any of the already loose restrictions put on the public.  Even so, I got word from the preschool that they would like me to refrain from coming in February and the elementary school sent me a letter saying they regretted to say that they weren't going to have guests at the graduation ceremony in March nor at their entrance ceremony in April.  I have to make the decision as to when to start up my two English classes with ladies that I have at home but I think we'll play it safe and consider February a continuation of winter break.

So, actually the only person I've seen this month is M-san who is rather a homebody herself and she seems to see only me.  We got together again on Friday to continue the paper-pieced Atomic Stars quilts that we are working on.  She got a second one done before we took a chocolate break, and then she actually wanted to do a THIRD one as she still wasn't sure of the process.  At the end of the afternoon she had three very nice blocks made but she said she still didn't feel confident in doing them alone.  THAT IS NOT A SURPRISE!  How many of these paper pieced blocks do you think a person has to make before they feel like they've got the method under their belt?!  M-san said her grandmother thought her block last week was "nice" but I told her that non-quilters would not understand the brain power needed to do paper-piecing and it would be QUILTERS that would tell her what a great job she is doing!  Don't give up!

Because we are sewing the Atomic Stars at my house, M-san has been doing handwork at home and she brought her finished star quilt.  She says she really enjoys the hand-quilting part of patchwork so I'll have to figure out something again for her to do as homework...

Here are my Atomic Stars.  I'm at the halfway point!

For all my enjoyment of sewing last week, I've been grumpy because the forest in front of my house is getting chopped down...  Remember a year and a half ago I was so upset about the forest behind me?  Well, the one in front of me is doomed too now.  I'm trying to be philosophical about it this time because 1) the view behind our house AFTER the loss of the forest is one that brightens my every morning!  So good things do come out of what I consider disasters...  And 2) with the pandemic and so many loss of lives, how can I grieve over trees right now?  This thought was brought back to me at the end of last year when they started chopping the trees and I was fuming again and right about that time Takumi became sick...  Marlene once asked how I feeling about the tree chopping and I said,

"Trees are the least of my problems right now!  I'm feeling overwhelmed about Takumi's situation!"

Takumi, by the way, is feeling better, seeing a doctor regularly and he and Julieta have even bought a new house and moved!  I don't have details about that yet but it sounds like his health is moving in the right direction.  Thank you again for your prayers.

Back to the forest in front of my house....  So the trees are going away daily and every so often there is a loud thud as a tree falls and John starts barking and running around the house and Tetsu usually checks out the window.  This weekend he was watching the felling process and suddenly said,

"Oh no!  That was bound to happen!"

The tree that the amateur woodchoppers were working on fell in the wrong direction and hit the small factory our neighbor has...  The fence is easily repaired but that roof is going to need the insurance company.  This picture was taken from my sewing room upstairs...  As the rest of the trees go I think we'll move our cars away from the road and maybe stay in rooms on the other side of the house as the woodcutters work...  

A crying baby

There's not too much going on around here.  We've had two light snows this past week but they melt off within a day.  

Tetsu spent one afternoon shoveling from our neighborhood all the way to the school hoping to make it easier to for the children to get to school the next day.   It took him 4 hours so the snowfall wasn't all THAT light (though actually it was the distance that made for a lot of work.  It usually takes me 15 minutes to walk to the school.)

This morning's snow has already melted away and it is still before noon.

The school playground.

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Leiya and Tetsu have been Facetiming back and forth trying to figure out some Japanese characters for Luka's name.  In Japan, this is a very important point as all those characters have meaning.  There is also some way to tell fortunes by how many strokes a character has and parents will choose combinations of strokes for good luck, but that is a banned topic in our house as we don't believe in fortune telling!  ANYWAY...  There are so many different combinations of characters and meanings and parents and grandparents put a lot of their hopes and dreams for the new baby into this selection...  In Leiya's case, her EXTREMELY complicated Japanese/Chinese characters are 麗耶 which means Beautiful and Of Jesus.  Lovely meaning, impossible for this foreigner to write!

Because Luka's birth is to be registered with the Japanese embassy in the near future, Leiya wanted to decide on the characters that will be official for his name and thus she and Tetsu are discussing it and she interprets all this information for Tony so that he can get in on choosing the characters too.  As far as I know it hasn't been decided yet, but when it is, Tetsu will probably write the name formally with brush pen (he's already bought a formal name plate) and send it to Leiya.

Leiya is loving being a mother and she daily sends us photos and videos and of course we enjoy looking at them all over and over again!  Leiya had a photographer come and catch some pictures of the new family and though some are sweet and loving shots, Tetsu and I get a laugh out of the ones of Luka screaming!  It sounds like breastfeeding is going better but there is not much sleep going on in their house as Luka uses his lungs if he's put down for long!  

"Here's to you, Tanisan!"

I'm not sure if Leiya was telling me that the cute baby wear was a reminder for me or if she was saying anytime I wanted to take care of a crying baby for her she'd be ready. 

 

Back to the Farm Finished!!!

I am proud to announce that I HAVE FINISHED THE RYAN MCKENNA BACK TO THE FARM QUILT!!!!!!!

I really wondered if I would get this to completion.  Not because it was particularly hard to do but because it took so much patience and tenacity!  My greatest fear was that I would lose one of the block patterns, or more likely lose MOTIVATION, or for some god-awful reason I'd leave this world with this quilt half done for someone else to figure out and then they'd give up, not see the potential, and donate it to a second hand store!  

The whole BOM was sent to me by a wonderful blog friend who was cleaning out her sewing room (I guess!) and it has been in my closet for a few years.  I took the whole set to Mrs. Furui's thinking the members in our group could claim one block each and everyone would have a project to take home, but then the whole set came back to me when the pandemic started as the patchwork group was no longer meeting.  I have a memo that I bit the bullet and started the first block in April, 2020...  And since then my monthly goal has been to do a Block of the Month as the quilt was designed for.

April - Block one -- Autumn Stroll

May - Block two -- Swing Low

These two blocks are the only two that connected at a later date making one large picture.

June - Block three --  Pigs in a Blanket

July - Block four --  Rub-a-Dub-Dub

August - Block five -- Piggy-back Ride

September - Block six -- Behind the Scenes

November - Block seven -- The Hills are Alive

December - Block eight --  Home to Roost

January - Block nine -- Munch-a-Bunch

Once I was on a roll I just had to start quilting, and thinking about freehand quilting all those tiny spaces in such a big quilt made me dizzy!  I ignored the pattern instructions and started quilting each block separately (giving me a way to use up small pieces of backing too!) and when left with the eight pieces (block one and two HAD to be joined) I sewed the front side with a neutral batik and the back side with left over strips of backing.  A LONG PROCESS!  The back is "interesting"...

I spent one sleepless night trying to figure out how to add the border (with separate backing, and batting) but once that hurdle was met I ended with binding and no quilting at all in the border.  There seemed to be so much busyness everywhere else!! 

And I even got a bit fancy and traced off the scarecrow in block one and made him into a label!

This quilt is so beautiful because of the very special fabrics that McKenna uses.  Look at the Home to Roost block again and notice the fencing fabric in the coop!  And the border is of a beautiful green field of clover!

Once done though I realized that there isn't really a wall in my house that is large enough for this quilt.  It belongs in a much bigger room.  We ended up moving a bit of furniture and put it in our entry where I can glance at it when I go in and out of the house...

   It was a big job but so worth the effort!  

  

Seeing the earth and stars

Whew!  My young friend, M-san, made her first paper-piecing Atomic Star!  I fed her chocolate and sweet cafe latte after she had finished.

Before we began I had sent M-san a You-Tube video showing how to make the stars and I wasn't sure if it would just scare her off or inspire her but she watched it and was surprised that we would be sewing on top of the paper.  I stood over her and directed as she went through the steps.  

"Place a card next to the line and fold the paper back."

"Roller cut 1/4 inch from the paper to make a visible edge."

"Slip the next piece of fabric and line up the edge."

"Check the mirror image of the under fabric."

"Pick it up and carry it to the machine."

"Place the needle first at the entry point, lower the machine foot and sew."

"Fold the fabric flat from the seam."

"Place a card next to the NEXT line and fold the paper back..."

"Repeat."

We messed up once and had to redo one small piece.  Paper piecing allows ONE mistaken seam before the paper is too perforated to continue...  Think the steps through!

And M-san had her completed Atomic Star!  The first of many more (hopefully...)  or she may have decided never to do it again!  She kept saying, 

"I don't think I know what I'm doing.... I'm just doing."

It takes practice and even some attempts that have to get thrown out.  One star a week for her may keep her motivated...  too many and the brain begins to hurt!

As an...  "AHEM", experienced paper piecer, (though I still mess up once each star) I have given myself the goal to make one star a DAY!  I need 30 in all and I do have other projects on the table so one star is about right for my brain too.  Here on my design wall are the 7 black stars that I have made, M-san's blue one, my practice white one and an idea of how the other solid diamonds are going to surround the quilt at a later date.  

Thursday I got a post card in the mail and I was delighted to find that the Tokyo International Quilt Festival Partnership Quilt project committee had sent out post cards printed of the quilt where our blocks had ended up.  It was nice of them to make this extra effort and keep track of who's block was in which quilt and then address all the postcards to be sent.  (When we sent out the blocks last summer we included a self addressed post card so that the committee could let us know which quilt our block was in...  but that self-addressed post card had already been sent back to me at the end of last year.  The quite extensive job of sending the post cards this time is proof of the committee's conscientiousness.) My block is on the right hand side...  in the lower center...  and clearly says LOVE THE EARTH which was the theme this year.  Can you find it?  

As I expected, there were so many circles represented in the blocks...  Carin sent me a picture of her post card and hers was in a quilt with mostly circles too.  It was really hard to express "earth" in the very small square and I think a lot of us quilters fell back to the circle motif...  

What will next year's theme be?  As far as I know, though the 2021 quilt show had to be cancelled, the 2022 show is still on the docket.

For the nation

Even though I've lived in Japan for over 40 years, I have only American citizenship and I will always consider myself American.  Because Tetsu doesn't speak English and doesn't even adjust well to vacations in the States, I will probably never live there again.  However, with both our children and their families living permanently in the States, my heart and thoughts turn daily to what is going on in the States... With Covid and even political concerns.  

Today is already January 20th in Japan and my focus is praying for the United States on the new president's inauguration day and term.  He, and all his advisors need wisdom, courage, perseverance, health, understanding and good hearts.  And God's help.

Praying today.

   

Quilts in Indiana and Japan

Oh dear.  Not too much interesting going on on my side of the world.  I was complaining to Marlene that there is nowhere to go, we don't see anyone and my biggest excitement of a week is going grocery shopping.  

Leiya, however, keeps in touch and sends us videos and photos of Luka so that is always a high point of the day.

And here is Luka under the quilt I made for him!  Yes, it arrived in Indiana maybe two days before he was born...  I had sent it at the beginning of October and it took more than two months to get to Indiana.  But it arrived in time!

So fun to see my grandbaby under a quilt I've made!  

Another picture that we love seeing is the first snow at Tony and Leiya's new house.  Doesn't it look cozy?!  I love that they live with lots of trees around them.  That big wreath on their chimney makes their house look like a puppy dog!  But Leiya said that they are going to take down the winter decorations so it might not have the same animal appeal that it has during the Christmas months...

My McKenna quilt is now in one piece and I need to figure out how to put borders on at this late date.  That means adding borders (two) adding backing in strips and sandwiching batting before it is ready to quilt...  Or maybe quilt-as-you-go the borders first and THEN put it all together...  This is going to take some brain power on my part today.  

And up on my design wall are three atomic starburst stars...  The white one is my practice star and now I've started making the stars in black...  I think I have 30 to paper piece so that will be my daily goal for a month.  One star a day.  

And can you believe, my young quilting friend is going to attempt this paper piecing technique later this week.  She likes making something that I am working on so that we can sort of compare our colors and fabrics and she wanted to try this.  She is a very dedicated, clever young woman and I've been impressed at how quickly she catches on (to tatting, to quilting, to sewing with a sewing machine) still, this isn't an easy pattern...  I told her to build up her stamina this week so that we can work on her Atomic Starburst stars this Friday.  Gulp.  I hope I'm not throwing her into too deep a challenge!

Cold, crafty, calculating

Yesterday our prefecture was put on red alert for the Covid-19 virus.  We have had a sudden leap in cases and it is rather a surprise that this comparatively unpopulated prefecture might suddenly be classed with the larger metropolises such as Tokyo and Osaka.  Well, I had canceled English for the ladies this month and we have avoided going to the pool and stopped eating out at all.  I still go to the crosswalk every morning but the school is nervously waiting for further instructions from the city as some of the students have younger siblings who attend a pre-school where children have contracted the virus.  

My cold, winter days are filled with sewing and doing computer things...  Takumi set up a new computer for me over the weekend and I am getting used to the new functions!  

Here is my flower applique quilt which I spend my evenings quilting.  I notice how much black DOG fur that it is picking up from the floor as John is usually lounging at my feet.  This is going to need a really good cleaning with a sticky brush as well as a good washing when it is done.  No reason to try to keep it clean now. 

And upstairs I am happy to announce that this morning I finished machine quilting all the McKenna blocks for the farm quilt.  Hopefully this will be the last time to see this quilt in pieces.  I used invisible thread, though at first I had a lot of problems getting the tension right.  Also, I didn't have enough backing to use for all the pieces so all the backings are different!  Either that will be a disaster or it will add interest when the quilt is done.  I now have to figure out how to put this all together in one piece!  (and add borders...)  I have a feeling I'm going to have to put some thin sashing around each block when sewing it all together because it is quilted right up to the seam line...  That's okay with me because I've always thought the McKenna quilts feel a little jumbled because there is no break between the blocks.  How to do it though is going to be another challenge!

This was my sewing room when I started this morning.  I had those last two blocks to do that were still on the design wall.  I've now cleaned up my sewing room (except for all the quilt blocks on the floor!) in order to start a new quilt tomorrow with M-san my young quilter friend.

As long as this is a crafty post I'll show you what I've been doing in my Bullet Journal.  I wasn't going show pictures of what I've been doing there because it is so heavily Pinterest inspired, but it is a very nice outlet for me and I enjoy going back and looking at the artwork I've added (even though none of it is original).  

The only thing original about this addition is the coloring that I did... with a stencil I made!  I have been watching a Craftsy art class video and the artist gave simple instructions for making a stencil with Hot Bond...  with a glue gun!  

So, a simple design is drawn on oven paper (so it doesn't stick) with the hot glue from the glue gun and when it is hardened it can be peeled off and used with sponge stenciling and water colors.  I made a couple of shapes and now that I know how to do it maybe I'll get better and be able to use the technique again.

Another Pinterest inspired entry.

This one made me laugh!

It is rather silly to be keeping a Bullet Journal in these times as there is nothing on our schedules anymore!  But doodling is enjoyable and maybe someday, looking back, there will be good memories to be found...

Adults' Day

January 11, today, is Adults' Day in Japan.  

From age 20, young people are legally considered adults and that is the voting and drinking age.  To celebrate the big day, usually the local towns and cities will have a ceremony in which the mayor or someone high up, will offer congratulations and emphasize the responsibilities to all the 20 year olds that gather.  Often the ceremony becomes sort of a reunion for the young people who dispersed to different high schools and groups of new adults will go off to party (first time with alcohol?) and catch up.  The girls especially will dress up, sometimes in chic outfits but more often in elaborate kimonos.   For parents, and grandparents, no cost is spared to give the girl in the family a chance to have hair, kimono, make-up done up professionally to be photographed for family history.  For the young men, occasionally they too will wear dark kimonos but more often they will wear their first dark suit purchased to wear at interviews with their future employers.

Alas, with Covid rampant, most of Japan's Adult Day ceremonies have been cancelled and there will hopefully be very few gatherings of old friends for the spreading of news and viruses...  But especially girls had planned to wear kimono, had for months made appointments with hair dressers, kimono dressers (yes!  One doesn't just throw on a kimono.  A professional dresser is needed to wear one of these elaborate outfits with decoratively tied obi belts) and in many cases, reservations are made to rent kimonos for the day.  And of course, the professional photographer has been reserved also.  

Yesterday I had a sudden visitor and I hardly recognized her!  N-chan, all dressed up in kimono for Adults' Day.  It was so nice of her to think of me and want to show me how lovely she has become!  N-chan probably started English when she was in 2nd or 3rd grade, and she came to my house weekly until she went to middle school.  And now she is 20 and will begin working from April!

First, N-chan's kimono.  

Her mother (who came with N-chan) said that this was her own kimono that she wore when she was graduating from college.  When a girl wears a kimono for graduation, the lower half is covered in wide black kimono "pants" and there isn't the fancy tied obi.  N-chan has two older sisters so I'm thinking that they too must have worn this same kimono for their own Adults Day ceremonies.  That's at least four good uses that this very expensive kimono has gotten!

It is interesting to me how girls' fashion has changed even wearing kimono these days.  When I first came to Japan it was unheard of for a girl to have dyed hair but N-chan sports an ombre dye these days.  She also wore fresh flowers in her hair whereas traditionally crepe handmade flowers would cascade over the forehead.  Also, one would never wear jewelry with a kimono and watches, bracelets, heavy rings and earrings would be removed when wearing Japanese attire.  Not anymore!  And if you look closely, N-chan had her nails done with a bright green manicure (with glittering jewels too!)  But it all pulls together into a modern Japanese girl's style.

A traditional brocade obi with traditional beads...  but the side tie of the obi rope is new to me.

Where it really gets fancy is how the brocade obi, which is quite lengthy and stiff, can get tied into such a beautiful bow, and then is held together with utilitarian ties and all that is hidden under the decorative obi ropes.

As we chatted and as I took pictures, I asked N-chan what her new job from April would be and she said that she is just finishing up veterinary nursing school and she will be working at a veterinary clinic in a few months.  WOW!  Do I respect her and anyone who can do veterinary work!  Ah...  N-chan always loved our cats when she came for English and I asked if she remembered Mi-chan and any other of our animals.  She could reel off Vel's name (gone now) and Cleo's and Toi's.  I brought Mi-chan outside to show N-chan but wouldn't let her hold the kitty.  Think what cat claws could do to that kimono!!!  N-chan would always run for Mi when she visited and spent many hours with Mi on her lap as she studied English. 

I was so glad to see N-chan and hear about her new life.  After we said good-bye and I brought Mi-chan back into the house I whispered into her furry ear, 

"You may have had something to do with N-chan's career choice.  You were always her favorite and I'm sure her love of animals grew just because you were in her life."