Celtic Knot pages

I am continuing to enjoy the class that I am taking with Valerie Sjodin called Celtic Knots.  We're at the halfway point of the class making one colorful page each week and supplementing it with devotional pages and Bible verses to think about.  At the end of the class, I hope to have nearly 60 pages of art work and thoughts as a keepsake. 

As we go along, the lessons are becoming more and more challenging, in a good way and I have been stretched to design things that I didn't think would be possible...  I had come into the class hoping to make a duplicate of Valerie's artwork based on the beautiful hymn, Be Thou My Vision, and never considered that I'd be asked to use my imagination!

In one of the verses of the hymn the words go, "Be Thou my battle shield, sword for the fight.  Thou my dignity, Thou my delight."

For the class on be Thou my battle shield...  one of the Bible verses was 

"He will cover you with his feathers.  He will shelter you with his wings."  Psalm 91:4

In this class we were taught how to use a compass and draw a shield....  And then were encouraged to design our own shield...   

Well, I am duplicating my work in one daily bullet journal and also in the specific journal for the class. On my first try I religiously went about copying Valerie's work according to her instructions and learned how to shade and color.  And then I took the plunge and thought about designing my own shield.

(I figure no one but quilters are going to understand what I'm talking about.)

Feathers?  Feathers.  Feathers!  What other design could I use but quilted feathers!!!

I was so pleased with myself!  The one on the left is the simple version in one book and the one on the right is my experiment with quilted feathers. 

This week we were working on illuminated letters.  Again, after the basic instructions we were challenged to design our own letter D using gold and a motif of our liking...  I tried to make a bird like Valerie's...  playing it safe.  

But in my daily journal I went wild and designed a sleeping cat and birds playing around it.  (Which is actually a nod to the Sleeping Cat of Nikko which is found in Toshogu shrine.  The idea is that there is peace when even the birds can sing with joy near the cat.) 

I had great fun thinking of filler patterns for the open scroll work at the top of the pages, going from quilting books to fabric scraps I have in my bin...

I just have to show off the shine in this!

Though I seem to devote a lot of time to the videos and pages used in this class, it has been so much fun!

Handwork

Yesterday I realized how much of the "handwork" that I do actually involves using a sewing machine.  

Marlene and her husband came over yesterday for lunch and Kohei asked me if I would teach a patchwork class for him at a conference he is arranging (way in the future so I don't have to worry about it for awhile).  He said there would be an hour and a half time and maybe a little more on the second day of the conference.  He wanted to know what sort of things I might be able to teach people to make and he flattered me by asking to take pictures of my patchwork and quilts.

Well...  an hour and a half isn't much time...  And honestly speaking, he has no idea of the time it takes to piece, and then quilt something...  He kept pointing at things I'd made and I'd have to say, 

"Well, that involves a sewing machine."

"That was made by hand but the piecing alone took me days and days."  We were talking about little things too...  a smallish hanging but one that had lots of pieces...  

Thankfully I'm not at a complete loss for ideas because I've been to a Women's Conference with Julie a couple of times and I watched her organize and teach simple piecing and simple quilting to group of ladies.  I think I could manage something similar...

I suggested to Kohei (and he agreed!) that I'd bring over my materials and teach HIM how to make something and we'd both see how long it took a beginner to do patchwork...  That is in the planning stage right now...

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One of the "handwork" pieces I've been working on is my A Tisket A Tasket quilt.  (Hand appliqued, sashing piecing by machine)  That is at the quilting stage and as I'm planning to be using the sewing machine heavily for other projects next month I decided to go ahead with quilting by hand.

Another "hand" piece I suddenly HAD to try and do was a Kawandi quilt piece introduced to me by Cynthia. She had taken a class and made a very pretty piece and I was charmed and asked for details (which she kindly wrote out for me!)  I then went looking on You Tube and got a vague idea of the process...  I just had to give it a go and I found a scrap of backing, a scrap of batting and my fabric scrap bin and sat down to work.  It is rather habit forming and I found it hard to stop.  

The interesting thing to me about this method of quilting is that one starts from the outside edge and adds fabric around and around until reaching the center...  I thought it would result in a lot of center bulging (all that batting getting pushed to the center) but it didn't really.  I found it hard to "quilt" (more like sashiko stitches) with 3 ply embroidery thread as I was using a thicker needle and there were a lot of seam allowances to get through but with perseverance and sore fingers, I finished the small piece in two days (not going to fit Kohei's hour and a half criteria). 

It is a rainy day today and perfect weather to get back to the hand-quilting!

 

Family

I guess I mostly have family pictures today...

Leiya's family went off for a couple of days (Leiya's and Tony's 2 wedding anniversery!) and managed to give Luka his first hike and first swim!

I think they were still in Indiana somewhere...

Leiya reports that Luka loved the swimming pool experience though he kept looking at Daddy for reassurance.

Though I can't say I love swimming, I do a lot of it so maybe Luka has it in his blood...

At 5 months, Luka can sit now and seems to have learned to SCOOT.  

The biggest news this month is that Takumi and Julieta have a dog now!!!

I don't have all the details because it all sounds rather heart-breaking, but somehow they acquired a dog that was in great distress after just having puppies and then had been thrown out somewhere (I have no idea what happed with the puppies and I'm not asking...)  She was in pain and they got her medication and gave her some good care and now she seems to know that she is in a good spot.

With our own experience of adopting John, I worried that the doggie might have trust issues but so far she seems to have adjusted well.   Takumi and Julieta have named her Hazy and she is getting lots of love.  

They took her with them up to the mountains (my brother's cabin) and she jumped up on the hammock with Takumi.

I am SO happy that Julieta has such a soft heart for animals.  I know Takumi does as he always was so loving to our cats and dogs...  I hope Hazy will be comforted in having a good home even though the start of her life might not have been so cherished.  Yeah!

John should take some lessons on how to be affectionate from Hazy.  But notice the heart reflection he is sleeping in!

  

Dinosaurs it is!

Did you think I got burned out after my major quilting efforts on the Mexican Star quilt?  Well, I'm back in the planning stages for a new quilt but don't have much to show.

                                                Elizabeth Hartman Dinosaur Quilt

While browsing Pinterest (what a tempting place to spend time!) I have been drawn to Elizabeth Hartman's dinosaur quilt pattern.

"What a cute pattern for a little boy!"

Well, now I have a little boy grandchild, did I want to attempt it?

"No."  I said to myself.  "I just made him a baby quilt and he's not even 5 months old.  He won't need a dinosaur quilt until he's at least four or five."  

I'm basing my theory on the fact that I had made Takumi a dinosaur quilt when he was four or five.  Do I have a thing for dinosaur quilts?  

"I cannot make a quilt for him every year and besides, I may have future grandchildren that I'll need to make quilts for.  If I start off on one a year I'll get buried in quilt making!  (not that I'm not already.)

Just IN CASE though, I purchased the digital Elizabeth Hartman pattern...

And the next time I was talking with Leiya I casually mentioned quilts... for little boys... and if Luka should ever want a quilt was she thinking he'd go the "Vehicle Quilts" route or the "Boats and Fish Quilt" route or the "Dinosaur Quilt" route.  Just asking of course...

"Dinosaurs!" answered Leiya immediately.

"That's funny you should ask because I was remembering that you once made a dinosaur quilt for Takumi and I was wondering if one day Luka could have it.  But then I thought, 'No.  That's Takumi's quilt.  Someday maybe he'll have children that he'll want it for."  Anyway, I'd like Luka to be an animal lover so a dinosaur quilt would be great."

I pointed out that dinosaurs weren't exactly animals... well, in a stretch...  

So, it seems Luka would like a dinosaur quilt and I just happen to now have a dinosaur pattern.  And I might as well start making it because who knows if I'll be hale and hearty enough in four or five years to make it for him.  And besides it might take me four or five years to finish the thing!  Decision made!

 

I tried out one of the blocks with scrap fabric.  Yes... I can do this...  I planned to make a run to the fabric shop to buy 5 yards of background fabric even though I have enough fabric pieces for the dinosaurs...

I made a stop at Mrs. Furui's, (I haven't seen her in at least 6 months!) and while catching up on the news I looked through the fabric swatches that had come in a monthly newsletter from a fabric company of which she is a member.  And I found some very pretty fabric!  In bright green!  Green?  I had been thinking of the black as I'd made my trial block with black fabric... but black isn't very cheerful... and bright green is sort of jungle-y.  We called the company, verified that they had 6 yards (always need a little extra!) of the green and I ordered it!  A rather expensive purchase (and I bought 6 yards of backing too!) but hey!  It's for my grandson!

I have started cutting stash fabric for dinosaurs...  I sure hope the colors I chose will go with bright green or I'm going to have to make a very large Irish shamrock quilt...

Mexican Star quilt for Julieta and Takumi

I am happy to report that I have finished up the quilt I've been making for Julieta and Takumi's new house.  It went much more quickly than I expected and it was a fun quilt to make.  It isn't too big to become a chore, there are not that many colors to get confused about, and the pattern lends itself well to different quilting motifs.  I think this is the third time I've made this quilt, one time without a border, and I come back to it again and again.

Spread out on our bed...  I was pretty happy about all the texture that I got from the quilting efforts.

I don't know what I was trying to draw here, but I got most of my ideas from Pinterest.  There was this block between the stars...

...and another block on the edge of the stars that had more room for quilting.

I ended up doing the "scallops" around the stars just because I was afraid I'd get too lost with any more spiral filler.

Close up of the scallop arc.

I doubled the feathers this time which gave this a more feminine look than I would have liked, but the inner quilting was so dense I felt that the feathers needed that inner swoosh.

Though the colors weren't actually what was requested, I was working from my stash and I didn't have a lot of choices.  It was either the sandy pink and turquoise or plain white...  A lesson to keep more "interesting" neutral fabrics in my stash than just plain white...

And actually the inner part of the quilt and the border was different fabric but in the same color scheme...  I didn't have enough of the inner fabric but maybe the fabric change adds interest.

I now have 5 quilts that need to go to recipients in the States, but I'm not sending any of them...  I heard that someone sent a quilt (I don't remember from which overseas country) and three months later it was RETURNED!  At least it didn't get lost!  I have the quilts all labeled and so someday I hope to deliver this quilt and the others in person...

Grand Opening of Ohki Alley

Yesterday was pretty exciting for our family.  

Occasionally I write about my grandparents who lived in Columbia City, Indiana after they came to America from Japan.  It is a long story but anyway, my grandfather arrived in America, ended up in Columbia City, went to high school there and then to New York for college, brought my grandmother to Indiana, started a soy sauce company in that small town and raised my mother there.  My grandmother passed away when I was 8, my grandfather when I was 11.  My mother was an only child and we already lived in California so my grandfather's home and second home were sold and my mother never returned to Indiana.

HOWEVER, a number of years ago, Columbia City's historical society decided to feature my grandfather and the historian at the time, Pat, did intensive research to find out more.  

She collected articles that my grandparents had owned, she interviewed people who had known and met him and she tracked me down through my blog.  As Leiya was going to college in Ohio at the time, Pat arranged for Leiya to visit Columbia City and meet people.  And two years ago when Tetsu and I were in the mid-west, we visited Columbia City and tracked down more of my roots.  And met Pat.

For the past year, Columbia City has been constructing a community gathering space near the town square and it was decided that it would be dedicated to my grandfather and named Ohki Alley!  (His name was Shinzo Ohki.)  The committee in charge got in touch with our family to let us know and asked if anyone might be able to attend the grand opening on Friday, and Leiya and Tony decided to make it a family trip (4 1/2 hours to get there from where they are in Indiana) and they even took along Tony's grandparents who were visiting them.

Leiya was asked to do the ribbon cutting and say a few words...

and she was even given a key to the city!  

This morning Leiya and Tony both sent us lots of videos of the ceremonies and of the Alley and we were able to talk to them for a long time as they told stories of the people they met and their impressions of the town and the people and the Alley.  

Leiya was SO thrilled to have been able to participate in the activities and she said the Alley was just beautiful and even after the ceremonies lots of the people who were attending a local farmers' market were making good use of the new space and enjoying outdoor eating and visiting. 

Leiya said that there is a mural on one wall with the words "Whitley can Show You" which is a take off from my grandfather's soy sauce company which he named Oriental SHOW-YOU (shoyu being the Japanese word for soy sauce.)  

There were cherry blossoms on the walls, a symbol of Japanese heritage, and the Ohki name was cut out in the metal plates along the benches and tables.  

And there was a large plaque telling visitors to the Alley about my grandfather and his love of his adopted home.  

Leiya said the family who had shown her around back in 2009 when she had visited, shared many stories again and took them to the cemetery where my grandparents have their grave.  Tetsu and I thought it was so funny that Leiya was cleaning the gravestone with baby wipes!  So Japanese to think of cleaning the gravestone!  (But in Japan we would have brought a bucket of water and a scrub brush!)

The next day before Tony and Leiya left, Pat's daughter visited them at their hotel and brought gifts for Luka and some memorabilia that Pat had collected over the years.  Leiya teared up just showing us all of the treasured things that Pat had found and kept safe.  Bottles from the soy sauce packing plant, recipe books that my grandfather had had published to give as sponsor advertising, (and interestingly, Tony's grandmother recognized a company's name from her home town in Michigan that was on one of the old recipe books), old newspaper articles, letter head stationary from my grandfather's company.  It was such a labor of love.  Pat, though in a wheelchair now, was at the grand-opening and Leiya got to touch bases with her again.  We owe so much to her for bringing us back in contact with this lovely city so many years ago.

So that was the big day and we are so glad that Tony and his grandparents and Leiya and Luka were able to be there!

 

Mt. Nantai and the view from our bedroom

This may not be an interesting post but I have a bunch of the "same" pictures in my files, mostly taken by Tetsu, and as they are rather pretty I'll post them.

So...  This isn't particularly interesting...  I woke up and looked out the bedroom window and went.

"Oh.  Wow."

"Oh wow?" said Tetsu sleepily from the bed.

Our view of Mt. Nantaisan had disappeared and the empty space behind our house was covered in fog.

"Oh.  Wow." said Tetsu when he looked out...  And have you ever seen a white rainbow?  I thought that was pretty neat.

Everyday when I look out my window I remember how upset I was when I learned our forest was being taken away.  I still tense up when I think of the changes that could still happen.  

But I do have to admit that I never expected the beauty that was hidden from us behind those trees.  The sky changes into different jeweled colors every evening.  The rice fields have been flooded and the water reflects the colors of the sky.

Mt. Nantai is always a beautiful sight and though it isn't Mt. Fuji, I feel a kindred to the more famous Japanese mountain.  

This was another evening, maybe after a storm.

Even the dreaded factory in the distance turns into a sparkler against the night sky.

The rice fields have been planted and pretty soon all that water is going to be waving fields of green!

Sewing in Golden Week

We are at the end of Golden Week here in Japan but for most people it wasn't particularly golden.  The 4 days of holiday overlapping into the weekend is usually a time for the whole population of Japan to be on the move, visiting extended family, staying in far away places.  But of course due to the pandemic, this year Tokyo and other metropolises asked residents to stay home and requested that people NOT visit.  This was basically followed though we did notice more families at the swimming pool over the weekend (we hurried in and out of the baths only).

The last day of Golden Week, May 5th, is Boy's Day and I have my small Boy's Day quilt up in our entry.  I should have made one for Luka this year but Leiya took home a nearly identical quilt I'd made when she was visiting a few years back (that was why I'd made this again for myself) and so if she's remembered, she has this same quilt to display for Luka. 

The Boy's Day carp are flying here and there over the countryside but as we haven't been out much, I only managed to photograph one set of carps last week when we were driving home from the French restaurant through farmlands.

Okay.... on to what I've been sewing.

I finished the set of Bunny Hill patterns I've been appliquing and I put some pink borders on them all.  This week I will try to get the lattice added before I think about quilting.  Does anyone ever machine quilt applique blocks?  It seems like such a fussy going in and out of all the nooks and crevices of the applique and a easy way to get lost, but stitch-in-the-ditch hand-quilting seems rather boring too...  Advice is welcome.

I've offered to make a quilt for Takumi and Julieta's new house and I suggested a few patterns that I thought I could handle.  Julieta said there was a wall that needed something and she said she liked this pattern called Mexican Stars.  Takumi said they liked blue and orange and bright colors but with what I pulled from my stash, I'm afraid I didn't get too bright...  Here are the stars.

And here it is with a bit more color in the sashing...

I added a border and also "curved" the triangles around the star points.  It is an interesting technique of using folded triangles rather than cut ones and then pulling back on the centers and stitching them down like Cathedral Windows.

And now I'm quilting this...  I've worked my way around to the outer edges and now must navigate the corners with some random feathers or pebbles or something.  This is what I mean about getting lost when quilting.  For smaller shapes I can always think of some motif to quilt in but when I get to filler areas I get confused and end up tearing an awful lot of work out.  But today the goal is to make a plan for the filler corners!  Off I go to the sewing room!