September update and baby pictures

It is September 30th already here in Japan.  Let's have an update...

My sewing isn't progressing too quickly.  I've s-l-o-w-l-y been appliqueing 4 corners that will eventually get put into a medallion for the center of my applique quilt blocks.  The end is far from sight.  I'm getting tired of appliqueing leaves...  I haven't even started quilting the scrap quilt I'd been working on.

My attempts at being arty have not been too successful.  After the sketching class I took that I'd been very pleased about, I tried a short, free watercolor class with less than stunning results.  It is at times like these that I think I should toss all my pencils and brushes and paintbox etc. into a drawer and go back to strictly patchwork and quilting.   

I wonder how I even got into this world...  It started with listening to an audiobook about Bullet journaling.  And then I bought myself a bullet journal.  And then I picked up a few pens and some washi tape and stickers.  And then I bought a box of 12 colored pencils.  And then I started following Bullet Journal people on Instagram.  And then I found out about Bible journaling.  And that led me to artists who do Bible journaling.  And I took the plunge and signed up for my first art class with Valerie Sjodin and the Celtic Knots class.  And then I bought an extended set of 24 colored pencils and a paint box.  By this time I was on my fourth Bullet Journal (I go through one every 4 months) and I had Leiya buy me one of the exclusive ones in the Bullet Journal world.  And when I tried to be artistic in my journal I realized I didn't know the basics and I signed up for the sketching class.  And then the watercolor class...  And I STILL feel like I'm at square one.  

Luka-kun!  Luka-kun I can talk about with enthusiasm!

I few months ago I realized that Tetsu and I weren't being very grandparently and that I wanted to send something to Luka.  After talking it over, Leiya asked that we send Luka some Japanese children's books.  She gets English books but she sort of wanted him to have some contact with things Japanese (I don't think though that she and Tony are planning to raise him as bilingual...)  Tetsu and I joyfully found purpose in looking for second-hand children's books (she said second hand was okay!) and though it takes about 4 months for the books to arrive, the first installment did make it to Indiana!  Most important to Leiya though, was that we include letters to Luka in each box, thus there on the floor is mine in English and Tetsu's in Japanese brush writing...

We also included a t-shirt for Luka that says something like "Grandpa's Pal" in Japanese...

Luka is pulling himself up now and crab walking around the room holding onto things.

He also graduated to his own bedroom.

And he has teeth!

Daddy's boy.

I so love this photo of Luka checking out the kitty!  I think the family stayed overnight someplace and it was the owner's kitty.

Leiya is very good about giving the family a full update each month about Luka's milestones.  She can write so much and in such detail!  It will be a wonderful remembrance down the line.  I actually complimented her on being so good about getting all that information down (I didn't continue more than a couple of months with Takumi...  probably not at all with Leiya) and in English.  She and Tony thought it was so hilarious that I should compliment her on her English.

"Mom!  I went to high school and college in the States.  I've lived here 17 years!  I should hope I can write in English."  

She may have thought I was being condescending but I could only sputter back.

"But Leiya!  I've lived in Japan over 40 years and I can't write in Japanese!"

 

Partnership Quilt blocks

I'm afraid I don't have anything special going on but Cynthia at Wabi-Sabi quilts does!

I was surprised to get a post card from the NHK Partnership Quilts committee last month inviting me to a quilt show in Tokyo which would be exhibiting the Partnership Quilt blocks that had been turned into quilts and made for the cancelled Tokyo Quilt Festival 2021.  The blocks had been made and then because of Covid, the show had been cancelled and those participating had been sent a notice about a TV program where each of the quilts would be overall shown.  (Which I missed.)  But this year, the committee decided to hold their own smaller quilt show in a smaller venue and all of the Partnership Quilts (I think there were 30) would be shown.  Cynthia, one of a group of friends that has previously met up at the annual Festival, emailed the other three of us asking if any of us were planning to go to the show.  

I had quickly determined that I was NOT willing to try to get to Tokyo through trains and subway and fight the crowds just to get to the venue...  And besides it seemed to me that the Covid numbers were at a high now in Japan and it was even more risky to hold a quilt show now than it had been last year when it was cancelled.  I wrote back to Cynthia that I wouldn't be attending.  Probably through the same reasoning, Carin replied in the same manner saying she wouldn't risk it, but Julie, I guess was ready to face the crowds just to be able to meet up with Cynthia!  (I admit, the pull was strong...  "To be able to spend an afternoon with Julie and Carin and Cynthia... should I make an attempt?")  The two of them got to the quilt show!!!

You can follow the link to Cythia's blog to see more of the show including some fantastic embroidery and also some interesting examples of Boro quilting...  I asked Cynthia if I could steal the pictures from her blog of our Partnership blocks and she gave me permission to do so.

Here is Julie pointing to her block in one of the Partnership Quilts.  Julie is wearing her very beautiful Ainu themed quilted jacket that she made and she gets a lot of attention just walking around a quilt show wearing it!

Julie always includes a cardinal in her Partnership blocks... I think it is the Ohio state bird from her home state.

And it just happened that in the same quilt (two blocks over from Julie's block) Carin's block on the black background was also displayed.  Carin always includes a flag of Sweden in her blocks (itsy-bitsy in this case) as that is where she is from.

In the lower left hand corner, Cynthia's block is included with some colorful fabrics on indigo background.  Cynthia loves working in indigo and Japanese fabrics.

And my block is the one in the right-hand bottom corner.  The Partnership Quilts theme was LOVE THE EARTH and I guess you can't get any plainer than that!  Not too artistic but it relays the message.

I am envious of Cynthia and Julie's time together and it sounds that the show wasn't as crowded as had been feared.  I am very glad that Cynthia took lots of pictures.  Please give her blog a visit!

Moon and an old friend

Tonight we have a full moon and everyone is supposed to be eating moon cakes to celebrate.  Instead I ate some sweet potato and sweet bean-paste bread and went outside to try to take pictures of the moon but as I have never learned how to use a tripod my moon photography was unsuccessful.

This is the moon.

I had a surprise visitor last evening.  Long time blog readers may or MAY NOT recognize this big guy!  I have written about him off and on from 2009, (that's amazing!)  Yuma-kun dropped by to say hello and to bring me a small bag of his family's rice.  He is driving now and is going to specialty school as he graduated from high school a year ago.  I think he may be studying surveying or something.  I run into Yuma-kun occasionally at the swimming pool, so I'd already heard that he is driving and now can run his younger sister around places.  Of course I can't get a picture of him at the pool so last night I made him stop a second before he left to pose with me.  It was very nice of him to think of me and though he is hefty man-size nowadays I could see glimmers of the generous heart from his childhood days.  

My good friend sent me a box of fresh prunes this week.  Yes!  These are prunes!  Aren't they beautiful all swathed individually in their Styrofoam sweaters?!  They are just at their best eating stage when their skin gets a little bit wrinkled and I am going through this box quickly!

And what do you think this jumble is?  It is M-san's next project and she has been adding bits and pieces to this pile for at least a month...  Hopefully we'll be able to give you the full picture in a week or two!

Bibinba, vegetables and rice

I don't get inspired to write food posts much because I'm not much of a cook, but the other day when talking with Leiya, she told me that she was making Bibinba for dinner that night.  

Bibinba is actually a Korean dish made with lots of vegetables and meat and kimchi over rice and usually served with an egg.  I realize that any Bibinba that we might be eating in Japan might be a far cry from what the real thing is like in Korea but it is a favorite dish in our house (because it is fairly easy to cook and lets us eat a lot of vegetables.

My version of Bibinba goes like this.  Saute a bit of meat in Kochijan sauce (which is a spicy, sweet miso sauce).  BUY a package of ready made Bibinba vegetables which usually includes sauted garlic beansprouts, boiled fern fronds, vinegar-ed daikon and carrot salad.  Throw some cooked rice into the fry pan that already cooked up the meat, cover it with all the vegetables plus a good serving of kimchi, add the meat and an egg, fried or otherwise.  Voila.  When it is all heated through, it is ready to eat!!

I was interested in Leiya's Bibinba because she and Tony are basically vegetarian.  What did she put in her Bibinba?  Celery, bell peppers, cucumbers, red cabbage, carrots, potatoes...  WHAT???  Those aren't Bibinba vegetables!  No beansprouts?  No kimchi?  

Leiya's logic is that any vegetable cooked in Kochijan sauce makes it good for Bibinba.  

A light bulb went on in my head.  I don't have to buy premade Bibinba vegetables.  I can just cook up my own vegetables with Kochijan sauce...

Therefore, I made Bibinba too.   The vinegared carrots are there but I didn't have daikon.  Eggplant sauted in Kochijan sauce!  Unheard of!  Beansprouts with garlic and sesame seed oil.  A green vegetable that I sauted in sesame seed oil and hot peppers.  Meat (Tetsu's not about to go vegetarian), kimchi and two fried eggs on top.  I think Leiya's Bibinba was just served over rice, but we like the rice to get crisp and slightly burnt on the bottom of the fry pan.   Which dish would you go for?  Leiya's is probably healthier and neither of them are particularly authentic...

This is another dish I whipped up last week.  I am trying to keep ahead of all the eggplant and tomatoes from Tetsu's garden.  I think I cooked this up in olive oil with garlic and salt and pepper and then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.  Even though it was slightly Italian in flavor we ate it with rice.

Speaking of rice.  Every year the 5th and 6th graders at the elementary school grow their own small field of rice.  The rice grains are turning golden and that signals the classes to make scarecrows for their field.  It is always fun to see what sort of scarecrows have been constructed.  Can you guess what this fellow is?  He is a grain of rice!!!  I guess only Asian kids would think of this but that little bump on the head gives him away (and he also has the character for RICE marked out in green on his stomach).

How about this guy?  He is a rice ball!  Though in English we call Onigiri, rice balls, the traditional shape is this triangle and the black square at the bottom is supposed to be seaweed which is tasty, nutritional and keeps fingers from getting sticky holding the rice.

Autumn is the season for good eating!

  

Arty things

We're already into the middle of September.  The days go by so quickly.  Though I usually scrap any mention of an outing just because we don't want to mingle too much in crowds, it was a really nice day today and the rest of the week is forecasted as having rain, so we headed up the Mt. Nantai mountain into the lake area, stopping to buy obento lunches along the way.  

We ended up by a lake that had only fishermen out and so we spread out our blanket and after lunch Tetsu took a nap and I surreptitiously pulled out my sketchbook...  I'm a bit embarrassed about sketching even in front of Tetsu but he woke up when I was nearly finished and he caught the end of my attempt at sketching the far-off bank and trees.  

This is my first attempt at sketching "live" rather than from a photo...  It was more difficult to do, that's for sure!

Tetsu takes so many pictures of me!  Some blurry, some with me looking cross-eyed.  One's bound to come out presentable.

I, on the other hand, took ONE picture of Tetsu.  And I guess I got it on the only try!

Sorry.  One more.  A selfie.  We both look pretty scruffy...

This was the result of our time at the lake.  That mound of trees in the distance was what I was trying to sketch...

On the sewing front, I have finished all 12 blocks of my applique.  Quite a variety of backgrounds and color and I'm not sure how I'm going to unite these all in one quilt.  I am going to work on a medallion for them to surround next.

In honor of the twentieth anniversary of  9/11, I copied down a poem by Joanne Fink, and water-colored a simple skyline beside it.  I remember the Japanese TV that we were watching that evening (our time) suddenly switching to live-time news and I remember telling the kids that they had better pray because the world was in crisis...  In the following days, a number of Japanese went out of their way to approach me and offer sympathy and concern for America's tragedy.

Cheery? Not Cheery?

A rainy day which is not very cheering but at least the heat has broke and it feels like autumn may not be far behind.

So... non-cheery subjects.

I asked Leiya to see if she can get into my blog and post.  Mary over at Making Scrap Quilts from Stash, mentioned that she had asked her son to do the same and I decided it was a good idea.  One never knows what is around the corner and with Covid-19 looming around us (our prefecture extended its State of Emergency), I got to wondering if something were to happen to me, if I'd just disappear from the blogging world and no one would ever know why.  Tetsu doesn't know how to get into my blog and most of my nearby friends are not bloggers...  I just thought it would be a nice "just in case" back-up. 

Many years ago, when Leiya was still in college, I ended up having to have knee surgery and so she and her roommate took it upon them to post every couple of days to let my blog friends know how I was.  She said she didn't remember how she'd done that and maybe passwords have changed etc, so we spent about a half an hour giving her access to my blog.  She can do it now!  Hopefully she won't ever need to but it can be done.

My 30 Days to More Confident Sketching class came to an end and now I'm at a loss to what to do next.  

"Well, sketch something Tanya."  

The final advice was to sketch daily and then I'd automatically get better, but yesterday I tried and the result was very uninspiring.  I really do need to have somebody lead me through step by step!  At any rate, here are my last few pages...

Day 23 was making a "Happy" animal which meant giving him a smile that wasn't really there...

Day 28 was Ripples and Reflections.  (I've got two sketches because I was also sketching in my daily journal).

And Day 30 was an overall scene trying to convey more in the front than in the back...

So these were fun to do but I don't know if I'm going be able to keep up with a sketch a day like I've done for the past couple months...  It does take a lot of time.  (Not that I don't seem to have a lot of time on my hands!)  

And when I'm not sketching, I've been sewing.  I had this grand idea that I'd use up the bins of strings that are overflowing and though I'm not a great fan of string blocks, it was either that or just toss out my bins!  They are still overflowing by the way so tossing may be the next step.  

I found a variation of Bonnie of Quiltville's Quips and Snips!! String X quilt and made strips of strings and then added narrow white borders to them.  I made 80 of those and then was ready to add some corners.

Again, I THOUGHT I'd go for two colors...  A maroon and a pink but egads!  The quilt was turning into a pink quilt!!!  I scrapped that idea and considered buying some more yardage but NO!  This is a quilt for using up scraps not generating more!  I pulled all the solids and nearly solids that I could find and added corners.  Oh my!  Not what I was expecting but this quilt is making itself...

(Still one of the pinks on the top there...)

Colorful? YES!  Uses up fabric?  YES!  This will hopefully make for a cheery spot in someone's room... so I guess this was a cheery post after all!  These are all just blocks laid out on the floor now (yes, I do see that orange block facing the wrong way).  I will start sewing these together next week...

So that's what I've been up to!  

 

Long lost friend

Last week I got a sudden phone call from a former workplace.  Former meaning from over 40 years ago!!  It was the first place I ever worked in Japan and from before I'd even met Tetsu.   An old friend still makes an appearance there every so often though she retired a few years ago.  She was the one who called.

"Tanya, the office here got a strange email this week and they asked me if I knew how to get in touch with you.  Some man is looking for you.  Do you know this person?  If not, the office will just delete the email..."

She proceeded to read the email to me.

"I am a friend of Tanya Logan but I lost touch with her over forty years ago.  We went to the same college together and I even visited her once when she was working for you.  Do you know where she is now or how I can get in touch with her?"  

There was more and the name was given and I had to laugh.  Yes!  I know the person, please forward the email to me and I'd get in touch with him myself.

The next day I wrote to this long lost friend.

"This is Tanya Logan Watanabe and I went to Lewis and Clark College.  I heard that T-san was looking for me.  Is that you T-kun?"

And so we were back in touch.

T-kun was a Japanese foreign exchange student at my college and because I was studying Japanese and hung out with the exchange students a lot, a group of us all became friends.  At the college we did things together and then later I came to Japan for a six months' stay with a college group.  By that time I think T-kun had returned to his family home but I remember visiting him and getting to explore his family's pottery factory.  We must have stayed in touch until I'd at least graduated because he remembered that I had started working in Morioka and had visited me there though I don't recall that...  

But after college I lost track of almost all my college friends, including T-kun.  The only people from college that I still stay in touch with is my Japanese roommate who now lives in Oregon and my old Japanese teacher who still lives near the college.  That's all...

My college days were wonderful maybe because I really came out of my shy, drab shell a bit.  It was the first time for me to be away from home, the first time I did anything without asking permission and depending on anyone to lead me.  I did radical things like pierce my ears for heaven's sake!  And I studied Japanese and visited Japan and understood where Jesus was in my life.  I gave up playing the organ, I learned how to play the guitar, I met people from other countries, I fell in love with the scenery of Portland and Oregon.  

Unfortunately I didn't take ANY photos of my four years in college.  I think that at first I just didn't have a camera and even after I bought one (when I was in Japan those 6 months) I thought cameras were only good for artistic expression and not for documenting friends and life in general...  I think I took a lot of pictures of ferns and cobblestones and fall leaves but not much else...  I can't even see if that is true or not as if there are any photos left of that era they are up in the attic of my brother's house (if he hasn't thrown them all out already!)  So no photos of the T-san of my college days...

This past week, T-san and I have texted back and forth getting caught up a bit on 40 years!  He had known I'd married a Japanese, but didn't know if I'd stayed in Japan.  We learned about each other's children (he has three children and SEVEN grandchildren!) and sent each other pictures of our families and our homes.  We asked each other whether either of us were in touch with any of the old gang.  (T-san had more up to date information than I do but even his is out dated by about 20 years...)  We established that it was easier for me to write to him in English and he in Japanese and yet we understand each other just fine.

T-san is now head of his family's pottery factory and he asked me for my address.  Today a big box arrived packed full of his lovely pottery! 

Beautiful, colorful coffee cups!

Such colors on these!

Soup bowls!

Sake cups and a vase (though for all I know it might be used to heat up sake...  I'll have to ask about that...)

A flowered dish that he says his wife paints, and some small bowls that are great for nabe meals (on the table stew) which we will begin enjoying when the cold season sets in...  All these beautiful pieces!  Now to find a place to keep them all in my cupboard!

I am so glad to be back in touch with T-san.   I live pretty far away still even though we are both in Japan, but someday it would be so nice to meet in person again...