Halloween, a finish and a Luka update

We're already at the end of the month!  This year is going by so quickly.  Today it is Halloween in Japan and I paid token attention to the day by dressing up as a witch for the preschool this week and by having a small Halloween quilt up on my wall.

This was a quilt made years and years and years ago when my friend tried to teach me paper-piecing.  I understood the process... until she left and I couldn't for the life of me do this quilt in paper-piecing!!!  I ended up cutting and sewing all the itsy bitsy pieces by hand and the quilt has survived all these many years.  I did eventually learn how to do paper-piecing but I do remember this quilt is a major challenge that I gave-up on mid-stream.

The other quilt I have up in honor of Halloween is my Tessellating Cats quilt which can be displayed at any time but I turn the black cats upwards if I'm hanging it during the Halloween season.

But, on to a current quilt!

Yeah!  I have finished the X String quilt and it is waiting to be delivered to the recipient.  I hope she'll appreciate a spot of color in her apartment...

This quilt's purpose was to use up some of the strings in my string bin and I didn't buy any extra fabric for the front nor for the back.  Thus the back is pretty wild too.  Sorry, the photograph isn't great for showing off the backing but it does make the quilting stand out...

I quilted swirls in the string sections and a modified feather in the corners.

Me.

Oh glory...  Look what I found in an old album.  I actually have no idea when this picture was taken...  I think when Takumi was still a baby.  I don't even remember this quilt in the least but I'm sitting on my mother's old sofa so this must have been taken in the States.  Maybe one of her friends brought me a quilt and asked me if I'd quilt it for her?  I'm still hand quilting and for some reason not using a quilting hoop.  I partially feel disappointed at how young I once looked compared 30 plus years later, but mainly am grateful for the gift of these 30 years of time and quilting and good memories.

Luka update!

Luka's getting big!

Let's let Daddy carry him.

Luka got his hair cut!

No longer a baby!  A little boy!

A mischievous little boy!

Luka's also walking now!

Cat hat

Someone asked me about the hat I'm wearing.  It's an old one.... I've had it probably 6 or 8 years...  I tend to like one thing and then hang on to it forever and in fashion especially, rather than go shopping I'd rather just use what I have...

So I bought this hat many years ago when I attended a photography exhibit by a famous Japanese photographer who specializes in cat photos.  The exhibit was nice (no photography allowed of course) but at the exit there were tables selling the photographer's prints and books... and some lady selling her hand drawn goods...  Bags, aprons, shirts, hats.  

I just loved the whimsical feel of her art and it looked like she'd just purchased some generic beige clothing brand and was drawing on them with wide felt-pen.  As none of the items were very expensive and the artist was right there, I impulsively picked out this hat and also a small sling shoulder bag. 

I even asked the artist to write my name on the hat and to write Leiya's name on the bag...  I thought it would make a cute present.

I've gotten many years use out of my hat...  occasionally when I'm wearing it and am on some trip with my friends or Tetsu, I'll find a pin at a gift shop and add it to the hat.  

It is getting sort of heavy on that side now.  Tetsu thinks its about time I retire the hat and buy something else just for variety but I've not found anything else that I like (not that I've looked.)

As for the bag, I was rather disappointed that Leiya didn't much like it.  It was too small and she definitely did not want to declare her name to the world while using it.  Unfortunately, with her name on it, I couldn't give it to anyone else, nor even donate it to a church bazaar.  I've learned my lesson.  Don't personalize things!  For awhile Tetsu has used the bag to store camera stuff but these days it just sits in the cupboard.  Cute but unused...

Pretty soon it will be too cold around here to wear this and I'll get out my furry "Russian" cap and Tetsu is always trying to get me to give up on that one too!  Maybe I'll go look at the hat bins at the local department store...  but my cat hat will always have better memories than a department store hat!

A long missed outing... Photo overload!

Tetsu and I had our first outing in almost two years!  I went slightly reluctantly (just because things don't usually go with a schedule and we often get lost) but once we finally got to our destination we had a very nice time.  

We made the three hour drive to the east coast of a neighboring prefecture and visited a park famous for Kochia...  the funny little fuzzy pink plants that often accent a landscaped yard with a bit of color.  Not a BIT in this case.  This is photo overload today but think of it as two years worth of absent traveling photos...

Um...  Oh my.  I guess we are going to have a hard time practicing social distancing today... 

There is an amusement park and a flower park here but we stayed in the flower section.

Cosmos in the foreground...  they are on their last legs... and thatched houses in the background... 

One very nice thing about this park were all the hundreds and hundreds of picnic tables and benches everywhere...  It made it nice to relax and enjoy a late lunch and also people watch.

Okay... ready to head up that hill...  The place was extremely well organized with staff at almost every turn directing people to keep moving...  And it was a "One-Way" path up the hill.  Once on the slope, you had to continue to the top and then we were all directed down a different slope.

I suppose I should have worn a different coat.  I blended in perfectly with my surroundings...

So this is what a Kochia looks like up close...

And from a distance.  What a strong reddish-pink color!

In the distance was the ferris wheel.  Still a lot of people headed up the hill!

This may be the only picture of Tetsu I took this day.

He follows me around like like a paparazzi.  "Look over here."  Smile"  "Now turn this way!"  (It gets rather tiring and I have a hard time trying to take my own pictures...)

Going up the hill there were still cosmos fields... 

...but coming down we headed into pampas grass which was also just beautiful.

Shimmering gold!

Once back down the slope, we had ice-cream...  A horrendous color for strawberry and matcha flavors but it was refreshing and we felt it had to be experienced while we were right there in the Kochia fields.  (I chose to get only matcha.)

The evening was upon us and we still had a three hour drive to get back home to poor John who had been left in his circle all day.  It was a nice get-away!

Drawing challenges for #Peachtober21

Leiya texted me this morning asking why I haven't been blogging.  Well, for one, I was a bit under the weather over the weekend and for another I haven't been doing much of anything worth blogging about.  

My X-String quilt is now at the binding stage and hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have in done and ready to give away.  I swirled around on the string strips and I did a very simple feather design in the triangle centers.  It's not great but it is going to get done.  I'll post pictures of that when I'm finished.

I also made a trip to the yarn/fabric shop, actually three yarn/fabric shops, hoping to get inspired to do some knitting for Tetsu again but there was nothing inspiring, and Tetsu admits that as he is no longer working, he has only worn the last two vests I made for him once or twice.  He doesn't need any new knitted goods.  My search for yarn was rather a waste of time.

I have continued to draw and post daily on Instagram the daily challenge for #Peachtober21 that Leiya invited me to do with her.  The daily prompt gets me drawing something outside my comfort zone and sometimes I feel good about what I've drawn and sometimes I'm tempted to throw the page in the wastepaper basket.  I love seeing Leiya's artwork each day and also visiting the original Instagram site to see what other people have posted.  With not much else to blog about today, here are a few of the pieces Leiya and I have done.

The prompt for this day was TREEHOUSE.  This is Leiya's drawing.

...and this is mine.  You sure can tell who knows how to use their lines to make an impact.

Another day the prompt was GOLD.  Leiya thought of a goldfish.

... and why would I try sketching this temple?  Because it is the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto.  (It is covered in gold leaf.)

Another day the prompt was SUMMIT and Leiya made a cute drawing...

...while I remembered a grade school art project of pastel shading and mountains made with ripped paper...  

For the prompt SCOUT, I got out my colored pencils (and wished I'd paid more attention to Julie's boy scout motifs and information)...

... and Leiya thought of Girl Scout cookies!  So funny!

My drawing of TREASURE is one that belonged in the wastebasket...

But Leiyas!!!  Her treasures are Tony and Luka!

We are enjoying our daily drawing challenges.

Rambling again

This week, Julie, Carin, Cynthia and I had a Zoom chat get together and we talked for about an hour, showed the Log Cabin challenges that we'd given ourselves a year and a half ago and shared what we've been working on recently.  It took a bit of computer coaching by Cynthia to get a couple of us at a group gathering but we all managed to sign in and we had a wonderful time!

One of the things we talked about was the giving of quilts to people.  One of us had a quilt that she was ready to give to somebody but questioned if the recipient actually wanted a quilt as a previous one hadn't ever been used...  Another of us regularly makes quilts for people but this year she was having a bit of frustration meeting the requests of the recipient...  Another of us felt that though the recipient might not react all that enthusiastically, there were people or generations or friends along the way that would see its worth and treasure it.  I'm letting you guess who was who in this conversation.

Yesterday M-san and I were also talking about giving quilts to someone.  She is thinking about making a quilt for her aunt but she didn't know if her aunt wanted a big quilt or a wall quilt, nor what colors she really liked.  I pointed out that the aunt would love to receive ANYTHING that M-san made for her and she needn't worry about the recipient's preferences.  (I guess you know with whose opinion I stand on the above paragraph.)  

I have made SO many quilts and many if not most of them, have been given away.  I'm not really sure who appreciated them and who thought they were just space grabbers in their closets.  Everyone has always expressed their gratitude...  a few friends have the quilt out on their sofa or on their bed, but the majority of my quilts I never run across again.  They probably live in a closet at best and may have been donated away at worst.  I can't be holding onto a gift in my heart and resenting that it isn't loved.  I enjoyed making it.  Marlene has a couple of my quilts out and I'm thrilled to find them getting tired looking and worn.  

I know that Leiya treasures my quilts because she has so many of them on display in her rooms and their colors in the background when I talk with Leiya on Facetime always makes me feel warm and loved.  

Takumi too seems to keep my quilts up on their walls or on the bed and I wonder if Julieta would really like to decorate her house in a different style...  But it makes me happy to see the quilts getting used and I love my son-in-law and daughter-in-law for letting me into their homes.  

I'm not too confident about making a quilt to someone's specifications though...  I remember once someone asked me to make them a rainbow themed quilt and I chose rainbow colors sweeping over the quilt top.  They seemed surprised when I gifted it to them and I got an inkling that they had maybe been thinking of a simple rainbow arch and I'd made this abstract color design...  Missed the mark there and I don't know what happened to that quilt.

I guess I'd much prefer making a surprise quilt for someone and when they get it they are as happy with the surprise as they are with the gift.  I don't even have to know the person well.  I've made a quilt for Tony's mother whom I've met twice, and for Julieta's mother whom I've never even met (and that quilt hasn't even been delivered yet).  I have no idea what they really wanted or what colors they like and they are welcome to give the quilt away if it doesn't suit them.  I enjoyed doing the work, I thought about them from afar as I sewed and (maybe selfishly) I'm satisfied.

Rambling thoughts...  But getting back to M-san.

She JUST finished making a quilt for her mother.  I suggested a McKenna quilt that I had done years ago and I helped her follow the directions and gave her advice on colors etc.  

Remember this mumble-jumble?

This is what it turned into!

That first picture was taken in the middle of September but the box is pretty full so I think M-san must have started making flowers and vegetables from August.  We thought this was a great quilt for her mother because their family is a farming family and her mother raises vegetables for the local markets and she specializes in edamame!  The original pattern didn't have edamame of course (though it did sport some string beans) so I had M-san design her own edamame to add for her mother.

Edamame on the front...

...and edamame on the label too!

For awhile M-san was quilting this on my sewing machine but after a needle broke she felt responsible (though I told her I had packages of needles ready because broken needles were so frequent) and took this home to quilt on her own machine.  She got it done though she says that now she is experiencing trauma from trying to use mono-filiment thread that kept breaking.  Don't we all!  

And M-san looking very pleased with her creation!  She said her father was so happy he went out and bought a frame for it!  Great!  That's one quilt that will be loved and admired and appreciated for ever on after!