Cool weather finally!

La-ti-da-!  I'm so happy that the weather has cooled off.  I'll never complain about cold weather again (says I who also hates cold weather.  Remind me again in the middle of winter!)

During September, even though the days were still hot till about the middle of the month, we could see the season changing with the chestnut trees giving up their nuts over a few days.  The chestnut balls always look "cute" on the trees but once they fall, they are prickly and stab when harvesters try to get the nuts from them.  Even children know that one steps on a chestnut ball with both feet in order not to get stabbed, and pull the prickly outer coverings apart with the feet to reveal the three nuts inside each ball.  For the past couple of weeks the children coming to the crosswalk hand me the chestnuts that they have picked up along their walk to school.

I also get chestnuts from English students and last week was handed two bags of chestnuts from two different students.  In some ways getting chestnuts is a real blessing as they can be delicious when cooked right, but in other ways, I grimace when handed a bag of chestnuts because I know it means a couple of hours of peeling and cooking.

The chestnuts have to be soaked overnight and then boiled to soften the outer peel.  Next they must be  carefully peeled (without cutting into the meat of the nut) and then boiled again to get the bitterness out of the inner skin of the nut.  At about this point, Tetsu heard me grumbling about the job in front of me still after already spending two hours peeling nuts and he joined me for another hour of peeling.  After the second boil I was supposed to throw out the water, wash the nuts again and boil them a second time but I rushed through and added sugar to this third boil.  After an hour of simmering I was supposed to have sweet soft chestnuts but actually they were still hard, and still bitter!  

"This is sure a lot of work for something that doesn't taste so great."  

In the end I continued another hour of simmering and my chestnuts were edible if not the sweet goodness that I'd hoped for.  I made applesauce the next day and the combination was rather good so I guess my chestnut cooking this year was successful.

The bulldozers have been busy behind our house and Tetsu prefers to tear down his garden himself than let the bulldozers do it.  He works a little everyday digging up plants that he'd like to move elsewhere (actually not much of a yard though to move them to) and then watches the bulldozers getting closer and closer.  He looks a little sad even from behind.

As for me, as the bulldozers roar, I stay upstairs in my sewing room sewing robots...

Robot group One.

Robot group Two.

Robot group Three.

Robot group Four.

Robot group Five.

So yeah!  I have 30 robots made!  That's pretty good work for the past month.  The next step is to put these all together into mixed groups and then sew them into a flimsy.  Whew!  I feel like I've gotten a lot done in the sewing department!

The other major project that got completed was the kimono coat I've been working on for at least the past 6 months.  My friend took the coat home to put in button holes for me (my sewing machine doesn't do button holes) and I bought some buttons to be covered in the yellow fabric and pulled out some old buttons that I had bought years ago for the brown side of the coat (actually vice-versa.  I put the yellow buttons on the brown side and the brown buttons on the yellow side).  

Voila!  My reversible kimono coat!  Yellow side out.

Brown side out.  

What do you think?  Tetsu suggests I wear the yellow side out when the weather is rainy or at night as I will sure be visible!

I guess I prefer the brown side though the yellow kimono really shows that this is kimono fabric.  My friend/student let me keep the pattern she made for this coat saying, 

"Now you can make another one by yourself!"  

Hmmm...  Probably not but I know it can be done!

M-san and I have decided that she will make a pretty batik quilt with some jelly rolls of fabric I had in my stash.  She picked out a pattern THAT I HAVE MADE BEFORE and I assured her that she will have a beautiful quilt when it is finished.  I read aloud the instructions THAT I HAVE READ BEFORE and question marks bloom above our heads.  

"Don't panic.  We can do this.  I've made the same quilt before.  We just have to dive in and then it will all become clear."

I guess that is my philosophy about a lot of things.  Just start doing it and it will probably work out in the end...

And that's about it for the past few weeks.  Sewing, and sewing and, as you can see, sketching.