Weekend progress

The weekend was fairly productive though I never got to the borders for my Patches and Pinwheels quilt... Why is it with all the fabric in my stash there is not what I think is the "perfect" fabric? Well, I'm going to stick with imperfect and not go out looking for more fabric. It is too scary to think of all the money I might spend! (And all the additions that I will buy but will not be the "perfect" fabric for future projects...and I'll go out and buy more. A never ending cycle.)

I worked on another Alabama Beauty block... Now why am I doing this? I decided that I couldn't ask my friends to make this. But it is a challenge and so I put together another. I think I've figured out how to lay the seams so that things lock together better. Even so, the center seam doesn't fit exactly yet. I'll have to make ANOTHER one to see if I can match the center better! (I can find all sorts of excuses to do things.)

And I got fed up with the clutter in my laundry room and asked Tetsu to bring me a board so that I could prop up a shelf. Instead my handy carpenter went to work out in the yard and built me another Tetsu original! As he points out, all his furniture looks about the same... Big, heavy, rough, and crooked but it serves the purpose and at least our home is coordinated!

Thank you Tetsu!

Cat treats

June and I have been having conversations about cat treats. It never occurred to me that cat treats might be different in different countries. I don't particularly like pet stores so I never go into the pet stores when I'm in the States. I guess my mother's cat never got any treats because I don't remember buying any.

Cats in Japan eat fish. There are kibble like things too I guess but my cats go google-eyed over small dried sardines. Small dried sardines are not only consumed by cats. Japanese use dried sardines (niboshi) when they make soup. Throw a few niboshi into the pot and simmer. The niboshi can be removed and disposed of (or if you have a cat, handed to him who is waiting patiently by your feet) or eaten yourself if you want a bit of extra calcium in your diet. (Or like me... buy instant fish broth and you don't have any left over sardines. My cats aren't happy about that.)

I do buy my cats their own dried sardines though and every day when I leave the house I give two or three to the cats who congregate in the entryway waiting for their treat. I have some students who know where the cat treats are and the CATS know when these students are coming and so they wait at the appointed time for their treats. (The cats get the day and the times right. They don't bother coming to the entryway for the students who don't give them treats.)

Anyway, at the store I found tuna flakes, sardines and crab flakes, half dried fish sticks... Very Japanese looking cat food (I bet the insides are the same). Anyway, a whole arsenal of cat treats for June's kitty. I hope Shizuku-chan doesn't overeat...

Patches and Pinwheels sectioned

I've put my patches and pinwheels into 4 major sections. (I know this looks the same as yesterday. Those are four sections there.) Hopefully today I can make some decisions about the borders.

I know I want to put a border on much like Elaine does but I need to go back and see how she does it... And do I want to machine quilt this now and then add the border, or put the border on now (making my sections bigger still) and then join the borders all the way around later..? Did you get that?

Chip makes a pretty addition to my quilt. Adds a little variety doesn't she.

Patches and Pinwheels

I got to the sewing machine a bit this week. Sometimes I go in my sewing room and think,

"You've got projects up on the wall and in the drawers, you DO NOT want to start something new."

That's true.

Other times I go in the sewing room and think,

"You have WAY TOO MUCH fabric in here! Unless you do something with it you are just being a glutton!"

That's true too.

I have bins of strips so I started sewing those together and slicing them every which way. I think I'm making one of Bonnie's Patches and Pinwheels quilts. And this time I'm going to Quilt-As-You-Go. Many blogger friends sent links and advice about my production of quilt tops with no way to quilt them and QAYG seems like it is a technique I should master.

My blocks are made. These are just laid out on the floor right now. Next I'll put them together into blocks of 5 by 6. And finally I'll try machine quilting those (I have no idea how yet) before putting the blocks together. I suppose I could do it block by block but that seemed like a lot of handwork later on stitching up the back. Sewing into strips might even be a better use of batting... but anyway I'm doing it in chunks this time. Gives me a good reason to make more tops and try different QAYG methods.

I'm still hand quilting. Still making another Alabama Beauty block and a couple spool blocks. Still appliqueing a BOM. I've got my hands full. Tetsu can't understand why I just don't finish one thing before beginning another.

Boo

I don't believe in ghosts. Wait a minute... If it is Biblical then I'll consider it and I suppose spirits are mentioned in the Bible but as long as Jesus is with me I'm not wasting my time worrying about them.

When I was a child I liked reading ghost stories (especially in front of a lit fireplace) but I don't think I ever really believed they were out to "get" me. However MANY of my Japanese friends, from all walks of life and all ages, will worry about evil spirits and curses etc. In a normal, intelligent conversation colleagues or friends will mention the "things that go bump in the night" and how it is proof that the spirits are waiting to catch someone unexpectedly. It is hard to join in the conversations without pooh-poohing my friends' beliefs but I'd prefer not to listen to their half/fears-half/joking.

The sounds made in an empty room are accounted to ghosts. The string of divorces in our neighborhood is blamed on evil spirits. The sickness in a family is caused by the tree spirits getting angry at a felled tree. There are auras and unexplained falling pictures and orbs of light reflected in photos. People wear amulets and throw salt around and TV programs regularly feature mediums and fortune tellers. Weddings and celebrations are planned around lucky days in the calendar. I remember when I was pregnant, a doctor told me I should have some treatment on a certain day because the calendar guaranteed it was fortuitous. THIS is medical advice?! Sometimes it is difficult to tell what is cultural and what is superstition.

I'm rather happy I'm hidden in the shadow of His wings and don't have to worry about ghosts. There are enough things that confuse me already.

Happy Birthday and miscellaneous news

Dilemma. I need to answer comments. My e-mail box is piling up. I need to go visiting blogs. My blog friends will think I've forgotten them. I need to get some sewing done. There hasn't been an interesting quilt picture on my blog in ages. I WANT to write today's post. Let's face it... I like writing.

Do you think blogging is taking over my life? No... No... I guess I'm still getting things done... just not on my planned schedule.

Miscellaneous.

Today my son is 25. Happy Birthday Takumi! I asked him what he wants for his birthday. He said he wanted a coral. A WHAT? What he'd really like is a Nudibranch. That sounds slightly improper to me... A Nudy what?! A Nudibranch. For his aquarium. Ah.. I didn't know he had an aquarium. I didn't know he was even interested in aquariums or Nudibranches or whatever. A complete new side of my son. Oh well. I'm not going to be able to send him coral or Nudibranches from Japan so he'll just have to wait until I get to the States... Maybe someday I can show you what a Nudibranch looks like (think yesterday's caterpillar only in the water.)

Sigh... Though no one really cares (not even in Japan), Japan's prime minister has changed again. Mr. Hatoyama stepped down yesterday. Japanese prime ministers seem to change every few months. Mr. Hatoyama lasted 9 months. I think I heard that in 20 years there have been 14 prime ministers... It's hard to keep up with Japanese politics.

On a happier note. My friend Miku-chan visited with her baby this week! Miku-chan made her first quilt for her baby in March and so Mei-chan (the baby) came visiting wrapped in the sweet hand made quilt. So cuddly!

I have been sewing slightly. I made an Alabama Beauty block hoping that I could get my friends to each make me one for our block exchange but it is WAY too difficult (and no one will piece by machine) so I've "scrapped" that idea.

Instead I'm thinking about spool blocks though I'm not sure how I'll arrange them when they get back to me. I don't think I want a regular spool quilt but these are fun and easy to make.

Found

I found my camera after a couple more hours searching. I found it here. Obviously I've taken the camera out of the camera case to take this picture... I don't recall bringing it into the laundry/bedroom.

But I guess it gives me a chance to show an old, Bargello quilt. No label again. I made it back when the kids were in elementary school and for awhile it got hung on a wall. Later I made another larger, more complicated Bargello quilt and this one got put away. A few years ago it got relegated to a back room and is used to hide old videos on a shelf...

I read somewhere that one should take a picture of your e-mail address and keep it IN your camera so that in case it is lost and some nice honest person should find it, they will probably look at the pictures at some point and will come across the e-mail address. It seems like a good idea but rather slim and doesn't help when the camera owner loses the camera in the laundry/bedroom but anyway I've taken my picture and will leave it in the camera.

And HERE is the caterpillar!