All the ladies

Hmm.  What's up today?

My blog friend Liz, sent mother and me the cutest matching shrugs!  No matter how many times I've explained it, Grandma still doesn't understand why she gets a present from someone she has never met.  Come to think of it, I've never met Liz in person either though we're carried on a correspondence for the last four or five years.

Simba doesn't match us be he wanted to get into the picture too.  I don't think Mother and I have ever had matching clothes!

Kiana and I have spent a few evenings at the sewing machine and she made up a very cute sun dress for herself.  I haven't sewn clothing in years but between the two of us we didn't do too bad a job I think.

Marcy celebrated her birthday with ice cream cake.  Her birthday isn't really til next week but I guess she had a coupon or something at this restaurant.  We split the cake four ways but after all my careful dieting this month I blew it all by eating most of the ice cream while the others watched.  RATS!!!

Grandma and I posed at the other side of the table.

Books!

I thought I'd write down some of the books that I've been reading while here this summer, but I've already forgotten a couple of the titles and can't even recall what the books were about so maybe they weren't that strikingly wonderful.

I started out with The Lowland by Jhuma Lahiri which was about an Indian family.  It won the Man Booker Prize for 2013.  I don't think I've ever read anything with the Indian culture as a background and it was a very good read.

I think I read two other books... sort of light mysteries and those are the ones where I can't remember the titles.  Something about a bookstore owner on an island?  The other one was about a lady with two magical cats who solve a murder mystery.  I find all these books on the NEW shelves in the library and I chose books according to whether they've won any awards (the Lowland) or if they look like an easy read (the bookstore one and  the cats).

My friend Jane, recommended a book called Grain Brain by David Perlmutter and it was about diet and neurological disorders.  I told Jane about my cholesterol woes and she pointed me to this book... and I've now ordered it so that I can mark up my own copy as there was a section on cholesterol treatment.  I'd really like to point to a few pages and show my Japanese doctor what this book has to say.  Of course I don't think my Japanese doctor can read English...  Maybe I'll copy off a few pages and give him some English homework!  (I can write my own book about how to make yourself unwelcome at a visit to your Japanese doctor!)

I read another light book about... someone falling in love in New York?  See how much that one stuck with me.

I found the book The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida.  That was the book written by the 13 year old autistic boy that my mother read over and over.  It was written as the boy's answers to questions about why he does certain things, have tantrums, make repetitive sounds etc.

I read the Guernesy  Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and that will have to be put down as the best read of the summer so far!  A blog friend had recommended it to me ages and ages ago and I'd downloaded a sample in my Kindle but those first few pages hadn't grabbed at me so I never purchased the book.  I'm thinking now that I'd love to read it again!  Leiya, you wanted a good book to read.  Try this one!

I read A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home by Sue Halpern and this was in the NEW section too.  I made sure (skim to the last pages) that this dog doesn't die and it isn't a memoir book (I can't handle those at all!  I usually don't attempt animal books.)  It seemed an appropriate book seeing that Tetsu works in a nursing home.  This was an easy read, humorous but with many thought provoking lessons.

I read Case Histories by Kate Atkinson which I think I read a blurb about it one of my mother's old Time magazines.  That was very easy to read and sort of an interesting format... all these different people coming together later in the book.

And now I've got Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini.  I thought this was going to be light reading again, like the Elm Creek series but it has a lot of history in it (duh... couldn't I have figured that out by the title?) and I wonder if I'm going to get it finished before I head back to Japan.

And yes, there was that stack of Time magazines that I went through the first week I was here, and a few quilt magazines that I bought at the library too.

I get my English reading fix while I am in California!

More handwork

After the Kabloom quilt I was at lost ends for a day or so but while doing some cleaning I stumbled upon a bag full of fabric strips behind Grandma's desk.  And rummaging around in the bag I came up with a toothbrush needle.  Ah yes, a couple of years ago Leiya had been enthused about making a toothbrush rug and we had torn up strips of fabric so that she could get started.  I didn't remember if she'd ever made a toothbrush rug...  at least I never saw one, but here were the remnants of her project.  She may have finished her first rug and been working on a second one when she visited California.

With no handwork to do, I Googled how to make a toothbrush rug and started "sewing".  In a couple of days time I now have a cushion sized rug and no more strips.  I either will have to go out and buy more fabric for this rug that I wasn't planning to make or end it at this point and use let somebody use it as a seat cushion.

Leiya, what do you want me to do with this?

And in the meantime, a pattern that I ordered came in the mail so I want to put the toothbrush rug aside anyway.  I saw the completed results of an embroidery cushion at a quilt store that I had visited and they were offering a class.  I might need to take a class in sewing a cushion (maybe I can figure that out too) but I didn't think I needed to take a class in back-stitch embroidery and besides the two session class seemed like it would take up too much of my California visit.  So I again Googled the pattern name and ordered the pattern online.

This is a  paper PATTERN, not an already transferred to fabric pattern.  But how hard is it to transfer a pattern.  PRETTY DANG HARD!  Especially as I opted to use grey linen (can't see through it) and don't have a light box (still!  I really need to make myself one).  I went out and bought a Pigma pen as instructed and positioned myself at the front window and Grandma thought that hilarious!  I gave Grandma my camera but the first picture she took was mainly a picture of my rear-end so I deleted that one and made her try again. 

The pattern is called Vintage Postcard by Crabapple Hill. 

I've also promised to make the same piece for another friend so I have my work cut out for me.  (I directed her to the pattern and we agreed it was so pretty that we'll each make one and send it to each other!)  This will keep me busy for awhile!

Forgetting

"Tani, when you're at home, do you usually have some sort of handwork that you are doing?"

"Yes, Mother.  I'm usually quilting."

"Oh.  What do you make?"

"Quilts."

This exact conversation may take place 10 or 15 times a day.  In fact whenever my mother looks up and sees me doing something that entails a sewing machine, needle or fabric, the same questions bubble up from her. Unfortunately she looks down again and then a minute or two up again...

I can understand how the elderly might think the people around them are unusually brusque or unfriendly.  My gosh, ask an innocent question and get a one word answer and then nothing.  They don't realize that the person sitting across from them has answered the same question, sometimes in great detail, ten times before. 

Yesterday Mother was asking what Tetsu's mother did during the day and I explained that Obaachan doesn't see very well so she doesn't watch TV or read, she is disabled so she can't walk and never goes out, she has meals on wheels delivered to her so she doesn't need to cook and social workers come in to do shopping and chores for her. Tetsu and I visit weekly.  Grandma looked down at her book and then back up at me.

"What does Tetsu's mother do all day?"

"Not much."

What does MY mother do all day?  She is not and has never been a TV watcher so there is no TV in her casita (there is one but she doesn't remember how to turn it on).  She has always been a reader though she doesn't seem to mind losing her place in a book she's reading and picking it up to read at any ol' page she turns to.  Here we are in our pajamas reading together.  Like mother, like daughter.  Scary!

There has been one library book that I borrowed for her written by a 13 year old, high functioning level autistic boy in Japan.  Interestingly, every time she reads through a certain page (and I know she's read the same page at least 10 times over the past week!) she will comment.

"Isn't this grammar wrong?  Shouldn't this be written 'We people with autism', rather than 'Us people with autism'.  I don't think that is right."

My mother was an assistant textbook editor before she got married.  She used to return my college letters to her with red marks on them.  

ANYWAY...  I explained that the book had been translated from Japanese... that the author was only 13 years old and besides he had a mild form of autism and that led into a long discussion about what autism is (and my mother was also an elementary school teacher for 25 years yet she claims she never heard the term autism.  Is it possible in those days the term and the disorder wasn't recognized or is it just another thing she has forgotten?)  So we have somewhat intelligent conversations together...  And then a few minutes later she picks up the book again and says,

"Isn't this grammar wrong?"

"Just forget it Mother." 

...which seems a stupid thing to say on my part considering the circumstances.

Mother also enjoys doing jigsaw puzzles and I found a great used one at the library for $2. 

Done!  I had to get a quilt jigsaw puzzle, right?

I think I'll go back to the library today and see if they have any more puzzles.  And take the grammatically incorrect book back to them too... 

Family picture

Yesterday the family was all together for a change and we took the opportunity to go out for dinner and take a family picture.  With a family friend and Bianca included we took two cars (Takumi's new sports car doesn't hold enough people and took Kiana's jeep instead) and ended up taking our picture in the restaurant parking lot.  Not too picturesque but I guess it is the people who matter anyway.

Here we have Colin age 16, me, Takumi age 29, Grandma age 92, Kiana age 19, Marcy (she isn't telling) and my brother...  he only admits to being younger than me.

 And with two nearly family, Tracy and you know Bianca.

 Grandma and Bianca and I rode home in Kiana's breezy jeep.  Grandma seems to like the ride!

All us ladies with blown about hair.

What a good grandson!  That's quite a step down from the jeep.  Grandma got lifted into and out of the vehicle. 

"After Grandma is taken care of it looks like I need some help too!"

I fairly got lifted out of the jeep myself.  After a certain age jeeps aren't too comfortable.  But very Californian and a lot of fun!

Los Angeles Quilt Show

Yesterday, Kiana and Marcy and Marcy's friend and Takumi and Bianca and I went to the Inaugural Los Angeles Quilt Show.  Well...  Hmmm.  It is not exactly what I expected and maybe after the second or third or 25th they'll have something with... a bit more participation?

You see, I was expecting something like a mini Long Beach International quilt show and I know when one is talking INTERNATIONAL and one is talking merely county, that the scale is going to be different.  Yesterday's show (tickets paid for online... very well organized) was held in an ancient warehouse at a shipping port.  Half of the warehouse held partitions for craft vendors, thus the name CRAFTED, the other half (or maybe third) was for the quilt show.

We were all given armbands (even the huge quilt shows don't do that) and a gift of a ruler and handed white gloves if we were interested in touching the quilts.  There seemed to be someone giving a lecture on a technique in one corner of the huge room.  But quilts?  Maybe 50?  And the warehouse was so huge that they got lost in the space.  Hung here and there which must have been a job in itself, but not too much variety nor anything resembling categories.

This was my favorite quilt just because it was very traditional and I have contemplated making something similar.  All hand pieced and quilted I think the label said.  The quilt edges were exquisitely finished with under-turned stitching (no binding).

I hate to admit it, but usually when I go to a quilt show (alright, I admit to going to maybe 5 shows in my lifetime) I head straight to the quilt vendors to see new fabrics and kits and tools but there were only about 8 vendors sitting under the overhead quilts!  I was disappointed!  So I looked at the quilts more closely.

This seemed appropriate for California and the U.S. The American flag and a hamburger.

Though I'd probably never decorate my wall with this quilt the machine quilting was amazing.

Now THAT is called thread art!

And that was about it for my interest level.  I came home empty handed.

We did wander around the craft booths for about an hour looking at beaded jewelry and paintings and vintage clothing.  I'm afraid none of us bought anything there either and it didn't seem like the vendors were doing much business.  Most of the tourists were taking pictures of the inner workings of the warehouse so I did too.

HUMUNGOUS ceiling fans that kept the whole warehouse quite cool and breezy.  I played around with the settings on my camera.  The first one is AUTO.

This is in DRAMATIC mode.

 And I think this was DIORAMA.

So now I am home without a sewing project at my fingertips.  Rats.  I had hoped some quilt vendor was going to entice me to spend a lot of money and get me hooked on a new project.

KaBloom has bloomed!

What I thought was going to be a summer long project has been completed in about two weeks.  That is two weeks of intensive cutting and ironing and sewing.  I sure couldn't have finished this in my normal two weeks of Japanese life!

The KaBloom kit, which I threw into my suitcase at the last minute thinking that if ever it had a chance of being made it would have to be during a California vacation, has traipsed across the Pacific numerous times.  It came to me from a blog friend who sent it along with many other McKenna kits and it traveled back to California with me last summer but it seemed too daunting a project to start with other things going on.  (Last summer it was photograph memory quilts).  At the end of last summer I brought it back to Japan and it sat in my cupboard all year.  In a spur of the moment decision, I brought it along this summer thinking my mother would like to watch the collaging process.

Except for all that fiddly cutting work, the collaging part of the quilt making was pretty routine.  And after someone's suggestion of ironing as I went, the ironing process went along easily too.

With past McKenna kits I have always used invisible mono-filament thread and that was what my modus operandi was going to be.  I had my mono-filament thread and I had a new set of titanium needles but dang-it-all if I couldn't get things to set right!  The thread broke, the needle broke, the bobbin thread skipped, my frustration levels mounted.  The first day I threw up my hands and calmed myself by spending an hour or two at JoAnn's by myself!  While there I browsed through "Beginning Machine Quilting" books though I don't consider myself a beginning quilter...  But maybe my experience has just been about good luck because I knew nothing about needle sizes and thread weights which seem to make a difference.  Asking for advice from the very nice clerk wasn't too helpful as she suggested taking my machine in to be repaired (and besides she admitted to not being a sewer... of any type!  How can you work in JoAnn's and not sew?)

After my JoAnn's break I came back home and took off the mono-filament thread and used Invisifil in a light green for both bobbin and top thread and after changing to a larger needle that worked beautifully.  I'd originally planned to change thread colors as I got to flowers and trellis but things were going to smoothly with the green that I decided not to push my luck.  Everything was quilting out so nicely that it didn't seem necessary to color coordinate (and the back looks fantastic too!) 

There was an embellishment package in the quilt kit with different colored beads and the instructions were to bead the clemantis and the poppies.  As you can see, I don't know the difference between a poppy and a cosmos but anyway the quilt got beaded though not according to the directions.

It occurs to me that no one really has an idea of the size of this so I have just handed Grandma my camera and asked her to take a picture of me.  KaBloom has completely bloomed!