Winding Ways Flimsy

I think I finished the Winding Ways quilt! At least it's a flimsy. I think I'm happy with it. I took everyone's advice and ironed down the border, and then appliqued the arcs to it. I used glue to hold everything down and it worked very well.


I chose the dyed border fabric and went back and forth about whether I was going to put the gradations going horizontally or vertically against the center of the quilt but the many lines made it too busy so even though the gradations aren't completely straight (and I had to piece occasionally) I think this brings out the center better.

Can you tell that I changed one of the pieces in that bottom green circle? (In the Winding Ways III post it was the original way). It used to be blue but when I'd put it all together it just jumped out at me too much. (I had thought it would be good against the dark border). Anyway I CHANGED it. And WHAT A JOB! Are you going to accuse me of being a perfectionist? I figured if I didn't change it now, I'd forever look at the quilt and only see the blue piece down there. So I ripped up the border and did the lower part again.

Now I get to make decisions on how to do the quilting. I'm thinking of using a walking foot and quilt inside the circles. I have to buy a walking foot first though... Any advice on how to use one of those?

That was one FUN quilt! I've got the batiks. Do I want to do this again?

Organization

On my walk yesterday with Choco I came across a lot where the owner had been cutting down a couple of his trees. I was impressed by his organizational skills.

Tree trunks. I don't know why the red marks are there.


Large limbs of trees. More red marks.



Smaller branches, bound tightly and resting on a hand made branch raft.



Twigs again bound up and on another raft.



And then LEAVES!!! These were all layered nicely, I have no idea how, and then wrapped in straw bundles and tied with rope. They must be tied so tightly in there and packed down that they don't fall out from their bundles.



I've got to go organize my sewing room now.

Funeral customs

Ok. This is not supposed to be a morbid post (though it may seem that way). I had to go to a wake/funeral last night and that got me thinking about the funerals I've attended in Japan and some of the cultural differences. And by the way, yesterday's funeral was a celebration of a church member's 89 years of life. Not that many tears and many wonderful stories to hear about.

When I came to Japan 30 some years ago I met a young woman from Venezuela who was married to a young Japanese man. They were newly married and were planning to live in Japan and Gladys and I studied Japanese together. Gladys' husband, Hajime, had a good friend, Tetsu and it was through them that Tetsu and I met and later married.

Gladys had her problems (as I later did!) adjusting to Japanese life. She would often visit me and bemoan some of the Japanese customs and nuances. I didn't know much and it was interesting for me to hear about in-laws and living as a Japanese housewife. Tetsu and Hajime and Gladys and I often double dated out of necessity! Tetsu and I couldn't talk to each other! I spoke to Gladys in English, Gladys spoke to Hajime in Spanish and Hajime spoke to Tetsu in Japanese! It was always a long drawn out conversation with a lot of mistranslations!

One day Gladys turned up at my door.

"I've left him! I'm not going back! Hajime's father died yesterday! They're planning the funeral today."

"What! You can't leave your husband because his father died. What happened?"

"I'm sorry for Hajime but I just cannot be the proper eldest son's Japanese wife. I don't understand all of that and I don't know what I'm going to be asked to do. I'm not going back until after the funeral!"

Tetsu called me about then asking if I knew where Gladys was. The family was in an uproar because she'd disappeared. (My Japanese had improved somewhat over the months that we had dated.)

"Umm. She's here. She says she's not going to go home until after Hajime's father's funeral. She's afraid of all the customs and doesn't know what is expected of her as the eldest son's wife."

"Tanya. Gladys HAS to be there! She HAS to be there to save face for the family! Even though she's a foreigner she HAS to be there for Hajime!"

We went back and forth with me translating for Tetsu and Gladys.

"Wait a minute, Tetsu. Give me a run down on the day's proceedings so that Gladys can know what to expect and what she has to do."

"Okay. She just stands besides Hajime and the family during the chanting. No one understands anything so it doesn't matter if she doesn't understand. After the service the family will go to the crematorium and they'll wait while the body is cremated." (Ooh. This is beginning to sound bad.) "Then the family will pick up the bones with chopsticks and put them in an urn."

"WHATTTT!!!????" That was me.

"What? What? What?" That was Gladys.

"I don't think I understood him. Quick get my Japanese-English dictionary. I don't think I understood one of those words. It isn't possible that somebody would pick up bones with chopsticks!"

Sorry. It's true. Japanese crematoriums just incinerate enough to leave bones. Not ashes. And the custom is for the family to pick up bones one by one together, two pairs of chopsticks holding one bone, and place them in the urn. That's one reason why one NEVER passes a piece of food from one pair of chopsticks to another pair of chopsticks while eating. Did you need that bit of trivia? That's enough details.

Tetsu did convince Gladys to fulfill her duties as the eldest son's wife but she stayed FAR in the background at the crematorium.

So you see. At least I knew what I was getting into when I married Tetsu and decided to live in Japan...

Winding Ways III

Grrr. I'm telling you. I'm having more problems putting a border on my Winding Ways than I did putting the curves together!

I'm trying to piece the large curve into the border but for some reason the border keeps warping or puckering. I've taken it out three times. I realize now that it would have been much easier to just have appliqued the circle pieces onto the border but I've already cut the curves on the border piece so if I want to use this fabric I've got to do it this way. Headaches, headaches. I feel like a beginning quilter again.

I don't know if it was such a good idea showing you the step by step progress on this quilt. I'm getting tired of seeing the dang thing myself and it makes for a boring post.

Back to the sewing room....

Quilting Queen!

Yesterday AbbyKat made a comment on my blog and included a "poem" that her quilt guild had written and sung at a meeting/retreat. I loved it and I asked if I could include it here. She said her quilting group in New Zealand performed it and it has gotten around New Zealand a bit but I'd like you to all put on ABBA right now and sing along with me!

QUILTING QUEEN

You can sew
You can stitch
Having the time of your life!
Ooh
See that seam
Watch that pin
Be-in' the Quilting Queen!


Monday night and the lights are low
Looking out for the place to sew
Where you make great friendships
Find out all the news
You've come in to fight the blues



Anybody could stay at home
With quilting groups it's much more fun
With a bit of friendship
Everything is fine
You need to take your time
And when you finish a quilt...



You are the Quilting Queen
Wise and neat
No longer seventeen
Quilting Queen
Feel the beat
From the sewing machine
Oh yeah

You can patch
You can quilt
Having the time of your life!
Ooh
See that seam
Watch that pin
Be-in' the Quilting Queen!





You're a star you turn it round
Leave them yearning and then you're done
Looking out for a project
Any one will do
You've never used that silk
And when you finish a quilt...

You are the Quilting Queen
Wise and neat
No longer seventeen
Quilting Queen
Feel the beat
From the sewing machine

You can patch
You can quilt
Having the time of your life!
See that seam
Watch that pin
Be-in' the Quilting Queen!

Mamma Mia

Let's see... What's going on recently?

LAST weekend Tetsu and I went to see the movie "Mamma Mia!". We both liked all the energy and music and were pleasantly surprised that actors like the old James Bond could sing! Usually I'm not to wild about musicals nor love stories but the music in this is so catchy. THIS Saturday Tetsu went off to get the car fixed or something and he came back with the "Mamma Mia!" CD for me! Isn't he sweet?! I haven't had a new CD in ages and listening to this one really gets the blood moving.

So I spent a lot of Saturday and Sunday afternoon up in the sewing room with "Mamma Mia!" playing and I got a lot done on the Winding Ways. I hope to get the last two blocks done today. This has turned out to not be as hard as I was expecting. Of course those blocks aren't put in rows yet but most of the curved pieces are now blocks and I'm hoping that that was the most difficult part. The more I look at this the more I want to go back and take out pieces and rearrange but I'm refraining from that action. I had a bunch of blade pieces left over, I'd cut too many or needed a different color and cut more and I'm wondering if I can use them in a border... Does that green circle on the bottom need green blades or can I use these left overs? And what should I do about a border? Does this want a dark border or a light border? I have many more batiks that haven't been used in this center part and I have a nice piece of dark purple dyed fabric that might be nice...

On the hand sewing front I finished my block for the bazaar quilt. Mrs. Furui and I decided on the applique block and we've both been trying our hand at button-hole stitching. Hey, that was kind of fun! This block still needs a center bias circle but we'll put that in when we get all our blocks back.

Oh, and thanks to Kathy, I got word that Blurb is back and working again and can be used with Blogger so I went over to that website immediately yesterday and downloaded/uploaded (I can never remember which) some of my blog entries so that I can get another book made. Blurb really does a nice job... when it's working. That will be another long project to edit the book so don't hold your breath.

I need to do some house cleaning. Think I'll put "Mamma Mia!" on full blast and dance my way around the place with dish cloth in hand!

"See that girl,

Watch that scene,

Diggin' the Dancing Queen!"

To see or not to see

Recently Tetsu and I have been making it a habit to go to the hot springs on the weekends. Tetsu has always loved hot springs and the resort like facilities with hot spring water piped in from somewhere. I'm not as fond of these places as Tetsu but I decided that in my old age I'd better have a common interest with my husband and he certainly isn't going to take up patchwork.

Japanese are very good at not seeing some things. Houses bump up against each other so close that you could open the curtains and look into your neighbor's living room but in theory no one "sees" what the neighbor is doing. I have waved to people from my open kitchen window but I'm not "seen". No one waves back. It would be terribly impolite to be caught looking into a house no matter how close it is to the street so we just don't "see". At the hot spring, I pretend not to look at the people around me but it is a little disconcerting to step into a bath and find a fellow PTA mother or a neighbor sitting next to you in the buff. I feel like a real Japanese when I can carry on a conversation smoothly without ever "seeing" below the neck.

For Christmas I bought both Tetsu and myself little hot spring bags that have all the necessary hot spring implements. Let's see. What's in my bag?

Sample bottles of shampoo and rinse though usually the hot springs will provide these.
A scrubbing towel that is nylon and suds up nicely.
A longish face towel that is all purpose. Useful for washing, for drying (well wiping off a wet body), for hiding certain portions of the body when walking around in front of people. More on this later.
A pumice stone.
A fold away hairbrush.
Moisturizer.

I guess that's about it.

Anyway, Tetsu and I went to a neighboring hot spring this morning and we parted at the doors dividing the men's' side from the women's' side. Usually we agree to meet back in about an hour and a half. There is always a changing room with lockers and cubbies and sometimes with big baskets for people to fold their clothes away. After stripping I grab my long face towel and nonchalantly drape it over my front as I head for the bathing area. Usually I get a shock when I'm confronted with a mirror and I "see" my mother's body under my horrified face! This is definitely something I didn't want to see! The towel hides very little and there are parts of me sticking out on both sides.

The bathing area has loads of little squatting areas sometimes with a mini-stool and each area has a bucket and a shower and usually shampoo and body soap. I scrub up quickly and rinse off thoroughly and with my little towel I walk out to the outdoors hot spring pool. I prefer being outside rather in the indoor baths where the only thing to look at is each other. My non-seeing skills aren't that good. The little hiding towel isn't supposed to go into the very clean hot water so most people fold it up on top of their heads like a little hat and let it balance there. I'm not so skilled at balancing so I leave it by the side of the pool.

In Japan even the monkeys enjoy hot springs in the winter. I've never "seen" one in the bath myself but this picture reminds me of all us ladies huddled in the hot spring this morning. (Picture from the Internet)