Small projects

Between cleaning house I've been doing some sewing and crossing things off my to do list.

First I made some more luggage tags. These are easy to do and because they use a bit of plastic to hold a card they don't look handmade (except for the strange job on the buttonhole stitch. That was definitely amateur.) I've sent these off to Leiya's friend for her birthday.

Then I decided that I really had been slacking on Prayer and Square Quilts. I still have two pinkish flimsys in a drawer but I really ought to have a stack of these ready for tying. The trouble is that I'm a little tired of making the Around the World pattern though it is very fast. So I thought I'd try my hand at something else quick and easy. Looking around the website I thought the Heartstrings quilt would be good but actually since I'm working alone, it took quite a while to make 24 heartstring blocks. Probably my strings are too narrow or something. And I don't think my choice of center fabric was very good. Much too busy. The result may be too showy for a Prayer and Square quilt (though cheery that's for sure).

Question. What is the easiest and fastest quilt you've ever made? I mean I know I could just cut a couple fabrics into big 10" blocks and sew them together, but I want something that takes a bit more effort. I'm going to go back to the Prayer and Square website and look around but if you have any suggestions I would love to know.

It's a dilemma. For a prayer quilt, something that can be quickly made up is important. But it needs to be beautiful and comforting too. And considering the cost, it might be nice if I could just make it up from left over fabric that might not get used elsewhere. Trying to balance these three criteria is the challenge...

And lastly... What do you think I'm making with this block? I've gone wonky with this and I'm working on another identical block...

Senpai-kohai

Today I have another guest writer for my blog. I convinced my jr. high school student to tell me about his school life. Tetsuhiro is very good in English and makes the effort to use the English words he knows to communicate. The other day I asked him to tell me about the senpai-kohai system in English and I wrote down his information and made it into a composition for him.

The senpai-kohai system is unique in Japan. Japanese value superiority and rank and the language and vocabulary changes depending on which person of rank you are speaking to. (This is why Japanese love business cards. It lets them know immediately what rank the other person is so they can adjust their language accordingly. It is also the reason why one of the first questions one asks a foreigner is their age.) Unfortunately the ranking system can get out of hand in the adolescent years and it can escalate into never ending hazing, much like when joining a fraternity or sorority.

I hope you enjoy Tetsuhiro's observations of jr. high school life.

In Japan, there is the senpai-kohai system. "Senpai" means senior or older person and "kohai" means junior or younger person.

Right now I am a first year student in jr. high school, and my senpai are the second and third year students. Next year when I am a second year student I will have third year senpai and first year kohai.

Even in companies, anyone who has worked longer than you is your senpai. The senpai teach the kohai the ropes of company life. In school, the senpai will teach the kohai about techniques or skills in the school clubs. Senpai are important for making a group of students into a team. I like the senpai at my school because they are kind and interesting. My school has very good senpai. I'm lucky.

BUT... In some jr. high schools the senpai are very mean. The school may not have a rule about something but the senpai will make "rules". For example, most jr. high students spend all day in the gym clothes. The gym clothes have a zipper in front. In school the first year students are only allowed (by senpai rules) to zip their shirt up to the collar. But second year and third year students can zip all the way up or leave their gym clothes loose. If a first year student wears his gym clothes another way, he will get scolded by the senpai or bullied.

Another example is socks. The senpai say that first year students are only allowed to wear white socks that go to the calf. Only if you are a second year or third year student can you wear socks other than white, or socks that have designs, or ankle socks. If you get on the bad side of a senpai you will be bullied until the senpai graduates. And the senpai are very good at not letting the teachers know about the bullying.

I'm glad I go to my jr. high school and don't have problems with senpai. Next year I will be a second year student and I want to be a kind and friendly senpai.

Tetsuhiro

Tetsuhiro in his gym clothes... Zipper hanging loose.

Daikon and seaweed

I was thinking about what all we eat in Japan yesterday, especially as it related to diets, not necessarily diets for losing weight. It reminded me of a diet I was on right after Takumi was born. We are talking about the dark ages here but it was an unusual time in my life that's for sure.

When I was a young mother I was adamant that I was going to breast feed my babies. While I was pregnant I read up on it and thought that if I just didn't take the easy formula way out I would have no problems. This is what generations of mothers had done since time began!

But, it wasn't that easy. The hospital Takumi was born at automatically gave babies formula. When we went home a week later there I was with a screaming baby latched onto me 24/7 and I ended up giving him more and more formula which I hated. By "chance" I met a mother in the park and mentioned that I really had wanted to breast feed but it wasn't working out and she gave me the number of a mid-wife nearby that specialized in helping mothers breast feed. She also claimed that her methods would cure eczema in babies.

For the next year I went daily to this mid wife's clinic and met with many babies and their mothers. The daily visit was for breast massage to stimulate breast milk but besides that the midwife put all the mothers on strict diets. STRICT!

"If you aren't willing to follow my advice then you don't need to come back!"

The diet was thus: For the first month the new mothers ate only white rice, daikon and seaweed. Yep. That's it. Supposedly this was supposed to improve breast milk flavor (so that the babies went at it with more gusto) and remove impurities. This is where the eczema treatments came in. It also was necessary to improve milk flow. Each time Takumi and I went the breast milk was tested and he was observed and gradually new foods were introduced into the diet. Mothers were required to keep a diary of all foods consumed, the amounts and the eating times and the midwife would advise daily.

Tetsu let me do what I wanted to do. Even back then he wasn't around much so he ate separately. I ate rice, daikon and seaweed. My American friends especially told me I was crazy, that I was in danger of ruining my health and that the midwife was running a scam. Everyone was telling me to accept the available formula and stop such foolishness.

"Tanya, that's ridiculous! Think of all the cultures in the world that don't even eat daikon and seaweed!"

The interesting thing was that though my weight plummeted, healthwise I was very fine, the breast milk began to flow and even in the other babies that had come with such terrible eczema I could see a miraculous improvement daily! The midwife might be running a controversial clinic but she did seem to be getting results!

I can remember the great day when the midwife added raw scallops to my diet, the first addition after a month of seaweed and radishes. I fairly skipped to the supermarket to buy this delicacy and thereafter foods were added gradually, other vegetables, soy products, fish, meat and finally noodles. I don't think I was allowed to eat eggs or dairy products for the whole year that I commuted to and from the clinic.

Takumi successfully breastfed until he took his first step, the "time best suited to wean a baby since his world has suddenly broadened". After all my problems getting started breast feeding I couldn't believe that now we were going to try to wean this baby so suddenly. Impossible! That child couldn't live without me pulling up my shirt every few hours! But the day came, I went to the clinic. The midwife painted two funny faces on my breasts in felt pen. The next time Takumi came toddling up and I peeled back my shirt, he took a look at the funny faces, gave a laugh and never again showed an interest in breast feeding. That midwife knew her stuff!

I went through a similar routine with Leiya too but all in all was successful the second time around too. Tetsu has held my breast feeding sacrifices and diet over my kids' heads all their lives and he fully believes that my efforts resulted in two very healthy children.

"You thank your mother for all she went through to give you kids a good start in life!"

I still love raw scallops and whenever I eat them I remember Takumi's first year of life.

I also wonder why I can't stick to a diet now when I could that long ago year... (pictures from the Internet)

Bags

Saturday while housecleaning I came across a couple of patchwork bags I've made in the past. I haven't really made too many bags in all my years of patchwork but I know many Japanese women do and there are loads of books for making bags of all sorts in the bookstores and libraries. In fact there is a whole genre of books called kindergarten bags in Japan.

All children when they start kindergarten in Japan need to have numerous bags to travel to and from kindergarten. Early after being accepted into a kindergarten the mother will be given instructions to buy (heaven forbid!) or make bags of certain dimensions. Now most Japanese mothers will go about this with great enthusiasm and I was no exception. This is a visual way to show the world what a loving and devoted mother you are! So books are are acquired and mothers (sometimes grandmothers) go about sewing up some bags that are going to make their child just thrilled to trot off to kindergarten!

So, just what sort of bags...? First a fairly large tote bag for carrying things like an extra change of clothes and towels and luncheon mats (all matching in my case!) Then there are the smaller bags. These are necessary for carrying a lunch box, sometimes with a separate bag for chopsticks, and a bag for a drinking cup. There are bags necessary for the toothbrush and also for the indoor school shoes. Sometimes another bag is needed for carrying home borrowed library books...

With Takumi I remember appliqueing felt pieces of cars and trucks onto the homemade tote bag. For Leiya I needle turned a pink Sunbonnet Sue like creature. I'm surprised at my handwork when I look at the pictures because I don't think too much of the colors or the fabrics that I used but I remember being quite proud of them at the time though I don't know about how the kids felt. Probably with Leiya we browsed the library books together for a pattern. (picture from 1993!)

When children get to elementary school age they are going out into the real world with store bought bags but still there are the gym clothes bags, the indoor shoe bags, the cups and toothbrush bags and the library bags. (No more lunch boxes.) Not to mention the very expensive leather randosel backpacks that are required. Poor children look so loaded down on Monday mornings!

I ought to use my old bags now that they are out and photographed. They never seem to hold enough or they sag so badly with all the weight I carry around...

Velvet appearance

This week some friends from the States are coming for a visit and will stay with us a day or two. Now, I have warned them that we have 5 indoor cats and there is more cat fur flying around than in most houses but they are willing to risk the cats to spend some time with us. Even so, Tetsu thought we should do some major cleaning before our guests arrive and we dubbed yesterday "Major Cleaning Day". This entailed things like Tetsu fixing the sofa (again), and me washing curtains and the dusting the upstairs rooms that will be used as guest rooms.

A day of cleaning makes things smell fresh. And while I was upstairs I rearranged my sewing room (again). There aren't really too many possible arrangements and I think this is how I had it before but it is clean again. The sewing room is too stuffed with stash boxes and strip crates and crumb baskets and all the other paraphernalia to be turned into a guest room. BUT I've turned it into Velvet's room!

Velvet continues to live out life under a chair so now he has his own room. I've put his heater in it and a box to relax in and rigged a way so that the other cats can't open the door (yes, they usually can) and he can sit at the window and look out on the world again. I spend quite a lot of time up there anyway so I don't think he'll be too lonely and it is better than living under a chair.

In the meantime, Toi enjoys a fluffy cushion on the table.

Winding Ways finished!

I finished the Winding Ways/Wheels of Mystery quilt! I must say, as with life in general, things sort of worked out in the end. Although I was having real concerns about the waviness in the borders, once laid out it really isn't that noticable. I probably need to block this (light wash and pin to the carpet, right? Keep cats out of the room... impossible) but I went ahead and put it up on the wall last night.

Quilting... I used the walking foot and did graduated circles inside the 6 main circles. That worked out well with only a little puckering at the cross threads. BUT, that meant that there were the centers of the circles that were unquilted. That's not so good. I went ahead and meander stitched the outer background with my freehand quilting foot and that turned out much better than I though it would. I thought about doing leaves inside the circle centers but couldn't see the quilting at all with all the mixing of batiks, so I took out the small portion I tried. The seam ripper is my best friend. Instead I got the walking foot back out and stitched in the ditch at the inner circles. More puckering. What I SHOULD have done was stitch in the ditch at each block FIRST, then stitch in the ditch around ALL the circles, THEN do the gradated inner circles.

That left only the border. I was undecided as to whether I wanted to leave the border plain to show off the dyed fabric or do some fancy freehand quilting. I tried a few inches of feathers. Not the look I want at all! Seam ripper back out. I tried fronds. No, no, no. Too fussy. Rip, rip, rip. So it was back to the walking foot and I did gradated lines around the border.

This would never get too many points from a real machine quilter and even my friends who aren't machine quilting enthusiasts may shake their heads at the jumpy stitches and poofs here and there. But it is great for my wall and I'm pleased and proud to show my first attempts at blending batiks and quilting with a walking foot.

How to fold a T-shirt

The other night one of my jr. high school students and I were talking about TV programs and unusual things in Japan and we both remembered a TV program a year or so ago where they introduced "How to Fold a T-Shirt". So we decided to re-inact the process for you. (You can actually see the real thing on You-Tube). We both tried folding on camera but my student did a better job of filming than I did and he didn't want to be on my blog.

Please excuse the messy room. We had been studying and doing some writing before we got to the T-shirt part and it was sort of spur of the moment. If I had been planning to show this I would have cleaned the room first!!!



Actually I hang my T-shirts in the closet but this is sort of a fun way to do it. Trick your kids into trying it!