A busy day ahead

I'm on the run today. Kindergarten in the morning with class observation day so the mothers will be coming in to watch. The school year only started in April so I haven't taught some of these kids very long. The three year olds can barely sit for 10 minutes straight and most of them seem somewhat bewildered about their new life. Today we'll do things like sing 10 Little Indians and There were Ten in the Bed. I mean that I will sing, and try to get the kids to imitate gestures. Sometimes I feel like a performer, not an English teacher. I hope no one starts crying today. (That usually happens at the beginning of every year. The big, scary foreigner!)

In the afternoon I'm teaching a lovely young woman who just graduated from college. I've taught her off and on since she was in kindergarten! We do a lot of just chatting for the first half of the hour.

Next I go to a friend's house and three ladies come for a couple hours. More chatting over coffee and I usually bring a print-out of some sorts so that I can justify being paid for this lovely time of friendship.

And then it is off to the next city over to teach a group of 2nd graders. All boys and they keep me hopping! They do not much like sitting down and doing things with a pencil so we play tag outside (ask the monster, ME, how she is. "How are you?" There are a variety of answers but when I say "I'm HUNGRY!" I chase them) or do a simple type of square dance. "What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? (clap, clap) "My name is Tanya. My name is Tanya. NICE TO MEET YOU!" Change partners!)

What I'd like to do is quilt. Not today. I'm probably going to be ready for an early bedtime tonight!

Farewell party

Last night, Tetsu and I went to a Farewell party for our good friends Kohei and Marlene Yamada. Gosh, we've known them for over 15 years! When I first arrived in the nearby city someone asked me if I knew Marlene.

"She's American just like you and is married to a Japanese man." Nope. Hadn't met her yet.

A month or so later someone else asks,

"Do you know Marlene? Her kids are about the same age as yours." Nope. Our paths haven't crossed.

And then months later,

"Do you know Marlene? Her husband does judo just like yours." Not yet.

When I finally met Marlene I felt like I knew all about her already!

After getting to know the Yamadas the two husbands started a judo club for children and every Thursday I'd take Takumi and Leiya to judo and then go to Marlene's to chat for a couple hours. All of our children and the two daddies would do judo and Marlene and I would cook dinner together and after judo we'd all eat together and chat until very late at night. I really loved those Thursday nights! It was nice to just talk in English and to compare stories and be assured that what I thought was strange about Japanese life didn't mean I was weird. Marelene more often than not felt the same way! In the past 15 years our two families have celebrated Thanksgiving together (American style!) and consulted each other about raising our families in our unique bicultural atmosphere.

But this month Kohei is heading off for Hong Kong with a change of jobs and when Marlene finishes up her commitments she will be joining him, so an informal farewell party was planned with take out pizza, pot luck dishes, cookies and cakes. It was a great international party with people from Poland and France and America and Japan. Three of the American kids put on an impromptu skit which floored Tetsu to think the kids could be so imaginative and uninhibited in front of all the adults.

Later in the evening we played ping pong and had a great time. No stuffy speeches and ceremony, just old friends and new friends and a lot of laughter.

Well, Marlene isn't planning to leave for a few months (another tanshinfunin wife in the making!) so I'll be seeing her off and on for awhile longer.

More blocks

I think I have a obsessive/compulsive personality or something. When I start something, I can't stop. Yesterday, even though it was Saturday, Tetsu had to work and he even had to stay overnight so that meant that I had a day to myself and I didn't even need to worry about cooking dinner. Sooooo. Up to the sewing room I went to work on a few more blocks for the Australian quilt.

You can't believe all the stuff I can pull out from the drawers! But I had so many lovely hand dyed fabrics (many from Thelma and Liz) that once I started I didn't want to stop! I was continuing along the lines of what animals I knew and so I chose a crocodile and a frog from the original patterns. But some of the others... I was at a loss. Why limit myself to animals? Why not a few flowers in this quilt?

I went to the Internet to check out just WHAT flowers were in Australia and I did find two that I could recognize and seemed tropical and at least in the Australian tourist website there is Bird of Paradise and Plumeria. I designed my flower squares as best I could but I'm not sure they are accurate...

While I was online. I even looked at dragonflies to see what they really looked like (I have dragonflies around here but I never look at them closely when they are in flight.) I think a dragonfly is a good companion for the frog...

Now to get to the applique! All those flower petals may drag me down. I wasn't thinking too far ahead when I designed these!

Australian quilting

Yesterday I played around in the sewing room again all day. I love Fridays! Lorraine, from Australia, had sent our patchwork group just loads and loads of information and tools and kits as an introduction to Australian quilting. But how are we going to use all these wonderful things? At Thursday's patchwork meeting we went through the contents of the packages again and a couple of us took some of the things home to experiment with.

Yesterday morning I followed directions from Helen Stubbings book and kit to make my first "Hug's n Kisses" block from "Neenie's Garden" BOM kit. This is called Faux Applique and basically it uses a technique of coloring inside transfer lines and then embroidering over all the lines. Yesterday I used the pencils that Lorraine had sent and colored my first block.

Well, this part of the block goes quickly. I think it is the stitching that will take quite a while. I will work on the BOM in gradual amounts and see how far along I can get. Tentatively, the plans are for someone else in the group to do the stitching around the lines though.

Another of the treasures from Lorraine's box was this "Aussie Quilt" pattern. Lorraine had showed us her finished full size quilt when she came in January and we all fell in love with it. She sent us the patterns but this is another BIG job. But so cute! I decided to chose 4 or 5 five of the blocks and make a fun wall quilt and so I brought all the patterns home with me and played around yesterday. Which blocks to use? Unfortunately, I've never been to Australia and know nothing about the animals in Australia. Most of the animals featured in this quilt I've never even heard of! Well, I know what a koala is. I know parrots. So I started with those blocks yesterday. So much fun!

Hah! Tanya, the hard part comes from now! You've got to applique all those pieces down!

I figure once it gets too hot to quilt I can do applique this summer so I'm going to go ahead and make a couple more blocks today.

Bazaar quilt sandwiched

Yesterday I had a great day with patchwork friends at Mrs. Furui's house. There is always a lot of teasing and chatting and catching up to be done not to mention sewing.

Our group of 7 or 8 ladies has always gathered at Mrs. Furui's house. She is central to everyone and two other of the ladies live in the same neighborhood. It is on the way back from the city so a couple of the ladies can run their errands or do their jobs in the morning and stop in on their way home. I live too far away. No one ever comes out here. Mrs. Harada moved four hours away last year and we never expected her to continue coming to patchwork but she faithfully makes the trip each month leaving her home at 6:00 in the morning and arriving by 10:00. Yesterday she picked up Mrs. Okutomi, another long time patchwork friend who also had moved away years ago. Actually Mrs. Harada and Mrs. Okutomi only met at our January patchwork gathering but patchwork and quilting people just seem to be able to become friends and so yesterday the two of them drove the distance together to do patchwork with the original group!

The goal for yesterday was to put the bazaar quilt's applique borders together, make it into a flimsy and get it sandwiched for quilting. A few snags (one side of the applique hadn't been finished yet!) and a few additions, ("Let's put piping around the whole quilt!") but I had brought my Feathered Star quilt and a couple of us basted that while others appliqued, ironed, sewed and joined batting for the bazaar quilt. Busy house!

A quick lunch and with many hands both quilts were sandwiched, new projects were considered, and a lot of laughter filled our hearts.

This year's bazaar quilt surpasses our expectations! (I think the addition of that border was a stroke of genius!)

"THIS YEAR I WANT TO WIN THIS!!!!"

"How many raffle tickets should I buy to clinch it?"

"This is our best quilt ever!"

We say that every year.

Cat spot

Now, what do you suppose this is? This is my kitties' drinking bowl. With four cats the water goes away quickly. (Vel has his own upstairs.) I don't know why I had all these marbles but it makes for a pretty decoration in the window especially in the summer.

The cats sit in the window and scare the birds that come to visit. From their perch they can see me drive in or watch people walking down the street.

And next to it are more kitties. Kat Rocks that I bought in the States years ago.

I'm off to a day of patchwork with friends. I hope we can get a few flimsys sandwiched!

Takumi

Oh dear, I'm afraid I'm really busy today so no time to write. Takumi sent me a Mother's Day e-mail with a picture and since we haven't "seen" him (he no longer seems to have a camera) this was a welcome gift. So I'm posting him today. Some of my blog visitors who know him will be happy to see that he is alive and well. He's the one who smashed his face in when he was in jr. high. He looks pretty good these days! (Loving mother's eyes!)

Hi Takumi! Thank you! Who's your friend there?