Appliquing at Mrs. Furui's

Thursday patchwork day. Lorraine was supposed to come yesterday for a last visit before she returns to Australia but she has come down with a bug and had to stay home in bed. I wonder when we'll see her again.... Maybe I can get her using Messenger Chat or Skype or something (not that I'm so good at it myself.)

The rest of us, 6 ladies yesterday, sat around drinking tea and working on various projects. Mrs. Ochiai is the only one done with our game quilts and she could gallantly offer to help make pieces for anyone who needed an extra hand.

Two ladies worked on their quilts with Mrs. Ochiai helping.

Mrs. Harada furiously put together tree blocks for the bazaar quilt while Mrs. Furui and I tried designing a rainbow block for the same quilt.

"We need your husband to help us figure out the mechanics of putting together arcs."

Mrs. Furui's husband is a physicist.

"Oh, it will work out."

And it did... but not quite how Mrs. Furui and I had planned. Well, we learned something. The outer curve of an arc is different from an inner curve of an arc... Duh.

So why am I sitting on this little chair at the side of the room? Mrs. Furui claims that this is the best place and position for her to do her hand quilting... She can rest her hoop on that wooden bench and the light from the window is excellent. I guess she doesn't care about rump comfort. But SHE wouldn't demonstrate her quilting technique so I tried appliqueing in her favorite spot. Hmm.

The plus points are that and I am close to the low ironing board (yes, Japanese ladies iron while sitting on their knees) and the cutting board that was on the floor. (No room at the tea drinking table.) The minuses are the afore mentioned rump discomfort and the fact that someone has to help me up when I'm done appliqueing.

And I DID get done. This block is NOT how Mrs. Furui and I planned it but it is done and you can tell that it is a rainbow. Good enough!