Show and Tell

This morning we woke up to snow! Amazing! No walk for Choco today. Too wet, too cold, too slushy and drippy.

I had a great two days with Lorraine but where should I begin? Back on Thursday at Mrs. Furui's house. A couple of the ladies brought their quilts and flimsys to share with us.

Mrs. Harada has been working on a circle quilt and a few months ago she asked for pinks and green scraps from the rest of us. This is what she brought on Thursday and was asking advice for the border. She seems to think that this is now too pink and wants to tone the quilt down with a light green border. We auditioned some greens from Mrs. Furu's stash and everyone gave an opinion but no decisions made.

Mrs. Okutomi brought a blue bed cover flimsy that she was hoping to have basted for her but time ran short so this went home in the same bag that she brought it in. I think she said she's made an identical one for her husband's bed also.

Lorraine showed us her transportable hand work that she's been working on while she is visiting Japan. These are blocks for a Japanese Peace crane quilt that she is making. Again, Lorraine introduced us to a completely new technique of using foundation interfacing when hand piecing these blocks. She's left the instructions with me so I'll have to give this a try.

Mrs. Furui managed to put together a bed cover for her niece using the Broken Star pattern that I had shown her last month. Remember, the prayer quilt I'd made was sort of crazy and you had to look to find the stars. Mrs. Furu's is very organized and the blue stars stand out so nicely. She is hand quilting this quilt and it is in the final stages.

And yesterday I took a trip around the world! And with that bit of information I leave you hanging until tomorrow!

(oops. I lost my signature today...)

Lorraine's here!

Yesterday about 9 of us met at Mrs. Furui's house to do some basting. Poor Mrs. Furui probably stayed up all night getting our bazaar quilt to flimsy stage! The day before I had handed her the last embroidered corner of this quilt and flippantly said,

"It would be nice if this could be basted on Thursday so that Mrs. Okutomi can take it home to quilt. Then WE don't have to think about it anymore."

Mrs. Okutomi lives a couple of hours away and we only get to see her two or three times a year. She hasn't been able to do too much work on the bazaar quilt up until now but we assured her that we'd leave the quilting for her to do. (Not that she really WANTED to do the quilting. She just felt bad that she wasn't helping us too much and since she is the only one who knows how to machine quilt, we delegated the job to her.)

So after I gave the corner to Mrs. Furui she put the corner borders on and put it all together and even made the final wide border. I'd forgotten that there even WAS a final wide pieced border.

But the quilt is beautiful and we were so happy to be able to show it to Lorraine who had sent us the Block of the Month kit to begin with. It is thanks to Lorraine that we were able to learn the faux applique technique and were introduced to colored pencils and sealing and embroidery etc. This is really Lorraine's quilt and we are so proud to be able to raffle off an Australian designed quilt this year!



After a lot of hugs and welcomings we all, Lorraine included, set to work on basting the quilt. A lot of hands makes for fast and fun work. People threading needles, 4 or 5 people sitting on the quilt basting, some ladies getting tea and lunch ready, a lot of chatting (and some of these friends really can use their English with Lorraine! I don't know why they don't use it when they are with me!)

More tomorrow!

A guest

Today I'm having an overnight guest! And she has been introduced on my blog before. Lorraine from Australia is visiting our patchwork group today and she is coming home with me to spend the night! What fun! I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about.

This all came about sort of suddenly and my biggest concern when having people visit me is... Can they stand the cats? Even for cat lovers, 6 cats is a lot to take in... And my nose may not be as sensitive as it once was... (But English students haven't complained yet...) Well, no time to do major cleaning so Lorraine will have to take me and the cats (and Choco) the way we are.

Hmmm. Which room should she stay in (not that we have a lot to chose from)? The sewing room is out even though Lorraine is a sewer. Even I can smell that Velvet is a 24 hour resident there! The Japanese room is a possiblity because it is easy for pushing things aside and laying out futon. But then I took another look at the paper window shades... Holes. This is Mi's doing. And THEN I watched Toi make the holes even bigger because he thought he should be able to look out on the yard and I was too slow about opening the windows. Lorraine doesn't want to stay in a room with cat shredded windows! So it is the laundry room that won out.

The laundry room was originally Takumi's room but with a pole stretching across two closets and easy access to the clothes drying poles on the veranda, this is where I hang out clothes and fold them (and leave them for days before they get put away.) Sorry Lorraine. I hope a cheerful quilt on the bed will disguise this room. Don't look in the closets!

Scissors

Yesterday I was very happy to have a little old woman ring my doorbell wanting to know if I need any knives or scissors sharpened. She and her husband were opening up shop out of their van at the neighborhood park for the day.

Yes, as a matter of fact I do! And I grabbed three of my scissors that were having trouble cutting through fabric and asked her to have her husband sharpen them.

The little old man brought my scissors back to me a couple hours later after working on them. He apologized for being slow saying that he had gotten a lot of work done that day. His services included repairing shoes and umbrellas and sharpening things and he makes regular visits to the neighborhood. (Like once a year or so...)

I probably could have thought of more things that needed sharpening but he just suddenly appears...

And I thought it interesting that at the mention of "sharpen" I grab my scissors. My kitchen knives are in just as bad shape but I didn't give a thought to having those sharpened. Scissors and sewing take priority in my mind over knives and cooking!

Important

Oh dear... I don't seem to be taking many pictures lately.

There are some places that I just can't, for example at the kindergarten and yesterday at the elementary school. I doubt that anyone would even be aware that I took their picture and posted it (who in my little town visits my English blog?) but even so I've made it a policy not to post pictures of children without parental permission. There seem to be a lot of pictures of children in the newspapers and school newsletters so maybe this is an over precaution but anyway, I refrain unless I ask first.

Yesterday's entrance ceremonies went off without any major guffaws from yours truly. But I am reminded again how FORMAL Japan is. I received a formal RSVP invitation to the ceremony because of my crosswalk guard position and I arrived at the school dressed in my uniform with a small gift of money (which is the proper way to attend functions). I was ushered into the Principal's office and by the time the ceremonies were ready to begin there were about 20 of us IMPORTANT guests. A representative from the board of education, PTA presidents from the Jr. high as well as the elementary school's, the local police officer, 4 or 5 neighborhood chairpersons, 3 or 4 community center managers. Oh, I don't know who all but they were all IMPORTANT people so since I was included in the group I had to look IMPORTANT. (Very hard to do when dropping your hat.)

"Oh no. I've worn pink socks! I forgot that we take off our shoes when entering the school building. I sure hope the school slippers cover my bright pink socks!"

Talk about stupid things to worry about.

We IMPORTANT people were taken to the gymnasium after being served tea and directed to our assigned seats and tables. From there speeches were given and pledges made. Students and staff were well trained at the signals to stand at attention and to bow and up and down everyone went throughout the hour. My goodness, bow to the flag, bow to the parents, bow to the IMPORTANT people etc. etc. The principal wore TAILS! (but no top hat.)

I managed to stand and bow at the proper times and maybe even escaped without anyone noticing my pink socks. Whew! I am certainly glad ceremonies are over for awhile!

Cherry blossoms

The picture is one I took at the kindergarten on Saturday. All the kids drew pictures of themselves and along with a lot of colorful felt made a welcoming board for the in coming children. It says "Congratulations on entering kindergarten."

I did a lot of blog reading yesterday. And the day before answering comments. Sometimes I think I should restrict myself and only post AFTER I've read other blogs or AFTER I've cleaned out my g-mail box. But I have a feeling I'd never post again...

Maybe answering comments isn't really necessary (though I know a few of you answer MY comments within a couple hours! My g-mail box gets attention when the comments have sat there over a week.) And I would think that all of us enjoy having people come visit so I should focus my attention on reading friends' blogs rather than answering my own. What do you think?

Would you rather people visited or spent time answering your comments or gave you a place to visit yourself? With all the wonderful blogs out there it's not like a post or two will be missed! And I've seen some of your blog lists that you visit and wonder how you can get through all of them in a month even!

Sometimes I feel like there isn't really anything special to say anyway. I'm just writing for writing's sake which is a waste of time for everyone but if I get out of the habit I may never get back in. I'm not getting anything NEW done in sewing. (I claimed Mrs. Furui's bazaar embroidery because she needed to work out the measurements for our quilt by Thursday. Old stuff. You've all seen the bazaar quilt embroidery at least 5 times.) The cats spend their days sleeping. English goes along as normal. What's there to write about?

Weather. Isn't that supposed to be the boringest of subjects. Oh well. The cherry blossoms have bloomed and by next week they will be gone so that's the headline today!

"Cherry Blossom's Splendor Grace Japan's Entrance Ceremonies!"

Saturday was the kindergarten entrance ceremony and today I attend the elementary school entrance ceremony.

Friends

I have been going to the swimming pool for over 6 months. It is a daily temptation to skip swimming time because I just don't like doing exercise. I have a set quota of laps that I aim for and then I walk around in the pool chatting with people. I've made quite a few friends.

Miyako-san who lived in the States for 15 years. We talk in English.

Mr. Takahashi who tells a lot of jokes that I don't understand.

Shota-kun who will be going into high school. He likes to practice English.

Kiyoko-san who gives me sweets and asked me to keep a friendship log with her. We write messages to each other in a notebook.

After swimming everyone takes advantage of the nice bathing facilities before going home. (Male-female separate!) There is a locker room with hundreds of lockers, a large bathing room with about 20 handheld showers and faucets, and a wall of mirrors and hairdryers for after the bath.

Getting out of the pool we grab a "bucket" and a stool, go into the bathing room, find a spot in front of one of the showers and either squat or use the stool while soaping up. With neighbors on each side, conversations started in the swimming pool continue through the shampooing and scrubbing. Public bathing is the norm and it doesn't fluster me at all anymore. After sudsing up and rinsing off we all congregate in a very large hot bath and the conversations go on and on. I can't stay in the hot water as long as the other ladies... it makes me light headed... and then it is back to the locker room to change clothes, put on make up and chat some more. Bathing is definitely a social event.

I'm used to all this, but the other day my friend Kiyoko-san surprised me by suddenly scrubbing my back for me.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

This is a sign of friendship, of family, of caring. One will often see children scrubbing mom's or grandma's back and vice versa. Younger women will scrub the older one's back and then hand over the sponge to take their turn. Between friends there are a few protests such as

"You don't have to do that! Let me scrub yours."

but it is an accepted gesture of friendship and I accepted Kiyoko-san's gesture and returned the favor a couple days later. Not the same as buying your friend lunch but taken in the same manner.

"Scrub a dub, dub. Three men in a tub." (Or 5 or 10 ladies...)