Triangles, triangles everywhere

I spent some time upstairs on the sewing machine contemplating sashing for my Pine Burr blocks.

I am using the Pine Burr pattern from one of Yoko Saito's books and she has a lovely sashing effect.  Ms. Saito and her devotees do all their piecing by hand but I have other things I want to make in my lifetime so I thought I'd do her sashing on the sewing machine.

Tiny 2 centimeters in height triangles...  It seemed most feasible to make the sashing using the paper piecing technique.

I drew out the pattern on some old computer paper that I had.  I stitched through about 8 sheets of paper with a threadless needle.  That gives me 8 patterns that I can resew until I have enough paper patterns.

I still have a box of little triangles that my friend gave me... and the white triangles I could sew from a 1 1/2 inch strip. (Do you notice how I mix centimeter and inch measurements?  That's why I'm always so confused.)  How many strips do I need?...

Let's see.  If I make 20 blocks Pine Burr blocks at 30 centimeters each...  And I want sashing on all sides...  And for each piece of sashing I need two triangle strips...  GYAHHHhh!   Is that right?  I need 98 strips!

And I have 6.  Should I give up now or go for it?

And I thought doing this by machine would free me up a bit...

Cat helpers

"What are you making now?"

I don't know why Tetsu bothers to ask.  I'm obviously making a quilt.  Isn't that what I am always doing?

"So what's this one for?"

"I don't know.  My time schedule is measured by years so I don't expect this to be done for a year or two.  If you see me upstairs on the sewing machine you can expect a finished quilt in a couple months time.. but if I'm piecing like this you're going to have to bear with the mess for a couple of years."

The quilt up on the wall behind me was at least 4 years in the making.  But it got done!

Actually the reason why I started this post was to show you how I am accompanied by the cats.  That's one, two, three, four cats in stairway formation watching me hand piece.  If you imagine me doing hand work, imagine me with all my helpers.  It gets a little complicated when they start climbing on my lap as well. 

This is actually how Chip would like to spend the evenings.  Chip LIVES on my lap.  The second I sit down, to sew on the sewing machine, to do something on the computer, to teach English... there is Chip, practically an extension of myself.  (Yes, she's here on my lap as I type.)

"Get that quilting board off your lap so that I can sit there, Mom!"

I have yet to use Chip as a pin cushion but I do have to go searching under her for lost pieces occasionally.

Cleo finally went and sat on Tetsu's lap.  I guess Cleo doesn't like having his picture taken.

Random nature

I seem to have taken a lot of random nature photos this week.

Along the road, not far from us, the fields are filled with wild rape flowers.  Japanese do eat these but if the flowers are so far in bloom I think they are past being edible...  Such a pretty splash of color though.

I took this picture on a drizzly morning.  I got wet traipsing through the fields but I got my picture!

This was taking at the peak of plum blossoming week.  These are plum blossoms...

...and these are cherry blossoms.

This is a shot of the tollway heading back to Nikko.  Mt. Nantai is in the distance.  We don't really use this tollway very much as there is only a 5 minute difference between using this road and the regular road when going to the next city...  But I knew from past years that the highway would be bordered in pink by the cherry trees so I paid the $1 toll for the opportunity to take this picture.

Maybe this isn't nature.  It is a "fence" surrounding an old Japanese house.  It is made of densely planted bamboo... the kind that doesn't grow tall, and it is held back by a different type of long bamboo poles.  It was just beautiful!

So the daffodils are out and I've seen crocus.  The plum and cherry blossoms are fading but the rape blossoms are vibrant... and I came across another little plot of land that was just a blanket of dandelions!  Dandelions always make me smile!

I was quite pleased with the success of this picture.  At the top of a very tall, far-away tree, this heron perched itself and watched his domain.  It was quite far away and high up, but Tetsu urged me to try and photo him.  Okay... I have a telephoto lens that isn't very strong... But when cropping the photo in the editing process I find that my heron is still quite sharp!  This season the herons are vying for the best tree top to make their nests.  In the mornings their racket can be heard from the other side of the forest!

San-shoku donburi

I thought I'd post a "recipe".  Maybe Leiya will see it and remember eating this when she was at home and try to make it herself.

This is called San-shoku Donburi.   San means three.  Shoku means color.  And donburi means rice bowl.  So this is a Three Colored Rice Bowl dish.

Let's see...  I have ground chicken (but you can use ground pork or beef I suppose).  Snow peas.  Eggs (in the end I only used two eggs.)  You can ignore the block of tofu and the bag of fresh seaweed there.  I used that for the miso soup that I served with the donburi.  I consider miso, soy sauce, mirin, sake and such as condiments so I didn't bother to put them out.

No step by step pictures.  Too easy.

Make a pot of rice!

Next boil the snow peas in salt water (briefly, they taste better crunchy!) and slice them diagonally.

Next scramble some eggs and cook them with sugar and water.  (The water makes them a bit finer in texture).  I do this all in one fry pan from beginning to end.  Snow peas first, remove from pan; eggs next, remove from pan; and then the meat, and I don't wash the fry pan between the different uses. The eggs are done when the water is all evaporated (so you don't want to use too much water or you'll be stirring that pan for a long time.)

Next simmer the ground meat with a little water, soy sauce, and sugar.  This is to taste.  Sweet is nice.  If you're going to be authentic then add a little dashi powder (fish stock powder) and maybe some sake or mirin (which is a type of sweet sake).  But you don't really need all that. If you don't have it in the house don't bother going out to buy just a tablespoon's worth...  Also I had a little left over ginger root in the fridge so I added some chopped ginger to the cooking meat.

Anyway.....  When you've got your three colors, browned meat, green snow peas and yellow eggs, then you arrange them on a bowl of rice.  There.  That's done.  If you have some red ginger that Japanese love so much then it makes a pretty accent to the domburi but I didn't have any (I don't much like the artificial red color).

Oh well.  Here is that fresh seaweed for the miso soup.  It comes in "fronds" and it is packed in salt that I wash off before cutting the seaweed into bite sized pieces.  Seaweed and tofu miso soup is a standard combination.  I guess I threw in some green onions too before serving.

So, there is our fast dinner.  Donburi is great because there aren't many dishes to wash up either!!

Friends!

When Leiya went to the States for high school 8 years ago she was a little less than 16 years old.  The plan was that she would go to American high school for three years as a regular student rather than as a foreign exchange student.  (She has American citizenship.)  She spoke fair English but was somewhat shy.  I went with her to Ohio and spent 4 or 5 days getting things arranged for her with bank accounts and class schedules and then I left her with a host family that welcomed her with open arms... but I still remember lots of tears as I stared out the airplane window on my way back to Japan and my first words to Tetsu when he met the airport bus was...

"She's not going to be able to do this.  There are too many requirements for passing classes and graduating.  She'll never be able to read all the material and write essays and reports.  She was already balking at the homestay family's rules.  I left her crying at the airport and she has no family and no friends to lean on."

It was a gloomy ride back home from the bus station but Tetsu comforted me (and himself) by saying,

"So... Even if she doesn't complete the three years, it will be an experience and she'll gain something from however much time she is there.  We'll just have to hope she'll make friends and be strong enough to keep on trying."

Leiya would occasionally let us know about classes (hard, but the school was letting her focus on art), and the home stay family (strict, but ever going out of their way to give her new opportunities) and friends.  FRIENDS!!!!  Leiya has made FRIENDS!!!!  I don't know when I've been more relieved!   

Leiya's best friend was Erin. and from quite early I heard about Erin and Erin's family.  Pretty soon Leiya and Erin were going to the Asian supermarket after school, or Leiya was staying overnight at Erin's.  One year passed, two years passed.  Tetsu and I finally met Erin and her family when we went to Ohio for Leiya's high school graduation.  Yes!!!  Leiya really blossomed (with lots of help from friends, neighbors, church members, host family, teachers, counselors etc.) and she was able to graduate on schedule and be accepted to a college.

(Leiya and Erin during their high school days.)

Even though Leiya and Erin went to different colleges, they stayed in touch and Erin's family have let Leiya stay with them during vacations (and taken Leiya with them on vacation!), given her a summer job, and have made the trip to see Leiya's art at college exhibitions.  They've advised her and comforted her and helped her in numberless ways.

I am absolutely positive that without Erin's friendship and her family Leiya would not have had such a fulfilling high school life and may not have even completed American high school.

And now Erin is in Japan!!!  She is working here for a year and her mother is visiting for two weeks.  AND the two of them came up for a day trip to Nikko!!

Not that much time to show them around and repay them for all they have done for Leiya.  The best I could do was show them Leiya's Japanese life.  We drove by Leiya's kindergarten and elementary school and jr. high school.  I took them to visit Tetsu at the convalescent home (a surprise visit for Tetsu.  He didn't know that they were coming!)  We ate the specialty of the town... pot stickers... not the most glamorous of meals...

They visited the house and met all the cats and the dog and they saw Leiya's bedroom (though it is now my sewing room).  We did make one tourist stop to the shrines of Nikko and we did visit Leiya's favorite cracker shop where we sampled lots of rice crackers.  And then back to Tokyo they went.

It was wonderful that I finally got to spend time with two people that are so close to Leiya!  I wish we had had even more time together!
 

Some sewing

Although I have been flitting about here and there around Japan, I did get a bit of sewing done in the evenings once I got back home. 

I have added three more blocks to the Pine Burr block set.  This is beginning to look like a real quilt.  I'm already auditioning different sashing possibilities for this but those will be machine pieced if pieced at all.  My goal for this quilt is 20 blocks...  If I start piecing sashing that adds another two years to the project!

Another reason I'm ready to do sash piecing on the machine is because at the moment I don't have anything going on upstairs in the sewing room.  No quilt in the making on the machine!  I made short work quilting the spring McKenna quilt kit (thank you Liz!!!) called Thyme for Stu. 

This was completely quilted with mono-filament thread and I just went around and around and around.  I finally gave up quilting each and every little bump in those thyme herbs...  I was getting completely lost with the dark leaves and stems on the dark background.  Well, it is quilted enough (meaning appliqued too) so that no fabric is going to fall off.

I'm so happy with how lovely and relatively easily the McKenna quilts come together!

Cell phone annoyances

This weekend I lost my cell phone.  (But I found it again so all is well.)

I used my cell phone on Friday when I texted my friend to ask for some computer help.  She was busy however and texted back that she'd let me know when she was available.  I did the rest of my errands that day and hurried home before it started to rain.

As I walked in the door my friend texted me again saying she could help me now.  But I needed to take Choco for a walk before the rain so Choco and I hurried out.  At the edge of the forest, my neighbor was out with HER dog and Choco and that dog are arch enemies.  Choco and I made a U-turn and headed through the forest and past the rice fields.  By that time it had started to rain so we made a potty run and came back home.  I called my friend on the house phone and spent the rest of the afternoon sorting out my computer problems.

Saturday, Tetsu and I went out together but I realized during the day that I'd left my cell-phone at home.  Oh well... don't get separated from Tetsu giving him reason to get annoyed at me for forgetting my cell phone AGAIN!  It started to rain heavily Saturday afternoon so we just did some quick shopping.

Sunday was a stormy thunder and lighting day with rain slapping at the windows and soaking the towel I'd left "drying" under the covered veranda.  I never once thought about my cell phone.

Monday morning Tetsu had the day off and suggested we go out for lunch after I finished teaching at the pre-school.

"Call me when you're finished and we'll meet somewhere."

Call me...  call me...  that reminds me.  Where is my cell phone?  No cell phone.

Tetsu and I searched the house with him calling me periodically as we listened for a ring.  No ring.  No vibrating noise.  No nothing.

"For heaven's sake, Tanya.  When did you last use it?"

"Friday?"

"Where were you?  What were you wearing?  What did you do that day?  This is serious!  If you don't find that cell phone I'll have to call the company and cancel it.  There's no telling what might happen if it falls into the wrong hands.  I don't know why you can't learn to put it in the same place every night...."  blah, blah, blah.

"Okay, okay... Anyway, I have to go to the pre-school.  Are we still going out to lunch?"

"How can we go out for lunch!  You need to find that cell phone first!"

Grumble, grumble, grumble.  I forgot things I wanted to use at the pre-school because of our spat.

So maybe I DIDN'T have my cell phone when I got home Friday.  Maybe I'd lost it during my errands.  I went to the pool (and did my half hour of swimming) I went to the grocery store and at each place asked if anyone had turned in a cell phone.

Five hours later when I pulled into the driveway.

"Oh gosh...  Tetsu is still home..."

And CLEANING!  Sofa cushions, carpets, the dog cage, it was all outside and Tetsu was upstairs busily cleaning my sewing room.  I didn't even want to start another argument with him about how I'd never be able to find my cell phone in all the clutter...

I took Choco for a walk muttering all the way.

"On Friday we went for a walk.  And met the other dog.  And went along the forest by the rice fields...  Let's go that way."

And what do you know!  There lay my cell phone by the edge of the rice field!  It must have fallen out of my pocket on our hurried walk.

"Oh no...  And it rained all weekend.  Heavily!  Now I've probably got a dead cell-phone!"

But I flipped open the cover and the screen shined brightly up at me.  I think it was happy to be found again!

I went back home and informed Tetsu that I'd FOUND my cell phone.  He sighed and started taking the cushions and carpets and dog cage back into the house.

"Try texting me and see if it really works."

"I sent my first text from my three-day missing cell phone.

"Thank you for cleaning the house."

Well, I got the brunt of Tetsu's annoyance but the house is clean!