Scrappy

A quicky post. I'm off to the kindergarten graduation today (complete with caps and gowns!)

Kaoru-san and I finished the Boxy Stars quilt for our friend who will be going away to high school. I put on the borders (scrappy.... not enough of any fabric for matching borders) and the backing (scrappy and I am so pleased! A big panel of the Footprints poem!) and binding (scrappy... I had originally cut too many 2 1/2 inch strips) and got the quilt ready for Kaoru-san to sew the binding down.

Though sewing down binding isn't the most exciting of jobs, Kaoru-san said she got it done in a few hours and ENJOYED doing the handwork and reminiscing about the young girl whom we've both known since kindergarten.

This weekend I'll put in some ties and ask the church members to pray and tie the quilt on Sunday.

BOM done

I finished Red Brolly's FEBRUARY stitchery block. Cute, cute. Now what to do with it? I could go ahead and start her March block but this was actually a lot of work and I'm not sure I want to devote my time to 12! (And I also can't figure out how to download the next one. I did it once so I should be able to do it again right?) But what does one do with ONE block of a BOM?

And just because I have a stitchery block of a sleeping cat, here are a couple pictures of my own Sleeping Beauty. Toi, as relaxed as ever.





Ah, to live as comfortably as Toi!

Green tea

Saturday Tetsu and I took his mother out to lunch. She really balks at going out. She doesn't feel well, she will be too slow eating, she doesn't want people to see her. The excuses are endless. But it was a nice day and Tetsu finally convinced her. We had a quiet lunch which she really seemed to enjoy and afterwards we had dessert. Hmmm! Yummm!

Tetsu and I had matcha paraits and Tetsu's mom had matcha anmitsu. Matcha, for anyone who doesn't know (but I think Starbucks serves matcha nowadays) is powdered green tea and it has a very strong GREEN flavor. Traditionally it is served hot and frothy (whisked with a brush) in a deep bowl and Japan's tea culture is rooted in matcha. It used to be unthinkable to add sweeteners but nowadays matcha ice cream is a favorite in Japan (Hagen Daz, 31 flavors, Cold Stone) and the specialty shops such as the one we visited, have matcha cake, matcha jello, matcha sherbet, matcha whipped cream and matcha sauce.

I ordered the very tame matcha parfait but I could have had a scoop of sweet bean paste added to this or some cubes of cake. You can see the scoop of bean paste, some rice balls (made of rice flour) and some cubes of gelatin made of seaweed, in the anmitsu that Tetsu's mother enjoyed.

DROOL, Leiya!

Message from Mi

Mom stepped on me.

I know she keeps telling me to stay away when she is coming downstairs but I get so excited when it's dinner time. I know she sometimes complains that I am going to trip her up and cause a tumble but I forget.

Yesterday when she asked if I wanted dinner I started doing my ankle dance on the stairway landing and Mom accidentally stepped on me.

And now my paw hurts.

Mom took me to the vet but he said I didn't break anything. But I still have to take some yucky pills.

Mom felt so bad for stepping on me and I got held all night long.

I'll try to remember not to do my ankle dance so much...
I think I need a kiss.

Love, Mi

Changed

I had some extra time yesterday afternoon so I worked some more on the Prayer quilt. Well! Certainly changed the feeling of THAT quilt with just the addition of those red corners. It is no longer a blue quilt... I auditioned various fabrics but blue corners and purple corners made the whole quilt seem cold so I opted for red... and when I got it all put together it no longer looked like the quilt I had in mind... Isn't that funny how quilts sort of decide themselves about how they will turn out...?

I think this needs an outer border but I don't have a lot of large pieces of fabric in my stash (in red nor blue). I keep reminding myself that it isn't the quilt but the prayers so I'll probably go with stash fabric than go running out to find the "perfect" border. What will this quilt look like tomorrow?

Oh, and I received a letter from the city telling me that they were hiring me for the position of crosswalk guard. Along with the letter was a sheet for filling in my measurements for a uniform. Height. WEIGHT! Shoulder to wrist. Neck to wrist. Crotch to heel. Bust. Waist. Hips. Neck. Head. And Shoe size. Whew! I wish I'd been more diligent on a diet. Too late now!

Boxy Stars

Yesterday I corralled my friend, Kaoru-san to help me with my latest quilt. We've decided to make it for a young girl at our church who will be going away to boarding school. Hopefully I can get a top pieced for this in the next couple weeks, have the church members tie prayers into it and then Kaoru-san and the girl's mother will bind it. And the kindergarten children (all 6 of them) will draw pictures for a label on the back. Who says Prayer quilts have to be just for the ill?

After pouring over websites I settled on Bonnie's Boxy Stars as a cheerful pattern and then pulled blues and golds from my stash. Kaoru-san came over after lunch to help me and she ended up doing ironing and cutting strips and rectangles while I sewed on the sewing machine. (Kaoru-san is allergic to sewing machines.) As a non-quilter/sewer, Kaoru-san found chain piecing very interesting.

"Wow! Just like sausages in their casings." she said as I handed her a long chain of squares and triangles.

That's a picturesque way of putting it! I got a belly laugh from Kaoru-san's perspective!

I insult Kaoru-san by calling her a non-quilter because actually she has put together two or three quilts (including a lovely Ocean Storm quilt) but she won't use a sewing machine, has to take aspirin before she begins sewing, and has a small piece in progress that's been in progress for the past year (but she says she hasn't given up yet!) Still, unless I call and say "you need to come over and sew" she has far too many other interests right now...

Between the two of us we got 12 blocks made for the quilt top and hopefully this afternoon I can figure out some sashing to go between the blocks.

Thank you for helping me Kaoru-san!

Endless

I am crossing things off my to do list... and adding more!

I finished doing the stitchery for our bazaar quilt. Whew! That feels good to be done with that! Okay, one of four corners are done! Yoo-hoo! Mrs. Furui! Mrs. Ochiai! Mrs. Yamaguchi! How are you doing?!

You would think that I would settle back into quilting or knitting or work on the other projects. Nope. My head works in strange ways.

"Tanya, you don't have a quilt in the making right now (meaning piecing and working at the sewing machine). You ought to have something to do rather than just handwork. Better start another quilt."

"No way! I do NOT need another quilt! I've got too many to fit on my shelves! Why make myself another quilt? That makes me feel so self-centered..."

"Then make a quilt for someone else. Surely there is someone who needs a quilt."

"Yeah... But do I have the time to make someone else a quilt? I ought to be spending my time cleaning or teaching or running errands etc. It seems so frivolous to have to FIND somebody just so I can make a quilt. That's just trying to satisfy an urge to make more stuff."

But I very quickly thought of someone who NEEDS a quilt and so I have started cutting up more fabric. I've got one day this week and one day next week when I can work intensely on this! Suddenly I'm in a flurry to get at that sewing machine! No more blogging today!