Friends' creations

I certainly think I need help with organizing myself and getting my time scheduled in a better way. Some of you are so good about getting things done, quilting, cooking, running the kids around, holding down a job, blogging. I've been busy but don't really have anything to show for it. I hate it when I ask my students what they've done this week and they can't remember. "What! All that time you've been given and you don't know what you did with it!?" But that's sort of how it's been with me this week. Where did the time go? What have I been doing? I know what I haven't been doing. SEWING! Most of my day seems to be filled with errands and chores...

Well, I didn't do much sewing today either and today was a patchwork day! I went in to Utsunomiya (the next town over where my patchwork friends live) and we discussed next year's bazaar quilt. I guess we're making another one! I had brought in a few pictures of quilts I liked from books and blogs and we made some simple decisions. The rest of the time was spent chatting, eating and admiring each other's work (if we'd brought any). So even though I spent four hours with my friends I only sewed a few strips on the When-oh-When quilt but I did take pictures of things that my friends are making.

This is Mrs. Ochiai's quilt. She is in the final quilting stages and she is bound and determined to finish it by the end of the year. She's been working on this for quite awhile and the flower blocks have been maturing in her closet for a few years. I threw out the challenge to her earlier this year to put stems on each block every month and she finished that step quickly and is already thinking about binding! This quilt is going on her daughter's bed.



And these next two quilts are actually the same Wicked Easy quilt I raved about how easy it was so Mrs. Harada and Mrs.Furui decided to make their own versions! Isn't this an interesting pattern that such different quilts can result? Mrs. Harada is still quilting the greenish one and Mrs. Furui is finished with her pink one and will send it off to the recipient this week.



One lady, Mrs. Yamaguchi was making a thimble while she chatted, so I took pictures of that process. In Japan traditionally ladies use a leather thimble on the middle section of their middle finger and Mrs. Yamaguchi was sewing a piece of leather together to become her new thimble. She says this is the best way to have a thimble that fits the finger perfectly which makes sense. I still prefer using the metal thimble on the tip of the finger so I don't think I'll make this but it was interesting to watch her sew with it.

And this is Mrs. Furui's latest creation, a needle holder. I've mentioned before that Mrs. Furui loves embroidery. (In one post I said embroidery was Mrs. Furui's first love but she pulled me aside later and corrected me on that. Let it be known that she loves patchwork no less than embroidery!) She has been making quite a few different embroidery patterns for little felt needle booklets, but I fell in love with this hedgehog! I want one!!! I hinted very strongly that I would love to be the owner of the next hedgehog she decides to make so I'll let you know if she ever takes the hint!

Sigh... I wish I could show you something of my own making but alas I'm still doing errands and chores...