Quilting fix from America!

Tetsu and I had a wonderful visit yesterday with a friend from Ohio. Actually he is a colleague of Leiya's host father and he comes to Japan occasionally on business trips and acts as a carrier between our two families delivering news and Christmas presents! Yesterday Dennis went to church with us and then we went out to my favorite Indian restaurant for lunch. Afterwards we went to a huge dollar store and spent quite a bit of time browsing around. Japanese dollar stores are the best! Just huge and really filled with nice stuff! Definitely a grade up from California dollar stores. (Of course in Japan they are called 100 Yen shops and that equals about $1.12 nowadays).

Dennis really played Santa Claus and I haven't even had a chance to look at all the goodies he lugged to Japan for us. Leiya's host mother Bessie, went all out and I can see lots of candy, lots of Christian children's tracts, lots of books in and amongst all the packing. I'll go through it today and deliver some things to the kindergarten and to other friends that she's asked me to pass things along to.

One bag though, I had to check out right away. Maybe I was supposed to save it for a Christmas present but too late now, I got into the bag and have been enjoying a patchwork magazine fix! I love American quilting magazines and allow myself one or two every summer when I go home. Though neither Leiya nor Bessie do much sewing, they went to a fabric store and picked out some reading for me! Quilting books and magazines! I am in heaven!

And may I share something with you? In the Quiltmaker Jan/Feb. edition there is a tiny mention of my blog. Bonnie Hunter's Blue Ridge Beauty quilt is featured in this issue as is a very nice article written by her about her Leader Ender system so I feel I'm hanging on the fringes of a celebrity! A couple of weeks ago Quilt Crazy at Oregon Quilts let me know that there was a small blurb about my blog and talk about being surprised! My first reaction was that I don't even get much quilting time in and sometimes really wonder if this can be called a quilting blog! Anyway I am humbled and pleased and feel like I'd better rethink my quilting output!

And even with that said, I don't have anything quilty to show you, but I did finish the vest I was working on for Tetsu. I continued around the chest with more cross stitches and while it is pleasing to me, I'm not sure what Tetsu's reaction will be. Ah well. If Tetsu doesn't make good use of it, either his mother will want it or I'll get to use it myself.