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Meet my new quilt. Conceived on August 29th, 2007 and born on January 9, 2009. Thank you Tonya! With your patience and guidance I have a quilt that says "ME"! My one and only, with all my delights and thoughts and quirks and fumblings and frustrations and (I'll say it proudly) talents! Fabrics from decades ago have found their way into this quilt as well as fabrics from nearby friends and blogging friends who have passed on parts of their treasures.

During the quilt's creation Lemi has gone to her forever home and Chip and Toi have joined our family. Velvet, Cleo and Patora have learned to accept family changes and Choco has learned to accept cats. Leiya has graduated from high school, Takumi has transferred to a new college. And Tetsu and I have continued to build a home of love and dreams. It has been a very good year and a half!

So what was my quilt theme? Tonya instructed us to focus on what we love. I played with wonky words and without much thinking HOME seemed to develop in my mind. Leiya was homesick at the time and I was trying to get her to realize that HOME wasn't a place and a building, it was a state of the heart; and therefore you could always be HOME when you had the people and things that you loved in your heart.

And so, what did I love? What did we love as a family? I didn't really expect this to become an animal quilt but as you know animals play a big part in my life and they are always on my heart. Even when Lemi passed on I could feel that she since she was still in my heart, she was still at HOME.

Just because my kids are far away, they are still HOME in our hearts, with Tetsu and me and all our furry friends!

I started making animal blocks but these aren't specific animals. Just dogs and cats in general. Tonya had suggested names of our family members (and animal members) but I decided I didn't want to limit this to just our "now" members. There have been past cats and dogs that I have loved, and probably others will wander in and out of our lives. For the same reason I didn't add people names either because I expect that someday there will be a daughter-in-law and a son-in-law that will then be part of our HOME.

I know some of these dogs look more like goats and the cats have silly faces but my animals aren't anything special either (except to me)! That one cat is trying to be a maneki neko, a Japanese welcoming cat, but I didn't realize until it was too late that maneki neko don't have tails. This is Tanya's welcoming neko!

The words were great fun to make. I made them very scrappy which is a bit hard to read but it will make people stop and think and wonder what I am trying to say. For obvious reasons I chose some of the phrases to express my thoughts. I have always loved this idea of homes being built of love.

And how could one have a HOME quilt without this phrase.

This one might leave some people questioning what I was thinking. It is a Bible verse but not normally used with the idea of home and family. Still I thought it expressed that we are all together when we love each other no matter our physical distances.


This is another Bible verse and for me, this is a fundamental in building a HOME. The Lord is with us and He has brought us all together in a circle of love.


Tonya threw out the challenge to see if I might be able to make words in Japanese and though I thought that a crazy idea I was so pleased with myself when I managed to make the Chinese characters for dog and cat! I am so happy they are in there! And of course the whole quilt got overrun with houses and hearts in accordance with the theme.

I have yet to make a label (now don't let me get away with not making one!) and I'll put the names of our of "now" family on that and the milestone dates I mentioned yesterday when making this quilt.

THANK YOU TONYA! I want to work with you again but my next quilt I'll aim to make a bit smaller!

Bound and determined!

I was determined to see the Wonky Word quilt reach a finishing stage so yesterday I went upstairs and made binding. Yes, you have seen a similar picture on Mrs. Goodneedle's blog. I thought that hers was such a clever picture and have been wanting to make my own binding roll so yesterday I snapped this before I put it on the quilt. Mrs. Goodneedle had posted about using leftover binding and putting it all together in a roll for scrap quilts and I thought that was a wonderful idea so I've been saving my binding ends and adding onto the roll occasionally. I still had to make more binding yesterday but the quilt is BOUND!

Look at that great fabric under the sewing machine needle! Yes, those are eyes and a little startling to have peering out of a quilt at you, but soooo colorful. The eyes got folded into the underside of the binding but the colors are just wonderful for my bright Wonky quilt!

And while I was upstairs making binding look who claimed my quilt for a quick nap. I have been working on this quilt since when? I see I joined Tonya's online class on August 29th of 2007! Oh my! I managed to get it to flimsy stage by April 13 of 2008 and then I let it sit a few months while I pondered the quilting strategy. It finally got sandwiched on July 23 and I have been dragging it around the house from chair to sofa to ottoman and even onto the floor for the past 6 months! That plus the cats claiming it as a comfortable sit and now even Choco using it as a cushion makes it dirty beyond belief! The first thing I'm going to have to do when I finish quilting it is to give it a good wash!

I'm bound and determined to finish this this weekend!

Trek

Leiya and I were chatting yesterday and she asked if I remembered the details of the long trek she and Takumi once took. Since I was filling her in on her scant memories I thought I might as well write about that day here too.

For quite a few years after we moved to our house in Nikko we continued to go to church in the next city over, about a 30 minute drive away. We would arrive at church about 9:00 in time for Sunday School and then the kids would wait around until adult services were over around 12:00. On days when there was a Sunday School teachers meeting, and Tetsu and I were both Sunday School teachers, we often didn't get home until late afternoon.

There was one winter Sunday when Tetsu stayed home from church (he had gout in those days) and I took the two kids with me to Sunday School. This was a teachers meeting day and Takumi 11, and Leiya 8, decided that they did not want to hang around all day until I finished up at church. I gave them permission to take the bus home. Takumi was pretty responsible and when I handed him money for the bus I told him to look out for his sister. They left the church area around 10:30 and I never thought about them again for the rest of the day.

The two kids made their way to the bus stop, about 20 minutes away on foot and they stood waiting for the bus. Takumi knew which way they were going and which bus to get on and Leiya people watched and complained of the cold. The first bus came but Takumi knew it went to a different place so he waved it on before it even stopped to pick the kids up. Leiya must have seen this as great power to command. A wave of the hand and a bus would do her brother's bidding! She must try this. So when the next bus came (the correct one) she waved it on before Takumi even realized what she was doing. There goes the bus!

Takumi was furious (and you know how brothers can get furious at their younger sisters!) Dumb girl had waved their only ride and now they would have to stand in the cold for the next hour! No way was he going to stand listening to his sister whine and pout. Get going girl! We are walking to the next bus stop! At least we'll stay warm walking!

Great idea except that Takumi didn't know where the next bus stop was and as it turned out, he didn't even know the bus route. The road that we always travelled from our town to the next by car, was NOT the bus route. Takumi struck out towards home along the road I usually used. Leiya could do nothing but follow him and so they plodded on Takumi still thinking that sooner or later they must be coming to a bus stop.

After church and the teachers meeting I went grocery shopping and so I didn't get home until 5:00 or 5:30. I walked in the door thinking life was fine but was greeted by a sobbing Leiya, an angry Takumi and Tetsu who was hurling questions and accusations at me! What had gone wrong?!

It seems that the kids had arrived home just moments before I did. They had been walking for nearly 7 hours! Of course they never found a bus stop so all they could do was walk or turn around and kill time together at the church until I was finished and no way was Takumi going to kill time with his dumb sister who had gotten him into this bind to begin with! On top of that twice along the way Leiya had dropped her brand new hat, a bright red furry thing that she loved. But all that walking had made her hot so she'd taken it off and was twirling it around or stuffing it in her pocket and it got dropped along the way.

"Takumi! I dropped my hat! Mom's going to be upset! She just bought it for me. We have to go back and look for it!"

So back they trudged until they spotted a red lump along the road. Okay for one time, but when Leiya dropped it again near one end of a long tunnel and didn't realize it until they'd come out the other end, Takumi was beyond fury! He was never speaking to his sister again!!!

When they finally reached home, Leiya was so relieved that the long walk had ended that she burst into tears and went crying to Daddy that she'd walked ALL DAY and Takumi was MEAN to her and that she was TIRED and HUNGRY. Takumi started in loudly about how his IMPOSSIBLE sister couldn't do anything right and Tetsu (who was already in a bad mood from his gout) blamed me as I walked in the door at just the wrong time!

And me? I laughed and gave both the kids a hug and told them they were marvelous to have walked all that way (over 11 miles, plus who knows how much they doubled back looking for the lost hat!) and what a good story they would have to tell someday.

And so they do.

Wicked Quilt

Well, I made fast work of that! The Wicked Easy Quilt is now a flimsy! As you recall I cut all the fabrics two days ago and yesterday I spent the morning sewing the pieces into blocks. In the afternoon I sewed the blocks together and in the evening I put the border on.

This is the third time I've made this quilt after stumbling upon it on Silver Thimble Quilting blog a couple of years ago. Since then it seems to have been removed from the original website but another free pattern is offered that looks very similar. For some reason the original links on my blog (November 29, 2007) take you back to the pattern, but other links (March 1 and 5, 2007) take you to the website. I don't know how I did any of that.

I couple of my friends have made this quilt too and one reason we like it is that random quilting can be done in some of the blocks. The largest blocks are 8 1/2 inches square and a nice feathered wreath or something can be put in there. I quilted my other two Wicked Easy quilts by machine with not so great results (my first attempts at machine quilting!) but I think I'll quilt this one by hand.

Still quilting the Wonky Word. It is so big! Too hard to get a full picture of it but one of these days I'll hang it over a tree or something.

Plans for 2009?

Well I was up in the sewing room for a little bit yesterday. And while doing some cutting (never did the sewing) I was thinking of what I need to do this year.

Quilt the Wonky Word quilt. Actually that is coming along nicely. I've managed to quilt around all the hearts now but I still have a lot of white space left... I really should have made more wonky hearts. Too late now! I'm trying some simple waves in some of the white space but I don't know how long I'll continue with that. For all purposes, this quilt is finished... except that I can always see more places to quilt so I'll just keep going.

I want to make a Wicked quilt for a young friend and that needs to be finished by the end of March. That's why I was cutting yesterday. I had bought all the fabric last August but it has been so long since I thought about it, I have forgotten what fabrics I was planning to use. While I was upstairs trying to coordinate fabric and find fat quarters I ended up ironing and folding and trying to use Patti's fabric folding tutorial to get my drawers a bit more organized. I tired out quickly though and only got half of one drawer looking nice.

I did get the fabric for the Wicked quilt cut so I hope to be upstairs sewing today.

And I do seem to have a fair collection of batiks that are so beautiful and a waste to just leave them in the drawers, so that is something I want to start this year.

I've got 12 beautiful feathered star blocks (hand pieced!) away in a drawer waiting for me to jump back into that project too.

I have the 365 Challenge that needs to be quilted.

And there's that Orange and Cherry Jubilee.

And I'm still working on Noah's Ark, the Mini-Round Robin and the kindergarten bazaar quilt.

Whew. I think the way to go is to devote one day a week to one quilt or at least 30 minutes a day on a quilt different from the day before.

I guess the most productive step would be to turn off this computer and go upstairs right now!

Address Labels

Well, I'm putting away the Christmas cards that have been up on the wall this season. This picture looks the same as last year's picture (I always put up the Christmas cards the same way) but these are different cards from last year.

I wonder how many New Year's cards Tetsu and I sent out this year. I ended up making them in our printer so as we ran out I just made more. Tetsu was disappointed that I didn't have return address labels for him to use. He likes to write out the cards by brush but he doesn't like writing out our own address a hundred times. There was one year when I ordered address labels from somewhere and had them sent to my mother's home (they wouldn't send overseas) but I didn't get around to it this year.

"You really should order those again. They made sending cards so much easier."

With that suggestion and a little time I wondered if I could make my own address labels. Some of you are quite computer literate but I am not but it was worth a try. I went online and figured out how to make labels (took a lot of trial and error). Then since they seemed pretty blah I decided to decorate them a bit like the ones you can purchase. And I found a fantastic site that allows you to copy their graphics as long as you link back to them. So I am linking to Dawn's Quilting Clip Art and this was the result of my computer fiddling! Hey, I'm kind of proud of myself! I've blanked out my address (I think) on this picture but of course the real labels have it right.

Does anyone want to give this a try? It was a lot of fun.

Go to Dawn's website and right click on the quilt block that you like and chose Save Picture As. That should save it somewhere on your computer, but you've got to designate the place yourself or you'll lose it somewhere in your files. Can't help you there. I downloaded 10 clip art patterns.

Next I called up Microsoft Word from the computer; you know where you normally make documents. I'm using Vista, I don't know how the other versions work.

I found the Mailings button on one of the top bars and from there I found the Labels button.

After that I just filled in my address information. On options I chose 30 labels to a page but it looks like you can make labels to any measurement you like.

Next I hit New Document (a lot of trial and error to get to this point) and the page of labels is shown.

From there I changed the font and added the previously downloaded clip art one by one. Adding the clip art wasn't a problem though you have to chose the text wrapping button (the button with the dog and lines icon) to get it next to the address text (instead of within the text). And I sized the clip art to fit of course.

After I'd put all the quilt blocks in I put in label paper. Ta-Da!

"Tetsu! Tetsu! I did it! I made our own labels! I did it all by myself! Aren't they great?!"

"Great. Too bad you didn't figure out how to do that BEFORE we sent out all our cards. We won't be using them again until December."

"Hey, don't complain. I've learned a new computer technique!"

Now if I just don't forget in the next year...

In Asakusa again

Yesterday Tetsu and I decided on a whim to visit Tokyo. It was his last day of vacation and we hadn't done anything in particular so I threw out in fun that we had never been to Tokyo together. I didn't really think he'd take me up on it! I can always think of reasons why we shouldn't go far away from home (like 6 animals!) but I decided memories with my husband were more important that spending the day with the animals who would probably just sleep all day anyway.

At 8:30 Tetsu and I were still saying "Are we going?" and at 9:30 we were on the train headed towards Asakusa again. Hey that's two train rides for me in two weeks! (Different trains) and two trips to Asakusa in a year's time! (I met Marlene there last time).


THE PEOPLE!!! We were pushed along by the crowds and could barely move! Everyone was in Asakusa going to the shrine and celebrating the New Year. Many women in kimono, many families buying good luck charms and having their fortunes read. Loads of places for people to sit outside along the street eating skewered chicken, simmered vegetables, deep fried squid and grilled fish. And lots of beer and osake!

For the tourists there were lots of rickshaws being pulled along and trying not to run over the people in the crowds. Rickshaws aren't really part of Japanese culture anymore. I've never seen them but here in Asakusa, but there seemed to be both young men and young women pulling their customers along and giving a running tour of the Asakusa area as they jogged.

Since I had been in Asakusa last May I could say "oh, there's an interesting shop around the corner" but all in all Tetsu and I didn't buy very much. The most interesting places for me were the recycle shops with lots of old kimonos being sold and scraps of obi material but since I have a box of Tetsu's mother's old kimonos I couldn't really justify buying more. They weren't really very expensive either!

Tetsu and I got back home around 8:30 and boy were our feet tired from all the walking! It is nice to be spontaneous sometimes!

New Year's

The Calico Quilter asked me what Japanese do for New Year's since I said that as I foreigner I didn't do it the way everyone else does. Well, let's see...

The first couple of years after we were married it seemed like the New Year's holidays were the major times Tetsu and I would get into disagreements. I think I walked out on him one year and went to stay with a friend!

Tetsu is and always has been so busy and the New Year's holidays are the only days he has three consecutive days of holiday so as a new wife I expected him to spend some time with me. But what did we do? We sat around and watched TV. And dumb TV at that! Starting around 9:00 on New Year's Eve, Japan broadcasts nationally, a singing competition with the major singers of the year. Men's team versus women's team; red and white. When I first came to Japan the Japanese music world was filled with smokey drinking songs (Enka) and cutsie Barbie Doll songs (Aidoru which means "idol") and a lot of the singers went through crazy choreographed dances while they warbled. (And Enka can really warble! I remember my father saying it sounded like someone was strangling a cat!) The sets were always amazing but sometimes I got the feeling that the talent on stage didn't do the stage sets justice!

I did not like this singing program at all (and still don't care for it much, and yes, it still is the main event every New Year's Eve for three hours) but Tetsu and his mother were glued to the TV. The next morning too the TV went on and we were treated to three days of slapjack comedy and comedians. If any of you know a second language you'll know that humor is the last thing to come when learning a language and these comedians drove me crazy and I felt very left out because Tetsu and his mother would slap the table and laugh uproariously! Or when the TV commercials got long they would nap. Or eat oranges and omochi. For three days. In those days Japan basically closed down for three days, no stores open, not a car on the roads. No where to go and nothing to do but watch TV. I was a raving lunatic by the end of the New Year's and Tetsu can testify to that!!!

"What is the traditional way to celebrate New Year's,Tetsu? Let's do that."

"Well, they drink a lot of sake but I don't drink, and they go to the shrine at midnight but we're Christian, and they eat omochi. That's what we're doing. Mostly people just watch TV."

"There must be something else because Japan hasn't always had TV."

"The kids go outside and play with tops... Or they fly kites... You want to fly a kite when it is freezing outside? Or they play a sort of badminton with wooden mallets and a peg. It doesn't fly as well as regular badminton. I don't think you'd like it... People used to play a kind of card game matching ancient Japanese poems from memory but since you don't know the poems and can't read the Japanese..."

So we watched TV and I was so glad when the holidays were over! I didn't quilt back then so I had nothing to do with all that time!

Nowadays Tetsu is still watching the TV but he prefers to watch K-1 (like boxing) on New Year's Eve which I despise so it is agreed I can go read a book early on in the evening. When Tetsu is home during the holidays, like yesterday, he still watches TV but I can appreciate the humor a bit more and I use the time to quilt. Yes! I was quilting yesterday! Over the years we've come to a good balance and he can see when I'm getting a bit irritated by the whole thing. The convenience stores are open, the regular stores open on Jan. 2 and so we can go shopping or eat out or do other things beside get cabin fever. And of course there's blogging! So Tetsu's watching TV right now while I am blogging. A very good solution this year!

That's my New Year's...
(pictures from the Internet)

Cozy

Since I had the day to myself yesterday I put it to use doing what I love best and did some handwork. I got the Noah's Ark block done so I am ready for January's now. I really must get stronger glasses because I had a headache by the time I was finished.

I also sewed on my block to the Mini-Round Robin block that came to me. I can't show what I did to it but here is the original block that has been through two other people already. Already I see how these things change. This block is in solids and some hand dyed fabrics but the next person added some modern fabric and the next person added some florals... I went back to dyed fabric and some scrap triangles... I don't what the original piecer was really hoping for.

And here are a couple of pictures from this morning. These animals give me a laugh a day! Choco had been invited up on the sofa first and she was enjoying a sit with Tetsu when... Who should decide that it might be cozy to join them!


"Wait a minute. I don't think I like cats."


"Rats. You're planning to stay."


"Did you say something?"

"Not me. I'm not even looking at you."


"Is it really possible to make friends with a cat?"


"Okay. Have we come to an agreement? I'll take this knee and you take the other."


"Zzzz..."

Happy New Year's!

Happy New Year's from Japan! We welcomed in the new year eight hours ago but I'm afraid I am a party pooper and didn't stay up for the count down. This is the year of the cow by Chinese calendar and one of my students gave me this cute New Year's decoration.

Tetsu and I have gotten this house looking pretty good! Anyone want to come visit? It won't stay this way very long! I washed windows, washed screens, moved furniture, cleaned out shelves and the refrigerator. Tetsu swept the yard and the forest (I don't know why) and spot cleaned the rugs. He worked on a few closets too and Choco even got a bath! My sewing room is back so that it looks like I can use it!

We did last minute grocery shopping and had revolving sushi for lunch. I made sweet bean paste for more omochi and then the two of us sat down and wrote New Year's cards! A little late. All New Year's cards are supposed to be received on January 1st (a whole stack of them just came in the mailbox as 7:30 this morning!) and so the post office guarantees January 1 delivery if you mail them by December 25. Almost every year the first few days of the new year Tetsu and I are writing cards.

As for today's schedule, Tetsu has already gone off to work. He always takes the January 1st workday because we don't have kids in the house and his foreign wife doesn't do much for New Year's anyway. I'll go to church at 10:30 and then the rest of the day is mine to do as I like. I did not get the December block of the Noah's Ark BOM done yesterday but since you all are still in 2008 I'm declaring myself on time!

"Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget none of His benefits!"

Psalm 103:2