Useless but cute

Yesterday was patchwork day at Mrs. Furui's. I found her busily making these darling little cats! She had found them at a tea shop somewhere and thinking that many of her patchwork friends (there are seven of us) would like them, she pondered buying enough for all of us. At $2.50 a piece though she decided to buy one... take it apart... make her own pattern... and then make them herself. This is the result of her work.

When I arrived she was in the process of putting beads into them and gathering up the bottoms. She wanted me to wait until she had all of them made before I took my picture "since they are so cute all together."

Other people began arriving for patchwork.

"What are you making Mrs. Furui? Are these for the kindergarten bazaar? Are you going to sell them? These would be great for our church bazaar in a few weeks. We can always sell useless things that are cute."

WELL! It's a good thing that Mrs. Furui doesn't take offense easily! In fact she laughed so hard that she had to write down that phrase for crafting posterity.

"Useless things that are cute"

To make matters worse, two of our non-cat lovers declined the gift of a useless but cute cat! Poor Mrs. Furui! BUT yours truly and another cat lover squealed in delight and took home two each, while everyone else was pleased to receive their one useless but cute cat.

Actually I brought home two other useless but cute objects for my house. I stopped at the bread shop on the way home and found these cute hedgehogs on the shelf. I asked if I could take a picture and they gave me two of them for my OWN shelf! Adorable!

Unfortunately my cats think the useless but cute hedgehogs should be used... as cat toys... so I've already had to rescue the hedgehogs from under the dining room table.

Two pairs of sandals

Rice harvesting has started in my area and the other day Choco and I stopped and visited with one of the farmers and his wife and they seemed pleased to tell me about their rice fields.

This nifty machine is the farmer's pride and joy. He has quite a few fields and he will go from one to another for the next couple weeks. The machine picks up the fallen rice stalks, cuts them at ground level, turns and inserts them into the thresher, collects the rice, chops up the stalks and spreads the chopped stalks back on the fields all in one sweep around the field.

Later when the rice bin is full the machine sends the rice up the pole and it is dropped into a small truck to be carried back to the farm. The farmer proudly told me that his machine cost him about the price of a luxury car and he bemoaned the fact that he only uses it for two weeks during the harvest season! But he said that if he takes care of it he will be able to use it for more than 10 years.

After the rice fills the family truck, the wife drives it home and puts the rice kernels into their husking machine and it will take about an hour to husk the rice to brown rice stage and bag it. In the meantime the husband works in the fields and by the end of the day they will have half the field done...

While waiting for the next load the wife wanders around the field picking up missed rice stalks but she says the new machines make life much easier for her and really her husband could do the whole job himself... He just likes her company.

The farmer's wife was telling me that though her husband is a farmer, he also works at another job during the year. The company is very understanding about his being a farm owner though and they allow him to take off time in the spring for rice planting and in the fall for the harvesting. This is called "ni soku no waraji". Having your feet in two pairs of straw sandals...

And both of them were resigned to the fact that their eldest son was probably not going to take over the farm for them. The younger generation rarely want to be full-time farmers and it probably isn't even economically possible for most of them. Most companies are not going to give "farming time off" as the father has and so gradually the fields are becoming untended... What will happen to the Japanese rice industry in the next 20 years?

Window treatments

I like to wash screens. No take that back. I DON'T like to wash screens but I like seeing the world through freshly washed screens. Same goes for windows. Clean windows brighten a weary heart. But windows should be washed on an overcast day and screens should be washed on sunny days. This week has been sunny so the screens are getting a scrub.

I also just now fixed our Japanese room window shades. Actually I fixed one shade just last week and two days later Cleo had gone through them again... The perils of having cats in a Japanese house... They learn that paper shades are easy to tear and if they want to look at the world on the other side of the shade cats have no qualms at all about making their own peephole.

So two of my windows have holes in them. Since the last paper shades only lasted two days, this time I went out and bought CAT paper shades. That's what it says right on the box! A little more expensive but these are made of PLASTIC not paper! Supposedly no one will be able to tell (except the cats who can't claw through them).

The box has enough paper/plastic for one full length window. I decided to spot repair rather than replace the whole window... That may have been the wrong choice but since only one corner is holey maybe I can fix two windows...

Cut away the ripped part.

Use double sided tape (purposely made for Japanese windows) and cut the plastic sheet to size (or lay over the whole window per instructions).

Yeah! Fixed within 10 minutes!

OOooh! I DO like that! A lovely little cherry blossom design hidden in the paper/plastic that only shows through when the light hits it. (Yes, I do see where Cleo has gnawed away on the wood too but I don't know how to fix that.)

I hope the cats don't like it too much too. Off to fix the other window. ... And maybe wash more screens.

Pumpkins

Yesterday Tetsu solved this year's problem of getting a Halloween pumpkin. My goodness, it is only mid-September!

For a couple of years now I have written about the problem of finding a pumpkin. Yesterday though, Tetsu took me off on a secret mission to the north of the prefecture and we brought home pumpkins! It seems that there was a pumpkin growing contest out in the countryside and the non-placing pumpkins were being given away to people and institutions that wanted them. Tetsu read in the newspaper about the already ended competition and called to find out if we could receive one of their pumpkins.

I wasn't let in on our mission until we pulled up at a home with huge pumpkins dotting the yard. Tetsu had gotten driving instructions and been told that we'd know the place because there were pumpkins all over. There were pumpkins balanced on boulders, pumpkins on the walls, pumpkins sitting on the roadside!

These pumpkins are sitting beside an old antique gasoline pump that I thought was interesting. The lady waiting for us let us take home two of her pumpkins (it took a lot of Tetsu's man power to get them in the car!) and one of them is sitting on our doorstep to remind us that autumn has arrived.

I'm driving into town in a few minutes and taking the other pumpkin to the kindergarten. I sure hope I can find someone who will help me get it out of my car!

Thank you Tetsu! It was a lovely treasure hunt sort of day (of course we got lost along the way again!) with a orb of gold waiting at the end!

I SPY quilt

I finished my Kitty quilt yesterday. This pattern is from Mary's website and is called the Happy Block pattern. I thought I was the quilter who didn't have any bright fabrics but I must have misread myself because this is definitely a BRIGHT quilt! I love all the colors and I love all the kitties and doggies in this.

This was made for my mother who was so entranced by the fabrics June sent to California. I found I had a few more prints that people have sent me over the years and with very little repeat I was able to make the 35 blocks.

Look at this hodge podge back! Lorraine had sent me a "kitty newspaper" fabric that seemed a shame to cut up so I cut a "page" and added it as extra reading material for my mother.













I also made an I SPY list for her to check out and play around with.

As usual I got hung up on the quilting because I didn't know if I wanted to do this by hand (stitch in the ditch) or machine quilt designs in the solids or do an overall quilting pattern. I opted for overall though it turned out not overall after all. Every time I came to a kitty square I hated to quilt over the kitties so those are pretty puffy... That's one way to do it!










And if truth be told, my quilting had wrinkles and a couple folds in the back. I spent a good hour taking out one whole corner that just would not pass even my usual laisez faire attitude... BUT! I found I had this cross stitch piece that I had made YEARS ago from a kit and after I'd finished I didn't know what to do with it. Hey! Old cross stitch pieces make excellent cover-ups for machine quilting bloopers!

I thought the cross stitch kitty matched this little kitty on the front very well!

This is ready to send to my mother. I hope she'll enjoy many hours looking at it!

Autumn finally

We had a typhoon in my part of the world and some parts of Japan got a lot of rain! I hurried home from teaching in the next city over and brought Choco inside before the rain and wind got too strong but in the end, the area where I live didn't have much damage. I am grateful because my pear orchard friends really live on the edge when a typhoon hits. Their year of crops is likely to be destroyed overnight and there isn't too much they can do about it... We are on typhoon number 9 this year and there are probably more to come (they strike in late summer and early fall.)

The winds cleared the mugginess from the air though and yesterday morning we woke up to cool and fresh feeling countryside... The rice farmers will probably be a little disgruntled because the winds blow the heavy rice shoots over making it more difficult to harvest. Their combines are pretty good though and the machines can go along and lift the shoots before cutting them... I think harvesting will begin next week in my part of the world.

This was taken around 6:00 am. Can you see how the rice has toppled almost making waves in the field? Sort of looks like some quilting fillers I've seen.

The mountains are cool looking in the distance...


Autumn has finally arrived?

WASH YOUR FABRIC!

Yesterday the Hawaiian quilt that was up on the living room wall fell down. It may have just fallen of its own accord or maybe one of the cats tried to climb up it. (It is easy to blame most problems on the cats.) Even though summer isn't over in Japan (HOT! HOT! HOT!) it seemed a good time to put up a different quilt and so I pulled a very old Carolina Lily quilt out of storage.

Oh dear, this doesn't have a label on it either... One year we made a similar quilt for the kindergarten bazaar and a couple of us decided to use the pattern to make our own quilts. This must be at least 15 years old now... Anyway... When I made this I figured it was a good chance to learn how to use the Celtic strip metal ware for making strips though not long afterward I learned how to use Bias Maker with iron on Hot and Bond tape. My Celtic strip maker lies forgotten in some drawer these days. This was also in the days before I was experimenting with machine piecing and machine quilting so this is all done by hand. I was very proud of myself.

BUT!!! One day I washed my Carolina Lily quilt and look what happened!! The dumb fabric bled! Upset isn't the word! I remembered really liking the dark blue scrap that a fabric store had given me when I purchased other fabric. It had come in a packet of give away stuff and though there wasn't a lot of it (maybe a fat eighth) I had been so pleased when there was JUST enough to make the lily petals...

Yes, I do normally wash all my fabrics but there are times when I get lazy, and there was such a little amount of this blue that I'd figured it would fray away in the wash... A lesson learned...

So up on the wall my quilt went yesterday. I couldn't decide where that stained blue corner got hid the best... On the top it seemed too obvious. On the bottom it is right at eye level. I thought behind the lamp but the light seems to accent the stain doesn't it? Ah well...

Rice booth

A week or so ago I was talking about how we buy rice in Japan and how it is stored etc. I forgot to mention that when we buy rice from the farmers it comes to us as brown rice and if we want white rice we have to polish it ourselves.

Of course one can buy a 2o lb. bag of polished rice in the supermarket. Then all you have to do is rinse it lightly before cooking it in the rice cooker. But since we live in a farming area of Japan, the huge 65 lb. (about) bag of rice is brown rice. Japanese like WHITE rice. There is something about brown rice that brings back memories of hardship and poverty. Historically white rice was only available for the nobility and villagers never ate a bowl of white rice in their lives.

Even now, older people will tell how during the war years a minuscule amount of rice had to be cooked with radish in order to stretch it for the whole family and how dinner was watery rice gruel. The luxury of WHITE rice is still revered.

There was a time when I tried to feed my family brown rice (more nutritious, more fiber) but no one liked it much because it was too chewy. Along with everyone else in the neighborhood who buys brown rice but wants to eat white, Tetsu and I take our bag to a neighborhood rice polishing "booth". These abound all over the countryside and can be found even in supermarket parking lots. I have to get Tetsu (it used to be Takumi's job) to carry the heavy bag to and from the car but within minutes we can get of pure, sparkly, white rice.

The sign on top of the booth says "Coin Rice Polisher". You can topple your bag of brown rice into the bin and watch it come out the dispenser as white rice. You can also choose if you want "well-polished rice", "partially polished rice", "polished but left with the germ" or a different type of polishing for mochi rice (sticky stuff). I choose "polished but left with the germ" and for each 10 kilos of rice it costs about a dollar to polish. (Tetsu's hauling 30 kilos there.)

And we can also bring home the polished off hull of the brown rice since it can be used for pickling vegetables or simmering bamboo shoots (it takes away the stringency) or just spreading around the garden as extra fertilizer. All for a dollar or two so it's a pretty good deal.

A few years ago Japan was having a rice shortage and the government brought in rice from Thailand which was longer grain and less sticky. Oh the complaints I heard about that rice! This year looks like it will be a good one for the Japanese rice farmers. The rice polishing booths are going to get a workout!

Does she or doesn't she?

I have a confession to make... I dyed my hair!

While I was in the States my mother looked at me at least once a day (sometimes two or three times a day) and would say,

"Tani! I can't believe how much white is in your hair! How old are you now?"

That is part of her aging process and she doesn't remember that she's asked me that same question a hundred times already. On the other hand, each time I got asked I'd feel like I aged another year myself.

In fact during the whole month in the States my white hair became a major conversation piece. (Well that's exaggerating a bit but I was sensitive on the point.)

My kindergarten Sunday School teacher hugged me in the church courtyard and said,

"Tanya! Look at you! You were a pretty little thing when you were 5 and you haven't changed a bit! Except what is all this white in your hair these days?"

And my mother's neighbor was out trying to pull trees and branches across his yard one morning and Leiya and I went out to help.

"Angels have come to my rescue! But Tanya, did you know you have powder in your hair?"

My mother's neighbor is also suffering from dementia and I couldn't tell if he was really concerned about my hair or was joking.

Oh well. My mom, her neighbor and my Sunday School teacher... all three in their 80s. Elderly people can be frank...

But then my friend's husband came right out and said I could take off a couple years if I dyed my hair. And when I told Marcy she agreed! Hmm. Food for thought...

Leiya's advice was "Don't do it. You look fine."

Takumi's advice was "Do it. It doesn't mean you have to do it forever. Try it once. You might like it."

Tetsu's advice was "If you want to."

And my friend Marlene's advice was "Do it soon or else people are really going to notice if you make a drastic change when there is MORE white!"

SOOOOOO.... I did it. And so far no one has noticed. Or maybe they've all been polite and are just not mentioning the change. How often do you go up to someone and say,

"Hey, I notice you dye your hair." Not me.

But the other day Tetsu looked right at me and said,

"You know Tanya, I'm getting pretty white myself. Maybe if you decide to dye your hair I'll dye mine too."

I looked at him with raised eyebrow. What does this mean? That he needs new glasses? That the dye job doesn't cover as well as I think it does?

The question is... Do I like my dyed hair? Well, I don't dislike it. But I didn't really dislike my white hair either...














I didn't want to scare you with huge mug shots so here are a couple little before and after pictures... Tomorrow Tetsu is going to ask me what with the pictures of myself on my blog. Do I let him in on our secret?

Happy Blocks

My sewing room is a complete disorganized mess. I've got parts of the Tessellating Cats on the ironing board and now I've started a Kitty quilt for my mother.

Thank you for all the suggestions. So many that were so tempting. I seriously thought about the disappearing 9-patch, and a fantastic puzzle pattern but I've ended up with Happy Blocks from Mary's website. This pattern only takes a 4 1/2 inch square of the character fabric so I've got lots more kitty fabric left to do something with! I may end up doing the the other two patterns yet!

Yesterday I cut fabric and came up with 28 kitty and doggie fabrics. Next to see what I had in the way of solid or almost solid fabric. I figured I could double up on these and use the same 4 or 5 colors together. Well! I'll have you know that yesterday I put together 24 blocks and I haven't used the same fabrics twice yet. Wow, am I ever surprised I had this many brights in my stash! I'll make the last 7 blocks of some of the larger designs so that even those won't look like repeats and I'll bet I can find 7 more almost solids in my stash... This is coming together fast.

Another "finish" is the four blocks for Mrs. Harada's quilt in our block exchange. She wanted Pineapple blocks in blue and red. Good "in front of the TV" handwork and I do mean handwork. I have to admit that I muttered a bit as I made these.

"These would be so much easier and so much faster if I was roller cutting and using the sewing machine! Why go to all this work to do by HAND!!"

It's because I love Mrs. Harada and our group does HAND piecing. So this is a labor of love...

The Tessellating Cats quilt is still up on the wall waiting for a border... That's why the Happy Blocks are down on the floor. I haven't been inspired yet as to what to do for a border...

I guess I did make another Alabama Beauty block but there is no place to put it in the sewing room right now.. Every flat area (surface and wall) is covered in scraps and blocks and flimsys.

Time to do some cleaning.

Yumetaro-san

On Wednesday morning I got a phone call from my friend Yumetaro-san. He has been in the hospital since June and his news wasn't good. I had written to him once before I left for the States and via his sister he sent me a letter too, but I hadn't realized how poorly his condition had developed.

Last night I went over to his apartment and spent about half an hour chatting and crying with him... From the beginning I guess we decided not to pretend that he is going to get better. He figures he probably won't last the month. I asked him if there was anything more he wanted to do and he said no, he just expected to live longer than 62 years. I teased him a bit and said I didn't see my prayer quilt around but he said it was at his sister's apartment and that he'd taken it to the hospital with him.

"That's supposed to remind you that you are surrounded in love, you know!"

Yumetaro-san was a bit depressed because since there is no more treatment available, the hospital has passed him on to a local clinic... They don't even seem to be able to figure out how to connect his drips let alone offer comfort and care... I don't know if he's disappointed in the hospitals or in his own weakness or in God in general.. He just is worn out.

Yumetaro-san is still trying to do things though he now needs help walking. His sister had taken him to a favorite orchard to watch while she picked grapes.

"It's more trouble than it's worth but I need to see all I can because there isn't much more time to see things."

Yumetaro-san let me hold his hand and he let me pray for him. I came home with a basket of grapes. I wish there was more I could do.

Summer homework

In my part of Japan, the summer vacation for children runs from the last week of July to August 31. About 5 weeks. Because I went off to California, my summer vacation was about 7 weeks and I am happy to say that I enjoyed all of it. (Tetsu had none.)

Even though Japanese children get a month's worth of vacation that doesn't mean they are home free to do anything they want. Since the school year runs from April to March, the teachers assign summer homework to their classes.

It's been a long time so I don't know if I remember this right but as I recall my kids brought home workbooks with pages of drills to do. They had calligraphy homework and book reports. There was an art project of making a poster to encourage civic awareness and they also were assigned an independent research project.

I always took my kids out of school about a week before summer vacation began mostly because I was trying to avoid paying the exorbitant airline prices. The school never gave me a hard time with this though maybe I just didn't hear about the raised eyebrows.

"The Watanabe parents think it is important that their kids spend as much time as possible in America during the summer (and they don't have a lot of money!) so Takumi and Leiya will be absent the week before summer vacation actually begins."

One problem with this was that often the drill books wouldn't be available for my kids to take along with them. The teachers assured me it wasn't important for them to complete (then why assign them?!) and that the answers were all in the back anyway. I think they did the art projects but maybe not the book reports.

"The homework doesn't matter. Have a good time in America."

I wasn't completely unconcerned about my children's education and each year I would make sure the kids did their independent research project on something connected with America.

One year Takumi researched the then new non-smoking trend in America. That was an excellent research project. He interviewed smokers and non-smokers, got facts on damages to health, took pictures of No-Smoking signs.

Another year one of the kids did their project on American houses and again interviewed my friends about which rooms in their house they liked best, drew floor plans of the various houses they visited and wrote about the differences between Japanese houses and California houses.

There was one year when one child just focused on cultural differences. How American's kiss all the time. How they praise each other about the smallest things. How clerks and waiters in the supermarket, the post office, the restaurants are all friendly and talk a lot.

There was a year when they researched money, a year when they researched volunteering, a year when they researched rocks and California terrain.

All in all I think Takumi and Leiya got very good training for researching and writing reports. I also remember a lot of struggles to get them to sit down and write out index cards, take pictures and write out their thoughts when summer was supposed to be FUN and meany mom was making them study!

Yesterday, on crosswalk duty I noticed all the neighborhood kids loaded down with homework projects to take to the new semester of school. I thought, "Ah, those were the good ol' days!"

I had homework this summer too! Can you believe as part of my crosswalk guard work I was required to wander around the neighborhood for 30 minutes looking for children to caution every day during the summer!? Let me tell you. In this summer's heat there were NO children! And everyday I wrote in my traffic log about how my job had gone that day. There are not a lot of different ways to say "No children around. Everything is the same as always. It is hot."

I'm sending in my "homework" papers today. The new semester has started.