Organization

On my walk yesterday with Choco I came across a lot where the owner had been cutting down a couple of his trees. I was impressed by his organizational skills.

Tree trunks. I don't know why the red marks are there.


Large limbs of trees. More red marks.



Smaller branches, bound tightly and resting on a hand made branch raft.



Twigs again bound up and on another raft.



And then LEAVES!!! These were all layered nicely, I have no idea how, and then wrapped in straw bundles and tied with rope. They must be tied so tightly in there and packed down that they don't fall out from their bundles.



I've got to go organize my sewing room now.

Funeral customs

Ok. This is not supposed to be a morbid post (though it may seem that way). I had to go to a wake/funeral last night and that got me thinking about the funerals I've attended in Japan and some of the cultural differences. And by the way, yesterday's funeral was a celebration of a church member's 89 years of life. Not that many tears and many wonderful stories to hear about.

When I came to Japan 30 some years ago I met a young woman from Venezuela who was married to a young Japanese man. They were newly married and were planning to live in Japan and Gladys and I studied Japanese together. Gladys' husband, Hajime, had a good friend, Tetsu and it was through them that Tetsu and I met and later married.

Gladys had her problems (as I later did!) adjusting to Japanese life. She would often visit me and bemoan some of the Japanese customs and nuances. I didn't know much and it was interesting for me to hear about in-laws and living as a Japanese housewife. Tetsu and Hajime and Gladys and I often double dated out of necessity! Tetsu and I couldn't talk to each other! I spoke to Gladys in English, Gladys spoke to Hajime in Spanish and Hajime spoke to Tetsu in Japanese! It was always a long drawn out conversation with a lot of mistranslations!

One day Gladys turned up at my door.

"I've left him! I'm not going back! Hajime's father died yesterday! They're planning the funeral today."

"What! You can't leave your husband because his father died. What happened?"

"I'm sorry for Hajime but I just cannot be the proper eldest son's Japanese wife. I don't understand all of that and I don't know what I'm going to be asked to do. I'm not going back until after the funeral!"

Tetsu called me about then asking if I knew where Gladys was. The family was in an uproar because she'd disappeared. (My Japanese had improved somewhat over the months that we had dated.)

"Umm. She's here. She says she's not going to go home until after Hajime's father's funeral. She's afraid of all the customs and doesn't know what is expected of her as the eldest son's wife."

"Tanya. Gladys HAS to be there! She HAS to be there to save face for the family! Even though she's a foreigner she HAS to be there for Hajime!"

We went back and forth with me translating for Tetsu and Gladys.

"Wait a minute, Tetsu. Give me a run down on the day's proceedings so that Gladys can know what to expect and what she has to do."

"Okay. She just stands besides Hajime and the family during the chanting. No one understands anything so it doesn't matter if she doesn't understand. After the service the family will go to the crematorium and they'll wait while the body is cremated." (Ooh. This is beginning to sound bad.) "Then the family will pick up the bones with chopsticks and put them in an urn."

"WHATTTT!!!????" That was me.

"What? What? What?" That was Gladys.

"I don't think I understood him. Quick get my Japanese-English dictionary. I don't think I understood one of those words. It isn't possible that somebody would pick up bones with chopsticks!"

Sorry. It's true. Japanese crematoriums just incinerate enough to leave bones. Not ashes. And the custom is for the family to pick up bones one by one together, two pairs of chopsticks holding one bone, and place them in the urn. That's one reason why one NEVER passes a piece of food from one pair of chopsticks to another pair of chopsticks while eating. Did you need that bit of trivia? That's enough details.

Tetsu did convince Gladys to fulfill her duties as the eldest son's wife but she stayed FAR in the background at the crematorium.

So you see. At least I knew what I was getting into when I married Tetsu and decided to live in Japan...

Winding Ways III

Grrr. I'm telling you. I'm having more problems putting a border on my Winding Ways than I did putting the curves together!

I'm trying to piece the large curve into the border but for some reason the border keeps warping or puckering. I've taken it out three times. I realize now that it would have been much easier to just have appliqued the circle pieces onto the border but I've already cut the curves on the border piece so if I want to use this fabric I've got to do it this way. Headaches, headaches. I feel like a beginning quilter again.

I don't know if it was such a good idea showing you the step by step progress on this quilt. I'm getting tired of seeing the dang thing myself and it makes for a boring post.

Back to the sewing room....

Quilting Queen!

Yesterday AbbyKat made a comment on my blog and included a "poem" that her quilt guild had written and sung at a meeting/retreat. I loved it and I asked if I could include it here. She said her quilting group in New Zealand performed it and it has gotten around New Zealand a bit but I'd like you to all put on ABBA right now and sing along with me!

QUILTING QUEEN

You can sew
You can stitch
Having the time of your life!
Ooh
See that seam
Watch that pin
Be-in' the Quilting Queen!


Monday night and the lights are low
Looking out for the place to sew
Where you make great friendships
Find out all the news
You've come in to fight the blues



Anybody could stay at home
With quilting groups it's much more fun
With a bit of friendship
Everything is fine
You need to take your time
And when you finish a quilt...



You are the Quilting Queen
Wise and neat
No longer seventeen
Quilting Queen
Feel the beat
From the sewing machine
Oh yeah

You can patch
You can quilt
Having the time of your life!
Ooh
See that seam
Watch that pin
Be-in' the Quilting Queen!





You're a star you turn it round
Leave them yearning and then you're done
Looking out for a project
Any one will do
You've never used that silk
And when you finish a quilt...

You are the Quilting Queen
Wise and neat
No longer seventeen
Quilting Queen
Feel the beat
From the sewing machine

You can patch
You can quilt
Having the time of your life!
See that seam
Watch that pin
Be-in' the Quilting Queen!

Mamma Mia

Let's see... What's going on recently?

LAST weekend Tetsu and I went to see the movie "Mamma Mia!". We both liked all the energy and music and were pleasantly surprised that actors like the old James Bond could sing! Usually I'm not to wild about musicals nor love stories but the music in this is so catchy. THIS Saturday Tetsu went off to get the car fixed or something and he came back with the "Mamma Mia!" CD for me! Isn't he sweet?! I haven't had a new CD in ages and listening to this one really gets the blood moving.

So I spent a lot of Saturday and Sunday afternoon up in the sewing room with "Mamma Mia!" playing and I got a lot done on the Winding Ways. I hope to get the last two blocks done today. This has turned out to not be as hard as I was expecting. Of course those blocks aren't put in rows yet but most of the curved pieces are now blocks and I'm hoping that that was the most difficult part. The more I look at this the more I want to go back and take out pieces and rearrange but I'm refraining from that action. I had a bunch of blade pieces left over, I'd cut too many or needed a different color and cut more and I'm wondering if I can use them in a border... Does that green circle on the bottom need green blades or can I use these left overs? And what should I do about a border? Does this want a dark border or a light border? I have many more batiks that haven't been used in this center part and I have a nice piece of dark purple dyed fabric that might be nice...

On the hand sewing front I finished my block for the bazaar quilt. Mrs. Furui and I decided on the applique block and we've both been trying our hand at button-hole stitching. Hey, that was kind of fun! This block still needs a center bias circle but we'll put that in when we get all our blocks back.

Oh, and thanks to Kathy, I got word that Blurb is back and working again and can be used with Blogger so I went over to that website immediately yesterday and downloaded/uploaded (I can never remember which) some of my blog entries so that I can get another book made. Blurb really does a nice job... when it's working. That will be another long project to edit the book so don't hold your breath.

I need to do some house cleaning. Think I'll put "Mamma Mia!" on full blast and dance my way around the place with dish cloth in hand!

"See that girl,

Watch that scene,

Diggin' the Dancing Queen!"

To see or not to see

Recently Tetsu and I have been making it a habit to go to the hot springs on the weekends. Tetsu has always loved hot springs and the resort like facilities with hot spring water piped in from somewhere. I'm not as fond of these places as Tetsu but I decided that in my old age I'd better have a common interest with my husband and he certainly isn't going to take up patchwork.

Japanese are very good at not seeing some things. Houses bump up against each other so close that you could open the curtains and look into your neighbor's living room but in theory no one "sees" what the neighbor is doing. I have waved to people from my open kitchen window but I'm not "seen". No one waves back. It would be terribly impolite to be caught looking into a house no matter how close it is to the street so we just don't "see". At the hot spring, I pretend not to look at the people around me but it is a little disconcerting to step into a bath and find a fellow PTA mother or a neighbor sitting next to you in the buff. I feel like a real Japanese when I can carry on a conversation smoothly without ever "seeing" below the neck.

For Christmas I bought both Tetsu and myself little hot spring bags that have all the necessary hot spring implements. Let's see. What's in my bag?

Sample bottles of shampoo and rinse though usually the hot springs will provide these.
A scrubbing towel that is nylon and suds up nicely.
A longish face towel that is all purpose. Useful for washing, for drying (well wiping off a wet body), for hiding certain portions of the body when walking around in front of people. More on this later.
A pumice stone.
A fold away hairbrush.
Moisturizer.

I guess that's about it.

Anyway, Tetsu and I went to a neighboring hot spring this morning and we parted at the doors dividing the men's' side from the women's' side. Usually we agree to meet back in about an hour and a half. There is always a changing room with lockers and cubbies and sometimes with big baskets for people to fold their clothes away. After stripping I grab my long face towel and nonchalantly drape it over my front as I head for the bathing area. Usually I get a shock when I'm confronted with a mirror and I "see" my mother's body under my horrified face! This is definitely something I didn't want to see! The towel hides very little and there are parts of me sticking out on both sides.

The bathing area has loads of little squatting areas sometimes with a mini-stool and each area has a bucket and a shower and usually shampoo and body soap. I scrub up quickly and rinse off thoroughly and with my little towel I walk out to the outdoors hot spring pool. I prefer being outside rather in the indoor baths where the only thing to look at is each other. My non-seeing skills aren't that good. The little hiding towel isn't supposed to go into the very clean hot water so most people fold it up on top of their heads like a little hat and let it balance there. I'm not so skilled at balancing so I leave it by the side of the pool.

In Japan even the monkeys enjoy hot springs in the winter. I've never "seen" one in the bath myself but this picture reminds me of all us ladies huddled in the hot spring this morning. (Picture from the Internet)

Poor kitty

Look at my poor kitty! Chip isn't feeling too well today and it is all because of mean ol' me! She got taken to the vets for her little girl operation. One night stay over and I brought her back yesterday afternoon. She seems a little sore and doesn't move around very much. I guess I wouldn't either if I were her! Sorry, it is part of what happens to animals if you're are going to live at my house. I'm giving Chip a lot of loving but she prefers to hide out in her cat box away from the rest of the feline population. So now I've got two hiding cats, Velvet (I don't know what his problem is) and Chip. I'm sure she'll be up and around soon though.

After much consideration I have decided to go ahead with my Winding Ways arrangements. I checked out some of the recommendations for making Winding Ways with more visible "blades" but I wanted to go for the melded look this time. You know where things sort of flow together and you're not really sure you are seeing circles or not. Sort of a middle of the road arrangement. If I can't see the circles at all then I'll be disappointed but if I can see them too clearly then I'll feel I'm not being artistic. I don't understand my own reasoning so don't worry if you don't either. This picture looks a lot like the one of two days ago but I did add and rearrange a little bit. On to sewing!




Between classes yesterday I sewed two blocks. Oh gosh, this is hard! The curves don't go the way I want and it is slow going. The centers are hard to match up too. Well, too bad. I've started and hopefully I'll get better as I go along. I'd like to put together two blocks a day but we'll see. If I get on a roll I may go the distance this weekend. If not then I may be plugging away throughout February.

Pen Friend

Yesterday I got a letter from my "pen friend".

My pen friend lives in Maine and she always begins her letters "My Dear Far-Away Friends,"

Yesterday she wrote about the recent elections, about cleaning her house, she asked about all the animals and also about Takumi and Leiya. She reminisced about some of our earlier letters that she'd found in a drawer while cleaning.

My pen friend's name is Alice and I have been writing to her for over 25 years. We met at the Los Angeles airport after I had gone back to the States for a month and was on my way back to Japan. Alice was going to Japan on a sight seeing tour. As we stood at the check-in counter line we started chatting and requested seats together so that we could continue our conversation on the airplane. I was 26 or 27 years old. Alice was in her early 70's. That makes me 53 now and Alice is 97!!!!

I distinctly remember telling Alice about life in Japan while we traveled across the Pacific Ocean for 10 hours. I was actually at a down point in my life, our first child had just passed away from illness and I'd taken the time in America to get my bearings and be with my American family for a few weeks. I was not looking forward to going back to Japan and a lonely house where dreams had been dashed. Although I didn't tell Alice about my loss I remember trying to tell her about all the good things in Japan, hoping she'd have a good stay while she was visiting. While I talked I realized that not all was gloomy and sad. Japan had a lot of good waiting for me. Good people, interesting customs, beautiful countryside, a loving husband etc. And as I was convincing Alice that she'd have a wonderful time in Japan I pulled myself up and began to actually look forward to returning. To me our meeting was a God given chance to see things from different eyes.

Though Alice and I parted at the Narita airport and have never met in person again, she turned out to be a wonderful correspondent and I, alone in my house, answered her letters. And so for 25 years we've exchanged one or two letters a year. I'm afraid since Internet and e-mail I haven't been such a good pen friend. Alice doesn't do computers. But she seems to do everything else!

Alice once sent me a picture of herself sitting on a Harley Davidson, I think she said it was her grand-nephew's. And she has been up in a hot-air balloon and has travelled around the world a couple of times. She said she was willing to try anything once! Maybe 20 years ago she wrote to say that she had eloped!

"And no, I'm not pregnant!"

Did I ever whoop and laugh at that line! Her somewhat younger neighbor and she had gone travelling around the country and on the spur decided to get married! In another letter she wrote that her health had declined somewhat (but not much!) and for the first time in her life she was taking blood pressure medication.

"So I am now on the PILL! -Ha-!"

Alice's wonderful neighbor/husband passed on 5 years ago just about the time my old dog passed on. I must have written and told her and she wrote back her sympathy and assured me that the dog had had a good home and lots of love. Her next line was to let me know her husband had passed after a "valiant battle against cancer". Here she'd lost the love of her life yet she first consoled me in my sadness over my dog!

Yesterday's letter ended with this thought.

I will close by saying that I've had a "Wonderful Life"-- lots of Sorrow, much Joy and most of all lots of LOVE. God's Blessings. I believe we met in 1983 -- Where did the time go? I know Takumi is about 25 -- so one of my "joys" is that we are still in touch. I wish all of you good health, because when you feel good, nothing is impossible.

Lovingly, Alice
(Love to all the pets!)

I want to be like Alice when I grow up.

Winding Ways II

I have got to run so only time to upload one picture. Yesterday I added a couple more fabrics and played around with this awhile. Oops. I see there are a couple blank spaces I have to fix...What do you think? Can you see the four circles I'm trying to emphasize? I'll probably come back tonight and change it all around again. But I think this is the Winding Way that I'm heading...

Winding Ways

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon cutting out pieces for the Winding Ways quilt. I think I even said a prayer when I put in my first cut! "Lord, please don't let me mess up with this quilt!" You know... The first cut and you're committed! And also in the back of my mind were the lovely ladies who had sent me the batiks to begin with. I don't want to ruin their good will either!

So I traced and I cut and I traced and I cut and I have this up on my design wall. (Which is really a wall with dirty flannel on it. Dirty because it has been folded up in the closet and the cats have claimed it for so long. I haven't designed anything in ages.) I'm going to show you this in slow stages so that you can give me advice. I used eight of the batiks but at this point I think I should have used more. I am not planning to make a bed quilt. More like for the wall. And I'd thought I'd do this with 4 blocks by 4 blocks. However looking at it this morning makes me think I need to get some more of the batiks out and maybe take away some of the light blue... My aim yesterday was just to get these up on the wall so I haven't been "designing" anything yet. Those are slapped up there. What do you think? More color? Try to get the blues on one side and the yellows on another? It needs a little spark but I'm not sure what.

On other fronts, yesterday's cat toy was captured and destroyed. Lasted a whole day in our house. Toi has sworn to protect us from any cat toy infiltration...

Cats continued...

My kitties are bundled up here and there trying to keep warm. I don't know where Chip was on this day but the other kitties were making friends with this great stuffed cat one of the kindergarten teachers gave me. (She said her sister made it!)

Calico Quilter asked a couple of weeks back where Velvet was. Well, Velvet is the hermit of the bunch and rarely makes an appearance. I feel very sorry for him because he has always been such a even tempered cat and tended to go along with whatever anyone wanted from him. Up until Toi and Chip came. Their entry into our home messed up the former cat hierarchy and Vel got pushed to the bottom of the ladder (even though he's the oldest!) He spends all his days under an armchair in a cave he's made for himself. I put in a heated cushion and he seems very content but he is afraid to come out of the cave and sometimes we have puddles down there.

Recently I bought a book called Cat vs. Cat recommended by a fellow blogger, and while I realized most of what is going on in my cat family, it is interesting nonetheless. I have been spraying Feliway, a cat pheromone, in some of the places where Vel camps out. It is supposed to give cats a feeling of security.

And I also went out and bought a cat toy though Tetsu thought with all the yarn and threads I have around that I hardly needed to be buying toys. But I got a good one and Chip and Toi love it! The other cats are much too sedate to be playing with any toy...

Anyway, Vel has been showing slight signs of returning to society. He is sitting on my lap now (granted I had to pull him out of his cave but he is staying with me). He seems to be able to tolerate Toi and Toi wants to cuddle with everyone! I was surprised Vel would allow himself to be used as a cushion but the two of them stayed on my lap for the longest time. I didn't get any handwork done!

Toi is such a lovable cat and he loves everyone. He always looks like he is smiling at you! And I love his toes! He just sits there so proper with his sweet white toes and that tail tucked around them so nicely! Just looking at him makes me smile!

Various projects

I got my self imposed deadlines met for January.

I made a label for my Wonky Word Love quilt and put it on. Except for having a wash that project is finished!

I put a label on my Wicked Easy Quilt and that is ready to give to the recipient next month.

I finished the January block for Lynette' s Noah's Ark block of the month. Only one more month to go!

Although this is the block the original owner made for her Mini-Round Robin, I added my block and have already passed it on to the next person. I made the block that I showed a couple of days ago that had the rows upon rows of triangles. The block owner doesn't visit my blog so I figured I was safe to show my triangles.

I tried my hand at making a Winding Ways block with some of my scraps. (Not breaking into the batiks yet.) Whew! This is a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. I'm stalling on starting this project. Need to work up some courage.

And I've got to get a start on this year's bazaar quilt so that will be the next often featured quilt this year. I've still got some projects in the drawers but at least I'm wading in!

No dyed hair allowed!

Tetsu's getting tired of seeing patchwork pictures on my blog. He doesn't understand that world. He prefers my posts about cats and Choco and family memories. Not that he READS any of the posts but he likes looking at pictures besides fabric and fabric and more fabric.

So today I'm writing about memories of when Takumi was in high school and Leiya was in jr. high.

Japanese schools have very strict dress codes and besides the regulation uniforms there are so many do's and don'ts that it seems very militaristic. For example:

"Girls' hair must be cut above the shoulder or kept in pigtails. Only black and dark blue elastic bands may be used."

"Students must bow to the statue of the school founder upon entrance to the school" (this one was for the private high school.)

"No pierced ears or dyed hair allowed."

The hair dye rule was the one that we managed to break and got hauled onto the carpet for.

One summer Takumi and Leiya and I went back to sunny Southern California for a month to be with my family. Takumi wanted to spike his hair like the other American teenagers, something he hadn't been allowed to do in Japanese high school. Okay. No harm in that. At the supermarket Takumi picked up a bottle of hair gel called "Sunlit Sparkle" or something like that. I did notice that it said it was for blonds and was good for the summer highlighted look. My kids have black hair. Dumb me didn't think a $4 bottle of hair gel was going to do much damage.

Well, it was a great gel! Takumi's hair spiked high and hard and both kids thought this a wonderful product. In fact, both kids lathered it onto their hair and played around in front of the mirror making odd hair dos. (Yes, these were teenagers. But with a new toy they are still kids at heart!) That same day however, we suddenly decided to make a day trip to the beach and neither child washed their hair before we started out. You can see where this is leading.

After a long day at the beach we piled in the car and I got a glance of my two kids in the rear view mirror.

"Oh my gosh! You guys have RED hair! Tetsu's going to kill me!"

Back home a label check showed the hair gel had peroxide in it which was activated by the strong sunlight and thus the change of hair color. I was horrified but Takumi and Leiya thought it a great product. No one else in my family seemed worried about their hair so the kids enjoyed the summer with red hair.

The night before we returned to Japan, Leiya and I went to Wal Mart and bought some black hair dye because I knew she'd get thrown out of school with red hair. I think Takumi just decided to cut his hair back before school started. Back in Japan Tetsu wasn't too happy with the results of our summer playtime but I promised we'd have a black haired Leiya before school started again. Well, the dye worked and Leiya went to school with no one the wiser but within a couple of weeks the black started washing out and she was back to red hair. That meant a letter from the school telling us that our daughter had disobeyed the no hair dying rules and we should get her hair back to normal color right away. I dyed it again. It stayed black for two weeks.

Okay. Let's try a beauty salon and have it done right this time. Again, fine for a couple of weeks but pretty soon Leiya's hair was back to red. Another letter from the school telling us that we were slacking as parents in allowing Leiya to dye her hair. At some point Tetsu blew a fuse and wrote back a very CLEAR letter saying that Leiya had NEVER dyed her hair in the first place (true) and we had now DYED her hair three times though the rule was NO HAIR DYING ALLOWED and we were now finished with the issue and would let Leiya's hair be any color it wanted to be!

The difficulties of living in a society where everyone is supposed to have black hair...

Leiya wants you to know that she doesn't look as stupid (her words not mine) as she did when she was 13. Here is a recent picture. Both kids have black hair...