Non-stop talking

I am rubbing my eyes and yawning as I write this. Yesterday our good friends, the Erickson's, came in from Washington state for a day with us. Sandra and I stayed up talking until 2:30 am! And we talked practically non-stop in the car as we did sightseeing touristy things too. We are probably going to have laryngitis tomorrow.

17 years ago, I took my kids to a neighborhood park and happened to see two little blond boys about Takumi's age playing on the swings. I asked if they lived nearby and they went running across the street to get their mother who joined us and thus began a close friendship. There was a little sister close to Leiya's age too and Sandra and I hit it off right away as did the husbands. For the next year and a half, we often did things together and one time when the American grandmas were visiting in Japan at the same time we all went off to a public bath which was a great adventure for everyone (I was especially proud of the grandmas).

But the Erickson's returned to the States a couple of years later (leaving us their furniture and their cat!) and we attempted to keep in touch by mail. Hmmph. Sandra isn't so great at keeping in touch. She'd send Christmas cards in February if at all. But the family did drive down to California one summer so we were able to see each other once 10 years ago.

Kids grow up. Husbands change jobs. Mothers get involved with friends and hobbies and life in general and 5 years would go by when we didn't really communicate. Out of the blue the younger son would call and say he was visiting Japan and wanted to come visit for a night. A few more years would go by and he'd call again and say he was now married and had a baby and was working in Japan. And then a couple of weeks ago the message arrived saying that his parents were coming to visit Japan and would like to see us! And that's what we did yesterday.

The Erickson's had to rent a car and husband Mark did a great job of driving on the narrow left-hand side roads. We met up in town and Sandra joined me in my car (Mark following) and drove the 30 minutes back home non-stop talking. We dropped in at a senbei (cracker) shop and enjoyed sampling senbei and talking. The whole family joined my evening English classes and chatted with my students and Tetsu finally came home so we all enjoyed a late dinner and more talking. And as I say, Sandra and I stayed up half the night filling each other in on the years.

I was most worried about the Ericksons' reaction to our menagerie but thankfully Baby Eden just loved cats! And Toi especially seemed to find Baby Eden very interesting. So the kitties kept the baby happy while the rest of us talked some more. I think some cat did open the guest room door in the middle of the night and another ate one of Sandra's bags, but since Baby Eden was kept occupied everyone was very forgiving.

Aren't these a cute bunch of pictures? No. None of us are baby abusers. Baby Eden closed herself up in the cage herself! Baby Eden really thought the kitty cage was a wonderful place to play and crawled in and was quite happy opening and closing the door and letting Toi come in too when he was investigating the pink creature in his cage.

This morning (minus working Tetsu) we drove up to the beautiful lake and waterfall in the outer mountains of Nikko and of course it was chat, chat, chat all the way up and all the way back!

The Ericksons have gone on their way to their next stop on their vacation and I'm ready for a nap.

Small projects

Between cleaning house I've been doing some sewing and crossing things off my to do list.

First I made some more luggage tags. These are easy to do and because they use a bit of plastic to hold a card they don't look handmade (except for the strange job on the buttonhole stitch. That was definitely amateur.) I've sent these off to Leiya's friend for her birthday.

Then I decided that I really had been slacking on Prayer and Square Quilts. I still have two pinkish flimsys in a drawer but I really ought to have a stack of these ready for tying. The trouble is that I'm a little tired of making the Around the World pattern though it is very fast. So I thought I'd try my hand at something else quick and easy. Looking around the website I thought the Heartstrings quilt would be good but actually since I'm working alone, it took quite a while to make 24 heartstring blocks. Probably my strings are too narrow or something. And I don't think my choice of center fabric was very good. Much too busy. The result may be too showy for a Prayer and Square quilt (though cheery that's for sure).

Question. What is the easiest and fastest quilt you've ever made? I mean I know I could just cut a couple fabrics into big 10" blocks and sew them together, but I want something that takes a bit more effort. I'm going to go back to the Prayer and Square website and look around but if you have any suggestions I would love to know.

It's a dilemma. For a prayer quilt, something that can be quickly made up is important. But it needs to be beautiful and comforting too. And considering the cost, it might be nice if I could just make it up from left over fabric that might not get used elsewhere. Trying to balance these three criteria is the challenge...

And lastly... What do you think I'm making with this block? I've gone wonky with this and I'm working on another identical block...

Senpai-kohai

Today I have another guest writer for my blog. I convinced my jr. high school student to tell me about his school life. Tetsuhiro is very good in English and makes the effort to use the English words he knows to communicate. The other day I asked him to tell me about the senpai-kohai system in English and I wrote down his information and made it into a composition for him.

The senpai-kohai system is unique in Japan. Japanese value superiority and rank and the language and vocabulary changes depending on which person of rank you are speaking to. (This is why Japanese love business cards. It lets them know immediately what rank the other person is so they can adjust their language accordingly. It is also the reason why one of the first questions one asks a foreigner is their age.) Unfortunately the ranking system can get out of hand in the adolescent years and it can escalate into never ending hazing, much like when joining a fraternity or sorority.

I hope you enjoy Tetsuhiro's observations of jr. high school life.

In Japan, there is the senpai-kohai system. "Senpai" means senior or older person and "kohai" means junior or younger person.

Right now I am a first year student in jr. high school, and my senpai are the second and third year students. Next year when I am a second year student I will have third year senpai and first year kohai.

Even in companies, anyone who has worked longer than you is your senpai. The senpai teach the kohai the ropes of company life. In school, the senpai will teach the kohai about techniques or skills in the school clubs. Senpai are important for making a group of students into a team. I like the senpai at my school because they are kind and interesting. My school has very good senpai. I'm lucky.

BUT... In some jr. high schools the senpai are very mean. The school may not have a rule about something but the senpai will make "rules". For example, most jr. high students spend all day in the gym clothes. The gym clothes have a zipper in front. In school the first year students are only allowed (by senpai rules) to zip their shirt up to the collar. But second year and third year students can zip all the way up or leave their gym clothes loose. If a first year student wears his gym clothes another way, he will get scolded by the senpai or bullied.

Another example is socks. The senpai say that first year students are only allowed to wear white socks that go to the calf. Only if you are a second year or third year student can you wear socks other than white, or socks that have designs, or ankle socks. If you get on the bad side of a senpai you will be bullied until the senpai graduates. And the senpai are very good at not letting the teachers know about the bullying.

I'm glad I go to my jr. high school and don't have problems with senpai. Next year I will be a second year student and I want to be a kind and friendly senpai.

Tetsuhiro

Tetsuhiro in his gym clothes... Zipper hanging loose.

Daikon and seaweed

I was thinking about what all we eat in Japan yesterday, especially as it related to diets, not necessarily diets for losing weight. It reminded me of a diet I was on right after Takumi was born. We are talking about the dark ages here but it was an unusual time in my life that's for sure.

When I was a young mother I was adamant that I was going to breast feed my babies. While I was pregnant I read up on it and thought that if I just didn't take the easy formula way out I would have no problems. This is what generations of mothers had done since time began!

But, it wasn't that easy. The hospital Takumi was born at automatically gave babies formula. When we went home a week later there I was with a screaming baby latched onto me 24/7 and I ended up giving him more and more formula which I hated. By "chance" I met a mother in the park and mentioned that I really had wanted to breast feed but it wasn't working out and she gave me the number of a mid-wife nearby that specialized in helping mothers breast feed. She also claimed that her methods would cure eczema in babies.

For the next year I went daily to this mid wife's clinic and met with many babies and their mothers. The daily visit was for breast massage to stimulate breast milk but besides that the midwife put all the mothers on strict diets. STRICT!

"If you aren't willing to follow my advice then you don't need to come back!"

The diet was thus: For the first month the new mothers ate only white rice, daikon and seaweed. Yep. That's it. Supposedly this was supposed to improve breast milk flavor (so that the babies went at it with more gusto) and remove impurities. This is where the eczema treatments came in. It also was necessary to improve milk flow. Each time Takumi and I went the breast milk was tested and he was observed and gradually new foods were introduced into the diet. Mothers were required to keep a diary of all foods consumed, the amounts and the eating times and the midwife would advise daily.

Tetsu let me do what I wanted to do. Even back then he wasn't around much so he ate separately. I ate rice, daikon and seaweed. My American friends especially told me I was crazy, that I was in danger of ruining my health and that the midwife was running a scam. Everyone was telling me to accept the available formula and stop such foolishness.

"Tanya, that's ridiculous! Think of all the cultures in the world that don't even eat daikon and seaweed!"

The interesting thing was that though my weight plummeted, healthwise I was very fine, the breast milk began to flow and even in the other babies that had come with such terrible eczema I could see a miraculous improvement daily! The midwife might be running a controversial clinic but she did seem to be getting results!

I can remember the great day when the midwife added raw scallops to my diet, the first addition after a month of seaweed and radishes. I fairly skipped to the supermarket to buy this delicacy and thereafter foods were added gradually, other vegetables, soy products, fish, meat and finally noodles. I don't think I was allowed to eat eggs or dairy products for the whole year that I commuted to and from the clinic.

Takumi successfully breastfed until he took his first step, the "time best suited to wean a baby since his world has suddenly broadened". After all my problems getting started breast feeding I couldn't believe that now we were going to try to wean this baby so suddenly. Impossible! That child couldn't live without me pulling up my shirt every few hours! But the day came, I went to the clinic. The midwife painted two funny faces on my breasts in felt pen. The next time Takumi came toddling up and I peeled back my shirt, he took a look at the funny faces, gave a laugh and never again showed an interest in breast feeding. That midwife knew her stuff!

I went through a similar routine with Leiya too but all in all was successful the second time around too. Tetsu has held my breast feeding sacrifices and diet over my kids' heads all their lives and he fully believes that my efforts resulted in two very healthy children.

"You thank your mother for all she went through to give you kids a good start in life!"

I still love raw scallops and whenever I eat them I remember Takumi's first year of life.

I also wonder why I can't stick to a diet now when I could that long ago year... (pictures from the Internet)

Bags

Saturday while housecleaning I came across a couple of patchwork bags I've made in the past. I haven't really made too many bags in all my years of patchwork but I know many Japanese women do and there are loads of books for making bags of all sorts in the bookstores and libraries. In fact there is a whole genre of books called kindergarten bags in Japan.

All children when they start kindergarten in Japan need to have numerous bags to travel to and from kindergarten. Early after being accepted into a kindergarten the mother will be given instructions to buy (heaven forbid!) or make bags of certain dimensions. Now most Japanese mothers will go about this with great enthusiasm and I was no exception. This is a visual way to show the world what a loving and devoted mother you are! So books are are acquired and mothers (sometimes grandmothers) go about sewing up some bags that are going to make their child just thrilled to trot off to kindergarten!

So, just what sort of bags...? First a fairly large tote bag for carrying things like an extra change of clothes and towels and luncheon mats (all matching in my case!) Then there are the smaller bags. These are necessary for carrying a lunch box, sometimes with a separate bag for chopsticks, and a bag for a drinking cup. There are bags necessary for the toothbrush and also for the indoor school shoes. Sometimes another bag is needed for carrying home borrowed library books...

With Takumi I remember appliqueing felt pieces of cars and trucks onto the homemade tote bag. For Leiya I needle turned a pink Sunbonnet Sue like creature. I'm surprised at my handwork when I look at the pictures because I don't think too much of the colors or the fabrics that I used but I remember being quite proud of them at the time though I don't know about how the kids felt. Probably with Leiya we browsed the library books together for a pattern. (picture from 1993!)

When children get to elementary school age they are going out into the real world with store bought bags but still there are the gym clothes bags, the indoor shoe bags, the cups and toothbrush bags and the library bags. (No more lunch boxes.) Not to mention the very expensive leather randosel backpacks that are required. Poor children look so loaded down on Monday mornings!

I ought to use my old bags now that they are out and photographed. They never seem to hold enough or they sag so badly with all the weight I carry around...

Velvet appearance

This week some friends from the States are coming for a visit and will stay with us a day or two. Now, I have warned them that we have 5 indoor cats and there is more cat fur flying around than in most houses but they are willing to risk the cats to spend some time with us. Even so, Tetsu thought we should do some major cleaning before our guests arrive and we dubbed yesterday "Major Cleaning Day". This entailed things like Tetsu fixing the sofa (again), and me washing curtains and the dusting the upstairs rooms that will be used as guest rooms.

A day of cleaning makes things smell fresh. And while I was upstairs I rearranged my sewing room (again). There aren't really too many possible arrangements and I think this is how I had it before but it is clean again. The sewing room is too stuffed with stash boxes and strip crates and crumb baskets and all the other paraphernalia to be turned into a guest room. BUT I've turned it into Velvet's room!

Velvet continues to live out life under a chair so now he has his own room. I've put his heater in it and a box to relax in and rigged a way so that the other cats can't open the door (yes, they usually can) and he can sit at the window and look out on the world again. I spend quite a lot of time up there anyway so I don't think he'll be too lonely and it is better than living under a chair.

In the meantime, Toi enjoys a fluffy cushion on the table.

Winding Ways finished!

I finished the Winding Ways/Wheels of Mystery quilt! I must say, as with life in general, things sort of worked out in the end. Although I was having real concerns about the waviness in the borders, once laid out it really isn't that noticable. I probably need to block this (light wash and pin to the carpet, right? Keep cats out of the room... impossible) but I went ahead and put it up on the wall last night.

Quilting... I used the walking foot and did graduated circles inside the 6 main circles. That worked out well with only a little puckering at the cross threads. BUT, that meant that there were the centers of the circles that were unquilted. That's not so good. I went ahead and meander stitched the outer background with my freehand quilting foot and that turned out much better than I though it would. I thought about doing leaves inside the circle centers but couldn't see the quilting at all with all the mixing of batiks, so I took out the small portion I tried. The seam ripper is my best friend. Instead I got the walking foot back out and stitched in the ditch at the inner circles. More puckering. What I SHOULD have done was stitch in the ditch at each block FIRST, then stitch in the ditch around ALL the circles, THEN do the gradated inner circles.

That left only the border. I was undecided as to whether I wanted to leave the border plain to show off the dyed fabric or do some fancy freehand quilting. I tried a few inches of feathers. Not the look I want at all! Seam ripper back out. I tried fronds. No, no, no. Too fussy. Rip, rip, rip. So it was back to the walking foot and I did gradated lines around the border.

This would never get too many points from a real machine quilter and even my friends who aren't machine quilting enthusiasts may shake their heads at the jumpy stitches and poofs here and there. But it is great for my wall and I'm pleased and proud to show my first attempts at blending batiks and quilting with a walking foot.

How to fold a T-shirt

The other night one of my jr. high school students and I were talking about TV programs and unusual things in Japan and we both remembered a TV program a year or so ago where they introduced "How to Fold a T-Shirt". So we decided to re-inact the process for you. (You can actually see the real thing on You-Tube). We both tried folding on camera but my student did a better job of filming than I did and he didn't want to be on my blog.

Please excuse the messy room. We had been studying and doing some writing before we got to the T-shirt part and it was sort of spur of the moment. If I had been planning to show this I would have cleaned the room first!!!



Actually I hang my T-shirts in the closet but this is sort of a fun way to do it. Trick your kids into trying it!

Japanese food

When I first started blogging I thought I would be writing about quilting and knitting with an occasional cat post thrown in. Then I thought it would be easy to write once a week about what we eat around here. But I don't like to cook. I DO cook during the week but rarely on the weekends. For awhile I was even taking a monthly cooking class but the class ended and though I had fun I never have incorporated much of what I learned into the daily menus.

There are the ol' faithful menus. For our family these are things like Spicy Chinese Tofu. Curry Rice. Japanese Vegetable Soup. Korean Kimchee Stew. Sounds exotic when I write it down but these are dishes I can make with little thought and whatever I have in the kitchen. Occasionally I will try new recipes from Japanese magazines but western recipe books and recipes don't get tried often. Too many things that I can't get in the Japanese markets or if I can get them they are just too expensive to buy.

This was our dinner a couple of nights ago. It needed a little color didn't it. It turned out very Japanese and seemed typical of an evening meal. There is the ever present white rice. And there is the miso soup. I think I put turnips and deep fried tofu and green onions in it. There is a slice of grilled fish that has been marinated in miso. There is a small plate of spicy bamboo shoot pickles (from a jar). There is a salad of cucumbers and seaweed. And the vegetable is a serving of boiled greens that have been mixed with fermented soybeans (natto) green onions, and mayonnaise. Tetsu also added a block of cold tofu to his dinner but that's too much tofu for me.

Preparing Japanese food takes too long for me and all those little dishes to wash up afterwards makes the thought of making a Japanese meal dreary. I guess it is healthy enough... Tasted pretty good too.

"Engrish"

Wednesday. I ought to start a Wordless Wednesday as many of you do. I never have much time to post on Wednesday. Oh well, how about some English foibles I found this week. Those are always kind of fun.

This is what I found on a package of dog potty sheets. I've only ever kept big dogs so I don't even know if these are sold in the States. You know, sort of like thin diaper material that absorbs at the bottom of the tray that the indoor dogs use... Now tell me. Why was this phrase put on this package? What were they trying to say and what does this have to do with doggie liners? And with the raspberry constituents, are they expecting you to style your hair or your eye? (Yes, doggie liners.)

This is a sign I see when driving to and from the city. It is for a hair salon. Excuse me if I don't go there to get my hair styled. I wonder if they know what Oops means. Oops like in "Oops, I cut off too much of your hair there." or Oops like in "Sorry. Do you want to take your ear home in a plastic bag?"

Waiting in Line to Enroll in Kindergarten!?

My friend and English student, Mrs. Ehara, was telling me about why she chose the kindergarten she sent her daughter to (where I teach English) and what all she had to do to get her daughter enrolled. I thought it was a very interesting situation and not all that unusual in Japan. A couple other mothers were telling me that it was difficult to enroll children in some of the other kindergartens in the city and I have heard of kindergartens in Tokyo where they child goes to preparatory class BEFORE applying to a kindergarten so that they can pass the difficult entry exams. (to KINDERGARTEN!!)

Anyway, I asked Mrs. Ehara to write me a composition and she sent along a sweet picture of herself and Mion. (I think, Mion means "Beautiful sound".)

I have one child, a daughter, and her name is Mion. Mion is 7 years old and she is in the first grade now. In Japan, most children who are preschool age, (ages 3 to 5) attend kindergarten before they go to school. Mion went to kindergarten for three years. I wanted her to attend so that she would be able to make many friends and have some "sisters and brothers". I think kindergarten is a good place for children to learn how to relate with each other.

When choosing a kindergarten in Japan, some parents send their child to the one nearest their home which makes it convenient to take the child to and from kindergarten. Some parents choose a kindergarten according to what it offers in the way of progressive education. We can choose a kindergarten freely and enroll in the school which fits the child's personality or the family lifestyle. In our case, I wanted to send Mion to a small kindergarten, one that might be like an extended family. Mion and I joined some introductory groups which were held by each kindergarten for the pre-kindergarten child. I found out a lot about the kindergartens and their policies and based on that information, we decided on a kindergarten which we thought would be suitable for Mion.

Unfortunately, that kindergarten was very popular and the enrollment was limited. I had heard that there were many people who were hoping to apply for enrollment which surprised me. However I really wanted to send Mion to that kindergarten. When application day arrived I tried to get to the kindergarten as early as I possibly could. I went on the day before the actual application day! Even so, I was the eighth person in line! I had to wait in line until the next morning! Can you believe it?! But it's true and to attend this kindergarten that was what we needed to do.

When it was evening, my husband came to the kindergarten after work to take my place in line. He stayed overnight on the kindergarten grounds in a small log house which is built there. It was a very stormy night and the windows shook whenever the wind blew. He said he couldn't sleep at all that night! Early the next morning, the director of the kindergarten came to the log house and she passed out application forms. Though the day was very long and we were very tired, we were able to enroll Mion in the kindergarten of our choice!

Mion loved her kindergarten and our family had many wonderful experiences while she was there. We have so many good memories and we are happy with our decision and efforts to send Mion to this nice kindergarten.

Humph...

I am a little put out with my cats today.

These cats have the run of the house and they do not seem to appreciate their good life. Just last week they went through a whole box of fish snacks that they managed to knock off the shelf. And they regularly climb into the drawers and root out edibles from the human snack box. You know, cookies, bread, candies, crackers. And some cat found Choco's jerky snacks (kept in a heavy glass sealed jar) and pushed the jar off the shelf, not breaking the jar but getting the lid off so that he could eat ALL the jerky (and make himself sick).

Of course I cannot leave a bit of food on the counters or stove or the cats will be up there eating human food, and of course when we are eating and set food out on the tables someone has to guard the food until we sit down to eat.

This morning they did the pushing the jar off the shelf trick again and knocked the large Tupperware container of cat food onto the floor and pried it open spilling cat food all over the floor. Hmm. That's why none of the cats were up early this morning meowing and batting me in the face to wake me up so that I would feed them. And before they got the Tupperware lid off, they must have had a fit of frustration and decided to rip the cat sand package apart first. So there was cat food and cat sand all spread around the room. To wake up to that scene put me in a very bad mood and I snapped at Tetsu about why he hadn't wised up to putting cat food and cat sand in the proper place (the dryer) since he knew the cats did this. (He was the one who had brought all the stuff in from the car.)

But of course, I am just as annoyed at myself because I could have remembered to do the same thing and didn't. And the garbage can gets knocked over every morning because the cats have explored the innards during the night. And no. We don't have a door to our kitchen so there is no way to keep the cats out of that room.

And every morning and evening when Cleo gets locked in the bathroom so that he will leave Velvet in peace, he starts in doing his sculpting and whittling. Maybe we can sell his boards as cat art. Tetsu had nailed boards up to keep Cleo from destroying the door so now he only destroys the boards. With his teeth. It looks like we are going to go through a board every two months. Or Cleo is going to go through his teeth. So along with the cat food and cat sand I have last night's wood chips to vacuum up too. My vacuum cleaner is getting a workout.

And I have only myself to blame for taking in these feline freeloaders. So why am I complaining? I seriously thought about opening the front door and just letting them outside and they can tear up the forest or eat frogs or something.

Dang it all. Now I've got to apologize to Tetsu. He lets me keep all these animals so I've no right to get annoyed with him when I'm angry at them...

Choco's run

Tetsu had to work yesterday (Saturday) so I thought I'd go into the next town and bring him a Starbucks for a treat.

"BARK! BARK! BARK!"

"Okay, okay. You can come too."

It was a lovely day and not far from us is a very large park with a dog run (that I've never seen anyone use). Let's make a stop at the park. I checked out the dog run (which you have to pay to use) and then went and got the key and sign the necessary papers to make use of it. Choco was very excited.

We think that Choco is part Pointer, part Dalmation. She barks continually at birds and on the few occasions when Choco has gotten loose she is outa here and no stopping her! It is so futile to go chasing after this dog because she is so dang fast. But just to watch her go and not at least try to catch her before she gets into trouble seems very irresponsible. So I chase and she thinks it a great game. Even walking Choco, though I'm not feeble, I can't keep up with her pace and she is always pulling ahead. Poor dog wants to run!

The dog run was designed with an inner fenced in area and an outer track and we went in and I took Choco off her leash! What fun! Can that dog go! Almost too fast for me to catch her on camera but I snapped one picture before she flew off the screen. After awhile we were joined by another dog but that didn't work out too well. They didn't like each other so Choco went out on the track for awhile and ran laps (whether she wanted to or not I don't know. She wanted to get at the dog inside the run!) while the other dog played.

There were toys and games around for the dogs but Choco didn't give a glance at those. She ran and slid like a baseball player heading in to home base and she really tired herself out! A good day for Choco and watching her made me laugh!

We made our stop at Starbucks and she sat somewhat quietly on the porch area while I enjoyed a Latte. And Choco was very happy to see Tetsu when we delivered his Caramel Macciato Frappe.

"Dad! Dad! You should see me run!!"

Thread and quilting

Thank you for all the advice on threads a couple of days ago. And so many people offered to send me some! I was so amazed! But maybe I've solved my problems... at least the solution seems satisfactory.

After teaching yesterday I went to yet another quilt shop to see if I could match my thread. It is the largest fabric shop in Utsunomiya (meaning that 5 or 6 people can be in the patchwork section at the same time without bumping shoulders) and has a nice selection of fabrics and quilting notions. BUT I was surprised that they didn't carry any Dual Duty thread from Coats and Clark at all! Seems to me that that is a basic for quilters, hand quilting or not. But no. I asked and they didn't carry it. Ah-- another unsuccessful foray in my hunt for matching my thread. But wait! What's this? Another rack of threads and some were marked for machine quilting! I think I even saw Mettler thread there! So in a Japanese brand, in an almost identical variegated color, I found a spool of thread marked for "hand and machine quilting". Well, at least it wasn't just for hand quilting like I'd bought the day before. So I bought it (and some spray bond for basting! What a find!) and brought it home and tried quilting with it.

I finished my stippling last night. Hmmm. I can feel that the thread makes the sewing machine shudder more so maybe it really isn't a great thread for machine quilting. But there didn't seem to be any major bird's nests on the back of the quilt. Standing back from the quilt I can see a difference. My new spool is polyester thread and the old thread was cotton. Now I'm sure you are going to tell me that mixing threads like that was a no-no but the only visible difference is a slight shine to the polyester thread. Hopefully people looking at the quilt with think the light has fallen differently in different corners. This is not going to be an exhibited quilt!! This is just my latest experiment in using batiks and sewing curves and machine quilting.

So I've made due with the materials at hand but thank you anyway for the wonderful offer of sending me thread and friendship! I need to figure out something for the centers of my circles next... And then the border... That's on the docket for today!

And speaking of quilting. Here is a block that makes me want to do some hand quilting again (I'm so fickle). This is one of the quilting patterns from Mrs. Furui's latest quilt. She adapted this pattern from another one so I guess you could say it is an original Furui design! Such tiny stitches in a wonderfully bold dark color!

Thursday patchwork

Yesterday I went to patchwork bearing gifts. But not any from me! Look at what Lorraine sent our patchwork group! We had showed such an interest in the Australian quilt books and patterns and techniques that Lorraine gathered up load of information for us to squeal over again! Oh the patterns we want to try!


Of course it is going to be up to li'l ol' me to read all the instructions and get them in my head and then relay the information to everyone else so I've got to spend some time going through this all. Lorraine even sent a CD of pictures of her quilts and quilting patterns and that was fun to look through! Let's see. Someone wants to make that penguin block and I want to make the frog block. Such cute embroidery patterns there too! We are never going to find time to do a fraction of the treasure sent to us!!! A GREAT BIG THANK YOU LORRAINE!!!

And thanks to the applique lesson Lorraine gave us when she visited, we made short work of our applique wreaths. Don't these look nice and colorful! I think we all did a great job on the button-hole applique even though it was a first for everyone. There will be a bias strip added in the middle and that is our homework for the week.

The pieced blocks are going to be made out of mostly my leaders-enders bin and some of Mrs. Furui's 2" squares ready to turn into leaders-enders. Hmm. Do you want to take a guess at which side of the box is filled with my squares and which side of the box is filled with Mrs. Furui's? Not hard to tell who has the organizational skills in this friendship. I cut squares and throw them in a pile and when needed plunge my hand into the bin, grab one, shake my hand until the others flutter back into the box. Mrs. Furui cuts precisely, irons and stacks her 2" squares by color and delicately riffles through a stack until she finds a suitable match for whatever she is making. Both ways work. Choose your own way.

Unfortunately all the pieced blocks (most of them are made) did not make a dent in our leaders-enders bins.

Christian content… Some ramblings…

I don't know if I really want to post this but this is what I've been thinking recently.

The other day Leiya was on chat and was very upset with college life in general. She is applying for scholarships and though I don't know what the process is, she seems to be having trouble. A frantic cry from across cyberspace.

"I haven't gotten any scholarships. What am I going to do? I think I'm going to have to take off from college for a year and work. I got a lot of scholarships for my freshman year and if I don't get any this year then how are you going to pay my college expenses?"

It wasn't until a couple of days later that Tetsu and I actually had a chance to talk with Leiya and I contemplated how we should go about reassuring her. "Don't worry. Everything will be alright." seemed too flip.

And I have no idea if everything will be alright. Trying to keep two kids in college has been a major concern but we are entering our 6^th year of this and somehow we've managed so far. Not somehow. By God's grace and guidance and abundant gifts.

This is the essence of living by faith. I have no idea where the money to keep Leiya in school is going to come from. Tetsu can't take on a second job that's for sure and as an English teacher in Japan I make at least as much money as I would if I were working in an office or the supermarket or someplace. And to be perfectly honest, I like the schedule I have now. I don't WANT to work more even if I could. I make a decent amount of money for an over-the-hill housewife.

I do know that when talking with Leiya I felt very sad that she had to think about these things and that she felt responsible for not making it easier on us to pay her college fees. That doesn't seem right to me but maybe I'm from a different generation. It seems that Leiya's job; the job of the young people going to college should be to be studying. To be trying to absorb as much knowledge as they can in the 4 years. To be trying to form their own opinions and theories so that they can someday have an impact on society. Leiya shouldn't have to have financial pressures on top of her study pressures. She should leave that to her parents. We're the ones who should feel responsible for keeping her in school and if we can't it is no fault of Leiya's. But actually Tetsu and I haven't given things too much thought. Our kids just tell us when things need to be paid and we seem to find the money somewhere to pay the bills (thanks to the scholarships!) Both our kids try their best to make life easy for Tetsu and me and both Takumi and Leiya are extremely thrifty, and very grateful and it makes it easy for us to want to keep them in school.

God opens doors and performs miracles. It was a miracle that Leiya got scholarships last year in the first place. Tetsu and I never expected that at all. There just isn't that system in Japan and so when she told us that so much money had come through for her we truly thought of it as a blessing from God. If money doesn't come through this year, well, okay. We've had our blessings and not receiving more doesn't diminish the ones we've already received. If the doors close for Leiya's college, that doesn't necessarily mean that she didn't do enough or we didn't do enough. It is God leading her in another direction. Leiya's desire and Tetsu and my desires are for her to continue school but if it doesn't work out that way then I'm sure she will find that whatever way she is lead will be the right one.

So Tetsu and I tried to tell all this to Leiya when we were talking to her.

"Don't worry about it. It is not your problem. Your job is to study hard and do the classes and projects and papers that are in front of you as best you can. The money problem is OUR problem. Your thinking about it doesn't change the problem one bit. If you can apply to scholarships, fine. If they don't come through, fine. It doesn't reflect on you at all."

I don't know that Leiya felt relieved by talking with us or not. Her future is still up in the air.

And I went away from the conversation thinking, "Okay. Now it is up to us. Tetsu and I have got to figure out how we're going to pull this off. Now he and I will stay up nights trying to work out a plan."

But wait. What did I just say to Leiya.

"Don't worry about it. It is not your problem. Your job is to do what is in front of you to the best of your abilities. Don't worry about money and extra jobs and what might or might not come about. Worrying doesn't change the situation a bit. Leave it to….God. Tanya, leave it to God. He knows what you desire. He's set you all on your path already and He's taken you through this far. He is the only one who has the ability to tweak the situation. If the door closes that is okay too. It just means that there is another direction. GOD IS IN CONTROL.

My thoughts in some of the mundane problems of life. At least today. Some days I am wringing my hands and adding up figures and trying to tell God how to make our lives easier.

Labels and quilting

I did get a label made for my 365 Challenge. I wrote a bit of information and then also added a poem that Liz had sent me a while back entitled Life's a Patchwork. I thought it was suitable for a quilt of one year of life.

I also started machine quilting the Winding Ways quilt. Not bad, not bad. I used the walking foot to quilt inside the 6 major circles and though a little jerky in places the overall effect is what I was hoping for. I loved the advice to just get in there and start quilting! If I wait until I think I'm good enough I'll never get anything made and won't get the practice either.

So I quilted. Definitely easier (this is smaller, right?) than the 365 Challenge. What to do with the "background"? I made a fabric sandwich and did a bit of stipple practicing. These are trying to be waves in a pond. Takes some stretching of imagination, I know. But I went at it and though I got confused in a couple of places, I quilted about a 1/4 of the background. BUT HORRORS! I've run out of quilting thread! I don't know how I do it every time. I really didn't think I'd used this thread for much before and I couldn't tell how much thread was still on the spoon when I started but it seemed like a lot (wrong).

Yesterday I went to the fabric shop to see if I could find more of the same thread. Nope. Actually I don't even know where I bought this. Maybe America. Certainly not in the local quilt shop because I noticed that though they carried Coats and Clark, they did NOT carry any thread specifically for machine quilting. It was either All-purpose or Hand quilting. That makes sense since I don't know anyone else who does machine quilting. And none of the thread was in the variegated color that I used so I'm up a creek. I bought Hand quilting variegated thread in a green-brown. Maybe I can pretend I was PLANNING a thread color change on the other three quarters of this quilt...