Sewing Friday

Yesterday Mrs. Nakazawa and Rumi-san came for a patchwork day.  They had two purposes.  One, to work on their Works In Progress.  In Rumi's case, a small applique wall hanging and a daisy quilt, in Mrs. Nakazawa's case, her Kitty applique quilt and the same daisy quilt.  And both ladies still have blocks to make for their Bible quilts.  The other purpose was to try out their new sewing machines!!!

Back in June, just before I went to the States, I had researched and visited machine shops and with my friends in mind, recommended a couple of sewing machines.  The three of us tried the machines out and Rumi-san and Mrs. Nakazawa settled on a make within their budgets (well... a little over their budgets.)  They bought their machines, but then I went to the States and neither lady had even taken the machines out of the boxes!!  Can you believe it?  I would have torn into that box within minutes and started trying out the buttons and levers and nurturing a love affair with the new sewing machine.  But my friends waited, unwilling to explore alone a terrifying world of bobbin winders, automatic threaders and tension dials.

So both ladies came lugging their machines to my house and we un-taped, removed Styrofoam and pulled out the instruction booklets.  And then began the sewing... Rumi-san sewed strips, Mrs. Nakazawa tried her hand at free-motion sewing.  Yum!  I am very envious of my friends' new toys!

As the afternoon went on, Mrs. Nakazawa went back to finishing up her Kitty quilt.  She needed to sew on button eyes.  And Cleo offered to help.

 "Ooh!  What are you doing?  I want to help too!"

Mi came over to watch.

"Cleo, I think the buttons need to be closer together.  What do you think?"

It's a good thing Mrs. Nakazawa believes that a true quilt needs a lot of cat hair.  There are not too many of my friends who would actually rejoice at having such enthusiastic 'helpers'.

And here is Mrs. Nakazawa's finished Kitty applique quilt!  Isn't it a beauty!  She did such a fantastic job!  I wish I'd made it too!
 

Fiery star flimsy

I spent a lot of yesterday SEWING!  And I am happy to say that I now have another flimsy!

Starr Fire (I've been calling it Fiery Star but the pattern is called Starr Fire) has definitely turned out fiery!  It gave me some headaches but I think the abundant color will hide the imperfections.

 

I tried to be extra careful when piecing this...measuring and remeasuring the 1/4 inch seam, but from the beginning my sewn strips did not fit the acrylic template provided.  I can't remember if my pieces were too big or too small but anyway the lines did not match up.  I forged ahead to the next step.

With strip blocks too something, I wasn't sure if I should match up the template tip, the template bottom or try for one of the template lines.  Arghh!  Well, I basically had template shape pieces.  Forging onward.

Sewing the odd template pieces to the center purple square wasn't much of a problem with the partial seams, but the finished blocks' final measurements did not come out to what they were supposed to be.  And when I tried centering them and cutting them to a standard size I lost a good 3/4 of an inch on each one!  Oh dear.  This quilt is going to be a lot smaller than planned!  (Better that than a lost corner on some of the blocks.)

And when sewing the blocks together I found that though the blocks were all the same size, the seam lines did not match up at all.  If I'd STARTED with the exact size strip blocks I think these seams would have matched.

And also the points of the stars.  Those are all off too.  At this point I was wondering if not only did I have a too small quilt but also a disaster. ...The quilt was still pretty though...

 

I congratulated myself on having bought quite a lot of extra purple fabric and I thought about making extra wide borders.  And then I realized I still had some left over ends of the strip blocks so I cut those up and made an extra border.  (I'd seen this idea on Ferret Fabricates blog when I went looking for people on the Internet who had made this quilt) and THEN I added a wide border.

 

Yeah!  So now the flimsy is put together.  It looks very bright and fiery, the color drowns out all the mis-matched seams and my niece, if and when she gets this on her bed, isn't going to know that I had a dilly of a time with this at all.

(Of course I've still got the quilting to worry about and that will be a super dilly!)

I'm happy so far!  Too bad I don't have a room that is big enough for laying this out.

Peeping-Tanya

After our gyouza fest, Tetsu and I followed signs and went looking for a hot spring.  And it turns out that we had been to this one before when the kids were still in elementary school.  I distinctly remember coming to this hot spring town and discovering this old hot spring at the side of the river.

Ah, such a lovely site, hidden away behind the trees on the edge of a mountain.  Listen to the water rushing over the rocks, the far off train making its way across the bridge, the rustling leaves.  Look at the sparkling water, the wild flowers within reach of the bath, the tourists watching from the hotel windows.  HOTEL WINDOWS???!!!!!

 

Yes, directly across from the open air baths are three or four hotels and all their windows face the beautiful river and mountain scenery... and the local hot spring (the hotels each have their own hot springs anyway.) Well!

Actually the hot spring now has high wooden slats that keep the open air baths well secluded, but when we visited years ago with the children it was completely out in the open.  True, one side was for men and one side was for women and true, there is quite a distance from the hotel windows opposite but one look at this place and Takumi declared he was NOT taking a bath that was this public!  Tetsu didn't care, Leiya (still 6 or 7) thought it great fun and I was young enough to think of it as an adventure.  Takumi waited while the rest of us watched tourists watching us...

But, as I said, the new hot spring facilities have slats now and I didn't have to worry about tourists this weekend.  After my bath I went walking along the river (Tetsu takes longer in the bath) and lo and behold I came across a sign that offered co-ed facilities.  Hmmm.  I don't think I'm that adventurous anymore.  Not that it matters.  I don't think this ol' bod would attract much attention.

As I crossed the bridge to the other side of the river I looked back and sure enough, the co-ed bath was completely out in the open giving tourists (and me) a clear view of the bathers and soakers.  Uh-hum.  Some old grandpa was sitting there in all his glory, giving the world and me a thrill!  Oh my!  I definitely wouldn't be able to just slip into the water beside the old geezer and share a co-ed bath with him...  (I did check out whether there were any women and there weren't...)

 

There's only so much togetherness I can take!

Gyouza

Hmmm.  Something has changed on my Blogger account but I can't figure out what.  The "create" page is completely different.  I wonder if this is going to go through...

Yesterday was a holiday in Japan and Tetsu and I made use of the extra day by going to a gyouza festival for lunch and then off to another onsen (hot spa).

Gyouza is a type of Chinese dumpling filled with vegetables and meat and usually served with a spicy soy sauce vinegar sauce.  Since the city next to us specializes in gyouza we end up eating it a lot!  (And LOVE it!)  Yesterday Tetsu and I each ate 20 gyouza!  (I think 6 is considered a serving.)  We skipped dinner.

I have made gyouza by hand as most supermarkets sell ready made gyouza wrappers.  Chop up cabbage and Chinese cabbage and leeks and green onions and carrots and garlic and ginger.  Add ground meat and sesame seed oil and egg and soy sauce.  Mix it all up and wrap a spoonful in the gyouza wrapper.  Making gyouza is a lot of work (and each family will have Mom's special gyouza) but as the city specializes in gyouza I rarely make my own anymore.  Gyouza restaurants and frozen gyouza are prevalent.  Yesterday at the festival there were at least 10 different gyouza booths from the famous gyouza shops in town.

(By the way, Leiya reports that gyouza at one of the popular Chinese fast food places in the States is NOT authentic gyouza, though the other Chinese dishes are pretty good.)

I'm still full from yesterday's gyouza spree.  We need to go on a diet from today...

Dragonflies

It is still hot and humid around here. The farmers are beginning to harvest their fields but to avoid the heat, Choco and I don't get out for a walk until early evening.

I suppose another sign of approaching autumn are the many dragonfly that hover over the fields or rest on the taller stalks. Supposedly one can hypnotize dragonflies by twirling a finger right in front of their eyes but I can't get close enough to start twirling. And I'm trying not to drop a camera too!

That's what a zoom lens is for, Tanya!

Choco and I went out into the fields and tried to capture dragonflies digitally.

Not greatly successful but it was a photo challenge.

A lone dragonfly observing the incoming storm clouds.

How many dragonflies? 1, 2, 3, 4. At least in that picture. They were all over the field and they all "pointed" toward the slight breeze coming from the south.

"Mr. Dragonfly, you stay right there while I figure out how to adjust the exposure meter, the depth of field, the aperture and get manually focused."

Mr. Dragonfly was very patient while I fumbled and dropped the lens cap and Choco's leash. ("Choco! Don't you dare move!!!)

I love a challenge!

Cleaning the church

Yesterday was my day to clean the church. Every week the members take turns coming in to give the church area a surface cleaning. Because the pastor and his wife live on the grounds, usually they come and give a hand but yesterday I just showed up on my own schedule (and with my own key). The pastor and his wife were out and I enjoyed cleaning and meditating (and taking pictures!) by myself.

Here is the entryway to our church. Again, members take turns manning the desk, passing out the Order of Service, and checking off who has arrived. Yes! In the Japanese churches (all that I've ever been to!) role is taken! Some churches have you write your name as you come in, some churches have a members' list that one checks off each week. It would seem that since there are so few members anyway that at a glance the pastor knows who has been there and who hasn't but maybe for the church records?

The Bible quilt in the church entryway is not mine! It is my friend, Kaoru-san's. She is a sometime quilter... but quilting is not a great love of hers. Kaoru-san worked many, many months on this quilt, coming to my house for patterns and fabric, borrowing needles and thread and quilting hoop. It is the only large quilt that she has ever made yet she immediately offered it as a symbol of her love, to the church.

Walking a bit farther into the church (a whole 5 steps) there are "family " pictures on the wall that we try to take every New Years. The open door is the sanctuary.

Across from the sanctuary door there are two bathrooms and sink area. I don't know why buildings in Japan often have the bathroom as the first thing one sees but it is true of churches and even houses. (I really like my own little house because the bathroom is hidden away at the back of the house, not next to the front door!)

The kitchen has a window (on the left, the bright window there faces the outside) looking into the sanctuary and here the children will play during services or the pastor's wife will hold a Sunday School class. Not too much cooking goes on here.

The sanctuary itself is small but bright. When the church was built 10 years ago, the builder decided he wanted to try to make curved ceilings (he thought it a very "Christian" type of architecture.) The two small stained glass windows were also made as a labor of love by one of our church members.

And two years ago I made a quilt rendition of our church with "stained glass" quilting techniques. I took a picture of the church, enlarged it in Word, traced over it and then blew it up to "poster" size in Exel. From there I traced onto fabric and then did the easy stained glass applique technique. If you asked me to do it again I don't think I could! (the blowing up part. The applique I can do!) This is up on the sanctuary wall along with the Sunday School artwork.

So this is our little church of 25 people. Cleaning takes about 30 minutes. Swish and swipe in the bathrooms, vacuuming and dry mopping all the other floors, moving the pews back into position, dusting the pews and piano. I did a bit of sorting old papers and flyers yesterday too and gave the outside a sweep with a bamboo broom.

All ready for Sunday morning!

Some sewing

I really don't have much to show in the way of sewing this week. I'm still making fiery stars but I'm not done with those yet.

I got waylaid with Mrs. Furui's project of making things for the hospital bazaar and after spending quite some time looking at the many links my blog friends sent me, I did sit down at the sewing machine. (Sometimes I spend more time on the computer THINKING about sewing than actually doing the sewing!)

I was most intrigued with the snap closure bags that someone recommended. I had seen something similar on Annie O's blog and really wanted to try destroying a tape measure just to see if I could. And I can!

I had this cute seersucker watermelon fabric that my friend sent me... but it was a bit difficult to use in quilts (though I did). I thought it was just the thing for little bags! The snap closures work out great but the unfinished seams on the bags are probably not going to be too much to Mrs. Furui's liking (she would figure out a way to make French seams or something) I really didn't want to put too much more time into this project, at least thinking time. I may sew up a couple more this week.

In the evenings I've been hand sewing the little stuffed bears. Well, they aren't stuffed yet. My plan is to make a bunch of these sewn patterns and then take them to a Patchwork Thursday and ask my friends to turn them and stuff them and sew on eyes. I think I can make this into a fast assembly line project for four or five people. They don't look like much now do they?

And lastly, I added some more circle flowers to Mrs. Yamaguchi's game quilt. She was really getting bogged down on appliqueing the circles and I was giving her a hard time about how she needed to make her templates more exact and needed to starch her gathered circles before she sewed them down. She looked so forlorn about my criticism that I offered to do a couple of flowers for her. (I didn't do them all... She still has two more that she had better learn to do herself.) This is going to be such a beautiful quilt when she gets it all done! All her quilting friends have been sewing lots of circle flowers for her!

Okay... back to the sewing room!

No more barking?

Choco has gotten into the bad habit of waking up at 4:00 AM and expecting the rest of us to wake up too. She is in a cage in the entry way during the night (to keep her from barking at cars and neighborhood cats in the middle of the night) and basically she is quiet and content. Until 4:00 AM! At 4:00 AM she starts whining and yelping which crescendos into an all out barking frenzy when the paper boy arrives. At that point Tetsu and I get up and we all go for a walk.

Tetsu is constantly grumbling about all the work this dog takes. And even my vet had shaken his head at all of Choco's barking. So I bit the bullet and ordered a No-Bark collar! Let me tell you! It was expensive!

The collar works by spraying citronella into the dog's face whenever she barks. Supposedly this will stop the unconscious barking of which Choco has down to a fine art. Tetsu and I attached the collar before going to bed and the next morning...?

The same whining and yelping and high-toned racket! GRRR!!!! Well!! THAT was a waste of money!!!

But once outside in the yard, Choco barked once at a passing dog-walker. Instead of going into her normal frenzy, the spray hit her in the face and she jumped a bit into the air and hid in her dog house. A few minutes later a Jr. high student passed by on his bicycle and Choco let out a bark and was stopped by another spray of citronella. This disturbed her enough to make a quick glance at the area around her and then she retreated to the far side of her dog area. Throughout the day I'd hear one bark and then nothing. Choco was very suspicious of her dog area! To her it seems that an invisible gnome is following her around and spraying her every time she barks.

The next morning, Tetsu and I were awakened again by Choco's whining and yelping. It seems that the collar doesn't register the high tones, only a firm bark... Sigh. I went downstairs and napped on the sofa from 4:00 AM. But when the newspaper boy stuffed the newspaper in our entry slot I heard a low growl coming from Choco cage. She was doing her best to refrain from going into her normal "I'm going to get that newspaper boy!" tizzy.

It is wonderful that the No-bark collar has really tamed down Choco's barking. (I'm sure our next door neighbor is absolutely thrilled!)

Too bad it doesn't do much for 4:00 AM whining and yelping.

PTA

The saga of being a Blockhead goes on... I've spent a lot of time trying to line up people for various duties. Everyone has a reason why they can't do something. Some people even proclaim their rights to leave the Homeowner's Association (but of course not leave the neighborhood!)

The whole rigamarole reminds me of my PTA days. Since I'm not going to be traveling that road again I guess I'll reminisce today.

PTA was always a big problem when the kids were little. Already there was the Homeowner's Association and there was the Neighborhood Children's Association and then the school had their PTA.

PTA meetings were always held directly after the Class Observation Day. The mothers would come in and watch their child's class, the children would be sent home and the mothers would be asked to stay in order to decide PTA positions and officers. Half the mothers went home. Whether they were the smart ones or the cowards... it was hard to say.

Those of us who stayed then sat around in a circle of desks and the teacher would ask for volunteers. AND EVERY ONE OF US WOULD LOOK DOWN AT THE DESKS AND PRETEND WE COULDN'T HEAR!!! The silence was deafening! The teacher would plead, would threaten, would make suggestions and appeal to our sense of duty and love for our children. Rarely would those tactics get any results.

"Okay are we going to play Rock Paper Scissors? We can decide that way."

And then someone would pipe up that the "cheaters" who went home before the meeting should be assigned positions. They were the irresponsible ones. Many people would plead their current duties in the Homeowner's Association or Neighborhood Children's Association or that they had small children in the home or a feeble grandparent. There were always good reasons why people couldn't participate. (I could always fall back on lack of language or my absence during the summer...)

PTA meetings would often last a couple of hours with very little progress until someone broke... Once the dam was broken then other positions would slowly get filled. I have a feeling that many people felt that they could work with someone or other but not with so-and-so. I know that when I felt there was a "friend" that I could depend on (to relay messages, who would understand my reading handicap) then I was more likely to raise my hand.

I remember reading an article about a foreign mother somewhere in Japan who got so tired of PTA position selection that she just raised her hand and said,

"I'll do it! I'll be PTA president!"

And everyone looked at her blankly and went back to arguing about why there was no one to fill the position.

"I said 'I'll do it.'! Just tell me when to start."

The foreigner couldn't be serious. The PTA appreciated her attendance at the meeting but really... Just out and out volunteering like that... She had no idea of the duties involved!

As it turned out the foreigner DID become the PTA president. And the poor person who was chosen to become vice president had the more difficult job of working with the foreigner. The foreign PTA president was ready to cut out all the excess activities that no one seemed to want to help with but everyone seemed to think was important to have... (Bazaars... PTA field trips... Sports Day participation etc.) Just keeping her at bay was a headache for the poor vice president!

I think the end of that story was that the foreigner really HADN'T had any idea of what she was getting into, the PTA went into crisis, and they never asked her to take a PTA position again.

Hmmm... I COULD just volunteer to be the Homeowner's Association President next year... Of course if it were me, I'd disband the whole association.

Blockhead duties

Although it was a Sunday, it was a busy day for us Blockheads.

This year Tetsu and I are block leaders (known as Blockheads in my book.) This means we pass around city notices to the other 6 families on our block, we collect homeowners dues and we attend monthly homeowner meetings. As a united block activity we all clean the neighborhood streets and encroaching forest twice a year and clean the community center once a year. Scheduling is all up to the Blockhead.

Tetsu sent out a notice to our block earlier this month announcing community center cleanup day. Early yesterday morning (Cleanup Day!) I made chocolate chip cookies and brought out paper cups and bottled sports drinks. We are ready to lead our block in some positive united community service!

BUT as everyone (6 of us) gathered at the community center Tetsu and I realized we didn't have the center's key!!! We both just assumed that the key was connected to the community center scheduling board that we had been given (and didn't check ahead of time). Major error on our part!!! With many apologies we sent everyone else home with cookies, went searching for the person with the keys and then cleaned the community center ourselves. So much for positive united community service.

In the evening I was back at the community center, this time for a homeowners' meeting (as the representative Blockhead). Sigh... This month Blockheads are required to

• Attend the Respect for the Aged event
• Find participants (a required number!) for the upcoming district Sports Day
• Lead the block in street and forest clean up
• Persuade someone from our block to be a representative for the Search Committee... to search for people to take over the homeowner's association's leadership positions (20 positions!)

And that's just THIS month!!!

Yours truly gets to do all this because Tetsu claims that

• if he gets involved he will argue and have confrontations with the other members
• if I attend these things the homeowner's association is less likely to pressure the foreigner with more duties...
• I'm friendlier and make a better impression on the people on our block (he is the moody old guy that always looks cross. It's an impression he doesn't try to change.)

We don't much like being Blockheads... I will be glad when this year is finished...

A day at a seaside park

Tetsu and I went on an outing again yesterday. I didn't realize we were going to be outdoors nor that it was still going to be so hot! We ended up at a flower/amusement park.

First off.

"I want t0 ride the ferris wheel!"

It was air-conditioned! So nice. Around we went and had a bird's eye view of the park. No... I don't want to ride exciting rides. No... it's too hot to play miniature golf. But I DO want to rent bicycles!

Tetsu commented that it has been years and years since he's been on a bicycle.

I shed my over-shirt... Gulp. I rarely get so skimpy in my clothing when I'm in Japan (In America is another matter...) But my long black jeans were already baking me... Ah... this is not a great style for me is it?...

We were near the ocean.

And up on a hilltop of funny pom-pom ball like plants...

After a rest Tetsu and I went to the fish market. I've shown pictures of this place before but anyway...

An automatic spinning squid dryer...

A mumbo...

We went down to the shore and played around in the waves. Our prefecture is one of the few in Japan that doesn't have a coastline (a lot of mountains and hot springs) so this was a treat for me.