Back in Japan, for real

It's hard to know how (or whether) to jump back into this blog.  (I admit to loving the ease and immediacy of Instagram... or maybe the simplicity of *no* social media?). 

And as for quilting, I haven't had anything to show.  I am working on hand quilting this eternal project:

Wandering Ways, which my grandma rescued so many years ago - she finished piecing it, attempted to machine quilt it, that didn't work out, and I hand quilted it for her, just in the white patches.  Now I'm going back into the blue. 

But when not quilting on it, I use it, and it's the only quilt I have around (with both our air and sea shipments in limbo!).   It's a huge comfort, and I've just been treasuring it this past month! 

After selling our New Hampshire house in March, we were on the road to visit each of our three kids and our parents, during which time my father passed away and we held his services.   Then we moved to Tokyo with our combined six suitcases.  It's unclear how long David's company will have us in this temporary furnished place...  trying to make the best of it!  We thought we'd be in an apartment by the end of April, but now it looks like end of June. 

Here's my temporary kitchen!  I have two burners, a rice cooker, an electric kettle, very good sized fridge/freezer (for Japan) and a combo microwave/toaster oven that I haven't fully mastered yet. 

Two ramen bowls, two rice bowls, two forks, etc etc.  A very good sharp chef's knife which I appreciate. 

A typical lunch  for me these days:

Japanese strawberries are in a league of their own, so very good:

Our combo washer/dryer....

wasn't kind to David's jeans...

But I've figured out that our bathroom area has space to hang wet clothes, and there's a built in fan with several settings, including one specifically for drying clothes - effectively turning the whole shower area into one big dryer - which is amazing - so now I don't use the machine to dry much.

Every day is a learning curve, even though I've lived here before! 

xo
Cynthia

January mini - a strings tryout

I'm thinking of making a large string pieced coverlet, so I made this little version as a tryout.  It was a lot of fun to foundation piece - 5.5 inch blocks on muslin.  Lots of indigo per usual!

I was not fussy about the quilting and I didn't even bind it properly but it served my purpose of trying out this idea before I enlarge it.

I tried out several arrangements, log cabin style:

There are many lovely January minis linked up by Wendy at The Constant Quilter!   And look at all the string projects Lori is linking at Humble Quilts! 



xo
Cynthia

Strings and strings and changes

Lori at Humble Quilts is doing a string QAL, and Wendy at The Constant Quilter is doing a monthly mini quilt challenge.... so.... this month I am combining the two...

And I must say, I may want to foundation piece string quilts a little bit every day for the rest of my life!  Soooo fun!  I'm using muslin foundations, and my usual - lots of indigo, with low volumes.  A pop of orange on each end too.  It is so satisfying to trim up the blocks using the foundation as my guide.

I've got a plan to make a large summer coverlet for our bed with 10 inch blocks; and in the meantime I'm making an itty bitty version, for starters.

What a difference setting makes - here are the same four blocks in two different configurations:

So, IN OTHER NEWS.... it looks like we are going to be moving back to Japan in the spring for David's job.  This has been swirling around as a possibility for the past couple months and now it's for real and I'm sort of stunned!  We just downsized to our cozy spot in the woods less than two years ago!  Now, we will be further downsizing into a shoebox apartment in Tokyo, ha ha, this time for three years.  Mixed feelings for sure.

Soooooo.... time to take off all the refrigerator magnets...

and do 1000 other things to get our house ready to list... including nearly dismantling my sewing room, sadly, but where there's a will there's a way, and I'm determined to steal a few minutes a day for these fun string blocks!

xo

Cynthia