Friday, November 27, 2020

Love Thy Neighbor - boro inspired November mini

 


Here's my mini for November - another collage quilt inspired by boro.  I finished it yesterday and I'm calling it "Love Thy Neighbor."  


It's about 12"x18" finished. 

Neighborhoods in Tokyo are dense, dense, dense, and very very quiet.   And, even in such a densely populated city, COVID is pretty much under control.  Wearing masks is a given, and people generally do what is best for the common good.  I call that loving your neighbor.   Love Thy Neighbor has also been on my mind this year as I've done a lot of reading and discussing about anti-racism.   Trying hard to "do the work." 


I quilted it with dense hanging diamonds. 


I used a lot of tenugui, from Blue and White - including the backing - for no reason other than I am really looking forward to having a dog again someday!  


There's no Thanksgiving holiday here in Tokyo.  And of course I missed all my kids so much.  

David and I went to a classic tonkatsu place for dinner.  Pork cutlet, with cabbage, rice, soup, and pickles. A choice of savory and savory/sweet sauces.  

But the real nice semi-Thanksgiving flavors were found on Wednesday night at Shake Shack, which is walking distance from our apartment.  They have a holiday chicken sandwich that it outstanding, with kale, cranberry relish, pickled onions, gruyere cheese.  It was so good! 



And, ZERO dishes to clean up.  Trying to see the silver lining here! 

Visit Wendy's blog The Constant Quilter to see links to other minis this month!  

xo

Cynthia 

43 comments:

  1. Oh, that is one beautiful boro mini quilt, and I love your theme. It is the right time to show thankfulness and gratitude.

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  2. Love Thy Neighbor is STUNNING!! And I would imagine the "neighborhood" is a bit more "noisy" than usual with the puppies both on the front and back!! 2020 presented opportunities for everyone to express their Thanksgiving gratitude and thankfulness in new ways -- I certainly plan to try kale, cranberry relish, pickled onions, gruyere cheese!

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    1. Thank you Debby. Yes it's an interesting year to say the least and it's good to consciously count our blessings and express gratitude! I forgot to mention there was also a little bit of bacon on the sandwich (yum).

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  3. Good for you seeing the "Glass half-full"--not easy during these strange Holiday times.
    Your "Love Thy Neighbor" is beautiful and a very timely sentiment quilt...definitely a memory quilt for this year...nice work hugs, Julierose
    P.S. Just love that doggy print--we lost our "Kota" {pix on my sidebar} recently and miss her a lot....

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    1. Julierose, it's so hard to lose a beloved pet! A hard time of year for that too.

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  4. I love your mini, too and the beautiful sentiment. And your food sounds delicious to me. I am making a fans quilt sashiko style and enjoying it very much.

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  5. I just love your little ‘neighborhood’ mini, Cynthia. (I still haven’t tried boro!) and of course the sentiment is so perfect for the times. Your t-giving meals look delicious, esp. the sandwich. We had takeout from the supermarket, and I still had a pile of dishes ... lol!

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    1. Sandy, thank you and ha! I hope your pile of dishes was due to some delicious food!

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  6. This mini may just be my favorite of all you've shown. Wonderful use of color and pattern, the pops of orange and gold make it glow. I hope you get your wish someday soon, dogs are great companions, as are kittens as we've been finding out the past couple weeks.

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    1. Thank you for the nice compliment! I just saw Samson on your blog - handsome kitten. Enjoy!

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  7. A wonderful evocative collage quilt, and darling backing! [are pet dogs/ cats popular in Japan?]. O love seeing the food, interesting presentations. Cannot imagine eating that pork cutlet w chopsticks tho. "Open wide!"

    love

    lizzy

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    1. Lizzy, thank you! Yes both cats and dogs are popular here. In Tokyo you see a *lot* of small dogs. People even wheel their little dogs around in strollers sometimes. Our particular building doesn't allow for pets though.

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  8. A beautiful mini, with lovely thought behind it. Wishing more people here in our area saw masks as a way to love their neighbor rather than shouting that it is taking away their rights.
    Looks like you are enjoying the holiday in the best way you can, and looking for the silver lining is always a good outlook to take. No dishes to wash is definitely a plus. We just had five of us for Thanksgiving, but making everything from scratch leaves a mountain of dishes. Just finished the last of them this morning!

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    1. Making Thanksgiving dinner for any size group is a massive undertaking. I hope you had help! I'm sure it was delicious. The thing I missed the most was pumpkin pie!

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  9. Each month your minis get more and more creative, embracing the Japanese style and culture. You'll have a meaningful collection when you return home. Always good to look for the silver lining.

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    1. Kyle, thank you! I'm having a lot of fun with collage lately.

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  10. I enjoy your boro style quilts so much, but this one may be my favorite.

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  11. I just love this mini! The houses were a delightful surprise :) And that dog fabric on the back is so cute. This was the first ever Thanksgiving that I didn't cook. I actually ordered dinner from a local restaurant/caterer and it was delicious! Wow, nice to know Shake Shack offered that great sandwich!

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    1. Thank you Barbara! I decided to use a really special piece on the back. So often I use something blah because it's "just a back" - but my mind is changing on that. Nice that you ordered Thanksgiving in and enjoyed it!

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  12. Wonderful mini! All the elements - inspiration, design, texture - work so well together. Thanks for sharing your Tokyo Thanksgiving, too! It's always fun to see other folks' celebrations/traditions, but it's especially inspiring this year.

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  13. I love the Boro quilt. It evokes all the things you wrote about; the dense housing, the soft quiet because of all the blues, all being neatly fitted together by the quilting, and the fact that everyone adds to the whole by the patches. It’s just all so pleasing. The sandwich looks yummy, I’ve been under the weather so I’m really hungry. Oh well, a good way to keep the holiday weight from increasing.

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    1. Robin, I'm so flattered by how you describe this quilt - thank you!

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  14. Wonderful finish! I would like to try boro.

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    1. Pamela, it's very spontaneous and absorbing. I hope you try it.

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  15. I adore this quilt so much. I love the colors and design. It is so intriguing to me. The link does not work (I think it is because of the period). I would be grateful to have the link so see what the reference is. I would love to have a go at this style.
    Your hanging diamonds are great and the perfect touch.
    Yum the food looks great, especially the sandwich . I wonder if our New Haven location as it.
    I can only imagine how much you missed your family.

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    1. Barb, thank you for alerting me! I fixed the link (it's just to the wikipedia for boro, but it's really good). I think it's really important to understand the origins of boro if we are going to use the style/word.

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  16. Absolutely perfect! A fabulous little quilt that carries such needed sentiment for these troubled times. I love everything about it. You are such an inspiration!!!

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    1. Wendy thank you for your kind words - and, for inspiring us all to complete our minis month after month.

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  17. I love your mini, very inspiring! And the sentiment behind it too.

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  18. Your Nov. mini is really charming! I love the composition of it and the technique too! And your T-day dinner looks so yummy! Traditions are nice but yummy is yummy?!

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  19. Love this so much! The stitching is sublime.:)

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  20. You are such an artist with fabric and thread! The Love Your Neighbor quilt is wonderful!

    I envy you even that chicken sandwich!!! We didn't even notice that Thanksgiving went by... What did we eat? Ramen noodles?

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    1. You are too kind Tanya. Thank you. We are going back tonight for another of those sandwiches, ha ha.

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  21. Your little quilt is beautify, Cynthia! I love it -- all the little houses so close together speak to me of community and love.
    It's hard living in a country where the holidays we celebrate here aren't celebrated there. I think it's a triple miss: family, the holiday and activities associated with it, and the food.
    The Shake Shack sandwich looks delicious!
    Will you have family visit for Christmas?

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    1. Sadly, no. Japan doesn't allow tourists into the country yet!

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