Scrappy Ohio Stars quilt finished!

 

This quilt was a joy to make start to finish.  I wrote about it here.  

Very scrappy "anything goes" Ohio Stars, sparked by Repro Quilt Lover's Instagram sew along last year.  

A few blocks made with Carol Younce's scraps: 

This stripe and the pink and white stripe are from  my Grandma Mary Lou's shirts: 

And some green pieces from David's Aunt Masako's stash here and there throughout. 

I was going for "summer".  Soft red, all of the colors of the rainbow, with plenty of glowy blue (oops, our first photos were upside down) -  

The backing is Liberty tana lawn, which David got for me in London during a business trip.   I love this backing, for this quilt. 

I used wool batting, and machine quilted it with Barb Vedder's great fan stencil.   

What I love about a scrappy, simple quilt like this, is that it is just begging to be used and loved, washed often, not treated too preciously.  

I always feel like my quilts aren't finished until they are used and loved.  I think that is what "wabi sabi" is all about: Loved objects that show the maker's hand, and the user's hand.   They gain more soul as the years progress. 

Summer is in full swing in North Carolina.  But we spent some time in Denver and San Francisco visiting family. 

The twins are growing like weeds! 

Gorgeous beach near San Francisco.  Freezing water but so fun. 

Outings - 

Noelle was also in town, on business, and visited Kaela at the salon: 

Backyard birthday party for little missy: 

Tommy and Camille made us a delicious Udon dinner on Sunday - 

And then back home in North Carolina, I was so happy to finish up this quilt! 

xo

Cynthia 

Full circle and wows

A horse at the farm where my niece Alyssa is living - she took this photo when it snowed the other day - gorgeous! 

Thank you everyone who left such kind and encouraging comments on my last post!  I mostly haven't regretted my decision!   David is already starting to clean out/give away items in the Tokyo apartment with my remote help and he has moved his home office from a basically windowless room, out in to where I used to quilt - a major upgrade for him.   We FaceTime at least once a day, usually twice. 

The great news is that I have found a townhouse to rent here in NC.  There's a perfect spot for David's home office... and a tiny bedroom perfect for a little sewing room, yes!  I get the keys next week.  I'm working on all the details that moving requires.   I will breathe easier once our household goods are moved out of storage in NH and arrive down here in NC. 

In the meantime, I am staying with Noelle and Keenan and trying to keep a low profile, lol.  I am staying in their spare room and have my own bathroom and a beautiful view out of my window - well it might not be a beautiful time of year, but for me, coming from such city views, this is beautiful (it even snowed the other day). 

A little baking on a Sunday morning - these are such good cinnamon rolls from King Arthur Flour  and the recipe utilizes the Japanese milk bread method.  And I'm back in the U.S. which means no more tiny oven.  Eight big rolls, big cookie sheet, big oven. 

Noelle and Keenan's work from home vibe: 

It is amazing how you can't really predict life events.  Ten years ago we had been in Japan (the first time) for six months. Noelle was in art school in Boston.  I had made this quilt for her. 

Now ten years later, full circle, I'm the one sleeping under it, crashing at her place while I wait to get into my own.  During a worldwide pandemic.  While she and her husband work their tech jobs from home.  Wow.

I feel like I've made 100 of these square on square quilts.   This one qualifies as wabi sabi at this point, after 10 years of use and many washings.  

It needs some repairs, which will be a pleasure to do at some point! 

Faded label but the love never fades for my beautiful sensitive artistic first born child. 

People rarely think about how it is when expats return to their home countries, not just to visit, but to live at home again.  We have done it before so I knew what to expect but yes I am having the usual reverse culture shock.  Things seem big, loud, messy, friendly, easy.   I'm learning how to drive around comfortably again.  It's a pure pleasure to listen to music and NPR in the car.  I had to mail something overnight at FedEx, which I have never done before, and it was easy... finding the place, no language barrier, no 1000 step process for the simplest thing.  Did I mention EASY? 

I went to Target the other day and walked down nearly every aisle completely overwhelmed, not in a bad way, but in a "wow" way.  I just sort of thought "all of this feels relevant to me and I'd like one of everything, thank you" - ha ha.  I looked at bath towels.  Colorful, big, wow.  I bought myself a pillow and pillowcases, some Pepperidge Farm cookies, and the smallest water bottle I could find that wasn't a child's water bottle, and it's still at least twice as big as my Japanese water bottle.  I could read and understand everything.... and understand what anyone around me was saying.  Self checkout, wow.  Easy 15 minute drive from Noelle's.  Just, wow.  

I haven't been doing any hand work.   I want to get back in the groove.  I need to break the ice with my  appliqué again!  

One thing I still do everyday (easy, on my phone) is the NYT crossword which I love.  

The Monday puzzle from a couple days ago had an old-fashioned quilting reference that made me smile.

Speaking of word games, I'm also having fun doing Wordle once a day - I know many of us are!  I guess it's become a whole worldwide phenomenon!  It is not an app (beware imitations!).  

My goal is that before I post again, I will be back in the groove working on the two appliqué projects I brought with me. 

Hurray for January being almost over... 

xo

Cynthia 

Progress on "A Soft Quilt for Hard Times"

I'm almost finished making these simple blocks.  Inspired by Fun with Barb's "soft quilt for hard times" concept.

Lots of rainy days lately....

I cut the logs to size.  It's easy piecing, four blocks at a time. 

This will be a "Spring/summer" version of a quilt I've made over and over, it seems.  I wrote about it here on my old blog.  Square in square,  raw edge appliquéd.   Combination of machine and hand quilting. 

Very improvisational, casual and scrappy, fall/winter.  The blocks are 8 or 9 inch square.  Over time, wabi sabi for sure.

The first one I made, in 2003,  has seen lots of very hard use.... and I've repaired it a lot through the years - just layering patches on very casually by machine.

This time, I'm going for a cool and smooth look.  That's why I'm piecing it in a traditional way, log cabin style, no raw edges. 

All the while, trying to keep positive.  Daily FaceTime with little Charlotte is a treat.  (When will Japan open its borders..... and when would I feel OK about traveling to the U.S.?)

What else these past couple weeks?  Masks masks and more masks...

A visit to the ever whimsical and refreshing Blue and White - limited hours these days:

My little needle books still on offer:

AND.... lastly.... I can recommend this breath-of-fresh-air animated musical series - Central Park - all star cast, a lot of heart, big laughs, catchy music. 

Quilters - "we gotta do it while we can"! 

xo

Cynthia 

Kawagoe wabi sabi finds

Yesterday I ventured about an hour's drive from Tokyo to a shrine sale (flea market) in Kawagoe.  It happens on the 28th of each month.  I'd been a few times when we lived here before - always by train - but not since moving back to Japan.

Yes, I know, Coronavirus.  But I didn't take the trains.  I was lucky to be offered a ride with a group of friends from church - all expats from the U.S.  We passed around hand sanitizer and conjectured and wondered at what is really happening with this virus.  David will be working from home until at least March 13.  Our churches are closed.  Schools closed so fast - this is just unprecedented and I feel for the young Moms!

Anyway, Kawagoe.  Fewer vendors than usual.  Sparse crowd, but we were there early.

First priority, good katazome for special projects.  Tammy found some here:

I found some at another vendor.

Prices for this kind of vintage indigo have risen.  A two-meter length was 5000 yen (about $50).  Yikes.  Precious stuff.  Notice the wear and fading - love it.  My favorite kind of wabi sabi.

Plenty of things I couldn't afford or didn't want, but are still inspiring -

A boro mend on an old piece of kasuri:

I like this staggered sashiko effect - you see this a lot:

Not sure if this Shippo (Seven Treasures) sashiko design is someone's UFO, or was deliberately randomly cut off this way - very cool either way:

Kokeshi dolls are ubiquitous:

This darling little squat doll called to me -  500 yen (about $5) -

Lots of fun randomness at a shrine sale like this:

You know my blog header, the "fundo" (balance weights) sashiko design?  Here are fundo in real life - thanks to Tammy's eagle eye for noticing.  Next time, I've got to find out if these are sold individually - why didn't I ask?!  They were at a very very high end vendor and I didn't think to ask.

Tacky and fun maneki neko:

Edo-era five yen coins, 200 yen a piece:

A gorgeous quilt - can't remember the price but it was exorbitant -

Wish I'd gotten a photo of this utilitarian whole cloth sashiko quilt one friend got for a steal:

 1000 yen bundles, very nice vendor.  As I left he nodded and said "Patchwork!":

And last but not least, my best find from the day - this very sturdy old Japanese basket (made from I don't know what tree, but something about "branches hanging down"), 4500 yen (about $45) - the essence of wabi sabi.  I love baskets so much, and this one sparked joy the minute I saw it. 

I filled it with some Japanese fishing floats - I absolutely love them!  They were fun to wash in a bucket - I felt like a little kid at the sink:

I love the contrast in texture of the basket and the glass floats.  

All in all, a very fun satisfying outing, and a great distraction from Coronavirus anxiety!  I love bringing some wabi sabi into the apartment.

xo
Cynthia