Work in Progress Wednesday

Scarf progress - more filling in

Japanese Pattern 46

Hawaiian - a little more progress

Bristol Bag Etui progress

The Ballet Recital

My friend’s niece invited me to join their family for her ballet recital. I’ve seen her recitals for years and it’s been wonderful seeing how she has advanced. She is so beautiful and graceful - a natural ballerina. 

The performance started with the youngest dancers and they were so cute. This was followed by many dancers (including my friend’s niece) in “beat of the music” all wearing the same wispy black dresses, then a pas de deux with two of the advanced level dancers. The main story was a long three part story of Sleeping Beauty. In the prologue, my friend’s niece was one of three canary spirits. Later she was one of Princess Aurora’s friends, and then Little Red Riding Hood. 

I thoroughly enjoyed it all.  It was a very professional production, with all levels of dancers included in all parts of the performance. My friend’s niece and her family are so kind to always ask me to join them.

 

Monday Morning Star Count

I’m continuing with the year 5 quilt.  I pieced some smaller pieces of cat fabrics in my stash to make the backing. (This needs a good press).

I cut 2 1/2 inch strips from the left overs.  My plan is to make a scrappy binding out of these strips. 

With tiny pieces that are at least 2 1/2 inch square, I made some additional hexagons for some future project.

Using up my fabrics and not buying new is making me extremely happy.

Exhibition of Buddhist Statues

Friday I traveled to Izu Kogen, at the invitation of the carving teacher I previously took a couple of classes.  If you are interested in Buddhist wood carving, please contact Mr. Hitoshi Yamazaki.

The statues in this section of the exhibit were carved by Mr. Yamazaki.  Not only were these statues interesting to look at, but he explained many things about the carvings and Buddhism in English for us!

The statues in this section of the exhibit are carved by student carvers.

The exhibition is being held at Art Gallery Sauin inside the Izu Kogen Station for a few more days: May 22, 23, 25, 28, 30, from 10 am - 4 pm, and admission is free. I highly recommend checking it out!

Fushunin Temple

In Shizuoka City

Luggage on the Train

 

Johoku Park

Monday, I was in Shizuoka City, walking on a street I hadn’t walked down before. I saw a park to my right and decided to take a look around. It was such a pretty place.

I might visit this place again.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Hawaiian quilt table cover progress

New Start - Bristol Bag Etui from Willing Hands 2, Betsy Morgan 

I started basting the shapes on the linen.

Japanese Pattern 45

Stitch Group Sunday

We met on Sunday and worked on our Hawaiian projects. I haven’t worked on mine much, while everyone else made a lot of progress. I plan to work on mine more before we meet again. I’m not very happy with my appliqué technique, but I will try harder.

I didn’t take many pictures because I was so caught up with trying to understand what was being talked about. One topic was thimbles and how to use them. I don’t use a thimble when quilting, so I was no help. We viewed a YouTube video, but I don’t know if it helped anyone. That led to pronouncing thimble.“TH” is a difficult sound for many Japanese speakers. (I often hear Sank you, for Thank you.) I tried to give other examples of words with TH, and a new word for everyone was Thumb, which turned out to be funny.

This stitcher(above) has finished her appliqué and is preparing to sandwich hers to make it into a wall hanging.

The other three stitchers are making cushions. The stitcher on the left is making a two color, two sided cushion.  I will try to remember to take a picture next time.

Tea time was delicious, with souvenirs from various Golden Week travels. If you are wondering if we ate all of this in one sitting, we didn’t. We all had some for later or for breakfast.

I’m already looking forward to our next get together.