6 & 6 in 2018 - June Report

This month I worked on finishing the Sampler Pears.  I finished four, using the same backing fabric on all of them.

You can see my 6&6 in 2018 progress here and  check out who is joining in this month on Meredith's blog here.

2018 Smalls Stitch A Long - June

This month I finished a small cross stitch ornament.  The chart is available here. The ornament is stuffed, with buttons to hold the ribbon hanger.  It's not my usual finishing technique, but it is okay.

I'm linking up with Heather, at Stitching Lotus, the hostess of this stitch a long.

Clothes, Closes, Close, Closed

My students often pronounce the word "clothes" with two "s" sounds.  They think it sounds the same as "closes".  I write CLOTHES, CLOSES, CLOSE on the board and explain the difference.  They are always surprised.  

Another difficult thing for Japanese is putting the "d" at the end of close.  It seems that if something is not open here, it must be close. I say no, no, no - if it is not open, it is closeD.

English.  Muzukashi desu.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Still working on this, but I may be able to finish it soon.

I worked on finishing three more pears, total four finished now.  I used the same backing fabric on all four.

Building Houses

My stitch group met.  I always love our get-togethers!  

First, a little show and tell with finished chicken scratch projects.  Another great apron, this one lined and with a pocket.    

A wonderful lined bag, with a pocket inside and a chicken scratch pin.  

One of the stitchers is a kindergarten teacher and made these Very Hungry Caterpillars to teach snapping and buttoning.  How creative!  

Our project for the day was applique house blocks for the 2019 NHK Partnership Quilts. The theme this year is HOUSE and the rules are:

• size 15x15 cm + seam allowance of 1-2 cm
• no quilting,
• name in lower right corner,
• enclose a self addressed 62yen postcard, if you live in Japan and want to know in which quilt your block was added
• DEADLINE: July 31, 2018, when the block must reach NHK not postmark date
• send to: 

Partnership Quilt
 NHK Sutekini Handmade
 2-2-1 Jinnan
 Shibuya-ku
 Tokyo 150-8001
Japan 

(or you can check out the Japanese website here.) I brought two applique houses I made in the past as examples, but I didn't need to because this creative group already had their own ideas.  

Here's what we had at the end of our session.  We'll work on them at home, them finish them up and get them in the mail before the deadline for receipt (July 31st).  

Wouldn't you like to join in too? There is plenty of time to get your block finished and in the mail!

Monday Morning Star Count - Week Seven

Year Two of the temperature quilt  

Week 7,  June 10 - 16  

70, 68, 75, 79, 75, 66,  63

Sarah at Sarah Did It! is continuing to host us on Wednesdays, so please check out the temperatures around the world.  Feel free to join it! 

I am reporting the high temperature of each day.  My Year Two temperature/color (Fahrenheit) scheme remains the same: 

100 + Brown 

90-99 Red  

80-89 Orange 

70-79 Yellow  

60-69 Green  

50-59 Blue 

40-49 Purple 

30-39 Pink 

20-29 White 

10-19 Black  

Year One Progress  

I live in a small apartment and don't have a good way to display, so I have it hung by clothes pins.  You get the idea any way.

Bon and Pon

I first read about this Japanese retired couple sometime ago in one of the online Japanese news sites.  They are now in the British news (The Guardian - you can see more photos there). Since 2016, they have dressed in coordinating outfits and posted to their Instagram account, which now has almost 720,000 followers.  They are starting their own clothing line in a Japanese department store.  The retirees were college sweethearts and have been married 38 years.

While I would never dress in coordinating outfits with another person, spouse or otherwise, I do find the couple adorably cute.  What about you?  Do you and your spouse dress alike?  Would you like to?

Tokyo Photographic Art Museum

The Tokyo Photographic Art Museum is just a short walk from the Ebisu Station. There are a number of different exhibits on different floors and the admission fee depends on which and how many of the exhibits you want to see. The exhibit I chose was called TOP Collection: Learning  Into the Pictures and the fee was 500 yen. Below is the description from the museum website.  I highly recommend this exhibit.  It was very thought provoking.

The TOP Collection is an ongoing series of exhibitions presenting works from the collection of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. This edition deals with the theme of “Enjoying and Learning.”
The type of learning that occurs in a museum is a different experience from learning something at school or from a book. The type of total-body learning that arises from the spatial atmosphere of the building, the rhythm of the works on the wall, and the presence created by the actual size of the works is wholly unique to the museum.

If you look closely at the works showing things that are interesting to you instead of seeing them as documents from a given era or sources of information, you may realize something about the works that you hadn’t noticed in the past. Discovering something you don’t understand and simply enjoying that feeling is another way of learning at the museum.

Drawing on the museum’s vast collection of over 34,000 items, this exhibition introduces a host of outstanding works from a wide range of times and places, inviting you to enjoy the rich and diverse types of learning that are possible at the museum. Both those who are well-versed in photography and those who are visiting for the first time are sure to enjoy and learn something new. Okay, are you ready? Let’s enter the pictures!

Approximately 50 artists, including KIMURA Ihee, KUWABARA Kineo, NAKAHIRA Takuma, NARAHARA Ikko, SUZUKI Risaku,
UEDA Shoji, Diane ARBUS, Bernd and Hilla BECHER, Henri Cartier-BRESSON, Cindy SHERMAN, Robert DOISNEAU, Elliott ERWITT,  Lee FRIEDLANDER, Minor WHITE, Garry WINOGRAND.

Friday Finish - Green Obi Set

A while back a friend asked me if I could make something out of her aunt's obi (sash worn with kimono).  She said she didn't care what I made or how long it took.  I suggested a bag, but she said no.  Anything else was okay. There are three embroidered sections, but the fabric isn't in the best condition.  The embroidery is very pretty, but there are discoloration marks throughout the obi.

I've been thinking about it while letting every other project come first, when I finally decided to just do it. I made a wall hanging, a small pillow and three small table runners (one with the smallest of the embroidered sections.)  

I did my best with it.

Artwork at the Guam Airport

The Guam Airport is small, but there was some interesting artwork in the departure area.