Outdoor Photo Class Trip to Biei

Ted took his outdoor photography class to an area a couple of hours away from the university on the university bus. A few of  the students weren’t able to go on the trip, so I was able to join in. Ted and I went to this area last summer in the car and had been to Biei for the cross country ski race in the winter.  The area is known for growing many beautiful flowers, including lavender. The university bus driver used to be a tour bus driver and knew all the places to stop for photos and where to park, so he was very helpful.  Besides taking a lot of flower and landscape pictures, not to mention photos of each other, we also stopped at a famous photographer’s museum. Ted talked to the students about f-stops and wide angle lenses and such things, most of which I didn’t understand, both because it was in “photography language” and in Japanese, but I still took a lot of pictures.  We were gone from 7:30 am until 6:00 pm – a long day!  Here are just a few of the many pictures taken.

NHK Partnership Quilt Block

I read about this project on Queenie Patch’s blog and have been thinking about making a block ever since. She explains about the project here, but basically the Japanese Public Broadcasting company NHK collects themed quilt blocks each year, has them made into bed sized quilts, which are auctioned at the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival in January.  The theme for 2014 is the Language of Flowers.  I have embellished my paper pieced sunflower block (see yesterday’s post) and appliqued it to a 22 x 22 cm square and here it is (still in need of pressing)----

 

There is still time for you to join in.  The block must be received by 31 August and here are the rest of the rules.

 

·                  one block per person

·                  22cm x 22cm with a seam allowance of 1.5cm included

·                  flimsy block, i.e. no wadding, no quilting

·                  your name should be written with pen in the seam allowance of the lower right hand corner

·                  your block should have reached NHK by 31st August, 2013

·                  enclose a note with your name, address, tel no, email address

·                  send to:

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

Quilting on the Go

I recently ordered Quilting on the Go! from Amazon.jp and quickly received the UK version of the book. This is the new paper piecing book by Jessica Alexandrakis, who blogs at Life Under Quilts. I’ve never tried this technique, but Jessica makes it look so easy, that I thought I’d like to try it. The book is organized in five sections – Getting Ready, Starting to Sew, Projects, English Paper Piecing Patterns, and Resources. There are lots of beautiful pictures and easy to understand directions, and even graph paper for planning in the back. I bought some hexagon paper templates at Kanariya and pulled a couple of small pieces of fabric from my stash and was ready to get started.

I decided to make a single block with three fabrics to try it out.  I used the rotary cutter to cut strips, then squares of the fabric. It was very easy to tack the fabric around the paper pieces and I love the way the pieces come out so exact.

This is what it looked like after I stitched the pieces together.

 

I’m pleased with my first little attempt at paper piecing.  I did this at home, but I can see how this would be an easy take along stitching project.  Jessica has photos and instructions on packing a little travel kit in the book. I have an idea for my first little block.  Come back tomorrow and I hope to show you the finished project. And you can expect to see more projects using this technique in the future.

Fourth of July and Baseball

Today is Independence Day in the United States, but most people here don’t know the significance of the day for Americans. People in the US don’t know about Japanese holidays, so I’d say it’s even.

I’m continuing to stitch on my US map. The fabric is a 27 count Zweigart even weave, the thread is DMC floss, and I'm stitching in hand. I’m thinking this might turn out to be a quilted wall hanging.  We’ll see.

 

One of my University English students, who is also in two of Ted’s classes, is a pitcher on the University baseball team.   They had a home game, so we took our folding chairs and headed out to the baseball field.

 

We aren’t really baseball fans, but it was fun to see a game here.

TAST 72 - Wrapped Coral Stitch

The featured stitch on Sharon B’s Pintangle blog this week is the Wrapped Coral Stitch. I did a small sample in perle #5 (red) and perle #8 (overdyed blue), varying the space between the knots.

 

I don’t think I have the hang of this one. Mine looks like some messy knots instead of a nice line of wrapped coral stitches. A few weeks ago the TAST stitch was the coral stitch and you can see my sample of it here.

Sunset Picnic

We packed a picnic dinner and hiked up to the observation tower. As we were walking along, we saw a shika (deer) on the hillside.  After seeing the kitsune a few days ago, Ted had his camera (with close up lens) ready and took these pictures.

 

At the top, we took a few pictures, then ate our picnic.

 

We stayed at the top, watching the sun until it was gone.

July Calendar

A new month, a new stitching project – a map of the US.