Last Sunday, I went to Fuji City. First I had an early lunch with a friend, then attended an afternoon of drums, singing, dance, and a play involving dragons.
This was great - and so Japanese! The performers were all ages, from the little bitties to the very old. I wish everyone could experience this show.
Mt. Fuji view from Fuji City
Finishing the Queen’s Pocket progress
Hawaiian progress - I only worked a bit more on this, then folded it up. I’ll press it before I work on it again.
Summertime Mt. Fuji progress
Japanese Pattern 33
Last week the National Cancer Center in Japan announced the 10 year survival rate of people diagnosed with cancer is 54.0%, up slightly from the previous year’s survey with a survival rate of 53.5%. As a two time cancer survivor, I think this is good news. (I was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and 2016).
The latest survey covered 394,108 people diagnosed with cancer across Japan, excluding those who died of other causes. The average age of those surveyed was 67.7 years.
The most common cancer in Japan is stomach cancer, which now has a 57.9% survival rate. The second and third most common types, bowel cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, have survival rates of 58.1% and 32.6%.
Great progress since last time! I could hardly leave the hexagons alone this week. I have 14 hexagon weeks still to quilt, then I can move on to the borders.
I’m quite pleased my progress on this quilt.
I really liked the experience, so I signed up to take two more classes with this teacher, Hitoshi Yamazaki. This is what I chose as my project. (I should have chosen something less difficult!)
Using this Japanese measuring tool, called a shaku, and a chisel, I went to work.
There were three other longer time students working on various projects. We had a tea time break in the middle of the three hour class.
This is what my piece looked like at the end of the class. I know, pretty sad looking. The teacher said it looked better than he expected!
This picture was taken by my teacher and sent to me.
I hope I can do better next time.
Normally we meet on Sundays, but Tuesday was a holiday (Foundation Day), so we met on Tuesday this time.
One stitcher has a new grand baby, so we talked about the baby and saw pictures. This is the first grand baby of anyone in our group.
This is a Show and Tell piece that just needs some snow on top of Mt. Fuji.
We continued with the yo-yo and felt coaster project.
We chose a new project to start next time.
At the end of our get together, everyone was almost finished with their yo-yo and felt coasters.
Tea time
Next time we will start the new project.
Japan normally has 16 national holidays in a year, but next year is special, with 17. Japan has a rule that when a working day falls between two holidays, the in between day becomes a holiday too! In 2026, this rule makes a bonus holiday in September, which is called Silver Week, the counterpart to Golden Week in the spring. This will be the third time ever for Silver Week, after 2009 and 2015.
Below are the holidays for 2026. When the normal holiday falls on Sunday, it is observed on Monday. Next year Constitutional Memorial day is observed on Wednesday because Monday and Tuesday are already other holidays. Isn’t Japan great?
Japanese Pattern 32
Mill Hill Frosty progress - getting close to finish…
Summertime Fuji progress
The Virgin Queen’s Stitching Pocket
I finished the stitching quite a while ago. The time has come to do the finish finishing. This is a Betsy Morgan design, with the directions in this book, Willing Hands 2. After I finish it, I’ll use it and imagine Queen Elizabeth I using hers.
New start - Hawaiian table mat
I’ve wanted to try this technique, but I don’t want to take on a large quilt project. This piece is about 30 inches square, so it will finish slightly smaller. I’m not very good at needle turn appliqué, because I need much more practice! The scissors are pointing to the small bit I have done so far.
I was surprised to read that the Japanese government agency Gender Equality Bureau announced that not paying any dating expenses at all is considered domestic violence. One of the issues this bureau is concerned with is domestic violence and this doesn’t only mean physical violence. I hadn’t considered whether not paying any of the expenses on a date is domestic violence. (I know, it’s been a long time since I was in the dating world!)
On the Bureau’s website are four types of domestic violence listed: psychological violence, physical violence, sexual violence, and economic violence. Economic violence is defined as such things as using a partner’s money without permission or borrowing money from a partner and refusing to pay it back. One item that has people talking right now is “not paying any dating expenses at all.”
When I was in high school and started dating, the boy/man did the asking and the paying. Things were more casual when I was in university, so there wasn’t so much emphasis on who asked or paid. After I and the men I dated were working, the expenses were shared. That was a very long time ago and I haven’t given any thought about it since then.
I don’t know how big of a problem this is in Japan. It’s described on the Bureau’s website, so there must be a reason. Is this equal between genders, or are some people being taken advantage of more so than others? The website doesn’t seem clear on where this is directed. I think that forcing someone to pay all the time isn’t good, but there could be voluntary reasons such as one party earning much more money than the other that would cause that person to pay all the dating expenses. If this is a big issue in Japan, I’m glad it is spelled out. What do you think?
Lately, in an attempt to bypass the political chaos news from the US, I’ve been watching programs from stitching and quilting channels on YouTube. I’ve seen a number of programs about finishing old “started but unfinished” projects from years ago. Aha! I’m not the only one! It is satisfying to see fabrics and partial projects coming out of plastic tubs and to hear about whether or how these things can/will be finished. I want to focus on either finishing or repurposing my old unfinished projects this year. I’m inspired.
Year 3 of the temperature quilts is only about four years old, so not that old, but still, it needs to be finished. This week I spent a good deal of my stitching time doing the hand quilting. I quilted all of the horizontal lines of the blocks and started quilting the center and around the hexagon weeks.
