Next to Last Quilting Class

Today was my regular Quilting Class. We don't have class in August because Sensei always takes a holiday, and so do many of her students.  This year however we are planning to meet at Sensei's summer home in Karuizawa on August 26.  This will be a day for relaxing at the onsen, shopping and eating together.  Emiko san has requested Taco Rice, so that will probably be what we have. This is also a "going away" commemoration for me. I hope to be able to go to one more regular class in September.
Attending this Quilting Class during this term in Japan has been a real learning experience. My classmates have learned lots of English. I have learned a lot of Japanese. I have learned much more about Japanese Culture than I can ever recount. Then there are the typical Japanese Housewife conversations. Today we even talked about the Japanese opposition to the stationing of Osprey aircraft at the airbase in Okinawa, and the rumour that Bill Gates has purchased a huge piece of property in Naka Karuizawa and is building a villa complete with helipad. Oh yes, we are also all sewing and quilting during this twice monthly 4 to 5 hour session.

I seem to have accidentally gotten a blue filter on the camera today.  (Japanese camera with Japanese instructions!)

Kawakoe san with the bag she finished today.  She really liked it and so did I!

Hayakawa san with her current project, also a bag.

Yamazaki san at the machine with Kuraishi sensei giving instruction.

Me enjoying our 2 pm "coffee and sweet."

Wa no Sue and Emiko

Since last autumn I have been working on a wall hanging inspired by a project set by my quilting Sensei. The rest of the class and presumably people from some of Sensei's other classes are completing a project that is close to the idea that was presented.  My project, as usual, has morphed and mutated into something with elements of the original idea with a lot of other stuff thrown in. The original project had momiji (maple) leaves around the edge and a house in the center.  The leaves were machine pieced with half triangles and squares.  and the houses were paper pieced.  When the house idea was introduced, Sensei turned to me and said, maybe you would like to make a church instead, Georgia san. And then there was the whole saga of the tree not being quite what it should have been which I discussed in a previous post. The scene looked a little empty when the church and the tree were done and Sensei and I discussed what else I could do.  That's when she showed me a Japanese quilt artists concept of Sunbonnet Sue if she had grown up in Japan. I decided that the scene needed a couple of little girls walking out from church.  The scale had to really be reduced from the example in the quilting magazine and the only way I could think of representing these figures was to do them in needle turn applique. The stuff I get myself into!

At Class this last week I finally finished my two little Japanese friends, one with her Bible under her arm and the other pointing out as if to say, "Let's go and tell our friends what we learned today!" One of my classmates, Emiko, decided she would name Sue's friend after herself!  And the piece became "Wa no Sue and Emiko." (the "Wa no" part means "of Japan," so Japanese Sue and Emiko)

As you can see, I am not yet finished.  The border of leaves is lacking two which I still need to make, and the sashing between them is not decided.  I like the idea of continuing the blue sky, but it may be a bit too much.  What do you think?

May, 2011 Quilting Class Outing

 Click on this picture for the rest of the collection!

At Long Last!

The first group of photos that have been languishing on my computer have been successfully uploaded to Picasa.  They go with the Post from "April 11 More Sakura," and are mostly taken on the stroll with my Quilting buddies in Ichikawa City.  There are 94 pictures in the group and if you go to my Picasa space and look at the May 2011 album, I have captioned some of the photos. You can leave comments if you like. As always, if you want to know more, just let me know. Hopefully I will be able to load them as a slide show to the right.

Quilting Day

Actually a lot of different kinds of projects get worked on by the members of my quilting class. Today I worked on a handbag. The fabric is from a small shop that used to be in Karizawa. The owner of the shop likes to  experiment with different weaving techniques. This fabric is a grey base with grey, black, silver and white yarns kind of "floated" on top using a jacquard loom. I've paired it with black "leatherette" read vinyl. It's coming out rather well. Pictures later.

We're also working on "kinchyaku" to send to Tohoku. I think I talked about these before. The cloth drawstring bags that have been traditionally used by ladies in Japan to carry stuff in.  We were given fabric and instructions today - Homework!

In anticipation of my moving back to the Guest Home to run it when Aylings go back to the UK, notice was given to my landlord that I will be vacating. Lots of good stuff to find new homes for. Busy days ahead. Tomorrow Ms S and I go to get tickets for our trip to Kyoto in May.