Making a Kimono Scarf, Wherein Peevish Nearly Reprises the George H. W. Bush Vomiting Incident

Just when I was starting to envision a cushy post-Japan career as an overpaid State Department consultant, offering humble pearls of wisdom on international relations, reality arrived in the shape of a mushroom. Alas, it wasn't the cookie variety with a chocolate cap. It also wasn't a shiitake, but more on that later.

We went to Mineko's house today to transform kimono remnants into scarves.  The scarf at left is an example of the style I made. I can't show you mine because I still have three more seams to sew. By hand, so it might take me a few months.

Here's another example. We used black kimono fabric for the body of the scarf and then added swatches of colorful fabric. Artistic and Fearless were more ambitious.  (This is nothing new.)  Their scarves have about two dozen colorful squares running lengthwise.

Mineko folds furoshiki

Mineko treated us to a tea ceremony in the tatami room on the second floor of her house before we got started on those scarves. She had arranged four cushions on the floor and one stool. She invited me to sit on the stool. I was more relieved than embarrassed since kneeling on one of those cushions for longer than thirty seconds is sheer agony.

Artistic and Fearless assembling their masterpieces

While Misa and Yuko helped us with our scarves, Mineko bustled around her kitchen preparing an elaborate and educational lunch. This is when I learned that there are at least seven varieties of mushroom in Japan besides shiitake.

A bit of backstory: Mineko and I somehow touched on the topic of food preferences during last week's trip to Nikko. When I mentioned that Artistic is a vegetarian and that Fearless and I dislike mushrooms, Mineko asked, "Shiitake?" I assumed she meant "including Shiitake?" and said yes.

It seemed like a fairly reasonable assumption so I was surprised to open the foil packet on my plate and find a chunk of salmon covered with slender pale mushrooms. I surreptitiously scraped them off and hid them inside the re-folded foil while ignoring the silent laughter of Artistic to my immediate right and avoiding eye contact with Fearless across the table. Just when I was starting to congratulate myself on dodging a bullet, Mineko let loose a Gatling gun volley in the form of what looked like a macaroni-and-cheese casserole but, upon cutting, turned out to be a tofu-onion-mushroom medley topped with melted cheese. 

She served me three sizable squares of the casserole. I made quick work of the cheese and not so quick work of about half a square. When Mineko pointed out that I had not finished my casserole, the dish she had gone to such pains to make, I cast a desperate glance around the table and saw that Misa was the only other guest who had not licked her plate clean. Misa has undergone abdominal surgery and has the appetite of a sparrow. She also has about fifteen years on me, but I was willing to claim kindred elderhood to escape finishing my casserole. "Your appetite shrinks when you get older. Look at Misa's plate."

Yes, I am seriously ashamed of myself. That's why I'm not plugging in my sewing machine to finish my kimono scarf. Stitching by hand is my self-imposed penance for bad behavior.

Wrapping up the Quilt Show

And then there's 3D quilting.

A Christmas tree near the center of the exhibit hall was decorated with quilted moose ornaments like this one:

A half dozen women clustered around a quilt that seemed to depict an aerial view of traditional Japanese umbrellas. None of us could figure out how the quilter achieved what I can't help but refer to as "the nipple effect".

A small portion of exhibit space is devoted to quilted bags and clothing. A part of me says this is so much more fun than a bed cover that only a few people will ever see, but another part of me says that my children will have me committed if I start waltzing around in patchwork skirts. Then the first part reminds me that we live in different towns and they might never find out.

The dress on the left almost makes me want to go to another Navy Ball

Once I master circles -- and I've already invested in a compass -- a pattern like the one above will make good use of my random fabric stash.

A girl can always dream.

Yokohama Quilt Show: Through a Magnifying Glass

American readers might be surprised to hear that roughly ninety-seven percent of the quilts accepted for display at the Yokohama Quilt Festival were stitched by hand.

This boggles my mind.

Today I'm sharing photographs of three of those hand-stitched quilts together with close-ups to give you an idea of the exquisite artistry involved.

If this one isn't called "Rally 'Round the Flag", it should be.

An Elfish USA?

One of three quilts created by Russian children in memory of tsunami victims

I'm pretty sure they had help from their mothers

According to Artistic, compasses are particularly difficult

"Start of Things in Yokohama" highlights the city's history

Someone spent a lot of time embroidering historical artifacts

The creativity of these people fascinates me. How hard is it to sew a straight line? Stay tuned and you'll soon find out.

Yokohama Quilt Show: If These Don't Inspire Me, Nothing Will

If quilts aren't your thing, tune out right now and don't come back for a couple of days. As usual, I snapped pictures of every amateur quilt at the Yokohama Quilt Festival. I would have captured the professional quilts as well but those security guards were shadowing me all day.

The "Comfort Quilts from Around Japan" exhibit consumed a lot of my time and a corresponding amount of space on that little plastic card in my camera. Since I'm going to become a grandmother in the Year of the Dragon, the baby quilts seemed even more fascinating than usual. Surely a baby is all the motivation I need to finally try to create a quilt myself. Cribs aren't all that big so this seems like a perfect project for a beginner.

By the time I'm 90, maybe I'll be able to hand-quilt hearts like these.

The 3D triangle border sure is cute

Simple squares and lots of different fabric--I think I can do this

Maybe my tenth grandchild will get an umbrella quilt

The "Memory Quilts" exhibit was also fun. If I run out of grandchildren, I suppose I could whip up a little quilt for my (only) favorite dog, Mel.

Three ladies were mesmerized with this quilt depicting plates and dolls displayed in a hutch. They stood right in front of it for over twenty minutes, at which point I settled for a sidelong picture. A quilt like this would be a perfect way to use all the random pieces of fabric in my stash although, let's face it, for now I need to be content with joining squares, rectangles, and an occasional triangle.

Sigh.

Yokohama Quilt Show: One Block Wonder

A gargantuan quilt suspended from the ceiling

Today was opening day of this year's Yokohama Quilt Festival and we got to Minatomirai just after the doors opened. No way were we going to miss seeing Big Bird receive her prize for her "One Block Wonder". She was the only American quilter to get an award and one of the few non-Japanese prize winners, the others hailing from Taiwan.

Note that her sweater complements the quilt's colors.

A closer view of the quilt (above) might help explain its title. Big Bird pieced this quilt from a single length of fabric rather than using lots of different fabrics. She has a lot more self-restraint than someone else we all know, the person who can't walk out of a fabric store without at least a quarter meter of every fabric on offer.

Here she is twiddling her thumbs in the winner's circle a few minutes before the prizes were awarded. Note the pink sweater is the only item of clothing in the winner's circle that isn't black, dark blue, or grey. As if we wouldn't be able to spot her by her hair . . .

Our Japanese quilting friends helped celebrate the occasion

We are all so proud of Big Bird. Next week she's teaching interested Navy medicine spouses how to make a tote bag from four fat quarters of fabric. Not me, though. I am still working on the quilted purse Shinagawa-san taught us how to make last year.

An Autumn Stroll Through Verny Park

The blooming season here is fantastically long. There might be a stretch of three or four days between Christmas and the new year when pine trees take precedence, but otherwise there's always a flower or two offering bright splashes in the landscape.

Californians might take this perpetual color for granted, but a girl from Michigan enroute from the Navy base to the JR train station stops dead in her tracks when she spots floral abundance in mid-November.  And a girl from "The Rose City" can't help but gawk at Verny Park roses re-blooming just two weeks before Thanksgiving.  Back home we'd be begging someone to rub linament on our aching back after a day of raking leaves around about now.

"Reach for the sky, Pardner!"

A typically cloudless day

How fortunate that my camera was in my purse, and actually charged for once, and that I wasn't in a hurry the last time I had a JR train to catch.

In Celebration of Children: Shichi Go San

A three-year old near Toshogu in Nikko

The Shichi Go San or 7-5-3 Festival is one of my favorite Japanese traditions. Boys who are 3 and 5 years old, and girls who are 3 and 7 are taken to a shinto shrine, often in their first kimono, and the parents pray for their continuing good health and prosperity.   The parents of this little girl kindly allowed me to take her picture when I spotted them exiting the shrine.

In feudal times, Japan's high childhood mortality rate was blamed on evil spirits.  When children reached the ages of 3, 5, and 7 (three and seven are especially lucky numbers here), the parents would thank the gods for protecting their offspring. 

See the bag the little girl is clutching in her right hand?  A sweet candy called chitose-ame is often given to the children in a bag decorated with cranes and turtles, symbols of longevity.

Remind me to pick up some crane and turtle washi paper before I leave Japan.  I'm sure my future grandchildren won't complain about getting bags of candy after I dress them in kimono and make them stand in front of the church on their birthdays.