Be*mused

Confusion

Depending how you read my blog name, it's not surprising that once in a while there's a bit of confusion here.  Yesterday I described covering my design board and several of you thought I was making a blocking board for knitting.  It's not that, it's a flannel board used while designing quilts...fabric sticks to it without the need for pins.  See?

Pieced blocks from my *brown period* (for illustration purposes)

However, I think that this styrofoam insulation would make an excellent blocking board (thanks for the idea!) and will try it out next time.  Hopefully M won't be needing the scraps in the garage as they're disappearing quickly.  I've already taken one and covered it to use as a portable board for use on my porch.

Hmmm, the teacups......

Now that we have that cleared up, on to other things.  Project Spectrum starts tomorrow and I'm all revved up for it.  I don't have a particular project in mind, but plan to use the color theme to try out some quilt patterns and design ideas that have been on my lists for a few months.  I'll be thrilled if one takes off and becomes a bed quilt, but will settle for a lap or wall piece, pillows, or even, at least, removal from the list and moving on to other possibilities.  For me, this project is about halting my unending consideration of projects and moving along!

To that end, armed with compass, protractor, ruler, pencil and paper, I've been busily drafting patterns and making templates.  Because although I'm planning to work on some pieces like this and this over the course of Lolly's project, I also have several traditional designs in mind.  So I'll take this opportunity to mention my favorite drafting book, Patchwork Patterns by Jinny Beyer. 

Although I'm no particular fan of the author*, this is an excellent reference book.  In clear text, she breaks down the elements of geometry and then details how to draft any geometric pattern in any size.  Illustrated with simple drawings, this book frees quilters (or any craftperson who uses such designs) from having to rely on books for patterns.  I drafted the sunflower blocks (above) after seeing a photo of a similar antique quilt (finished, however...lol) in a magazine.  The book is out of print, but you can find used copies quite easily.

Two more quick items.  If you're like me, continually sorting through piles and trying to get organized, you might like this blog I stumbled upon recently, Discardian.  A tip a day to help you wade through it all! 

And finally, because yesterday's photo didn't do justice to the beautiful Grafton batt from Cate...

*swoon*

*In the early 1980s, JB was one of the queens of quilting and had just come out with her own line of fabrics, perhaps the first quiltmaker/designer of the many since.  Some friends and I traveled quite a distance to hear her speak (there weren't many quilt lectures in those days!) and were struck by a comment she made during her presentation about a wedding quilt she had gifted to a relative.  She said that, to her horror, the recipient was actually using it on her bed.  *Huh?*  I don't think I heard anything else she said that night.

Fresh start Monday

The Olympics are over, my hand is much improved, the sun is out and new projects are on the horizon!  I've spent the past several days thumbing through bookmarked magazines and patterns, lining up new possibilities to quilt, knit and stitch.  This morning a wonderful package arrived from my Better Pal, Cate, of Mamacate, who is clearly enticing me to add spindling to the new short list.  I wish I could capture the iridescent quality of the blues in the Grafton wool batt.  It's gorgeous and both wools are soft as clouds. (I may have to keep them just to stroke occasionally!)  She also included a new spindle, instruction booklet and, to tide me over until I get the hang of it, a skein of Possum Lace in one of my favorite colorways.  Thanks, Cate!  I couldn't have asked for a more thoughtful or generous pal.   

I've just spent most of the morning wrestling with an 8' x 4' piece of insulation board up in my sewing room.  Remember this?  I've been using it for several months, leaned against a wall with a too-small piece of flannel pinned to it and its sloppy look has been bugging me.  The bottom of the flannel was loose and the pink board showed through the white flannel.  I had never used this type of board before and in its leaning position, each time I touched it, it squeaked.  Enough of that!  This morning I covered it with batting and then ironed up eight & a half feet of 90" wide white flannel and covered over that.  One long fold crease was difficult to remove, so it's currently stretched on 3 sides, spritzed with water and smoothed, awaiting the final edge stretch.  Although I haven't decided about mounting it on the wall (it's light as a feather, despite its size), now that it's wrapped, there should, at least, be no more squeaking.

Now it's ready to use just in time for Project Spectrum, which starts Wednesday.  If you haven't considered it yet, Lolly's idea for a make-along based on monthly color suggestions is brilliant.  I'm embracing it as a way to kick-start my quilting, using it as a jumping off point to play with some ideas I've had.  I can't wait to see how others interpret the color challenge in various media.  Consider joining along! 

Blame it on the caponata

This is the extent of the handwork I've completed over the last week.  Despite hours spent watching the Olympics and that long round-trip ride for the wedding, I've not made much progress on the socks.  Or the handquilting I had wanted to get back to.  I've injured my right hand in a fit to open an unyielding jar of my newest addiction, Trader Joe's caponata. 

I'll admit, even though I'm mostly Italian, I'd never heard of caponata when I innocently accepted a sample from my favorite TJ employee.  But I've fallen hard for this combo of tomato, eggplant and olives (on TJ Roasted Garlic Wisecrackers).  The problem is that the jar lids have often been difficult to open.  Last week, alone, undaunted and armed with lid gripper (and having done the obligatory sharp rapping of the lid edge with heavy knife handle), I refused to give up and although the reward was sweet...yum, love that caponata!...my hand started acting up when I picked up my knitting.  The size #1 needles aren't helping and I suspect my recent blog reading (aka *mouse clicking*) is slowing my recovery.  So this week I've switched my focus to washing all that fabric, cleaning up my workspaces and actually reading the books and magazines I've acquired over the last few months.  I'll be back in a few days.  I'm feeling very inspired! 

Last stop

Are you feeling like you got off the tour bus and it left without you?  Sorry about the abrupt end to the last post but I was interrupted by several frantic emails from a cell phone in Japan requesting my help in locating some computer reinstallation CDs.  All's well that ends well, though.

Where were we?  Oh, right...leaving the Quilt Festival, sweaty, tired and somewhat shellshocked.  Kind of like I'm feeling right now.  I've been under the weather the past few days, mostly sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, reading and watching people throw themselves down mountains (aka Torino).  I had just about completed this post when I inadvertently hit the *back* button and deleted it.  TWICE.  Which I'm thinking is a sign.  (I know it's a sign.)  So for those of you who came back for this, here's a quickie synopsis.

Be still my heart. 

After a lovely (frigid, snowy) daytrip to Nikko and with our time in Tokyo dwindling, we headed right to Steff's recommendation...

Tomato!

Not to be confused with Tomato 2. (Or the flying tomato.)

This is a great fiber destination if you're ever in Tokyo.  Every nook and cranny of its many floors are crammed and stacked with bolts of fabric.  (Six floors?  Seven?  It's all a blur.)  Later in the week, we also made a quick stop at Otsukaya on our way to spend some time with Nagoya friends.  I've been taken there on previous visits, but had never found it myself.  Its website features several locations and I'd recommend a visit if you're ever near one.  Five fabulous floors of fabric. 

   
Tomato fabrics

Selection from various shops and stops.

By now it should have all been washed, ironed, in the stash and well on its way to being integrated into several projects, but this week was a big washout.  I'm feeling a bit better today.  Good thing because now I have to pack for a weekend trip to attend a wedding.  Fresh start on Monday! 

Fabric adventures

Pour a cup of tea and join me!

Ok, here's the post that some have been waiting for...requesting...emailing about (you know who you are).  Fabric shopping in Japan.  Specifically, my fabric shopping.  I've previously expressed my ambivalence regarding blogging about fabric purchases when it's not in the context of an ongoing project, but I also know that there's a big interest in *what's out there*.  I surrender!

This trip was both exhilarating and frustrating because from the start, I knew I'd have numerous fabric shopping opportunities not knowing what might be available the next day.  For someone like me who already has a problem with decision making, this was akin to being a contestant on Let's Make a Deal.  Buy it today or see something better tomorrow? 

The first temptation presented itself while we visited with Kat and Steff in the Kochijoji section of Tokyo.  Yuzawaya, the much mentioned Japanese crafter's heaven had several floors of every type of fabric & ribbon and clearly has no rival (anywhere?) in sheer volume and variety of tools and materials.  However, another fabric shop several blocks away, Cottonfield, was my particular favorite.  Although at least half of its cloth was from the USA & UK (walls of colorful stock including all of Kaffe Fassett's prints, Liberty prints and lots of Moda, Free Spirit, etc), they had many Japanese designs that we never saw again.  Phew...good thing I decided on these!

Two days later we headed to the quilt festival where the vendor area rivaled the exhibitions in size.  After a bit of drooling over the old indigos & silks (which I have lots of...gifts on previous visits) and cruising by many booths of *country style*...the tea dyed, calico look is very popular there now...I found several that I had to pull myself away from.  Yoko Saito's lovely monochrome selections.  Pindot's display of vintage feedsacks combined with their exquisite (and pricey) polka dots, printed on a slightly textured cotton.   A booth featuring some funky prints and original pieces by Eiko Okano.   

Stumbled upon while exiting. I'd missed a whole aisle! 

Japanese lines of American 1930s/40s-style prints are currently very popular and yes, I passed up vintage indigos but brought home a selection of small cuts of these.  But it was such a lovely display, so fresh and appealing!  (Note that in their craze for feedsacks, several of the designs in this line are printed on a similar, loose weave fabric.)

More fabric adventures in a later post, but I want to mention an email I received from Jennifer, in Tokyo.  She is one of original Tokyo Stitch'n'Bitchers, the author of one of my all-time favorite blogs, Moving Hands (now retired, due to motherhood), and it was wonderful to hear from her again.  She sent me the link to her Flickr account, where she has posted more photos from the Tokyo Quilt Festival and is allowing me to share it with you.  So sorry I missed you on this trip, Jennifer.  Guess I'll just have to come back!

At last

The Tokyo Quilt Festival photo album's finally up.  Do you have a favorite?

Help!*

Grand prizewinning quilt, Tokyo Quilt Festival

I've spent several hours today going through my numerous festival quilt shots, cropping and writing commentary for a sidebar photo album but am having a problem that I'd like to resolve, if possible, before I post it.  I want to present my photos in a particular sequence, but I'm noticing that despite my upload sequence, some shots are being inserted into the album in diferent order.  (Perhaps in the sequence they were shot?)  So Typepad users, can I get around this and present my photos the way I want or must I bow to this template quirk?  I submitted a help ticket to Typepad, but if you have the answer, please help me out!  I'll post the album once I get this issue resolved.*

Ah, the power of suggestion!

While I'm waiting to hear from you, I think I'll go have a slice of cranberry bread.  And work on my sock, which I frogged last night and started again on #2 needles for a little more ease in the cuff.  I might even dig out my Satakieli and my new Japanese knitting book. 

 
Am I glutton for punishment or what?

* Issue resolved, thanks to Hillary!  If you've experienced the same sequencing frustrations when posting pics to your Typepad photo album, the solution is to change the 'date/time taken' on photos so that the times are sequential and the photos will then fall into place as you intend.  I'll have the album completed & posted sometime Saturday morning.  Thanks again, Hillary...from all of us!   

Scattershot

I usually try to keep my posts to one topic, but...warning...today I'm going to be all over the place.  Jet lag has finally waned and things are pretty much back to normal around here.  I'm getting the itch to stitch and this afternoon I'll start washing up the fabric I brought back from Japan to add to the stash.  Now that I can keep my eyes open after 7:00pm, I'm making some progress on my Trekking 100 socks.  (I love the *hand* of the fabric this yarn makes.)  It feels good to be knitting again.  I had brought yarn to Japan for all of that train time, but as in the past, I never touched it.  Train travel is mesmerizing to me and no matter the landscape nor the length of ride, I can't pull myself away from gazing out the window.

The Olympics are almost upon us and after much deliberation, I've decided to forego competing in Stephanie's Knitting Olympics and join Margene in her *Enjoy the Process* KAL.  (Isn't Eddie the Eagle an inspired choice of mascots?)  Since I usually plant myself in front of the tube for the better part of two weeks during Olympics time (hoping for gray, bleak weather to somewhat justify it), I'll be working on several different projects, knitting and quilting, which are in the prep stages now.  I agree with Emily that you can make a lot more progress when you have several concurrent, ongoing projects, in various stages of completion, ready to be picked up and worked on at a moment's notice.  When I did a lot of handquilting, I never went to bed without threading a fresh needle and taking one stitch.

I had a nice surprise yesterday.  While arranging my new waiting-in-the-wings yarns in a basket, I noticed that the new Kureyon and my BP Socks that Rock (colorway: Carbon Dating) are the exact same color combinations.  Complementary scarf and socks..whoo-hoo!! 

I hadn't really planned anymore Japan posts, but since so many have asked, I'll do several more topical posts from the trip.  I had hoped to have a Quilt Festival photo album up by now (my whole sidebar is in sore need of updating-ack!!) but I'll try to get to it over the next few days.  In the meantime, a few more shots.

Original design category 

Traditional Japanese fabric category

Traditional design category (Click to see hand embroidery!)

*Note: If I told you something would be in the mail this week, it's still sitting here. Apologies. Trip to the post office in the morning! 

Sucker

I am a sucker for this stuff.  Try as I might to rationalize why I should never purchase Kureyon again, I fall for it every time.  My most recent transgression occurred while ascending the 7 floors of one of our favorite haunts, Tokyu Hands.  (I see in my link that we were in its flagship store in Shibuya. Doomed from the start. No wonder I had no resistance!)  We hadn't remembered a yarn department in the Nagoya store, so drawn like moths to a flame, Molly and I immediately gravitated toward the walls of colorful skeins.  And then I spotted a simple, ribbed scarf on display in the most gorgeous colorway. *sigh*. Kureyon.  Got me again!  I'd never seen this color combo before and thinking it was something available only in Japan, I knew it would haunt me if I didn't pick it up.  #170...will look great with denim.  And I was wrong, it is available here. Looks like it's the newest color, but certainly not featured there in its best light!

Slow inhale...ahhhh! The coffee smells wonderful! 

When I arrived home last week, there was a box waiting for me on the counter from my Better Pal.  As if clairvoyant, she gifted me with some Socks That Rock (which I've been dying to try) and a skein of Trekking 100, which I had been drooling over as I watched Molly's socks evolve during our travels.  She included coffee and a sheepy mug from a deli she thought I might have enjoyed in college because, coincidentally, we graduated from the same university.  Small world!  It wasn't, however, established as early as I was. *wink*  Thanks so much, Better Pal.  And that lovely notecard is going up on the bulletin board!

One more thing that I must post before I forget.  We so nearly experienced a fire the morning of my departure for Japan that I've wanted to warn you about a risk that may exist in your homes.  When I got up that morning, I came in to check my email.  Being early, it was still dark so I turned on the desk lamp before heading to the kitchen to turn on the coffeemaker.  I was darting among rooms over the next half hour...showering, zipping up suitcases, reviewing *lists* with M...and continuing to pop in to check my email, not wanting to miss any important, urgent, pre-departure messages from Molly.  (Like, 'If you still have time, and space in your bags, could you bring my _______?'  But I digress.)  I froze when I noticed an acrid smell upon entering the room.  My eyes were darting around, trying to determine its source when I realized that the lamp's shade was melting to drips and was just a moment from from bursting into flames, singed brown and glowing at its edge.  The lamp was similar to this style:

   

However, the shade was plastic.  This is key!  Somehow, the 'brim' of the shade had disengaged from the 'crown' of the shade and dropped down onto the standard, 60 watt bulb.  In seconds, it was melted and ready to ignite.  A metal lamp had expired recently and I picked up this cheap little one to use until I could find a nicer replacement.  You know this type of lamp because they sell millions of them at back-to-school time in discount department stores across the country and some of you probably have them in your children's rooms.  If you own one with a plastic shade, please, get rid of it.  It's a big fire hazard!  (I'm still shaking over this.)

My first blogiversary

No! No! Only kidding, really!  It just seemed like the perfect post to share this funny postcard image I found on my trip.

It seems this has been anniversary week in blogland.  I suspect that many, as I did, considered starting a blog for a while and decided that it would be the perfect winter project.  And it was!  A bit hesitant to dip my toe in the water initially, I haven't regretted it since.  I've been reading others'  blogiversary musings over the past few days and mostly would echo their sentiments.  To the new friends I've made through comments, emails, notes (and in person!), to the habitual lurkers and the occasional visitors, as always, thanks for stopping by.  It's been a wonderful 12 months of experiences that I couldn't have imagined a year ago.  As the Japanese say, *okagesamade*...thanks to you!