Back from Asia - Tokyo Quilt Show

We returned from our Tokyo/Bangkok/Singapore trip at midnight Saturday. I'm still suffering some jet lag - I was up at 4 am today.

The quilts at the show were F A B U L O U S. We spent two days there. They don't sell a multi-day pass like most North American quilt shows, so we had to pay the full freight each day to enter, and that was about $22 cdn. Our hotel in Tokyo was very close to the train system (similar to our GO Trains in Toronto area) but on a much more complex scale than Toronto. So Doris & I learned all about the Tokyo trains.

As far as the quilting style in Japan, they love yo-yos, log cabin, Grandmothers Flower Garden, applique, and hand quilting. They love to applique these tiny circles all over their quilts - I shudder just to think about that. There was also a lot of whimsical/fantasy themed quilts, and a lot of embroidery. OMG, the purse handles available at the show would boggle your mind. I didn't know where to start? I only brought two sets home with me - one set is hard, made from wood. The other set is leather.

I thought I'd start back on my blog with some photos of the PURSES at the Quilt Show in Tokyo. There were tons more - I only photo'd the ones that really caught my eye. The work on these is very intricate. Sometimes you have to stare and stare to see the detail that has gone into the piece. Notice beading, embroidery, teensy prairie points and exquisite hand quilting. Enjoy...

My last post for three weeks

I need to be up in three hours. The airport limo will be picking Doris & I up at 5 am - OMG. There is not enough coffee in the world to sustain me......
I will certainly miss Miss Snow Cone. And Mr. Slippers. But just think - three whole weeks and I won't hear a single snow plow!

I am sure not a world traveller. I've paid all the bills and called BOTH visa card banks to warn them about smoking cards. I've spent the last two days photocopying documents and writing out addresses, phone numbers and flight information. Put the cash & travellers cheques here. No, put them in this pocket. Umm, maybe in this zipper pocket. Or should I put some in the carry-on bag? Oy, yoy, yoy.

This was the last quilt I had on my work schedule until mid February. Very striking, don't you think?








But what will I find in Asia???? See you all in three weeks!

Quilts & Trip to Asia

This morning I gave up and got out of bed at 6 am. I have way too many things on my brain. Yesterday I picked up my tickets from the travel agent... yaaaayyy!!!! Then I went to Curry's Art Supply and bought journals so Doris & I can make an artsy-fartsy record of our trip. I really need to pay better attention to Flylady (see links in the sidebar). It took me half an hour to find my stamps and stamp pad. Nuts!! I used them just last month for the postcard workshop, so I kept thinking "how far could the buggers have gone????". Definitely need to do a 27 fling boogie at my earliest opportunity. I hope to make lovely fabric covers for the journals but I don't know if I will have time before I leave Thursday.

Hubby and I went to the movies - Clint Eastwood's new release Gran Torino. Good movie, classic Clint Eastwood where he plays the neighbourhood cowboy (he wears the white hat).

On Friday I sent off these two quilts to the QOV program. I've also sent a press release to the local rags so we should get some publicity.









Here is the pretty pink quilt I was working on last week. All done, blocks fixed and in their proper positions.













I love bright quilts - I had a little fun with this one, quilting it up with echoed (sp?) hearts.










And here's a lovely scrappy beauty made with batiks.




My commentary today is Blogger and their piss-poor photo upload. The green QOV photo was uploaded three times before it actually appeared on the blog. Three!! This happens all the time - with every single post. Queries to their 'help' people made me feel like singing that song I learned as a kid:
nobody likes me,
everybody hates me,
going to the garden to eat worms, yum yum yum,
big fat juicy ones,
little skinny slimy ones,
itsy bitsy teeny weeny worms, yum yum.

Jeepers Creepers - That Block is in the Wrong Place

or... How to Fix a Quilt That's Already On the Machine

Identify bad block. Bad block, BAD!!





Unpick stitching and remove bad block. Bad block, BAD!! All gone.




Lay new block in place and pin prodigiously.





Carefully applique stitch (yes by hand).





Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Will it show after it's quilted? Again, absolutely not. Well, maybe a little bit, if someone is REALLY looking. But it's better than looking at a bad block for the rest of your life.


The problem is.... you just KNOW that Bad block, BAD! really belongs somewhere else on the quilt. But with it all rolled up like this you have no idea where. Until, of course, you get near the end. Can you see where the two little mauve squares are missing? I don't have the energy to deal with this today. That will be a tomorrow job. I think I'll just applique BbB on top.

I've been listening to the Beatles today, and siiiinging away. Poor DH is upstairs trying to watch some football game while I'm singing away at the top of my lungs.

Some lyrics that were very important social barometers of the day.

• on the way the paper bag was on my knee, man I had a dreadful flight (hmm I may find this out the hard way soon)
  
• Hey Bungalow Bill, what did you kill, Bungalow Bill? (I think everyone has an uncle like this)
  
• I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping (please, don't remind me)
  
• everybody's got something to hide 'cept for me and my monkey (that's no monkey silly, that's a dog)
  

Messenger Bag finished!

I'm working away like a mad dervish here. I leave in less than two weeks (gaaaa!!!!!) I'm so excited!!!!! CAN YOU TELL????

I closed out 2008 by quilting this not-too-big quilt from a class I taught last year.




Then I took New Years Day for me. Me me me. Me. We (geez, do you see how easy it is to fall off the 'ME' wagon?) started cleaning out the office (shovelling is more like it). We seem to have gotten stalled on my husband's old paperwork. Now I'm at the hurry-up-and-wait part while he finishes going through all that sh....

I got tired of being the insert the paper in the shredder girl after I realized this was going to be a very loooong operation.
I snuck out to my workroom and spent the rest of the day making my Messenger Bag. Zippers and pockets too many to count!











When I could drag myself away from petting my new bag I finished another quilt from the class I taught in the fall. This student is very very accurate in all her patchwork. Working on her quilts is a pleasure. It was convenient that both customers wanted the same pantograph pattern for their quilts.

What to do at 5 am?

On Monday I had one of those mornings when the clock (for some reason), was reading 4 am when I woke up. Don't you feel like you're in a time warp when that happens? I knew that was too early to get up so I lay in bed for another hour. At 5 I gave in to the brain and got out of bed. Silently tip-toed down to my workroom. Decided I just HAD TO START A PROJECT. Geez, I need my head read.

Anyhow - this is it - the new messenger bag which I will take on my Asia trip. It should be roomy enough for all my assorted currencies (yens, bhats, Singapore dollars, Canadian dollars, American travellers cheques). And plenty of room left over for my language translators, city tour/information books, currency converter calculator. And, oh yea, lipstick and hand sanitizer and maybe a water bottle or two.
Outside fabrics - all nice 'sophisticated' blacks & browns. Not really my style, so....





Inside fabrics - dog cartoons, red flowers and lime green bead chain fabrics. Much more the 'real me'.






Remember me showing you the 'challenging' quilt I had to quilt? Well, I've finished that.
It turned out incredibly well, considering the shirred sashing and the ruffled borders.













But I also had a really pretty one to work on. Itsy bitsy piecing - it started as an Oh My Gosh quilt.



I also quilted up a Quilt of Valour for one of our guild members. I'm very sorry to say I've been advised that the program is looking for quilts NOW, so I think mine will be sent off this week.

And I've named my new personal assistant Threddy Krueger. The p.a. is definitely male - when I tell it to clean it grumbles and squawks, then stumbles around for a minute before it gets started.
Sadie was circling the enemy - she does not like vacuum cleaners AT ALL.

Gifts

How was your Christmas? We brought Mom home to stay overnight on Christmas Eve then we went to my brother's for turkey dinner. My brother truly believes that the sun rises and sets on his wife, so he took her to Paris, France for her birthday. Jealous? Me too.
Anyhow, look what she brought back for me! I can't wait to have somewhere to go that will require me bringing my slippers so I can show these babies off. I love the hat so much that I'm wearing it around the house - keeps the furnace down, eh? They are hand made from felted wool.

It took some convincing but DH finally realized that I TRULY did want a personal assistant for Christmas.




Here's another apron that's been gifted and opened.



This is the stainless steel tree that DH made for the nephew's fiancee. Apparently she's been sending prayers out to the universe for a while now.


We are laying low today. Queasy stomachs, headaches, chills. Did we poison ourselves? I don't think so. Maybe we picked up a crummy bug somewhere.