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Mask Madness

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Who would have ever thought that we quilters would be so excited to be sewing face masks! What a blessing to be able to use our sewing skills to help the heroes in our community! During this time of isolation – we have a project – and a goal – and are part of the solution! Praise the Lord!

I’d like to send a huge

THANK YOU!

to everyone who has made masks, and to all who are continuing in this effort!

When we began this project we didn’t know where it would take us. Over 2020 masks later we’re still going strong, and we’re very grateful our small group of women could get the word out and fill such a huge need. Not only are we supplying hospitals and medical clinics, but we’ve had requests from police departments, hospice facilities, school cafeteria workers who are making meals for under privileged children, and more. We’re filling these requests as we are able and are also accepting requests. If you know of a place that has a need please have them contact Gina Magnus at (262)424-7640.

We started by asking for plain, professional looking masks and that’s what we received,

but it didn’t take long for many stitchers to run out of the “boring” fabrics (or just tire of them) and dig into the “pretty” ones!

Some were even made to look more masculine.

And some were just plain fun!

I will be working at the polls on Tuesday and I offered to bring masks for all the workers. My offer was accepted and I’m happy to be making patriotic masks – God bless America!

I’m sure your local polling place would appreciate masks if you can make some that quickly ?. And maybe you have friends or neighbors who would appreciate this gift of safety. Please be inspired to fill these needs also!

May God bless all of the medical, housekeeping, law enforcement and others who are on the front lines during this very difficult and dangerous time. They need and deserve our prayers and thanks.

The need continues, so please keep up the GREAT work!

For all of the information about making masks please click here!

Thank you again for all of your help and prayers. It is appreciated more than you know!

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Comfort is Times of Trouble

On a separate and very important note – I’ve noticed many people are quite anxious about these scary and uncertain times. I was recently listening to a sermon that I found informative and comforting. Click here to listen to it. May God bless you and your family, and keep you healthy and safe!

Jesus said: “In Me you may have peace; in the world you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world” John 16:33

Food in Japan

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I typically write about some aspect of quilting and sewing in my weekly blog posts, but I hope you’ll find this topic interesting too, since we all like to eat! Enjoy!

I am a somewhat adventurous eater and I was looking forward to experiencing food in Japan. The one thing I was warned about ahead of time was that there wouldn’t be many green vegetables – and I found this to be surprisingly true. A few floral shoots of broccoli snuck into dinner one night, but that was not the norm.

Aside from the salad bars on the American portion of the breakfast buffets, the majority of meals revolved around seafood, rice, tofu, noodles and salt. Although Daikon radishes and cabbage were pretty easy to find.

We went to a sushi making class during the trip. It was more of a stage production than an actual cooking class, but it was fun. What we made was pretty, and much of it was tasty – even if most of the seafood was raw (the rice is hiding underneath each item):

Eating in restaurants was an interesting experience. There was plastic food outside all of them and it was made to look exactly like what was on their menu.

I found out later that it’s a multi-million dollar industry in Japan, and it did make choosing our dinner a little easier (even if we didn’t know what we were ordering because the descriptions were all in Japanese). If you’d like to learn more about the plastic food industry in Japan click here.

One night a few of us decided to have dinner at the Tempura restaurant on the top floor of our hotel. The view was beautiful and the meal very interesting. Everything is deep fried while you watch, at high heat and in a very light batter. The chef began by showing us a wooden box filled with all the foods he would be preparing, and the presentation was a lovely part of the meal.

The first item he prepared for us was prawns. He showed us the large, beautiful prawns: heads, tails and all; cut off the heads, and cooked the rest to perfection. He put two of them into my boat shaped dish and I lifted them off with my chopsticks, dipped them in salt (no cocktail sauce), and enjoyed. Then he did the same thing with the prawn heads!

I looked with wide eyes at Vicki, who was seated next to me. She said – “when in Japan” and popped one in her mouth!

So I did the same. It was crunchy, and I ate them both. We all enjoyed the meal very much.

Besides seafood and rice, there were many restaurants that served chicken and pork. It was often deep fried, served with noodles and quite yummy.

The night we stayed at the resort near Mt. Fugi we were served an amazing multi-course dinner. The presentation and unique dishes were a highlight:

Course 1 – roe stuffed shrimp, lotus fruit, and tofu in a number of interesting shapes and colors
Course 2 – rice with more tofu shapes and a few small veggies
Course 3 – soup with unusual mushrooms and more tofu (the piece that looks like a peppermint was tofu too)
Course 4 – a 1 1/2″ tall cake of crushed ice layered with thinly sliced Daikon radishes, raw fish and wasabi
Course 5 – under the lightly toasted paper box were pieces of meat and seafood
Course 6 – delicious cold mushroom soup
And then desert – fruit, custard, and a light sorbet

An amazing meal and surprisingly filling!

While traveling from place to place I would get the munchies. Potato chips were not easy to find, and when we did the only choices were wasabi or shrimp flavor (I’m afraid they must be an acquired taste):

We purchased Bento Boxes for lunch on the bullet train. It was very compact. The two boxes stacked and were topped with the beautiful cardboard lid.

Many people in Japan commute long distances each day and these boxed lunches are extremely popular. Mine was delicious!

I’m going to end this post on a sweet note. We noticed many different flavors of KitKat candy bars all over the country. It turns out that KitKat is pronounced similarly to the Japanese phrase for “you will surely succeed”. So the Japanese people began gifting them to friends prior to athletic contests or academic tests. They became so popular that the Nestle company decided to fill the need and make a variety of them. The most unusual was Yuzu fruit/Matcha tea (not my favorite).

It was a fun souvenir to bring home to the kids.

I truly enjoyed the culinary experience, but I must admit I was ready for a hamburger with a big dish of asparagus when I returned.

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In a comment last week, Laurie asked about the project I Roketsu dyed. I chose a dragonfly design on a t-shirt.

I finished in a short amount of time and the teacher made a comment through Izumi that I should add one to the back shoulder. I love it!

I love it. Now if it will just warm up enough outside to wear it.

Roketsu Dyeing

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All of the classes we took in Japan were great, but this one was hands down my favorite! It was also our last class – and what a finale it was!

We were each invited to decide whether we wanted to create a t-shirt or runner, and to choose a pattern.

We sat two to a special table with a hot wax pot and brushes in the center, and a built in lightbox.

After “painting” the first coat of wax, the light tables were turned off and a second coat was applied.

And then if was time to prepare to dye:

Our pieces were divided into two groups and we took turns stirring the indigo dye.

This is Jim’s fish – quite impressive!

The pieces were then removed from the dye, rinsed and hung to dry a bit.

Next the pieces were put into boiling water and we observed our instructor stirring and teaching as the wax was melted out of the fabric. Thank goodness Izumi was interpreting.

From there they were rinsed, had the water spun out of them and handed to us to iron dry.

Once again we had a fantastic group of teacher/helpers.

And a good time was had by all!

It’s been a joy for me to share the fiber related memories of our trip to Japan, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I have to admit, I have one more blog post about the trip in me because it was such a fascinating part of our tour – “Food In Japan”. That will happen next week ?.

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And, on a non-quilting note:

This past week one of my granddogs, Mosely, passed away. He was almost 13 and died of natural causes. This has hit my son’s family hard – Moseley was a very sweet dog.

A few years ago I made this quilt of him in a class with Barbara Beasley and I decided this would be the perfect time to finish that quilt and gift it to them. Praise the Lord – it was a great comfort.

Moseley, you will be missed!

Yuzen and Shibori Classes

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When we arrived in Kyoto via the bullet train from Mt. Fuji, our first stop was Marumasu Nishimuray where we were treated to a class in Yuzen dye painting.

This is the description in Japanese and English. I’ll include a portion here since it’s a bit hard to read above:

“KYO-YUZEN (Textile dyeing) is a method of textile dyeing which has been practiced since the 8th century. The creation of hand-drawn yuzen is attributed to a craftsman named Miyazaki Yusensai who was active in the latter half of the 17th century. The complex skills involved in this dyeing method have been handed down the generations to create patterns of wonderful polychrome brilliance. Kyo-Yuzen patterns may either be drawn freely by hand or dyed employing stencils.”

And here I am pinning my first of three stencils in place:

The teacher was very easy to understand and we were anxious to begin.

We dipped the hand made brushes into the beautiful colored dyes and began to paint,

keeping the brush vertical and using short circular strokes.

This is one of the two paintings I created. I framed it after returning home, and it’s ready to be put into my Japanese memory quilt.

The next day after visiting with Mr. Takeda, we walked down the street of Arimatsu Town to the Narumi Shiborikaikan (tie-dyeing museum) for another great class!

The supplies were waiting for us in the classroom on the second floor and Quiltanna couldn’t resist jumping right in:

None of the teachers spoke English, but they had all been doing this for a very long time. We used a running stitch along the lines of the printed “handkerchief”, and everyone caught on fast.

By the smiles I think we were all ready to do some stitching.

And Jim kept up well!

Once the stitching was done we addressed envelopes with the same number that was attached to our “hankerchiefs”:

And put them into the color box of our choice to be dyed and mailed home to us after the trip.

It was exciting to watch our mailboxes and receive our pieces a few weeks later!

One of the teachers was really taken with Quiltanna and asked to have our photo taken together. I was delighted! Making friends in other parts of the world is such a blessing!

My green flower will also be a part of the memory quilt I’m working on, but I’m afraid that memory quilt will take me a lot longer to make than it took this block to arrive from Japan.

Each class we experienced was educational and fun, and my favorite class is still to come. Next week Roketsu dyeing!

Making Paper – A New Fiber Art Adventure

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Before our tour of Japan actually began, a few of us arrived early to discover Tokyo on our own. It was fun, fascinating and foot tiring – we walked 20,000 steps the first day! Thanks to my friend Cindy, we managed to cover a good portion of Tokyo via train/subway. We discovered she is an amazing researcher and she has a “gps brain” (she held our guide’s “fish flag” on one of our day tours and I couldn’t resist inserting this picture here).

We began our adventure with a visit to a government building which had a 43rd floor observation area. It was a beautifully clear day and we were able to see how truly huge Tokyo is – and to get our first glimpse of Mt. Fugi! What an amazing view!

We had many other great stops that day, but the class Cindy arranged for the following day just has to be shared. The company is called Ozu Washi and they’ve been making specialty paper since 1653:

Paper is a fiber made from plants – and I’ve seen it used in art quilts. The idea of making it was very appealing.

Our instructor spoke very little English, but he had a wonderful sense of humor. He began by showing us how the fibers were stripped from the plant and placed in the water, then he showed us how the screens worked.

He then demonstrated the process: dip screen and gently shake back and forth to align the fibers. He made it look so easy… and we all failed in our first attempt.

In the end we all were successful (even if mine had the most “texture”).

From collecting the fibers on the screen (the hardest part).

to sucking out the excess water at the vacuum table,

to drying it on the hot metal plate,

We all “made paper”!

Then we visited the gift shop and spent a bunch of yen. This is a piece of paper – yes paper – I purchased there.

I wonder how I’ll use it in an art quilt???

It was a truly memorable experience and we hadn’t even begun our actual tour! Next week’s topic – Yuzen painting and Shibori Dyeing!

And one more thing…

Lynn emailed me a question on a topic I’m not familiar with. Please reply in “comments” or email me your response if you have one ?:

“Do any of your readers with longarm quilting machines use leader grips when loading their quilts? Do they work and are they easy to use?”

Fascinating Fiber Art in Japan II

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From Mt. Fugi (to read last week’s post, click here) we took the bullet train to Kyoto (an experience in itself)

and stayed in a luxurious hotel in an area of the city that was fun to explore.

On Friday we visited Arimatsu town. This ancient area dates back to 1608, and is known as the center of shibori or tie-dyeing. The 400 year success of Arimatsu Shibori began when the lord of Owari decided to protect the industry as the region’s special product and gave credit to Takeda Shokuro. We were invited into the “House of Takeda”

and were able to meet Mr. Takeda who is a direct descendant. He loved sharing his knowledge of shibori as well as some wonderful samples. He was very excited and it was difficult to get a photo of him holding still.

I found the samples fascinating as I didn’t realize that after the fabric has been stitched, dyed, and the stitches have been removed; the silk or cotton fabrics are very three dimensional and almost take on an elastic property prior to pressing:

Both the pieces above and below have the stitching removed, but they have not been steam pressed.

The items in the gift shop were enticing and I must admit I did support the Takeda house a bit! From there we walked down the main street of Arimatsu town towards the Shibori Museum where we were treated to a wonderful shibori dyeing class – but those photos are for another post.

The following day we had a completely different experience when we were invited into the home of Yoshiko Jinzenji.

Yoshiko is an award winning fiber artist who has been quilting for over three decades. Her work is in the permanent collections of the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, NE, the Museum of Art and Design in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, just to name a few. She lived in Bali for 25 years and discovered a way to dye fabric white using bamboo dyes she created. Since she has moved back to Kyoto, she has designed her own home, and now teaches cooking classes. What an amazing woman! We were invited into her home, provided slippers when we removed our shoes, found cushions to sit on and were enthralled and entertained by Yoshiko’s stories and quilts

while her friends (who are also her students)

served us cookies and tea.

Click here to read about this phenomenally talented, gracious, and charming woman. I assure you, you will enjoy reading her story!

The last day of our trip we visited Aizenkobo

and learned all about indigo dye. The married couple who are “Aizenkobo” were delightful.

He taught in the US for many years, yet she was his “very proud” interpreter. They were overwhelmingly generous with stories and samples of his multigenerational link to the indigo dyeing industry.

He talked about the process for making indigo,

and actually burned a piece of dyed fabric to show how it made the cloth fire retardant.

I had the honor of modeling one of their garments:

The samples of ikat were what I found the most interesting. The threads are shibori dyed before the fabric is woven. Here he is holding up a bundle of tied THREADS after it has been dyed. You can see the regularly spaced white areas where the tying kept the dye from penetrating the fibers:

In the following piece the dark blue/light blue portions that look like crayfish were made by using a solid indigo thread for the warp and the tie dyed thread for the weft.

In the indigo/white portions both of the threads were tie dyed and woven to meet up and create the design. I can’t even imagine the planning and effort that go into this process. I have been continually amazed by the work of these talented Japanese artists!

At this point I haven’t even touched on the classes we were able to take. Stay tuned for next week’s post!

Fascinating Fiber Art in Japan

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We toured a number of amazing museums and studios on our trip. I don’t have room here to do them all justice, but I just have to share a bit and I will include links for you to explore these unique places on your own.

To begin with, our interpreter guide, Izumi, was amazing.

Her English is very good, her knowledge of each destination is great, and she has a delightful sense of humor.

She kept everything running smoothly and made the trip a joy!

Our first stop was the Tokyo National Museum. It had a fascinating display of vintage kimonos, created with a number of different methods.

This detail photo highlights some shibori dyeing (the white spots surrounded by indigo) and embroidery:

Enthralling!

On our way to Mt. Fugi we stopped along Lake Kawaguchi and had the pleasure of visiting the Kwaguchiko Muse Museum where beautiful and distinctive dolls made by Japanese doll artist Yuki Atae are on display. It was a cloudy day and the mountain was not visible, but I love this photo of the group in front of the lake.

We were only allowed to photograph one of the artist’s creations:

but if you’d like to see more (and I highly recommend it), click here to visit the museum’s webpage. Many of the dolls are featured in the changing slideshow of photographs at the top of the page.

From there we went to one of my favorite stops on the trip – the Itchiku Kuboto Art Museum. It is housed among the foothills of Mt. Fugi in structures that enhance the landscape and invite one in.

Itchiku Kuboto was a craftsman who created larger than life kimonos with incredible artistry. Once again, we were not allowed to photograph his work, but I found many of these beautiful pieces on the web. Click here for a visual feast. By clicking on each kimono on the home page, more information will appear.

Some of us had tea in another building on the grounds. We of course removed our shoes, sat on cushions on the floor, and looked out on a captivating view of a winter waterfall. It was lovely.

After visiting these wonderful sites we were taken to our hotel for the night.

As we approached it we were disappointed to find Mt. Fugi continued to be hidden behind the clouds. We had a fascinating dinner that evening (to be featured in a future blog post ?), and at dawn the following morning this was the view from my balcony:

Flat Stephanie and Quiltanna just couldn’t resist photobombing the mountain!

We visited so many amazing sites that I’m finding they won’t fit into one post. Next week I’ll touch on the fiber art stops we made around Kyoto.

Inspiration from the National Quilt Museum

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I still have so many quilt related things to share from my trip to Japan, but something exciting has happened and I really wanted to share it this week.

During my annual pilgrimage to Paducah last Spring I had the amazing opportunity to be interviewed TWICE at the National Quilt Museum. The first was an interview of the finalists in the New Quilts From an Old Favorite contest, done by the museum. We were each able to tell about our adventure in making our Oak Leaf quilts. I did a blog topic about my “Oak Leaf and Swirl” quilt and included the link to that interview in the post. Please click here to find that link and watch that interview.

The second interview came about in an interesting way. Amanda Neuhouser, from TCT Television Network, had contacted Bonnie Browning, the Executive Show Director at AQS, and asked if she knew of any “Christian quilters” who would be willing to be interviewed during Quilt Week. Bonnie gave her my name and I am so very grateful.

I met with Amanda and her assistant, Kelsie Babisz, in the museum and we set up in front of my quilt. These two women were delightful.

I must admit – I was a bit nervous. But the interview was fun and these dear ladies were a joy to work with.

Plus – my quilts love to travel and be seen.

I wasn’t sure what would ever become of this and didn’t really think about it after I returned home, until a few weeks ago when Amanda contacted me to say the video was almost done. She needed one more thing from me and the next thing I knew – it was finished and Kelsie sent me the link!

Before I share it with you, I have to praise God for this opportunity and give you a bit of background. This past year was the 35th anniversary of the Spring AQS Quilt Week and in honor of that the center gallery of the National Quilt Museum was filled with most of the 35 Best of Show quilts from the preceding years. It was an awe-inspiring exhibit – plus there were other amazing quilts in the side galleries.

If you’ve never been to the museum in Paducah, and even if you have, I think you will be blown away by the quilts shown in this video.

That being said – Only the quilt behind the three of us in the photo at the beginning of this post, and the ones I’m holding in the video were made by me.

I’m humbled that mine, along with the CEO of the museum, Frank Bennett, are the only voices you will hear while you view these breathtaking quilts made by so many amazing artists. As I watched it for the first time I wanted to shout out – “that’s Corona II by Caryl Bryer Fallert Gentry”, or “that exhibit features the quilts of Hollis Chatelaine”, and the list goes on.

Yet, I am honored to have been asked to be a part of this lovely video. May God be glorified.

I hope you will enjoy it. Please click here – and let the show begin!

Next week – Fiber Art Stops in Japan – part I!