MOONSTITCHES

soon...

Never, never believe me when you hear me saying soon ...
Well, I myself still do, but that might just be a sign of my enormous power of imagination, self-deception or plain naivety... However... this time I had an excuse, our photo library had to get reorganized and I was asked to do no further confusion to the system until everything was fixed.
Now it is and I could finally free the vast number of pictures I took at quilt show from our camera. This evening I started to upload them to that Flickr set, more to be added soon...

Thanks for all your good wishes, I am better.

I also overcame a  major  case of  procrastination I was suffering from for about ten days or so. One that even affected blogging and commenting on your blogs although there were quite a lot of posts that made me almost crawl into the screen like these lovely pigs. And look, this adorable girl! And  this post about music  made me time travel while thinking of music I listened to in the past. For me music works like Eireann described it. It's a kind of diary that is written, sometimes by me but mostly new entries are just happening and I am there to read...

Back to my paralyzed state...

I know, you all have it from time to time, too many ideas, too many skeletons in the closet, nevertheless willing to start new projects (why?!)... too much to tell about...

I cleaned up my craft room, again, it's enterable  and neat as it can be, sadly not a place like this but at least there's space to get creative! I already started working on some of those oppressing skeletons - they actually will be finished tomorrow, that is soon, isn't it? Not the time to speak about the months  I needed to get to this point... really shameful. Another post.

While cleaning and sorting I could not prevent coming in direct contact with my collection of woolen fabrics... oh, those beauties, what plans I had for them this winter! Now spring has almost begun and soon it'll be all linen, gauze  and Liberty here... better hurry if some of these wools shall see this season!

Then there are the blankets... Until now there was no time but maybe this would be the ideal project  while being on vacation in Hokkaido?

Yesterday I desperately attempted sewing up a knit tank for Dagny, it just looked awful. Next trial tomorrow. Should I block before sewing? I guess yes, blocking might be as important for knitting as ironing for sewing... alright, I'll do it.

Have a wonderful week!

woolen tonsil?

Despite the fact I do like itchy things and just love this woolen tonsil (Maerchen-Art) I do not enjoy my current state of health which includes swollen tonsils, sore throat and a generally slowed down me.
Not much happening here, a little knitting but nothing to show yet. 

But there's a big show going on in Tokyo these days, maybe tomorrow...?
I might have a few impressions to share from that event soon, so stay tuned.

For today I'll leave you with six weird things about me, though I find there are rarely really weird things in the world and for sure my peculiarities are at the most a little odd. Maybe I've been staying too long in Japan to find anything weird.

Liesl tagged me - normally I ignore being tagged because I don't like these chain letter like thing too much but I feel uneasy saying so. Sometimes I play along, like this time but never I do tag other people because they might feel the same about memes as I do.

1. I don't like this bag. Seen in close proximity to my bum I think it could trigger the idea I had a pear shaped figure.
2. Some of my clothes have holes. I don't like mending. And I don't have an oven mitt and keep on burning my right hand although it would be so easy to make myself something like this .
3. Since seven years I complain about the uncomfortable can opener of our Leatherman but refuse to purchase an extra can opener because I don't want to have much unnecessary stuff  and think for the very few occasions I actually need an opener the Leatherman just must suffice... till the next time I'll complain. But really, I think that's only reasonable and weird, so weird are the 43 items that are popping up when I search for can openers at Target.
4. I am shortsighted. Back in Germany I used to let my glasses at home whenever I wasn't up to meet people I knew when I went out of the house. Also going glasses-less is good for catching some inspiration since everything you see is reduced to its core. Colours and shapes appear much clearer.
5. During winter I eat about 1 kg of tangerines every day. A special treat of mine is when I eat Edit: a few of my daily ration them while bathing. I peel them and just put the fruits into the tub. Warmed by the bathing water they are extraordinary delicious, I think.  I am showering before entering the tub and there is no soap in the water...
6. I used to think of a virtual thread that was tracing my way when walking, forming loops and knots when I took the same direction too often. Turning right and left  evenly would have straightened the thread.
7. Not a weird feature of myself but an odd thing that once happened to me: I met my neighbour from next door  in a  pedestrian passage.  Only that this passage wasn't in the German town we were both living in but thousands of kilometers away, in Mexico City.

Have a pleasant weekend!

PS: Today finally it's snowing here in the Kanto Plain for the very first time this winter!

Edit: movinghands already has a great collection of photos from the Tokyo International Quilt Festival online!

茶色 - chairo

Chairo, literally translated tea colour... do you know a lovelier way to describe the colour brown?

Today Risa has invited us all to join her for an all day long tea party.  Until we can't really just switch places in a blink of an eye and come together just for a couple of hours to have some tea and talk I think this idea to virtually meet is pretty fabulous.

Thank you so much, Risa, for the invitation! And hello there!

Coincidentally this week my crafting was mostly about a crocheted beret in the most beautiful shades of chairo. You know I do appreciate a little itching when it comes to wool but unfortunately the degree of itchiness is slightly beyond sweet... but as the Japanese say gaman shimasu... I will try to bear it.

To get a little closer to my long fostered dream of walking dignified through freshly fallen snow, hands cuddling inside an elegant muff rather than running and sliding all the way and picking up snow for making snowballs I made this  muff. 
Ever since I got Denyse Schmidt's inspiring book QUILTS last year this muff was  spinning in my head, so I finally  gave it a try. 

So much fun! This foundation technique is amazing. If you haven't tried it, go for it, it's really working and bringing good results. I combined heavy wools and velvet with a lovely Liberty, they just joined, no one complained.

In February we'll be heading for Hokkaido to have some days of snow and good, dry cold, the muff will be traveling, too. Let's see if he will make me walk.

I'd like to show you my teapot. It is from my grandmother. My mother had it for many years.
Not exactly what I like because roses are really no favourite flowers of mine, and it is chipped, but more than anything this teapot is memories to me.

The lid was lost some time ago which used to make me a bit sad. But when I broke my dear owl's teapot last year I tried to make the best of it and just let the lid from the broken pot cover my grandmother's lidless teapot.
It fit perfectly. And seeing it all together makes me happy everyday.

Take a wee chiffon tea cake, if you like.

I added a hint of cinnamon, not too much because the Darjeeling should make its way to your taste buds, too. It's fresh and heavenly fluffy. Must be since it's made with love because I have no electric mixer..... I looooove whipping egg whites ;-)
Hope you're not on a diet as you should try the cinnamon flavoured  cream together with the cakes... it's milk stretched, quite harmless.

In my cup that is matching neither the pot nor the lid: an autumnal picked Darjeeling with sweet aroma, smoothy taste, all in a wonderful shade of chairo.

Jumping over to the tea party...

Call from the Kitchen Sink

Are you still there?
I am, kind of.

Drowning in dirty dishes and laundry and other unpleasant things. Having major difficulties in uploading photos from the camera on the Mac, obviously no disc space left... technical support being abroad again...

Yes, I am here to pity myself.

But I guess nobody but the very me is to blame for this whole mess because I much rather like to craft when dishes are piling up, I don't mind cutting my way through the jungle craft room chaos to reach my sewing machine (first I thought it would not be possible, but it was) and, yes, I tend to bury my head in the sand, not writing a single mail when my inbox is overflowing and you are waiting for answers.

And I am guilty of an even more serious sin.

I am clothing my child in granny squares  now.
Did you know that there are people out there who refer to granny square clothing as worse, horrible and unflattering and think of granny square clothing as a thing  that better had stayed dead and buried in the Seventies?!

After crocheting my Granny Apron, not long ago, I discovered Threadbared. I was looking for Granny Square patterns and so thrilled to find this blogentry...
The crochet is coming... I'd say the forecasted dark and tragic future has arrived and many of us are embracing it happily. Aren't we?

To my excuse I must say I wasn't really aware of the fact this kind of fashion had already hit us back then. Of course there were the afghans.. but clothing? I remember having a crocheted, red and navy striped poncho when I was around five years or so, but Granny Squares?! Did I just forget them or suppressed the memory on purpose?

However Dagny and all the other innocent children will handle the fact being a part of this,  I am sure there will be Granny Squares in thirty years again...

By the way, Dagny picked the colours, it's a super soft merino from Hamanaka, (watch out for the video tutorials on their site) EXCEED WOOL FL which really doesn't itch at all. For the muffler I used a pattern from this book, the hat I made from scratch. Dagny (now) likes both very much.

As she does her apron I meant to show a better picture of since I posted about it... pattern by OTTOBRE.

Crawling back into the kitchen now... but I'll be back later for having some tea with you.

Till then!

Breathing Sunlight

Another clear and rather cold day that's best spent outside.

One of my favourite flowers I discovered here in Japan, maybe more of a weed... do you happen to know its name?

Just a few impressions from our walk today. I finished the granny squares I have been speaking of recently, have sewn all together and even took care of those loose ends.

Just a little  more to crochet and Dagny can join me in my granny square madness...

Have a pleasant weekend!