Please come with me....

I have been juggling several blogs and decided that is a bit daft so now I have put them all together in one place.  My new blog combines my quilting, including my passion for Japan and Japanese techniques, styles and culture, my travels and the Global Piecers swap group I belong to.  There will still be snippets of everyday life here in rural Lincolnshire.  I'm still getting it all together and adding links and pictures and I hope that you will be happy to become a follower of the new blog - what's a blog without followers after all?  This will be the final post here, thank you for being with me, now please click over to

Piece'n'Peace

and let the fun continue, see you there, hugs, Lis xx

A Letter from Sendai

This is another forwarded message that I read on Facebook and just had to share with you.  I found it utterly inspiring and such a reflection of the different ways it is possible to view events and what it is possible to take from them.  

 

 Hello My Lovely Friends,  

First I want to thank you so very much for your concern for me. I am very touched. I also wish to apologize for a generic message to you all. But it seems the best way at the moment to get my message to you.   Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.  During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets. Utterly amazingly where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."  Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.   We got water for a few hours in our homes last night, and now it is for half a day. Electricity came on this afternoon. Gas has not yet come on. But all of this is by area. Some people have these things, others do not. No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group.  There are strange parallel universes happening. Houses a mess in some places, yet then a house with futons or laundry out drying in the sun. People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking their dogs. All happening at the same time. Other unexpected touches of beauty are first, the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains are Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.  And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.   They tell us we can expect aftershocks, and even other major quakes, for another month or more. And we are getting constant tremors, rolls, shaking, rumbling. I am blessed in that I live in a part of Sendai that is a bit elevated, a bit more solid than other parts. So, so far this area is better off than others.  Last night my friend's husband came in from the country, bringing food and water. Blessed again.  Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is indeed an enormous Cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over the world right at this moment. And somehow as I experience the events happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide. My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don't. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet magnificent. Thank you again for your care and Love of me,   

With Love in return, to you all, Anne.                 

Quilt Appeal for Japan

I received this forwarded appeal this morning and am copying it here for anyone who can help:

It means a considerable investment in postage if you want to help - but it is a lovely idea and we all know how well it works.

"This morning I received an email from Naomi Ichikawa, Editor of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin Magazine. Naomi lives in Tokyo and her mother and brother survived the tsunami in Sendai.

Naomi asked me to please spread the word about the plea for comfort quilts.

Here is Naomi's request:

Dear Valerie
It is still bad situation now in Japan.
We are still nervous about shaking and radiation,but no way to escape.

I start to announce to the quilters to send us comfort quilts for the
people who are suffered.I would like to do it to the world quilters.
We will deliver the comfort quilts to the people who are very difficult
situation.
Could you please help to announce it to the quilters?

We accept any size of quilts(baby to adult).new or unused.
The deadline would be the end of May or later.

Send the quilts to:
(until the middle of April)
Naomi Ichikawa,Editor of Patchwork Quilt tsushin
Patchwork Tsushin Co.,Ltd
5-28-3,Hongo,Bunkyo-ku,Tokyo,

Japan zip:113-0033

(after the middle of April)
Naomi Ichikawa
Patchwork Tsushin Co.,Ltd
2-21-2,Yushima,Bunkyo-ku,Tokyo,

Japan zip:113-0034

I will appreciate if you help me.

Naomi

Earthquake in Japan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598

I was so shocked to wake to the news of a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan this morning.  My thoughts and prayers are with everybody affected.

Japanese Malta

I'm just back from a holiday in Malta and managed to have a couple of Japanese experiences while I was there.
DH and I enjoyed two meals in a wonderful Japanese restaurant, one of which was at the teppanyaki table where the chef amazed us with knife juggling, tricks with eggs, onion volcanoes and flambes as well as delicious food.

We had a fantastic selection of foods for our second meal in Hibiki, starting with miso soup (I'm sure I could live on that), continuing with a great selection of sushi, maki and sashimi, then prawns in chilli and coriander and finally green tea ice cream and green tea pannecotta, all very delicious.

We practised our (very limited) Japanese on the waitresses in the restaurant and they were very kind to us!

Hari-kuyo

From Susan Fletcher
www.aboutfuroshiki.com
www.sashikostitchers.com
www.alderspringdesign.com
Alderspring Design

              

February 8 is the Festival of Broken Needles (Hari-Kuyo) in Japan.  It is the day when women gather to lay their broken needles to rest in a decorated bed of tofu.

This is a 400 year old tradition, and continues yet. Women will gather to lay their broken needles to rest, and to wish to honor them more by becoming more careful and skilled in their sewing in the year to come.

Why tofu? As far as I can work out it is probably because tofu is soft, so by laying the needles in tofu they are given a gentle resting place after all their hard work.

This festival derives from the cultural respect for the small and everyday objects.  Sometimes the resting place for the needles will be three tiers, the bottom containing other small sewing tools, the middle holding the tofu to receive the broken needles and the top containing sweets or baked goods as offerings.

Another idea I encountered while looking for information about this festival was the idea that as women sew they often think about their secret sorrows and hardships, and these thoughts go into their needles.  As they ceremonially lay the broken needles to rest, they may also lay these sorrows to rest. 

This is an invitation to all of you to join me on Feb 8 in pausing for a little while to honor our broken needles and pins by doing something with them. 

On Feb 8 take a bit of time to pause and reflect on the work and the pleasure all your different needles and pins give you, and join us in honoring these simple hardworking tools.  

Here are some suggestions for how you might do that:

-make your own broken needle resting place with a block of firm tofu and decorations

-make a small applique or stitchery about (broken) needles, or collage with broken needles

-make a new needle case

-collect together and organize you pins and needles

-simply make an artistic photograph of your needles, pins, pincushions, needle cases...

Whatever you choose to do, take a photograph and email it to me. I will be posting the photographs here until the end of February. You can include a short sentence or two to accompany it.  

For links to more about the Festival of Broken Needles go to Sashiko Stitchers and look for the links in the right sidebar. 

I am, of course, hoping you will send me photographs to put on the sashiko stitchers site!  I will post them until the end of February. 

Email them to either address

sue@aboutfuroshiki.com

susan@sashikostitchers.com 

Added 7th February 2011 - 

This is what I have done for hari-kuyo this year:

I lined a small box with a piece of wadding and then laid my needles and pins to rest on it, thanking them for the work they have done and what they have helped me create during the past year.

I made a small quilt for the pins and needles and covered them with it.

Finally I put the lid on the box and tied it with ribbon.

Kanzashi for Friday Night Sew In

Last night was the first Friday Night Sew In of 2011, hosted by Heidi and Bobbi.  I worked on some kanzashi which I'm making into brooches.  I'm getting quite addicted to these although I still need to get them perfect - I always seem to have one petal pointing in the wrong direction with a bit of a twist to it!  Maybe I should make this my signature