Hari Kyuou - Say Goodbye (and Thank you) In Japanese

If you wonder about my long love affair with all things Japanese, here is a perfect example:   Hari Kyuou. Japanese women perform this ceremony of consolation over their broken needles and dull pins.

This from Miho Takeuchi's wonderful blog:

It was believed that  tools and utensils used roughly should become the monsters (the Gods named Tsukumogami) to attack people 100 years later. Tsukumogami, or “artifact spirit”, are a type of Japanese spirit.  According to the Tsukumogami-emaki, tsukumogami originate from items or artifacts  that have reached their 100th birthday and thus become alive and aware. Any object of this age, from swords to toys, can become a tsukumogami.

I love the thought of thanking the needles and pins for their service, and sending them off with consolation and assurances they will never do harm.  They are such vital tools to what we do, why not honor their service?

Along with consoling their broken needles, women are encouraged to console themselves and bury secrets too personal to reveal. Thanks to Miho for the above post - visit her blog and learn more about the ceremony - it is fascinating.  Studio Aika

Trouble with Templates

Houston we have a problem.  Instead of spending what little free time I have working on my quilts,  I have found myself on my computer endlessly auditioning and rearranging my blog.  There are templates galore, customizable headers, themes, pictures,  ink color changes - it's like digital quilting. I have addiction issues around computers. I can annihilate an entire day just surfing, reading, tweaking, looking at fabric, newspapers, video, and weird websites. Maybe it is just vacuuming avoidance, laundry  evasion or some other malady.  Maybe it is because the women in my family carry a procrastination gene that scientists dream about studying.  I do not know.  I just know that I need to snap out of it, unplug my computer (literally) and get back in my sewing room.

We Have A Winner!

I did not think it possible, but we have a new winner in the CELL PHONE JACKASS competition.  The former title  (held by a woman who, while sitting in the stall next to me in a public bathroom,  was conducting business while taking care of her, um, business) had held the crown for about 2 years.

No longer the Queen of Cell Phone Jackasses, there is now a KING.  While standing in the teller line of  a very busy bank yesterday,  the new  KOCPJ came in, and with his phone on speakerphone (at a deafening volume) proceeded to make out a lengthy deposit slip while a woman's voice rambled on (without drawing breath) about the  (expletive) man who has (expletive) her over for years and who deserves (expletive) and  needed to be (expletive).  The boy-man who had the phone resting on the counter picked it up and laughingly said, "Hey, I'm in the bank and I gottcha on speakerphone!" and continued to laugh hilariously.  The reaction of the woman (still on speakerphone) was, "What?  You (expletive)!  I could (expletive) kill you! You dumb (expletive.)"  The man continued the conversation (still on speakerphone) while making his deposit.  The tellers were wide-eyed and speechless.

I went back to work berating myself for not having the spine to stand up to him and say "take it outside, you moron."  Probably a good thing I did not as he was a bit of a psycho to begin with, as are most of the CPJ I have met up with. But hey, thanks for sharing, fella.   Just promise me you won't reproduce.

Senator Centerfold

It is finally over.  My life, my TV and my telephone have returned to a state of normalcy.

My husband and I are both classified as "unenrolled voters," which means that while we are registered to vote, we are not affiliated with any political party.  We just like the freedom of being able to choose the best candidate for the job.  It's a concept.  Besides, I'm allergic to lemmings.

In the last week of the campaign, we averaged 20 to 25 phone calls PER DAY from a variety of celebrities, elected officials, organizations and children of the candidates.  I have never been more thankful for  caller  ID, and as much fun as it was to get home from work, listen to messages and hear, "Hi, this is former President Bill Clinton" (like he was an old neighbor calling to borrow a cup of sugar)  it was really  not necessary.

The vast extent of engineering influence exercised by  lobbyists, political parties and special interest  groups --   not only how they  control the process of who gets to be a candidate,  but even the outcome itself  - has never been more apparent. I have never before  seen the amount of money, influence, media time, spin and excess that both sides spent on this campaign.  I now understand why some people do not vote.  It does not excuse them, but I understand them.   You had to live here to see it and realize the extent of it all.  When you resort to trucking in carloads  of people from other states to hold signs for your candidate,  there is some serious stink in the campaign offices.  Neither side did themselves particularly proud.

But there is something else.

Yes, Scott Brown posed for a centerfold (naked!) in his younger years.  Honestly, I could not care less. That is not why I voted for Martha Coakley.  I felt (and still feel) she was vastly more qualified for the job.  I did not  agree with her on every issue, but  I can deal with that. I didn't like her campaign, but the campaign is not the candidate. (Too many "handlers" and "experts" muck up campaigns all the time.)  What burns me is that if Martha Coakley (or any other female  political figure) had EVER posed nude, they would  never be taken seriously, much less achieve success in the world of politics.   For Scott Brown - there was no such issue.  Think we've come a long way, baby?  No. The double standard is alive and well in 2010.

Shameless Plug

[caption id="attachment_162" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Metamorphosis - Jane Sassaman (2000) "][/caption]

I am a quilter, and I was shamelessly rigid in my beliefs of what fabrics to use, what patterns, blocks, etc. were (in my lofty opinion) acceptable.

Masters: 40 Contemporary Art Quilters (on display through February 25th at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts) is a mind bending experience that will open up your head and get you revved up to try new colors, techniques, fabric combinations and - dare I say it - embellishments?  This show is an amazing example of ingenuity in the fiber arts.  Granted, these aren't traditional quilts - they are art quilts, wall hangings, etc. - but merit a closer look. In case you get overwhelmed, step in to the permanent collection galleries where more traditional and historic quilts are on display.  (They do try to balance things out!)

Self-disclosure:  I work here. But in the three years I have worked here, I have learned more, grown more, opened up and accepted more than I thought was humanly possible.  I never in a million years would have dreamed that I would enjoy this  show as much as I have. And if you knew me, you would say that was  (no pun intended)  MAJOR progress.    Support your local museums - all of them.  And while you are at it - try something new and outside your comfort zone.

Back to School

I'm at the end of a 3 week furlough from my job. Financially, it has been crippling.  Mentally - it has been a godsend. I slept and slept, read, quilted, pieced, patched, cleaned, organized and restored myself.  My last free act was to cover a 3 ring binder for my work on the board of directors of our city's library. I've always got stray files and folders and notes and agendas and minutes scattered. When I leave the house at 7:45 AM, I'm not all there.  I needed something to contain all that paper, and be easy to grab and GO.

The fabric on this notebook is a remnant that I have had and loved for ages - it's a nice, thick, richly woven beautiful thing. It felt like a 4-H project for the county fair -  I had to cover a box with contact paper when I was in about 7th grade and I got a white ribbon for my efforts. It was horrible.  I felt so judged.  This turned out pretty well.  I like it.  I'm going to be ORGANIZED in 2010.  I hope.  A girl can hope.[gallery link="file"]

Now I Should BE Committed....

Okay, I finished ALL THE BLOCKS - front, side, center, connecting - the whole deal.  Started laying out the quilt on my big bed and I am completely overwhelmed.  I should have started the layout in the morning, because this is turning in to a world-class obsession session.  After messing around to the point of mental fatigue, I recognize that this is the time when  I need to STOP   before I sew myself into an ugly corner and spend the weekend with my seam ripper.

I have decided to add the most important elements of all - a snack, some sleep, and daylight.

[gallery]

Now I am Committed...

Okay, I signed up.  It's throw down time, bay-bay.  I am going to finish piecing the side and top blocks and LAY OUT THIS QUILT tonight.  Yeah. You bet!  Aaauughhh! Heidi made me do it!

From Barbie to Bernina

When I was little, my older sister had a Barbie Fashion Show, a large, unwieldy series of folded and tucked pieces of cardboard that sort of converted in to a fashion show layout. It was pretty hot stuff back then, and began my sad fixation with Barbie accessories.  I would have loved this little closet - all very stylishly stocked with the best that Barbie could offer.  Thankfully, I snapped out of it, and our Barbies became outdoor, four wheeling (well, we drove them around in empty Kleenex boxes) women with a need for speed and a love of danger.  A few times,  my poor Dad had to get the ladder out of the garage to fish the Barbies out of the gutters on the roof - we did get a little exuberant playing GYMNASTICS  with them.

Fast forward to my newer, healthier, long-lasting fascination with all things Bernina.  I have my mother's Bernina 1090 and I love it dearly, mostly because it was hers, and also because I'm so hopeful that her quilting karma will be transferred to me by some sort of magical osmosis. So far,  I just hear her  voice in  my head yelling at me when I sew over pins. The machine is due for cleaning, so I checked out a new Bernina dealer in the area and came home with this - my Bernina "Barbie" closet.  I had so much fun setting it up, and I still have room for more accessories.  I feel very accomplished when I look at it - and count the number of feet I have added to my mother's collection. I love a good legacy, and the Bernina legacy suits me far better than the  Barbie one would......

It May As Well Be in Japanese....

I have a pretty good collection of quilting books, and while I do not subscribe to any magazines at present, I truly love to indulge myself by purchasing a copy of Quilts Japan or Patchwork Quilts Tsushin.  They are every bit as inspiring and useful as a book - even though I can't read a word of them.

The colors are fabulous, the ingenuity is incomparable - look what they do with something as simple as a yoyo! They also have a thick wad of patterns included in each issue, and while you can't read the directions, the exact shapes are there and the general drift of things is usually attainable.  They also have a zen-like magic about them. I can sit in a comfortable chair and flip, flip, flip through the pages and find myself calmed, inspired, moved and nudged outside the boundaries of my usual self-inflicted limits.

This is an example of a wall grouping I would have never come up with, but absolutely love:

How gorgeous is that? Click on the image and you should be able to see it in greater detail. It opens up such a world of possibilities, and it is in manageable bits so that it can be completed and changed/added to over time.  I think this would look fabulous in my dining room.

Admittedly, the price of these magazines can stop you in your tracks (around $16 a pop) but they are well worth their cost.  Not every issue is a "keeper" but most of them are splendid.  It's a wonderful treat as a gift for another quilter, too. The only downside - you become addicted to the beautiful Japanese taupes that are used so beautifully by talented artists like Yoko Saito.  Spendy? You bet.  Worth it?  Undoubtedly. Indulge. Enjoy.

Over My Head in Batiks

Whoa. It started with very good intentions, and even a desire to step out from behind my rigid wall of "reproduction & period fabrics ONLY."   I knew I would have to, because this quilt is going to be a gift to the two very dear friends who gave us their kitchen. They are a modern pair, and would feign pleasure with the gift of a more traditional quilt, but would be much more appreciative of something more in keeping with their sense of color and style.  Since they live on beautiful Brace Cove, spend many nights sleeping outside on their deck, and wear  stylish Tommy Bahama shirts,  I knew something in a batik would be just the ticket.

I launched in to purchasing fabric with zeal - and ignorance.  (I have enough "not gonna work" batiks to do an entire new quilt.)  Since I had zero batiks in my stash, it was an expensive undertaking. I've learned more about color than I ever could have believed.  And now, with about 40 of these Lady of the Lake quilt blocks finished, I thought I was ready to lay it out and start the marvelous process of playing with blocks to achieve just the look I wanted.  It was about here the realization hit me - since these blocks look best on point, I would need to make about 20 more half-blocks to finish the sides.  I nearly wept.

So here is the side block, using the binding fabric (see little sausage) at the end of each corner. I wanted the binding to flow into the quilt - there are entire rows of that fabric used as a side or center to many of the blocks, and the overall effect should be pleasing. That is, if I ever get all the side blocks done.  This quilt has 17 units in each block, and 34 pieces of fabric.  Multiply 34 time the number of  completed blocks........it makes my head ache. And now to push through to the finish - I guess I'm happy about that, but the next part will be equally challenging. I have always hand quilted every quilt I have ever made - and this one will be the first I will have had someone  machine quilt.  (I don't know how, and I'm not going to start with this one.)  It feels a little less genuine, but I'll have to live with it because I'll be dead before I could finish hand quilting this beast....

The Ghost of Christmas Presents

I have two sisters. There  is enough crazy between the three of us to go around, but Peg takes the cake when it comes to obsessive compulsive cleaning.  This is a woman with two children, so there are some feelings involved here.  This is a picture of her family room on CHRISTMAS DAY - I left the date stamp on the picture to prove it.  She was so pleased that no traces of the holiday "clutter" were left, and that everything was neat and tidy.  ON CHRISTMAS DAY.  She emailed us the picture, just to share her holiday joy:

How messed up is THAT?  I am a reasonable person, and will admit that while everything else has been packed away, I still have a little nativity scene on my fireplace mantel.  I like it, and besides - Mary and Joseph probably hung out there for a at least a few days after Jesus was born, don't you think? Besides, January 6th is the Feast of the Epiphany - the day the wise men arrived with gifts. I'm glad the family, shepherds, animals and angel on my mantle were there to greet them!

When Multi-tasking Goes Wrong

In my haste to leave the house this morning, I threw my little black Vera Bradley cosmetic bag full of my USB flash drives on top of my laundry basket.  When I finished dressing, I went downstairs, threw in a load of wash, grabbed my coat and went to grab the bag of flash drives and.....nothing. I felt nauseous and  ran to the washing machine - where there, floating in suds, was my lovely bag of electronic devices.  I pulled it out and emptied it on to a towel and fished out the four precious gadgets that held my work, home, backup, and miscellaneous digital treasures.  I'm working on  drying them out now - and thanks to the internet, I find I am not the first to do this.  At least I caught them before they had been in there through the full wash, rinse and spin cycles.  I won't know for a while if I've been successful.  Meanwhile, the wait is making my brain go overtime  with all the "oh I lost _____, and _____, and _____!" thoughts.  I've got about 90% of it on a hard drive, either at home or work.  But the 10% of confidential, sensitive, or long sought links, pictures, etc.  could be gone. AAAAuuuuuughhhhhh!

I've been pricing replacements, which bothers me no end, but there are some funny new kinds out there could take the sting out it.

Really Good Gifts

Want to know one of the nicest things I've ever been given?  A kitchen.  Really.  When I married Joe, I moved in to his 1975 Georgian Colonial, with the LEMON YELLOW FORMICA and lime green carpeting.  We were married in '88, but he had not changed a thing. The 70's was a bad decade for color.  Really bad.

I lived with that lemon yellow kitchen (with very dark pine cupboards) for almost 20 years.  I hated it.  We never had the money to gut it, and he would not let me just drop a grenade and work with what was left. Fast forward to our friends Tom and Joe, who - in the course of remodeling their kitchen - decided we could have their "old" one (about 5 or 6 years old.....).  It's a work in progress - even their granite countertops have been re-cut and fitted in to place.  I'll post progress - but I thought of them tonight, as they are coming over for dinner.  I'd feed them every day for the rest of my life, I'm so grateful.

PS - the yellow formica in the "new" shot is my husband's idea of  humor. It is all GONE.

[caption id="attachment_70" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Kitchen Switchin'"][/caption]

Major Stuff

My mother was an accomplished quilter, and used to make and sell little wall hangings and things under the label "Major Stuff Quilts". (Her last name was Major, get it?) Anyway, I decided to honor that legacy by calling my "stuff" MSQ Folk Art. I don't sell my quilts (they are usually gifts), but I do like to needle around with wool felt and pearle cotton embroidery floss. So that is what these are, and I sell enough to buy more wool felt and floss. It works for me.

Mom's Wedding Dress

My mother was married younger and much shorter than any of her daughters. (We were all taller than she was before we finished high school.)  50 plus years later, her wedding dress was starting to diminish (I like that word better than "decay".) I saved the bodice - it was extremely beautiful, and in marvelous condition. The actual satin train was stained and blotchy, so I decided to make it in to little bits and pieces for her daughters, granddaughters, and now we have great-granddaughters. I think Mom would have loved the idea.

Hello world!

Happy New Year.  2010 kind of scares me, it's very futuristic and "Jetsons" sounding.  I'm not exactly sure what moved me to start a blog, but it could be the frustrated writer that exists in all of us. We all think we have the great American novel within us, right? Maybe not.  I used to, but gave that up long ago.  Now I just write great things in my head, when I'm driving or trying to fall asleep.  They are witty, thought provoking, and sometimes entirely brilliant.  That isn't happening right now though, but it's okay because no one knows this exists. Oh yes, about my nickname - it's Maj (not,  "you're soaking in it" Madge). If you don't get that reference to a commercial for dish washing liquid, bail now.  "Maj" is short for "Major", my maiden name.  I should have kept it - I spell my married name ALL the time, and it gets old.  Lost my train of thought.  Where was I?  Oh yes, the blog.  I'm thinking if I get started on some small bit of writing, the rest will follow.  Follow where?  Who knows. I'm going to play with templates and tags so I can avoid that right now.  Maybe this blog should be called "MAJ AVOIDING".    Entirely in keeping with my family DNA and my penchant for, well, avoidance.