Cactus Star in Winter?

At the May meeting of Country Roads Quilters yesterday I made this block using the foundation piecing method to get those nice sharp points.

  

This is my first block as a member of the Quilters' Online Book Club run by Starwood Quilter.  

Each month we read the book selected for that month, discuss aspects of it online and then make a quilt block associated with the book.  All of which is optional!  

I think I started in an especially good month as the book we read was Nancy E. Turner's, "These Is My Words:  The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine".  The story is historical fiction but it is based on the life of the author's great-grandmother.  I was quite sad to have finished this book, I shall miss Sarah Prine and her family. The story of her life in late 19th century pioneer country gave me many insights into the reality of living in that time and place and an admiration for those who did. I desperately wanted to shake her at times but I never envied her the shoes she walked, ran and rode in. I laughed and cried with her.  I think a lot of readers must be feeling the same way as the sequel, "Sarah's  Quilt" has been selected for June's book.

My block is called Cactus Star.  It is a reminder of the Arizona desert and the sunsets and wild plants.  I have decided that each of my blocks for the book club will be done using batik fabrics (I have quite a few and it is never a hardship to buy more), and each will be a star of some sort, linked to the story read that month.

This morning I finished this lovely bag.  I bought a kit from Japan Crafts at Japan Day last Saturday and it was a quick and easy design for a spacious bag that will go over my shoulder or safely across my chest.  The pattern is called Fuyu (Winter) and it used four fat quarters of Japanese cotton.  I think I will be making a few more bags using the same pattern.

P.S.  I don't know why the font I use to write my posts is not always the one that appears when the post is published, or why, sometimes the post is in several different fonts.  If anyone can enlighten me I would appreciate it.  Thank you, Lis x

Japan Day ~ Kimono World

Yesterday I had a wonderful day out in Northallerton!

Northallerton, and I had never been before, is a gem of a market town in Yorkshire.  The sun was shining as DH and I made an early start and headed up the A1.  Approximately 140 miles later and we arrived in Northallerton.  The purpose of our visit was to join Katie Chaplin for "Japan Day".  We had arrived in plenty of time so wandered into the town and found a wonderful deli/tea shop, called Lewis & Cooper, where we had coffee and some sustenance after our long journey.  Then back to The Forum for Japan Day.

Japan Day was a collaboration between Katie, of Japan Crafts, and Emiko Kajino, of Kimono World. The Forum was filled with a combination of like-minded Japanophiles and kimono-clad Japanese ladies.  There were a wonderful range of activities and displays of Japanese martial arts.

There was even Japanese food for lunch and sake available at the bar.  Alan and I both had a wonderful day and met some lovely, and interesting, people.

The members of Kimono World would be performing at the Forum in the evening and during Japan Day were involved in sharing their culture and skills.  We enjoyed a brief tea ceremony with two Tea School Grand Professors, learned about Japanese embroidery and beadwork with Jane Smith and about silk painting, calligraphy and temari balls.

With a lot of help and masses of concentration we folded our own paper cranes on the origami table,

and were shown how our names might be written in Hiragana, the basic Japanese phonetic script, and Katakana, a script mainly used for words imported from non-Japanese languages.

With help from the poet-in-residence, Judith Lesley Marshall, we were invited to write a contribution to the collection of Spring Haiku.  Inspired by the wonderful journey through the Yorkshire countryside that we had enjoyed I came up with this:

Haze of bright, soft green

unfurling, springing open,

clothing the hedgerows.

I was tempted into buy some fabric and a bag pattern from Katie's dad who was manning the Japan Crafts stall and I bought a secondhand copy of Clarence Hornung's "Traditional Japanese Stencil Designs" which is inspiring.

I was delighted by the opportunity to be dressed in kimono by lovely Eme Shiratsuchi who has been studying kimono dressing for six years.  I felt so elegant and the obi certainly made me stand up straight,  I added a pair of geta and then couldn't move.  Maybe with a lot more practice I will move elegantly too. 

Thank you to Katie, Emiko and everyone involved in making Japan Day such a great event.  I don't suppose you're reading this though, I imagine you're asleep or at least relaxing in the sunshine!