Gifted UFOs #1: the Mystery Quilt Top (and Bad Backing)

I'm still spring cleaning, and in the process found a bin of old unfinished quilt projects and scrap fabric, most of which I believe were gifted to me by well-meaning family members and friends. That would explain how I got this quilt top, which is beautifully pieced but not something I would purchase for myself (still had a ten dollar price tag on it, too. Maybe Jill did this to me.) Everything smells a bit, too, so I'll have to launder the lot.

Under the top I found what I assume is the backing fabric, in a lovely shade of dark rose pink. Another warning sign; I almost never buy red or pink fabric. Also, I wouldn't have chosen that color to back this quilt.

Just out of curiosity I washed the backing fabric with a color grabber sheet (twice), with this result each time. It bleeds like I do. I will probably keep the top -- at least until I remember or find out who gave it to me -- but do something else with the backing fabric that does not require laundering, or is all red. Or maybe donate it. I don't know, it's so hard for me to pass a problem like this onto someone else. Stay tuned to see what else came out of the bin.

Small World

I must have infected my kid with the miniature building bug over the holidays, because she just built this lovely garden shop.

She even wired it to light up, which I thought made it way cooler than mine. :)

Star-Crossed

The Japanese romance series On a Starry Night packs a lot of drama into just nine episodes. It also seems written by someone who loves polar opposites and wanted lots of conflict, as the main characters are Yukimiya Suzu (Yoshitaka Yuriko), a female OB/GYN doc, and Hiiragi Issei (Kitamura Takumi), an estate organizer who cleans up after someone dies. She's older by ten years, by the way, and he's deaf. Her mom dies early on in the series, and his grandmother falls seriously ill. There's another newbie doctor who is the widow of a pregnant woman who died along with their baby in childbirth, which Suzu attended. There's also a pretty vicious stalker whose wife died during childbirth, and who unsuccessfully sued Suzu for malpractice and still considers her a murderer. There are several other conflicts, too.

It probably would have been way too much drama for one series, had the main characters been conventional lovers. Suzu and Issei thankfully are not. Despite being profoundly deaf Issei is a strong, quirky, rather adorable young man who just plows through life full steam ahead. While she's more conservative, and is set up to be Issei's opposite, Suzu has basically the same kind of strong and determined personality, so their near-instant attraction makes sense. The romance alone would have made the series worth watching.

I can't really say throwing every kind of conflict plus the kitchen sink into the story created a problem for me. I would have winnowed it down a bit to give the drama more oomph, but it still worked. I did like the romance best, and wish it had gotten more screen time, as a hearing older woman and a deaf younger man probably shouldn't work so well as a couple. Everyone in the series is also remarkably receptive to learning sign language in order to communicate with Issei, which might not be realistic (although maybe it would happen in Japan, as everyone there has such nice manners.)

Despite a very quick and convenient wrap-up for all the conflicts in the end I liked the series a lot. Available on Viki.com.

Thrift Haul Project #2

For my second project using my thrifted fabric haul I wanted to use this denim and green plaid to make a fabric bin for the sewing room. These are handy for organizing when you're collecting pieces from your stash, and very simple to make. After measuring I realized I didn't have enough plaid to line the bin, however, so I set that aside for another project.

For the lining I decided to use one of the Spoonflower pieces, a red constituion signature print, and some sturdy scrap box cardboard to give it shape.

I didn't use a pattern for this. I make bins by squaring the fabric, cutting out four equal-size squares from the four corners to form a + shape, sewing the right sides of both fabrics together with a gap for turning, inserting the cardboard cut to fit each side after turning, and then ladder-stitching the sides. I then cover with lining a piece of cardboard cut to fit the inside of the bin and glue that in place to give it a little more support. I don't wash mine, but if you want to make one that's washable then you can use plastic canvas in place of the cardboard.

Here's how I'll use the bin. This is a good project to use up heavy fabrics like denim (upholstery fabric works really well, too) and novelty prints that don't go with anything else.

Ongoing

I'm gathering fabrics for the next quilt I'll make, which will feature these prints and whites from my thrifted haul and Fabscrap.

I need a project bin told hold scraps and fabric for when I'm working on a quilt, so thinking about making one from this denim scrap and maybe accented it with the green plaid (still up in the air on construction.)

I want to try using tie-dye for dyeing my thrifted thread, but everything I see for purchase is too large and costs too much. I might make a trip to the dollar store to see if they have anything in a smaller size.

Unruffled

This ruffled lace tunic sample top from Fabscrap came with only a couple of things that needed mending.

The bottom three layers of lace had been left unfinished.

Someone also made a mark on the underlayer of crepe de chine with what looked like yellow tailor's chalk.

First I carefully spot treated the tailoring mark to see if it would come out easily (which it did.) I then laundered the top before I tackled finishing the lace.

The tunic came out like new, and I got to practice rolling and sewing narrow lace hems on the sewing machine. Great experience.

We're Chill

As an aggressive shopper I now only buy certain foods when they are BOGOs or very low-priced and freeze what I can. I'm also now making big batches of some of our favorite foods and freezing them in meal-size portions, as well as blanching extra veggies from the garden to freeze and preserve them. Did I mention I'm making my own sugarfree dairy-free ice cream, too? Meanwhile, my guy likes to root around for his ice cream, waffles and so forth, as he always forgets where he puts it. All of these things make my freezer kind of a nightmare lately.

Since the price of food is only going up, and we're growing more of our own produce now, we decided to invest in a chest freezer. This one is a Hotpoint, and we got it on sale.

It's not as big as some, but I think 7 cubic feet of space is enough.

Thrift Haul Project #1

The first recycling project from my thrift haul of fabric is turning nine yards of this Robert Allen home upholstery fabric into tablecloths for my house. The reason I decided to make tablecloths out of it is mainly because I don't have a matching set for all the tables at my house. I also regularly make upholstery fabric remnants into tablecloths, as they wear better and last longer. It's cheaper to make your own tablecloths, too.

Making tablecloths is just a measure/iron/cut/pin and machine sew job, so it's pretty simple.

I made a smallish square one for the kitchen nook table, where we eat everyday.

The largest tablecloth I made was for my sewing room table, which doubles as our formal diningroom table.

Finally I made one for the back porch table, as we like to sit out here in the spring.

Believe it or not, after making all three I still have a little over three yards left of the fabric, which I'll either turn into runners or save as backing for something else.

Gifted UFOs Bag

During my spring cleaning efforts I unearthed a bin of blocks, fabric and a quilt top, all of which had been gifted to me over the years (more on this in some future posts.) It included these nine crazy patchwork blocks, which I think my mom got me at one of the quilt shows we attended together. It had to be about 20 years ago, so my memory is fuzzy. Since there were only nine I decided to make these into a bag.

After sewing two panels of four blocks together, I got out my petite very velvet threads and embroidered the center white floral patches. I also quilted the other patches with violet holographic Sulky. I used another dark green print fabric from the bin to make the handles and lining for the bag.

I've had a little needlepoint rose applique that I've been saving for years for the right project, and this bag seemed to be it.

The last block made a nice pocket for the inside of the bag. Thanks, Mom.

Fabscrap Arrives

My latest Fabscrap order just arrived, and I got another wonderful pack of scrap sequinned fabric. I finally have enough now for the project I want to do.

I'm still in love with the white scrap packs, too, and this one came with some pretty lace pieces mixed in with the solids.

This is the neutral scrap pack -- mostly creams and tans, and included three legs from pants.

I also ordered some mendable sample garments, and got this pretty summer shorts set that is ready to wear with no issues.

Same goes for this black cotton and lace dress.

On this white lace tunic there's a bit of yellow tailor's chalk marking one spot on the front, so I'll try to hand wash that out. I think the bottom lace panel needs to be hemmed, too.

Wild Then Whimpering

I knew going in that watching the c-drama age gap romance The Forbidden Flower was probably going to disappoint me. It did, and exactly in the way I expected it would, but for the first 23 episodes I was startled, impressed and somewhat addicted.

The premise: young artist He Ran (Xu Ruo Han) meets Xiao Han (Jerry Yan) in a beauty shop; he washes her hair for her and she supposedly falls for him just from the sound of his voice. Basically the set up here is that she's 20 and wealthy, and he's 40 and impoverished. I'd say the age gap is about the same for the actors in real life, but Jerry Yan is very attractive for a middle-aged guy, so you're willing to go along with this. He Ran decides on the basis of that one encounter to pursue Xiao Han, which she does. Only she has leukemia (in remission), and he's apparently had a very troubled past with women (never exactly detailed.)

There are a lot of other players in this drama. Subplots abound, too, including He Ran's troubled mother and her secret office romance with a guy twenty years her junior; a childhood friend who loves He Ran to distraction and provides most of the comic relief; a wealthy uncle or friend who mysteriously steps in now and then to avert disaster, etc. Some of the subplots were distracting, others worked well with the main romance. I absolutely hated He Ran's mom in the beginning, and then fell in love with her by the end of the series. That's pretty hard to pull off, so I'll give that a gold star.

The series is pretty wild for a Chinese drama, which are regularly and strictly censored by the state. This one somehow escaped that and had plenty of (for China, anyway) steamy kissing scenes between the main and the secondary characters. The central romance seems predictable, and then goes crazy, and then goes crazy again. There are some cultural aspects that might not translate well for the west, but I understood them, in particular some of the weird-to-us things He Ran does toward the end.

Visually the series is stunning, both in how it was shot and the way the story is told. I don't think I've ever seen a more artistic drama, and since art is a huge part of the story that sold me and kept me watching. The whimper came at the end, which was what I'd predicted to myself it would be. I won't detail it, but it was probably regarded as clever by someone who reads a lot of Nicholas Sparks or something. Every woman who watches it is probably going to get pissed off. Still, it's a beautifully-made series and definitely rare for China. I'll recommend it for those reasons. Available on Viki.com.

The Marker Method

Before I get into eco-dyeing, I thought I might test some other methods I've read about for dyeing white cotton thread. The first was using permanent markers.

Using markers definitely gives you more control of where and how much color you want to put on your thread. To get even coverage you have to color one side, flip the thread over and color the back. The colors look a bit different (my sky blue was more green on my base thread) and I couldn't manage an ombre-type fade, but otherwise it's fairly simple. I let the thread dry, and them gave it a bath.

That was when I learned that Sharpie marker colors can bleed.

I had another set of Bic permanent markers that actually had the two colors I want to use for my dyed thread, so I tried again.

Bic markers did not bleed at all.

This method is good if you only want to dye a small amount of thread, and you color bleed-test first. I think it would be a hassle (and the markers would probably run dry) to do a lot of thread this way.

A House of Women

The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House is a Japanese television series on Netflix that tells the story of two young teen girls who leave their hometown after finishing middle school to become maiko, which are apprentice female entertainers in Kyoto. It's going to seem strange and perhaps a little alarming to westerners, but this is actually a career option for young women in Japan, and they have to start training when they're quite young.

Right off the bat it helps to know the difference between maiko, geiko and geisha, but I'll give you the short version: maiko are apprentice geiko, aged 15 to 20, who undergo 5 years of training to become geiko; geiko is the term for geisha-type entertainers over the age of 20 particular to Kyoto, and geisha are female entertainers (not prostitutes) skilled in the art of dancing, conversation and other forms of very strictly governed and highly cultured entertainment. Yes, that really is the short version. These entertainers also have a long and interesting history, and it's worth learning more about it if you really want to understand the series and all the things they don't explain, but you can pick up on most of it as you go along if you don't want to do the reading.

The premise: Sixteen-year-old best friends Kiyo (Nana Mori) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi) leave the hometown to move to Kyoto, where they join an all-female house of entertainers to train to become maiko, and ultimately geiko. While Sumire is a natural, and shines from the very beginning, her friend Kiyo quickly demonstrates she doesn't have the talent for the job. Kiyo is a wonderful cook, however, and rather than leave her friend and return home she makes a bid to become the makanai, or live-in chef for the house.

I think first and foremost the series is a loving tribute to Japanese cooking, and features at least one interesting dish every episode. Some of the very intricate details of training for this profession are shown, too. Otherwise, it's just the story of a very sweet friendship between two girls. There are a few conflicts, but they're mild and quickly shuffled aside. Basically it's a pleasant story that doesn't really resolve anything because nothing is particularly troubling or the situations are ongoing. After all the action thrillers I've been watching lately it was a nice change of pace. Available now on Netflix.

Delivers

I've been a fan of Korean actor Park So-dam for a while now, so when I got the chance to watch her latest action thriller movie Special Delivery I didn't hesitate. So-dam plays a North Korean defector turned special driver who takes on risky clients and delivers them no matter what to their destination, using only her insanely amazing talent at driving cars. She also takes care not to get involved with any of them, at least until the young son of a runaway gambler asks for her help. Meanwhile, a corrupt and seriously sadistic police captain (masterfully played by Song Sae-byeok) murders the gambler and comes after his son.

This movie is pretty dark, very violent and packed with action driving scenes that I have to say are some of the best I've ever watched. So-dam was completely convincing in the role, and took time to really let down her defenses to get involved with her very young client, Seo-won (beautifully played by Jung Hyeon-jun). It was a tad too violent for me, but I can't deny I enjoyed the non-violent parts, and the action driving is stellar. Available on Viki.com.

The Fruit Trees

All of our fruit trees have begun showing off for spring. Mom's grapefruit is flowering and putting on all kinds of new growth.

Dad's orange tree, which did not flower last year due to damage from the previous winter, surprised us by budding, so we might have oranges too this winter.

The really success story is our new lemon tree. The first generation of fruit is ripening fast.

It's also budding and flowering like crazy again.

We now have like five generations of fruit on this one little lemon. I wish I could grow a whole orchard of them.

Actually Good

I finally finished watching a decent if longish c-drama, You Are My Hero. This series is quite long at 40 episodes, and takes its time depicting the romance between SWAT police officer Xing Ke Lei (Bai Jing Ting) and resident neurosurgeon Mi Ka (Sandra Ma Si Chun). I watched it mainly because I liked Sandra Ma from Love Me if You Dare, and I thought the conflicts that would arise in a cop/doctor relationship would be interesting.

This is a very slow romance. It starts with an unlikely meeting between the lead characters during a hostage crisis, and then restarts when they meet as the doctors go for emergency training with the SWAT team. Most of this bit was fairly realistic; I've done similar training myself during my AF days (which explains my military versus police comment later on in the post.) From there the extremely slow-burn romance between Ke Lei and Mi Ka begins, and while it seems unlikely that two people in their mid-twenties would never have dated, kissed or even held hands I didn't mind the pace. It's also the first time I've seen a drama depict a romance from the actual moment it begins all the way through the relationship.

There are plenty of conflicts for the characters to deal with, from providing rescue and medical treatment after a natural disaster to dealing with more hostage crises (there were four in all, which I felt was a bit much. Two would have been enough.) Both characters have to deal with their professional committments clashing with their relationship. I expected the cop would at some point become the doctor's patient (which happens) and there to be multiple you-or-my-job situations (not as many as I thought.) The misunderstandings are thankfully kept primarily to the secondary characters, although I did think for two inexperienced virgins the lead characters were astonishing in how much they empathized with and supported each other. Both are borderline Mary Sues.

I wasn't sure about Bai Jing Ting at first as a hero; he's definitely different, both in body type and attitude. Yet he grew on me a lot through the series, and I ended up really liking him. Sandra Ma was more mature this time around, and showed a range of emotions rather than playing just a cute girl. The secondary cast were superb, from Mi Ka's journalist best friend (who played the cute girl) to Ke Lei's older sister, both of whom fall in love with other characters. This series has a very big cast, but you do get the time to know them all very well, so I liked that.

The series didn't have many technical problems at all. Some of the medical bits were inaccurate, over-simplified or simply incorrect, but you'd have to be a professional to notice. They recycled some of the surgery parts, too; I was amused to see the same brain procedure shown for two different patients with different problems. I can't speak to the accuracy of the SWAT side of the series but it seemed more military-based than civilian-based to me based on the types of training they perform. That could just be how it is in China, too. I don't see why it was rated PG-13 when it's a solid G on the romance. Maybe it was the surgery bits.

The finale was exciting for me despite the reuse of a conflict, and I liked how it all wrapped up. Was it unrealistic? I'd say it's more idealistic, but I was fine with it. If you love someone, you're willing to do a lot for them. That's what you see in this series. Available on Viki.com.

Garden Update

There's a lot going on in the garden for spring. By our oregano and chives we planted six heads of lettuce, which are growing well.

My guy planted a bunch of brussel sprout plants for me (I love them) and they're really growing great.

I've used up all but three bunches of celery, which saves me a few bucks at the market every week.

The first cucumber just sprouted; these grow so fast we'll likely be having them in our salads this time next month.

We didn't know if the watermelon would survive winter, but it did and now it's flowering and throwing vines everywhere. Have to watch this one or it might take over the garden.

Ditto for the one bell pepper we were able to save from last summer. It's looking better now and has started budding.

We replanted the cosmic carrots, two of which sprouted within a few days, and more radishes, as they grow best and we love them.

Finally we have corn! We're going to try again to grow it because the first planting got flattened by hurricanes twice last year. Hopefully we do a little better with it this time.