Well I guess I made that one a little too easy as almost everyone who commented was spot on with their answer. I am indeed in Tokyo visiting – among other things the great Tokyo Quilt Show.

My delightful random calculator tells me that the winner is….number 10 of the correct entries, and that is…….(drumroll)

…….Jan, who blogs at www.isisjem.blogspot.co.uk and who I had the pleasure of having dinner with at FQR last year!

Well done Jan – you will be getting an email from me!

So how is Tokyo?

I’m impressed, I really am. More than I thought I would be if truth be told. Tokyo is huge, really huge and is modern as most of it was blown to bits in the Second World War and has been rebuilt since – so there are lots of skyscrapers. There are also shrines and temples and the Imperial Palace, all of which are beautiful reminders of old Tokyo. I have never seem a city that is so clean and runs so efficiently – and coming from Switzerland I think that means something! I’ve travelled around on the train on my own a little, visited department stores etc without seeing another non-Japanese face – there can be few societies left that are as homogenous as this one, or for that matter, few cities as safe. The Japanese don’t on the whole speak any English, but are unfailingly polite, charming and helpful – there is an awful lot of bowing and smiling.

And the quilt show?

Stunning! Smaller than Houston by quite some way even though it is billed as the biggest in the world. Less vendors and those there are sell a lot of US imports or Japanese clothes and bags. The quilts however are magnificent. There is no other word for it! Just what I expected. Fabulous workmanship and leaning slightly more to the traditional. There are no art quilts that cross over the border of what I would really call quilts from what I’ve seen so far.

So if you ever get the chance, Tokyo – quilt show and city – are worth coming to see. I love it and I’m sure I’ll come back!

(I’m doing a tour by the way – run by Country Heritage Tours from the US – it’s the third of theirs I’ve done, and as I have come to expect it’s really well run and absolutely fine for someone traveling alone as I do, but who doesn’t want her hand held every minute of every day – I’d recommend them if you are interested!)

More later…now I have some quilts to go and look at!

Helen

I know, I know….I’ve been a shockingly bad blogger…..

Life keeps getting in the way, but I HAVE been sewing – my Fireworks blocks are done and I just need to finish gaffing around with placement and then that one will be on the road. It seems like forever, and probably is, since I got anything to a stage where I could quilt it.

Right now though I’m busy for another reason. i’m packing for my 50th birthday gift to myself.

A prize goes to whoever can guess where I’m going and what I’m going to do there….

Here’s a clue…

I’ll choose a winner in a couple of days.

On that happy note….keep smiling 😉

Helen

A friend sent me this yesterday. I’m afraid I don’t know it’s origin, but there is so much truth in it that I wanted to share it with you…..

This is how I think I should be living my life.

Carpe Diem

Helen

x

I’ve been trying to distill the myriad of ideas mulling around into my head into some semblance of a new year resolution or two.

I always come down to the same things – simplify my life, get fit, lose weight, stop buying fabric……

I guess I want to keep doing all of them. I particularly  like simplify – and that has been my word for the last few years – it’s an ongoing process and especially when you like with 4 chaots as I do, if you don’t keep at it you vey quickly descend into deep doggie doodoo.

This year though I’m going to try to live a simpler and less stressed life. I’m going to try to do less multi-tasking too – because while multi-tasking gets things done, I don’t think it gets things done more quickly and I actually think I do better on the less stress list if I actually slowly finish things one at a time, one after another. I might even go back to the tried and tested ‘to do list’.

I really want some more hours in my day too – so I’m going to try hard to spend less time on the net. I hardly watch tv at all, but I think the time I save there is probably used up on surfing, blog reading and the like, so I’m going to keep that down to 20 minutes a day. I’m not sure if that’s possible, but I’ll give it a go. A lot of it is pretty much wasted time anyway.

And I’m going to run and quilt and knit and write……as a priority!

With that happy thought in mind I’m off to the sewing machine!

Happy New Year peeps. Have a good one!

Helen

So here we are. The sun is going down on the last day of 2013.

What a year it has been. Life changing? Certainly. Ups and downs? Those too.

Lots of good things happened. Completely unexpectedly I went back to work – somehow managing to have a job I love handed to me on a silver platter. It has meant a lot of organizing and at times has been pretty stressful, but on the whole I think it’s helped me to deal with other things going on in my life (duh….teenagers!) with more equanimity and I’ve taken the downs a little less personally. I guess having other things in my head has been a good thing. At least that’s what my husband tells me.

It’s all meant a lot less time for running, quilting, knitting and writing – and I’m firmly resolved to make sure that more time gets spent in those areas next year because they are all things I love and I’ve missed…and I really don’t feel good about having let this dear old blog slip a bit.

Note for next year….do all the things I love more!

I’ve just had a quick look at my yarn and fabric use spreadsheet too. Er hum, probably the least said the better. Yarn is down a little (but only about 2 hanks of wool!) and fabric is up more than I care to admit. Mind you, it could have been worse!! Actually I think the biggest problem on the fabric side is that I have way too many big projects in the works and as I only count the fabric use once something is finished (and I’ve finished practically nothing this year) there just haven’t been enough minuses on the chart.

That at least is something I can do something about, so this week I’m beavering away making Fireworks blocks to try to at least get one finish under my belt early in 2014.

I’m also thinking about next year and resolutions, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out what I’ve decided (cos right now I haven’t decided anything at all!)

Wishing you all a very happy new year – may at least some of your dreams come true in 2014!

Helen

PS Thank you so much for all your lovely birthday wishes – I shall have to blog more often on my birthday – I don’t think I’ve every had so many congratulations!!