Posts

Sewing Club

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I am the president of the sewing club at the local community college. Due to the COVID19 situation, there is no club activity this semester but one of the regular members of the club sent me a photo today that she finally bought a sewing machine for herself.
I started the club in Spring 2019 by myself. I hoped the club to be a quilting club, but most of the members are not interested in making a quilt, so had to change the club to be a sewing club.  They usually sew a small item, sometimes a dress.




To start the club, I had a few extra sewing machines that were given by my quilting friends from the previous guild and sewing notions. Then, my quilting friends from the current guild donated materials and another sewing machine. 


The club now has three sewing machines and a lot of materials to practice sewing.
It is difficult to keep the same members through semesters since most students change what they want to do every semester. There is a club fair at the beginning of each semester. I set…
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Free Gifts

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I do not like wastes so I try to utilize the resource I have as much as I can. Small scraps can be someone's treasure, too. So I make such "treasures (hopefully)" and give away as a free gift to my customers.

Below is a few examples.

Cards with scraps of Japanese fabric. They come with envelopes.



I recently got new types of paper at a very discounted price from Paper Works. It has an embossed texture and "Stardust" in it. I thought it is perfect with Japanese fabric scraps. I would like to have a little more weight, though. 65lb is still acceptable for cards. I love paper. I love cards and American culture send cards more often than Japanese culture do.





Bookmarks. They are kind of time-consuming. I am not sure if I keep making those in future.







Coasters. They are very easy to make and looks gorgeous as a free gift, I think.



I would like to have some more ideas for free gifts. I have some repeat customers and I feel sorry about including the same gifts. Though, I am…
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Garlic

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The garlic I planted this spring regerminated. I usually plant garlic between the end of September to the middle of October, but the garlic that was already in the soil germinated means, probably it's okay to plant them now.

I got a lot of garlic bulbs from a grocery store at $0.50/bulb in the early spring, I thought I would try planting in spring since they were sprouting in my kitchen. I used to buy nice garlic for planting at every end of summer, but it is expensive. I heard spring planting garlic doesn't grow much but can enjoy the tender leaves and stalks. I can also leave them in the soil through next summer.  
Well, this year, I had an onion maggot's attack badly and I couldn't even harvest the last fall planted garlic. I had never had any pest problem with garlic, some disappear before June and come back in fall, though. Also, the cite I planted was a kind of wet place, it was also a problem. They like a dry place. 
I dug them up when I realized the infestation of…
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Mung beans

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I used to by mung bean seeds for growing sprouts, but I thought I would grow them instead of buying. It is highly nutritious and a nice addition to salads or stir fry.


This is the third day after germination. It becomes a nice size tomorrow. I usually toss one to two small spoonful seeds to the container, soak in the water for a night, then rinse them once or twice a day after they start germination.


I planted the seeds for growing sprouts. I heard beans as seeds last only a year, but the seeds I sowed was 3 years old. So far, only  this much is harvested. Growing mung beans was my first experience this year. I wanted to see how they grow. Since mung bean is a bush bean, I thought they don’t need a support but I was wrong. I planted seeds in between other vegetables anywhere I could find an vacant space. Now they are laying on the ground and most are tangled with other plants or buried among weeds..., not growing well. I will have a decent space for them next year. Otherwise, it’s easy …
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Quilt Holder

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One of my dreams came true...!A quilt holder in a sunny room.
Taking a picture of the entire quilt is so much trouble for me, as I did not have a quilt holder. I did not have a nice sofa or couch, or nice grass or a deck to create a tasteful picture so I really hoped to have a quilt holder with a simple background. 
I actually tried with the wall of my shed last year; I attached some hangers to hold a pole but it was hard to adjust sunlight, also sometimes the wind does not cooperate with me. Now, this quilt holder is in the Florida room that sunlight starts to get in after 2pm that gives enough light for picture taking. 
It can hold up to a 60x80 inches quilt which is the maximum size that I can deal with. 
Moreover, we finally got a couch in the Florida room! - the family room is used as a working room for us and it's not a place for relaxing. One side of the room is occupied with my husband's station (computers, amateur radio things, printers...) and bookcases are taking two si…
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Catching up - Garden

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This year was the best ever, all of the plants in my garden did very well. Especially, cucurbit, which includes cucumber, zucchini, and pumpkin. I had never ever had a good year with cucurbit due to squash bugs, cucumber beetles, squash vine borers, and they need *food* more than I think. I had a traumatic experience with cucumber and zucchini in my first year as this was my second time to grow cucumber in my 5-year garden life. I had only three zucchinis from three plants last year. It was pathetic. 
(Huge leaves of buttercup.)
(Butternuts saved from the compost bucket.)
Every year, I plant kabocha, Japanese green pumpkin, or buttercup, and this variety is the most favored by squash vine borers. Every year is a war to fight against this pest. I had 15 kabocha plants and was able to harvest 22 kabocha his year. Some kabocha plants gave me 2 fruit, that was my first experience as well as the big leaves! Usually, kabocha in my garden were small, and I had never worry about the plants may t…
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