Fewer posts for the next few months

 Tomorrow afternoon DH is driving me to the airport then Monday morning I am off to Japan.  I will catch the cherry blossom in full bloom - yay! - but the day I arrive will be raining all day and heavily overcast - boo!  The following day is supposed to be a little better.  I'm still looking forward to the experience.  Meanwhile I am working through my 'to do' list to get ready.  Hopefully I won't forget anything crucial.  Due to the late change of departure date, I am now arriving in Tokyo at 7am and not my preferred late afternoon arrival time.  So I will be stumbling around cherry blossom sites suffering from jetlag as well as getting rained on - instead of collapsing gratefully into a hotel room.  Wish me luck, I'm not as young as I once was :)

On previous trips, I have tried to maintain the every-weekend blogging schedule but I don't know if I will this trip.  It's laborious to blog on the road, especially having to resize each photo on my phone prior to upload. Also I find it hard to  balance the topics of crafting and craft shopping versus travel blogging.  So there will likely be fewer posts for the next few months.  I am planning to hit up some of the craft places I've been to previously such as Nippori fabric town and Okadaya, and visit some new ones such as the massive stationery store Otaya, in Ginza.  I don't think I will go to the quilt shops again this time, because I am still working through what I purchased last trip.  I am taking a second empty suitcase for purchases but overall I need to keep things to a manageable weight.

I finished the embroidered houses canister.  It's turned out pretty well apart from the fusible fleece I used isn't very stiff so the canister is a bit floppy.  It's nice to use the embroidered panel for something that isn't a zip pouch.

I sewed the binding onto the Primrose Cottage tablerunner and we've been using it on the dining table for a few days.

And I finished quilting the Lori Holt My Happy Place Quilt - the pics are from straight off the frame, I haven't trimmed it or washed it yet.  There are also a few more embellishments to sew on now that it's quilted, such as buttons onto the button jar. Her designs are so cheerful, they make me smile.  The quilting is a mixture of ruler work and free motion background meanders.  This is intended as a wallhanging although it is a little big big on my hanging rod in the hallway.

See you in Japan!