Quilt Raffle

Our Bingo quilt was raffled today at the Shanghai Expat Association coffee morning. I drew the short straw and won the honor of MC-ing the presentation of the quilt. The raffle was very successful....we raised over 10,000 rmb that will be given to Bao Bai. Bao Bai an organization that pays for surgeries for children that have been abandon by their parents because they can not afford the services that the children require. Our quilt group has a personal attachment to this charity organization because they helped Baby Bing. I have talked about Baby Bing before because one of the ladies in our quilt group cared for her for over a year. The little girl is now very healthy and has been adopted by a family. They live two building away from our apartment.

Presenting the raffle items

Showing the quilt label that was signed by our quilt group and telling the Bingo block story.

The lucky winners
They were each from a different country...... Finland, Denmark, Malaysia, and America

Karaoke Night.....Really?

Kathy Miller made us do it. Her family will be leaving Shanghai in Febuary and she has a 'bucket list" of things to do before leaving the country. And...Karaoke was on her list. She planned it for a few weeks ago and all of us came up with excuses as to why we could not go. So....she cancelled that night and reschuduled it for Saturday night. Then...she guilted us into going with her....of course all in a fun way. Well guess what? It was a blast! We were all plesantly surprised and fun was had by all.

I had lots of preconceived ideas about Karaoke.

1. You have to stand up in front of the entire place and sing and pretty much look like fool.

2. All the songs would be in Chinese.

3. I would pretty much hate the whole experience.

4. The place would be creepy and smokey.

All of those ideas proved to be false. Karaoke in Shanghai is basically renting private room with a large TVscreen and microphones. Our space was very nice and looked like a living room> The rental fee included a buffet dinner> All this for just about $12 per person.

Rick and Brian

Part of the Gang....Angie, Mike, Mike, Kathy K., Kathy M, and Shelly

Kathy K, Kathy M (the one that made us go to Karaoke), and "the tambourine man". That is Tim's new nickname. He really enjoyed getting back to his "drummer days" with that tambourine!

The guys singing "I wish they all could be California Girls"

So....we all had to eat our words and thank Kathy for "making us " go to Karaoke.

Skype

I finally connected to Skype. Our IP phone line has become a real pain. It has a lot of static and it hangs up for no reason. Well...no reason except that our internet is very "unstable" here. Anyway.....I talked to Abi through Skype yesterday and it was so fun! She and I both have web cams on our computers so I COULD SEE HER while we talked. Tucker called me this afternoon and I got to see him for about 10 seconds......then my computer died.....yup...out of battery. I am looking forward to trying it again tomorrow. Ah...love technology....hate technology.

My Skype address is deb.spofford. Call me...it's free if you call computer to computer! You don't have to have a web cam to call.

And more quilting!

Thursday was also a quilting day. Thursdays are our "official" quilting day each week. This week we met at "The Palace". We call it this because our friend Jane lives in a complex called Buckingham Palace. Not kidding! This was our last meeting at "The Palace" because Jane is moving too! I find that there a lot of Hellos and Good byes in this city.

So you think Buckingham Palace is bad...there is also a compound called....drum roll please.....Beverly Hills. I did not make this up!

Today was week number 5 for my Improv Block Construction class. This is a very high achieving group. They are a full week ahead of our planned progress. Their blocks are finished or just about finished and we used the first part of our class auditioning background fabrics for their quilts. Kathy said her fabrics were nervous about the "audition".

Class projects

The Factory AKA Having Some Fun

Wednesday I went to my graphic design class. I love this class! I bought a new toy so I could be like "the cool kids". I am the proud owner of a Wacom pad. This is a black flat thingy that is like a drawing pad but all the lines show up on your computer. There...that is my best explanation of how it works. Tim went to "electronic hell" for me on Sunday while I was still recovering from my cold/flu bug. He went to the electronics mall and found a vendor that had "the real deal". I have been playing with it every day. It is a little tricky getting the hang of drawing on a "pretend" paper and seeing it on the computer screen. Tucker told me to practice using it as a mouse so I played about a 100 games of spider solitaire on Monday night so I would be ready for class on Wednesday.

After class I came home and worked with Xiao Zhang to sew luggage tags. Our goal is to have 200 tags ready to sell at the Concordia Christmas sale on the 21st. After tomorrow I think we will have 135 complete. We ordered cute little fabric tags to put on the back of each luggage tag. They say handmade by Having Some Fun! One of the perks of living in China....we can have custom things made for a tiny price. So.....now we have 1200 little tags that say Having Some Fun! on them. Not sure what we will do with 1200 little tags but Hey...it was the same price for 1200 as for 250 so what the heck! Xiao Zhang came home after she picked up our little tags and said she told the them that we were a "very large company" and if they did a good job we might order more tags from them. We had a good laugh about that! Then she said I was the CEO and she was the president and our apartment was the factory. Mr. Zheng took her in the car to pick up the tags so we decided that he was the director of transportation. Our living room looked like a factory for the past two weeks...fabric, ironing boards, and sewing machines everywhere. Last night I moved "the factory" to Abi's bedroom. Sorry Abi...I promise to close the factory while you are home for Christmas vacation.

Quilt Marathon

Tuesday was a marathon quilting day. One of my students organized the marathon. She wanted to make a silk wall hanging and she wanted to do it as a group. She will be moving back to the States in a few weeks and thought it would be a nice memory to carry home with her. So.....12 of us spent the entire day, which means 11 hours, cutting and sewing and ironing. We had 78 meters of Thai silk and all of it needed to be backed with interfacing before we cut it.

Here is the group ironing and cutting.

Jeanette and Deb (the other Deb) playing with the fabric

More ironing....


Ah....finally the sewing begins! We sewed and we sewed and we sewed...thank goodness I got to sew and cut....I forgot how to iron since I have been in Shanghai!




The Marathoners.
It was a really fun day and a great memory of Shanghai. Five of these ladies will be moving in the next few weeks. Everyone went home with the pieces for a beautiful silk wall hanging.Stay tuned for a photo of our final project.

I know.....I know...it has been a week since I blogged. This week was a bit out of control. So I will catch you up....

Monday was free motion quilting class. Here are my students busy concentration on their work. We practiced thread painting this week on flower printed fabric.

This is Jenny, Hellen, Connie, and Jane.

Up close with Jane....notice the white gloves....we just finished having high tea....kidding....the gloves have little rubber things on them that make it easier to grip the fabric. The gloves are about $15 in the US....in Shanghai only about .50 cents.

See all that stitching on the flowers....I am telling you this is really fun stuff.....it's like drawing with your sewing machine!

My computer is acting up now so I will have to continue later.....

I have been in bed most of the day.....I have a sthuffy nosth and a cough and a sthore throat. I feel mistherable. Xiao Zhang made chicken noodle soup and chocolate pudding for me. Ah...yes...comfort foods. I feel spoiled..cough cough...sniff. I hate colds.

Halloween in Shanghai

We celebrated Halloween at the Miller's last night. It is now a tradition. They were married on Oct 30 so every year they host a party for their anniversary. The first year we were in Shanghai Tim and I went as 'Volleyball parents" because Abi had a tournament that weekend. Last year I was in the Phillipines with Abi for another Volleyball tournament. This year...no volley ball....so we had not excuse not to dress up.

Here we are......the Ganster and the Flapper.

And for Abi.....We have not taken up smoking......they are just props!

What happened today?

Alarm rang....hit snooze....rang again....hit snooze....rang again....turned it off....got out of bed

Shower, makeup, got dressed, ate breakfast, worked on quilting a quilt, went with a friend to the fabric market, fabric shop was not open, walked around the underground market, visited the pearl market, introduced my friend to my favorite jewelry vendor, went back the the fabric shop, still closed, call the shop owner, she arrived 10 minutes later, helped friend pick out fabric for her very first quilt, go home, go out to lunch with Tim (he was working at home today), continued sewing the quilt, picked out some stitching, sewed some more, picked out some more stitches, went back to the underground market to help my favorite jewelry vendor choose colors for some new designs, showed her some fun ways to display her inventory, talked about the upcoming Christmas sale at Abi's old school, (she will have a table there for the first time), came home, sewed some more on the quilt, did some homework for my computer class, ate dinner (ribs, green beans, fried rice, apples), did some more homework, checked my email, loaded some pictures to my blog......oh...I guess that is where I am now. Ah....a day in the life

Loaded

This guy was just outside our apartment building on Sunday.

Where is the driver?

Oh...there he is...

Teppanyaki Dinner

I went back to Chinese school on Saturday. The teacher was sooooooo much better. She has lots of energy and seems to have a plan for us. I have a few more days to decided if I will continue with the program. The "all day" class was not as tough as I thought it was going to be. I think I need a daisy to make this decision.... continue...don't continue...continue...don't continue...continue...etc...

After class we met some friends for dinner at a "new to us" restaurant. We discovered about two weeks ago and couldn't wait to go back.

Thomas, Hanni, and Tim

The Shanghai Gang


Notice the huge block of butter looking substance that was totally consumed in the cooking of our food...

All the Kiddos

Tim is in ChongQing tonight.

I had my Illustrator class today....it was soooooo much fun! I spent all afternoon and evening playing with the new tools that I learned today. Most of it is trial and error....in my case mostly error. But...I did manage to draw two pumpkins and a ghost. And...I gave them eyes AND I made them look like they were glowing. BooRah!

We continued Xiao Zhang's sewing lesson today. I went out for dinner and when I came home she had just left because the iron was still hot....oops...I think she was late getting home tonight...maybe a little too much sewing. It can be addicting...but then I wouldn't know anything about that....ha ha

Cool Sculpture

Today is Tuesday and Tim is working at home. I love Tuesdays because I get to hang out in the office with Tim while he is on conference calls. I am not sure how much he appreciates me because I am usually sewing which can be a little noisy...especially if I fire up my speedy Juki machine. Another good thing about Tuesdays....I have a built in lunch date!

Today we went to a new Brazilian restaurant. The weather was great so we sat outside. The most interesting thing about lunch....well besides the fascinating company....was this cool sculpture.

These guys are hanging on the wall in the stairway that leads to the restaurant. The little men are about 7 inches tall.

Cool eh?

Birthday Party at Maya

Saturday evening after a long day of class (okay...I cut out at lunch time but Tim had a long day at class) we met our friends at a Mexican restaurant in Puxi. I love going to new restaurants because we sort of get in a rut and go to the same places all the time. Anyway....the dinner was a birthday celebration for Brain Miller. He is one of Tim's golfing buddies and one of "the Shanghai Gang".

Rebecca, Kathy, Deb

Aaahhhh...another night of good food, food friends, and okay...good margaritas

Confess...I totally stole this picture off Shelly Brammer's facebook.

Shanghai ATP Masters

Sunday afternoon we went to the tennis finals. This year the tournament was an "outdoor" event so the roof of the tennis center was open. It was a beautiful day for tennis.

In the finals doubles match ...

Benneteau & Tsonga (from France) VS Fyrstenberg & Matkowski (from Poland) .

This match only went two sets and the Frenchmen won 6-2, 6-4

Tsonga & Benneteau

The other guys had better shirts...but they did not play as well

Awards ceremony

Next up for singles....Davydenko (from Russia) VS Nadal (from Spain)

Start the match!!!

Fashion commentary.....Nadel wins the fashion award....although he needs some shorts that do not give him wedgies....I am just saying it was a problem during the whole match.

Davydenko wins in two sets 7-6, 6-3

Davydenko gets the big trophy and the money

I told you that I was teaching Xiao Zhang to sew. Well....she is now in my Friday class and these are the blocks she made. Don't be worried about the shape of the blocks, they are not supposed to be square or rectangle....we will cut them to specific sizes in a couple of weeks.

She finished the blocks on Saturday while Tim and I were in school. She also sewed some fabric strips together that I will use in an art quilt that I am working on. So....she got lots of sewing done...but...not much ironing. : ) Hmmmm....this sounds familiar. I told Tim this morning that she probably needs to hire someone else to do the laundry so she has more time for sewing. Tim said that I just wanted to be promoted to "mid" management. We have had a lot of laughs about this....needless to say...Tim...is THRILLED that we have another person in the house that would rather sew than do laundry!

Oktoberfest

Sights from Oktoberfest....

Deb, Rebecca, Shelly, and Angie

Four of the original "Shanghai Gang".

Good Fun, Good friends

These are stolen pictures from Angie's facebook...I forgot my camera that night

Mandarin Class

I went to Mandarin class on Saturday. I really like the other students. They are from all over the world and most of them have been in Shanghai for at least 2 years. They tried other methods of learning Mandarin and decided to try a structured class at the University. Everyone was pretty excited to get a fresh start. But....The teacher was a very nice person but I don't think she has ever taught a class. I could tell in the first hour of class that it was not going to work for me. I went to lunch with the other students and did not go back to the class. : ) I was pretty sure there was going to be a mutiny when the class resumed. I was lucky that I had not paid the fees yet....others were not so lucky.

Today....I got an email from the director of the program. It said....Please come back!......We hired a different, more exuberant teacher. Hmmmm.....Should I try it again???

Oktoberfest

Tonight we are joining some friends for Oktoberfest. One of the hotels here hosts this event every year. I believe it is way past the "real" Oktoberfest ...but...we are in China....Who cares! This is about the only time each year that I drink more than a few swallows of Tim's beer. I am not really a big beer fan....unless....it is really really cold. AND...cold beer....even slightly cool beer is a luxury in China. They like to serve it warm. Yuk! Well...I was planning to have more than a few swallows of beer tonight (it is nice and cold at Oktoberfest) except......I HAVE 7 1/2 HOURS OF MANDARIN CLASS TOMORROW! Ah....bad timing!

Friday Quilt class

My Friday quilting class is called Improv Block Construction. I am teaching several different techniques to create blocks. The goal is to make a quilt/wall hanging similar to my "Out of Africa" quilt

Out of Africa

We started with the center blocks. These will take two weeks to complete

These are blocks that the class constructed last week.

My class hard at work

More blocks that were constructed today

These pieces are cut into 4 sections and added to blocks to make borders

More blocks

We almost finished the center blocks during class today....but....not quite....so I gave homework!

I got a text message today that said the Saturday Mandarin class at Jiao Tong University was ready to start......THIS SATURDAY. I was secretly hoping that it would be postponed....well....forever! No such luck. The class is from 9:30am to 5:00pm. My head will explode if I am in Mandarin class that long.

So....I took the chicken way out.....I am going to try the first class and then decide if I want to continue. Think of all the quilting I could do during that same time.

Hmmmm....Mandarin.....OR.....quilting, sleeping in, studying for my Illustrator class, having a root canal. Yep...all these options sound better than 7 1/2 hours of Mandarin every Saturday.

Charity quilt

I hosted the SEA quilting group today. We worked on a charity quilt that we started several months ago. The top is finished....now we just need to baste and quilt it.


Working hard

Jane was our "offical" ironing expert

And of course there must be nourishment!

Xiao Zhang made coconut lime muffins and they were to die for! She found the recipe in a Paula Dean magazine that I brought home a few weeks ago.

Tah-Dah! The quilt top is complete