Quaker Diamonds, Go!

This weekend, I made my start on Quaker Diamonds, which you may recall was a RAK from BeckySC.



Today, like all of the last 7 (or so it seems) is a very grey and rainy one, so please excuse the quality.



The Valdani perle is such a joy to stitch with. I decided to stick with the recommended PTP Mello in 28 ct. Cashel, and I'm glad I did. The wonderful colour aside, their Cashel seems to have a really dense, stand-up-to-it quality that takes the perle well. I think I looser linen would be pushed around too much. So, for me Valdani perle + PTP is a must. I wonder what linen Becky used for her Quakers and Quilts WiP. She would be better qualified to make recommendations regarding suitable linens for the perle than I am.

Here's a bonus shot from our trip to Mitsuwa marketplace, a wonderful Japanese shopping center which just might be the happiest of all my happy places. :D



Look at those darling bunny containers! :D The sweets contained within are in front to the far left. The Japanese see a rabbit (or 2) in the moon making traditional mochi, a sweet rice cake made by pounding and turning cooked rice outdoors with a mallet (mochi-tsuki), flouring and sweetening as you go. So I'm pretty certain that this is packed in a rabbit more because of the fact that the sweets inside are rice cakes than the fact that spring is approaching.

It's from the gift counter, which has imported sweets with regional, seasonal themes. Very expensive, they are souvenirs brought back from traveling (omiyage), gifts for taking along on a visit to someone's home, gifts for your boss or those who have helped you in the past season. (It's traditional to give such things at 2 points in the year: New Year's and I forget the other; possibly golden week. Birthdays are much less important than they are here.) These are all facts from memory, so my apologies if you happen to know better than I and I've made a mistake there.

Well, spring's coming on slowly but surely, yet I do wish it'd hurry up! Or, just go back to winter. No more gloomy rain, Please! Hope all is well with you and yours--I'm back to my cake in the oven and Quaker Diamonds! Thanks again, Becky! I can't tell you how enjoyable this one is to work on! :D

Yours Spring Feverishly,
Berit

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