Sweet 4-patch baby quilt

Aren't all baby quilts sweet?  Years ago I was a baby-quilt-making-machine (simple quilts, mind you)... but fell away from that when I started teaching.  Here in Japan I'm back to very part-time teaching, and so I do have that luxury of time for whipping up something cute like this for a gift.

In our church the women are organized as "visiting teachers" to help each other.  We each have a partner, and several ladies to visit monthly with a message and generally keep on our radar.  And we each have visiting teachers.  The beauty of this system is that ideally, no one slips through the cracks in terms of needs.  It's a great program in a setting like Tokyo, where there are expats coming and going all the time, with all kinds of needs - practical and emotional.  Almost all of us are living far away from family.

One of my own visiting teachers, a young Japanese woman married to an American and attending our English-speaking congregation,  is having a baby soon... hence.... my focus on whipping up a shower gift for her.

I brought out a handy UFO:

It was practically finished - just two rows left to piece.  Mostly 30's repros with a few batiks and one Japanese print (from before my Japan days, believe it or not) thrown in for fun.

Machine quilting went fast... first in the ditch between the blocks, and then some free motion.  While free-motion quilting I traveled straight through the four patches in the ditch to get to the white patches - easy and fast.  I meant for this large stippling to resemble puzzle pieces.

I tend to use monofilament thread in the needle - so that the quilting indentations show, but the thread itself doesn't show - it takes on the color of the fabric.  I just prefer a not-so-thready look.

The backing is a cute print I found in Nippori (fabric town) last year... originally to make an apron... but said apron never got made:)...

It's hard to see but I free-motioned some words in the border: "Lead me, Guide me, Walk beside me"... some of you will recognize these words from a favorite children's hymn. :).

Feels good to be back in baby-quilt mode, however briefly!

Tommy's four patch

 Tommy's four patch, finished!   A bright clear morning, good for a quick photo-op downstairs outside our apartment.  The photos outside give a truer idea of the colors.

Tommy pieced a bunch of these blocks years ago... scrappy.... so fun to finish piecing, and I tried to make it truly BLUE as a whole... but with plenty of greens and reds to keep it interesting. 

I am so pleased with this quilt, with the exception of the big sashiko style stitching.  Next time if I use big stitching like that, I'm going to be more careful at the intersections... it looks sloppy to have intersecting lines...

But then again... "whatever".... it made for utilitarian quilting, for a utilitarian quilt... and was fun to work on in the evenings while watching TV.   I used variegated sashiko thread.

Back up to the apartment.... I was teasing Tommy really, with these last two photos... but he doesn't read my blog and his peers don't either, I'm sure:).

It fits his bed perfectly and I know he likes it, because it shows up with him on the couch a lot.  Success!

Check out this slow blogger linky at Knotted Cotton.  I can so relate.... I'm not a high-volume blogger:).

Blue 4-patch progress...

I'm linking up with Lily's Quilts today.   Honestly, who knew there were so many small-bloggers out there!  In the past few weeks I have had a lot of fun getting to know some of these blogs.  Thank you Lynne for hosting the Small Blog Meet!   

Also, check out the Monday Link Up at Plum and June, where you can also find a great series posts giving advice to new bloggers.  There's Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday as well.  :).


I leave for the U.S. day after tomorrow.  What happened to my "quiet" three weeks!?  I did manage to get a little of this and a little of that done:

A last trip to Yukuwaya in Shinjuku, to find backing for Tommy's blue 4-patch...

Love these polka dots!

Always fun to get a glimpse of Liberty:

 Auditioned these two fabrics for the backing:

Settled on this one, straight out of 1985, but it suits the quilt well and is woven... which made me think.... how about hand quilting it sashiko style with big stitches?

Picked up a bundle of this cotton pajama fabric for the binding (always trying to use stripy binding!)... but the fabric was much too thin.  Luckily I found when I got home that I'd already purchased binding fabric for this quilt last summer!  Doh!

After standing in a long, slow line to have the backing cut... I was directed to another long, slow line... but the line was divided according to this sign.  Mmm.... which line am I meant to stand in?... I could make out the word "cut" on the left, and since I was holding a length of fabric, I picked Line B. 

Back at home... finished up the piecing... so tedious!

Almost there....

If you are wondering about my light source... ha ha... well... here's my view out the sliding glass doors to the left ... not much to see, but we do get decent light in the apartment! 

And...... finally... basting.  A friend suggested that I go ahead and pin baste even though I'm hand quilting this one.

(Edited to add - Those colorful covers on my pins are wonderful!  I purchased them many years ago... and they save my fingers.  I often use the "Kwik Klip" with it.  The covers are called Quilters Delight grip covers.)

What about you?  Do you always use pins?  Or when you hand quilt, do you always baste with thread?

The woven backing will lend itself nicely to being quilted with this varigated sashiko thread:

I will look forward to returning to this project when I get back to Tokyo mid-August!

I hope everyone is having a great summer - or winter, depending on your hemisphere - so far!

Scrappy blue 4-patch - progress

I'm in the middle of three relatively quiet weeks here in Tokyo, with two out of my three chicks back home in the U.S... Miss K here but working full time... me working only very part time... so a quiet (air conditioned!) apartment and long stretches of time for quilting - wow!  I know it won't last... soooo... Tommy's 4 patch beckons. 

Tommy picked out most of these fabrics and even pieced a bunch of these blocks (truly eclectic and scrappy, little boy style, love it!) when he was about 10 years old.  I supplemented later, with fabric from outgrown shirts, plus some neato Japanese finds.  

Time to get it done.  

A little bit of work to figure out the numbers.... 

Auditioning backgrounds...

Only two fabrics showed up for auditions... muslin and... this shirting, originally meant for the backing... but I like it so much... 

It's Heirloom Shirtings by Sara Morgan for Blue Bill fabrics.   

I know I don't have the floor space or the patience to lay out all these little blocks... 

So I conveniently decide to wing it, Two's style...   

"Two" was my great-grandma and always had a quilt going.  I knew her well but as a girl I wasn't tuned into her quilting side!  My grandma describes how she pieced... just randomly picking out patches from her basket and piecing them together.  Design wall?  Um, no.  

Mmmm.... but now that I've really started... I figure I'd better make a plan to piece this thing in four manageable sections... sticking with "random", yes, but building each row off of what's already pieced...  just enough control to somewhat balance out the red bits. 

 Moving to the carpet now... for once thankful to not have cats and dog underfoot...  

Will have to move furniture soon... but not yet... and that's all the quilting I can do today!

Tenugui for Memorial Day

Beth at lovelaughquilt has put a call out for 12 1/2" star blocks here.  She is making a Veterans quilt for a VA Hospital in her area - what a lovely idea.

Here's my block, as simple as can be.  I auditioned several fabrics for the center but in the end, the school of fish won out.

The fish print is from a tenugui - a Japanese woven, hand-dyed cotton towel.  They are traditionally used by people who work with their hands - carpenters, chefs, gardeners, etc.  Long and narrow, they can be worn as headbands or neck scarfs, or used as hand towels.  There are many beautiful contemporary examples for sale at Blue and White.  They are utilitarian and beautiful - love it!  This one just seemed to fit the spirit of Beth's project.

And now.... back to Tommy's 4-patch.  He started piecing these scrappy blocks himself several years ago.  Mostly blues with a healthy dose of greens, and tiny bits of red here and there to keep things interesting.  This may be the most truly scrappy thing I've ever made.  I think I have 25 blocks to go... and so now after today the tenugui  fish above will make their appearance in it as well.