First quilt, baby quilts

Here's my first ever quilt, made in 1991.  Felt like it took about a million hours to complete - all by hand, with telephone tutoring from my Grandma every step of the way.  I hung it on the wall over Miss N's crib.  Here she is with it all grown up:).  It's a simple nine patch using fabric from my Mom, Grandma, and even Great-Grandma.  I struggled with and loved the process of making this quilt -  I was hooked!

This is the Dutch Doll baby quilt Grandma Mary Lou made for Miss N in 1992.  It remains one of my all-time favorite quilts.  Grandma's friend Millie helped her select fabrics.  It is machine quilted in a "hanging diamonds" pattern.

It was followed a year later by this Tulip Applique for Miss K, also machine pieced and quilted by Mary Lou.  The light green alternate blocks were made with fabric from my bridesmaids' dresses.

Butterfly Quilt

This butterfly quilt was years in the making.  Actually, come to think of it, so was the child:). 

Miss K was in the process of deep cleaning her room to prepare for her sister Miss N's arrival from Boston for Christmas, and all of the bedding was still in the dryer.  Things got quiet in the room, and when I came along to "help", I found a napping girl under the recently finished butterfly quilt, on the not-yet-made bed.  Seeing a child napping under a quilt is the BEST!

This butterfly quilt is a loose reproduction of a butterfly quilt my Grandma Mary Lou made me in the 1970's.  The fabrics are so ugly and "70's" that they are pretty, if that makes sense.  She hand quilted it and it was on my bed for years and years through my tweens and early teen years.  Occasionally I pull it out even now.   There is batting poking through in several places, and it is almost too fragile to use, but it should still be used, I believe.  I had it on our bed over the summer before we moved to Japan.  It became Shadow cat's  quilt too. 

For my version of the Butterfly, I: 

•  made a tracing of the original butterfly and reduced it slightly to make 9 inch blocks. 
•  decided on green cornerstones instead of alternate blocks
•  used 30's reproduction feed sack fabric, which I had been collecting for years.  
• machine appliqued the butterflies using freezer paper and nylon monofilament thread on the top.  
• hand stitched the black antenna with embroidery thread. 
•  machine quilted it with nylon monofilament in the top and Presencia 60 weight in the bobbin.  

p.s. 

Yumi cat claimed the butterfly quilt long before I finished it.  Alas, she was not around when I finished it here in Tokyo, but some of her hair sure was.  And we've since had to adopt out our cats to a dear friend (bittersweet!), because it turns out that our house sitter is very allergic to cats.  

So, this will not be a blog that features cats sitting on quilts, not after this post anyway.