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!

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.

Miss K's graduation quilt - finished!

So I think we're calling this simply K--'s quilt.  The working title was "lipstick" but really, it's her "NYC Dreams" quilt I think and that's what I put on the label.  It is another iteration of Millie's Quilt and Miss N's quilt.  I do think it's cute that she wanted a quilt so similar to the one that's been in our family room for ages.  It's exactly the same as her big sis's college quilt - but in her pinks and reds.

I labeled it today and when she got home from school, I wrapped her in a big hug and tried not to cry!  We do have a summer with her yet!

The grey is antique kimono silk

All Japanese linen - love the polka dots!

Lots of older fabric brought from my stash in MA 

The star print is a Liberty.

The pink is a chirimen print.  The grey is a textured fabric bought at the Tokyo Quilt Festival.

I used monofilament thread in the needle for the quilting.  It disappears nicely, but did show on this dark batik. 

Border and binding: Fairfield by Lisa DeBee Schiller for Windham Fabrics, purchased in Denver at Harriet's 

Stripy backing. 

Linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story - see my sidebar for the link - always lots of lovely projects to see there!

The Pretty Ugly Quilt

Here's another quilt top given to my Grandma.  I quilted it, right after being on a machine quilting retreat with Harriet Hargrave.  Somehow quilting it turned it from "ugly" to "pretty" so we call it the pretty ugly quilt.  This one was fun to quilt and seeing it again at Grandma's made me want to dust off some of the techniques I learned at that retreat.

Another blue and white quilt

How's this for another simple, striking blue and white quilt?  

Grandma calls this "snowball" and it's one of her first machine pieced and quilted quilts.

 The pattern couldn't be easier - nine patches with alternating snowball blocks.  I love snowball blocks for their ability to link blocks together and make a secondary star-like pattern.

 We looked closely and saw evidence that Grandma tried out several machine quilting techniques before finishing the quilt with straight lines with the walking foot.

And Buddy settles in for a nap:).

Harriet's Treadle Arts

My Grandma and I made not one, but two trips to Harriet's Treadle Arts while I was in Denver.  Lots of machine quilting inspiration all around.

Drunkard's Path on the right. 

Love the indigo blues.

30's Repro heaven!

Lots of "mini" inspiration if that's your thing. 

Searching for pinks for Miss K. 

Browsing books is always fun, and Sunbonnet Sue is a favorite!

What a pretty way to display vintage and reproduction quilts. 

Grandma took machine quilting and machine applique classes from Harriet "back in the day" and then taught me.  A few years ago, thanks to Grandma, I attended a "boot camp" style Machine Quilting retreat with Harriet and learned a LOT.  This kind of quilting is practical and artful, with an emphasis on the quilting line, not the thread - the quilts never have that thready "scribbled over" effect.  Hurray for monofilament thread in the needle, cotton in the bobbin!

While in Denver I photographed Al's and my Grandma's quilts.  I am working on those blog posts... stay tuned!

30's Repro 4-patch

This quilt is a companion to the butterfly quilt I recently finished.  This one is reminiscent of a 4-patch my great-grandmother "Two" made.  I'm not sure I love all the brown I included (in an attempt to make it a little less girly) but I think this is a quilt that will look softer and better with lots of use and washings.  

My original idea, years ago, was to make these two quilts to go in our "green room" back home (it's like a little parlor, and with a trundle bed it also serves as a guest room - the previous owner painted it a 30's apple/minty green, and we kept the color).  

However, as it turns out, the quilts will live in Miss K's room here in Tokyo - what a curve ball life has thrown us! 

chain piecing - and aren't those doggies adorable?  

I decided to piece the backing a little.  

pressing the top.... so tedious... but almost there!  

Pin basted and ready to roll.  The red print in the foreground is left over fabric from an apron my Grandma Mary Lou made me years ago. 

 Utilitarian machine quilting for a utilitarian quilt.  Nylon monofilament thread in the needle, Presencia 60 weight cotton in the bobbin.  Batting: Quilter's Dream Cotton (Request - thinnest loft).   

I do like the pieced backing... could have added another strip for balance... but... wanted to get it DONE

Sorry about the shadow from the table....