Stepping Stones finished

We've had such cold snowy days...

And it was so nice to spend some of that time in my sewing room... finishing up a Stepping Stones quilt for an orphanage "graduate" in Tokyo. I was assigned to make a green and blue quilt for a young man.  I used fabric I'd purchased in Japan with lots of bits from my scrap bins.

On with the walking foot for some stitch-in-the-ditch to anchor the quilt:

Followed by binding:

And then I went back for some free motion within each section:

I zigzagged the perimeter squares and then used this stencil and just marked with a chalk pencil, section by section as I went:

Not perfect, but really fun to get back into free motion quilting! 

All set to send to Japan with David the next time he travels there on business! 

Stepping Stones

It's that time again to complete a "Stepping Stones" quilt - to be given to a graduate from a Tokyo orphanage.  I have been assigned Hiroki, who likes green and blue.

I purchased lots of the fabric in Japan... supplementing liberally from my stash of green scraps at home.

The pattern is Bonnie Hunter's "Sticks and Stones" - and for our purposes we call it "Stepping Stones". You can find the free pattern here.

Although the finished quilt looks like it is made up of four patches and narrow sashing, it is actually constructed as a nine-patch with the sashing "built in":

Twenty out of thirty scrappy blocks completed!  Feels so good to (finally) get into the sewing room and feel productive there.  It seems like it's taken weeks and months to settle back into life back in the U.S.

Besides... after going completely off the rails of Weight Watchers over the past few weeks, I am thinking it's time to concentrate on fabric and sewing once again, rather than this kind of stuff:

But... one last batch of cookies today....

How I wish I could talk to Grandma Mary Lou about cookies and quilting once more!  I do feel her close though... especially in the kitchen and in the sewing room.  

So thankful for this crew... (my how the years fly!): 

Happy New Year fellow quilters out there in blogland.  Hold your loved ones close! 

xo

Cynthia

Another square-in-square finished!

So today.... just in the nick of time (we travel to North Carolina tomorrow to see lots of family - yay!), I finally finished tacking back the binding on my niece's graduation quilt - yet another raw-edge applique, square-in-square quilt (by request!).  Washed and dried it, and with a little daylight left, enlisted my girls to help with a quick snapshot:

Pictures taken before I trimmed all the bits of loose thread from the raw-edge applique:

I used lots of fabrics purchased at the City Quilter in NYC in colors requested by my niece... plus scraps of Japanese linen, silk, and whatever else I had on hand.  I finished the whole thing in Japan, save tacking back the binding.  (Did I ever even live in Japan?  In many ways it seems like a faraway dream, after only one short month away.)

I think I could use this Japanese brown linen polka dot in every quilt I ever make:

And speaking of using brown... I really enjoyed a recent guest post over at Elven Garden on color theory -  here  - by Alison of Little Island Quilting -  Her colorful scrappy quilts are just wonderful and her theory really resonates with me.  Hurray for brown... for not necessarily using a whole designer line of fabric at once... for considering VALUE... in a nutshell, hurray for scrappy!

And now... it is after midnight!  How did that happen?  With an early flight tomorrow... I... must... pack (not exactly my specialty!).

Yet another raw edged square-in-square

This quilt, which I began back in October, has been finished for awhile but really needed a good solid washing and drying, to "tatter" the edges of the raw-edge applique.  I finally got a chance to borrow use of a friend's American-sized washer and dryer, which made the task possible!

David wasn't around so I just had one helper to take a photo outside - what a goofball!

Come on, Tommy, hold still so I can snap a few close-ups!

And because this was raw edge appliqued I then spent an episode or two of White Collar,   trimming and picking out stray threads.

It is now finally ready to send to David and Janette.  Yay!

Another Millie quilt

Believe it or not, I'm making another Millie quilt, this time for my brother D (well, let's face it,  mostly for my sister in law J)....

At first I thought this would be a good color scheme.....

But quickly felt it really needed some pops of red....

Easy piecing (messy, thready):  

8" base squares in mediums and darks.  

Raw edge machine applique - first 5" squares, then 3 1/2" squares, then 1 3/4" black flannel squares.  

The blue ticking is old - it was my Mom's.... and the dragonflies are Japanese.  

Lots of texture - linen polkadots and vintage kimono silk: 

Rows are all pieced, pressed and numbered: 

And I'm getting there: 

J asked for a quilt like this a few years ago.  She is one of those rare non-quilters who really loves and "gets" quilts.  My brother is a fine carpenter and appreciates hand made items.  At that time I was just about to start teaching fourth grade full time, and there was just no way (do you ever get asked to make a quilt, and you think, you guys have no idea how much time and expense goes into making a quilt!)... but now I finally do have the breathing space to make her one and I'm glad to.  I'm less good at making quilts on demand.  

Here in Japan I work just two mornings a week, and do some volunteer work, but I really am enjoying lots of time for creativity!  It helps that we live in a very small apartment with none of the home-maintenance chores we deal with back home in Massachusetts!  As quilting goes, I am living by "make hay while the sun shines" because when we return to the U.S., it's back to real life... and surely less time for quilting!

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!

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!