Reliving the Adventure: "JOURNEY TO JAPAN"

The Journey to Japan began a year ago.

I'm more than pleased with my quilt but I'm sorry to be finished. I loved the inventive, creative process of choosing which patterns to use and the tactile feel of hand quilting. Many of the fabrics brought back memories of my trip to Japan, the hospitality of our hosts and being with my sister. The making of this quilt was a memorable journey in its self.

Is it worth ripping?

YES! I was trying to do with the fabrics I had without cutting too much from some that came from a friend. I purchased 2 fabrics for this quilt, used what I had in my stash and supplemented with some from a friend. After attaching the border, I realized there wasn't enough contrast so...I ripped and added a 1/2" border from my friend's stash.

The first was alright but I think the second is better. Now its time to machine quilt.

Ready for Quilting & a New Project

I'm very pleased with the finished top. Now to pick my machine quilter. My shoulders and the size of the top have decided for me to have someone else quilt this. I want a curvy overall design.

The backing, shown in the lower right corner, is a batik that picks up all the colors and its bright hues are perfect for the back.

It's time for my husband's sister and brother-in-law to get a quilt from me. Bob requested a cozy Patriotic lap quilt.

I found this pattern on The Quilter's Cache, called Independence Quilt.

This quilt has enough variety to hold my interest while fulfilling the request. I already bought a dark blue flannel for the back which is my first choice for a sofa blanket.

New Quilt for a New Room

Vanessa has grown up so fast. At 10 (in October) she deserves a new quilt in her new room. After moving into their new home, my niece has painted her daughter's room periwinkle and violet. Vanessa had a hard time picking out a pattern that fit her grownup room. She settled on this modern combination of off center squares.

The finished quilt will have 4 blocks across and 6 blocks down. Each block has 4 connecting 9"squares.

I purchased a few new fabrics to tie in with those from my stash.

I cut a variety of sizes and colors for the centers.

I will cut the strips for each center to maximize the use of the limited amounts of some fabrics and assure that colors and patterns are distributed. I like what I've done so far.

"It's a Girl!"

Melissa and Andy have found out that they will have a daughter in November. I could hardly wait to finished a baby quilt for my first granddaughter.

The pattern, called Charmed Circles by Denise Sheehan at A Graceful Stitch, was designed to be done in 1930's reproduction fabrics. I scanned the cute child, animal, and flower images and enlarged them to fit in the white background. After tracing them in pencil, I embroidered using the same colors.

The machine quilting followed the circles and a zigzag for the almond shapes.

Fun, Fun, Fun

I'm having so much fun hand quilting my "Journey to Japan", letting the fabric design "talk" to me. Sometimes I used cotton perle thread to stitch traditional Sashiko,


other times using hand quilting thread to echo the lines in the drawing or design.



I've chosen to use white for most of the quilting but an accent of red seemed to be a good choice too.


I'm trying to take my time because I don't want this experience to end too soon.

"Journey to Japan"

On my trip to Japan with my sister last September, I collected fabrics to make a quilt. You may remember that one of our hosts offered me cuttings from "old clothes" (her aunt's old kimonos). I also bought old indigo cottons in antique shops plus some new contemporary prints. On a previous trip I had also bought some remnants that are probably rayon. I decided that I would go ahead and mix the cottons with the possible silks and rayons since this quilt would seldom need cleaning.

The fun part of designing a quilt is using what you have on hand to its best advantage and putting together all the various sizes, like solving a puzzle. The finished size turned out to be 58"x80".

It's now ready for hand quilting in traditional patterns and sashiko. The 60" denim blue Chambray was the perfect color and width for the backing.