Friday, March 4, 2016

Finished top

The tenugui fabric got the most votes and it was my favorite too, but the width was only 14 inches and it would have been hard to cut in a way that would not waste fabric. Also, my plan was to add vines and leaves to count (and add width to the quilt). I really needed to pick fabric that would not hide the leaves.


I had used a heart fabric for the baby's sister's quilt and in the end I decided on this heart fabric left over from an earlier baby quilt, thinking the title of the quilt will be, "You can count on my love".

The green of the 7 is washed out in the photo but it does show up well against the heart print.



I think the light background also makes the pale cats show up better or at least be more balanced.





I do not know how the family will use the quilt.

I have not heard how they used the "I Spy" that I made for the first baby, but I made an "I Spy" for my daughter's kids and I know it was used for play as well as a bed cover.

We did enough count-downs in our family ... 5 minutes to bedtime ... three more bites of your dinner ... one more story before lights-out ...





Count the left-handed cats ...


count the cats with eyes closed ...


I may quilt in leaves or cats in the larger areas to make it more interesting to count.

Now I will begin digging through my tenugui for a quilt backing.
The first daughter got a dragon on her quilt back.
Now it is the year of the monkey so I will have to see if I can find at least one monkey tenugui.

Maybe a monkey print would be fun.

Anyway, I am happy to be this far along with the project.


Last Sunday was Norie's birthday and the sweet daphne is perfuming the air along the street.

This bush is actually a cutting from the original we planted when Norie was born.

The original was moved to Suginami-ku while we were living there and I think it went to Norie's garden from there.

Cuttings are not difficult to make so there are still some bushes blooming in the Suginami garden as well.

We had a nice dinner gathering on Sunday to celebrate and Leia helped me decorate the cake I had baked earlier.

Stencils and powdered sugar  ... we both cut and Leia did the arranging of the letters and other stencils.

All on a applesauce spice cake....
The candles were gone and the cake was about to be cut before I dug out my camera.


Early in the week we had cold blustery wind ...
rattling the windows at night ...
But a bit of sun today and flowers along the street are beginning to appear.



Nice to see these volunteers along the street.


The park has good southern exposure. Mine will follow in a few more weeks.

Hope you are enjoying the change of seasons too.

10 comments:

  1. I LOVE your baby quilt - good choice for the border fabric - the leaves show up nicely - and you know I HAD to count the leaves - all of them! Happy Birthday to Norie! Dare we ask if your owl won the derby? - ;))

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  2. Lovely quilt with numbers, and the wee cats, beautiful. Birthday greetings from down south, and your garden is flourishing, even if it is on the street today. Hugs from NZ.

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  3. I love how you bordered the numbers, that is a beautiful addition. I make mine heavy duty so they can use them any way they want. I still haven't started mine, had to get some new fabric to do the top the way I wanted, so now i need to get started. The shower is next weekend, but if I don't make it, I still have plenty of time before the baby is born.

    Debbie

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  4. The baby quilt is great! Sew cute and original.

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  5. Love this baby quilt!! Fun colors, and can use to count items when the baby is a little older!! Very sweet.

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  6. The baby quilt is fabulous - it is just perfect - and what fun baby will have for years. Happy birthday to the sweet birthday girl. Lovely flowers too - we are getting a lot of blossoms too. Happy weekend my friend.

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  7. Lovely progress on your counting quilt. i do like the idea of involving so many items to count. The vine and leaves look great.
    And it looks like all enjoyed the birthday celebrations.

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  8. I like how you put leaves on the border. It's so educational.

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  9. Hi Julie, just emerging from a stack of paperwork here, and your baby quilt is so fantastic. Counting cats is just such a cute idea. I am sure it will be much loved - and educational! Also happy to see the cheerful flowers.

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  10. I love the cats on the quilt - a unique I spy idea. I love seeing your spring flowers as well. We won't have any here for a couple more months. I hope you are doing well.

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