Vines and leaves have been added and the top is finished! I have been giving the backing some thought. My friend gives English commentary for Kabuki ear-phone-guide. Her husband comes from a samurai family. I have decided to use traditional tenugui and piece them together .

I have collected some Kabuki ones and some of the traditional family crests. I know I have a few of the designs that suggest long life and happiness.

Today was not the day to hunt through my collection as I was awakened in the wee hours with a call to teach, going in for a teacher who was out for the day. What fun to spend a whole day with kids and although the weather in Tokyo is still quite hot there was a nice breeze blowing through the downtown area. Tomorrow is a holiday ... autumnal equinox ... and a good day to begin the challenge of reverse-side planning.

My quilt group = my inspiration

The Tokyo International Quilters is really the collected remnants of assorted quilt groups. When you live in a place like Tokyo, you say good-bye, it seems, more than you say hello and we have said plenty of good-byes. Still a small core of avid quilters remains and we meet every-other-Friday at one of the member's homes and enjoy quilting, fellowship, obento, and dessert.

Yesterday I arrived a bit late and found, to my extreme joy, a very special visitor ...a kindred spirit, really... I had not seen in months. It was all I could do to tear myself away at the end of the afternoon.

I will need to buy more green thread to finish sewing the leaves but I spent the time sewing a two-inch border outside the bear paw blocks. I think this not only brings a bit of the orange and yellow to the edge but helps to control those bears who were flexing their seems and behaving like twelve and a half wannabes.

Friday is my quilt group meeting. I need something to work on and just the project to meet that need. Over a year ago I was in the wedding party of a very dear friend, a fellow Scouter. She was marrying another fellow Scouter and both were members of a Woodbadge Bear patrol.

I decided a Bear Paw quilt would be the perfect gift but nothing this big is made by hand in such a short time. I drew up a plan on graph paper and marked out leaf shapes on assorted green scraps. Those I took to the wedding and asked guests to sign them with names and wishes.

After finding out my friend and especially her new husband liked earth tones, I pulled out my collection of greens and browns and cut out the pieces for 24 12in. bear paw blocks... light on dark and dark on light. Imagine having a stash that big! It hardly made a dent.

After the border blocks were finished I drew up a template for the lone star. All the patterns I had in books were for machine piecing so this was a bit taxing to my non-math brain. Now star and inner borders are done and today I finished sewing the blocks around the outer edge. Now it is time to applique the vine and leaves. (I probably should have done this before assembly but I wanted more control over the final placement) Meanwhile, I have enough of the leaf print fabric to add a small border to the outer edge. I am already wondering where I will ever find floor space big enough to lay this out for basting.

2010 - 2011 Stewardship Banner

August 26th Paul asked if I could make something to hang in the church entry where a large paper heart had been the year before. He wanted it done by that Saturday, the 29th or by the latest the 30th.
I told him no way could I get anything decent done in that length of time so he said I might take until the 5th as long as it was hanging by Rally Day. Thus I agreed to give it a shot and began on the 27th.

I was stuck with the logo that had been decided by the committee and their choice of colors but hanging a white banner in the entry for a whole year didn't seem practical so I reversed the colors putting white and yellow on blue rather than yellow and blue on white. Since time was short for applique letters, I went out to the local button store and bought yellow and white felt. Ignoring the demands to match the "font" I used stencils to mark the letters. I was pretty well stuck with what I had on hand.

To give the banner better proportions, I added an upper and lower border pieced of assorted yellow fabrics and the background blue. "Yes" and yellow beginning with "Y"...to me they represent the variety of ways one answers "yes".

I lined the hanging with fabric left over from Jon's tablecloth. I had planned to turn it to the front along the edge but instead added a narrow purchased binding.
Sleeve added to the top and bottom and hanging was finished on September 1. Delivered to the church September 2. Size is about 28inches by 38 inches.

Jon's Birthday Tablecloth 2010

Having drawn Jon's name for birthday giftee, I thought it might be fun to make him a quilted birthday tablecloth. I asked him for table size and color options and then sat down with a pencil and paper to draw up the plan. The idea was to have animals of the zodiac running around to represent the years as they fly by and having made several cloths of food prints and having them found good for hiding spills, I thought it might be fun to have food on the table. I guess the title might be "Food on the Table".

Starting with the center I got bogged down finding positions and fabrics for all the animals. In the end, it took me almost a month past Jon's birthday to complete. With twelve inches between the center and table edge, I was able to put the food fabric on point for a more interesting effect. All the quilting templates I had on hand were the wrong size so I ended up re-drafting them. It gave me work for the trip in the summer and I was able to put in the last stitches before leaving to the jamboree. It has already been spilled on but is yet to celebrate a birthday, having missed Jon's.

ASIJ 2010 Auction Quilt

Made of a very wide selection of Japanese blue fabrics. Completed March 2, 2010 (Tuesday) in time to display at the ELC a few days before the Gala. 100 Dark and light blocks were marked and cut by a large number of volunteers. A sewing session was held at the ASIJ Winterfest when about30 to 40 of the blocks were pinned on a large paper.

By February there were a few panic moments, but Kendra was able to add the border to the assembled blocks. I took the project home between sessions and did the quilting on the blocks as it was a bit difficult to quilt into fabric layers at the points.

The last few sessions we quilted the white design in the border. Again it went home with me where I took out some of the poorer work and finished off the left over areas. Kendra added the binding and the last session on March 2nd, turned the binding and added the sleeve for hanging.

We finished at the ELC by the end of the day on Tuesday and it hung there until the Gala on Saturday.
size is 92"x 92"

Love in Bloom 2010

"Love in Bloom" table runner adapted from a pattern for a wall hanging in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of McCalls Quilting magazine. The pattern was written for machine piecing. I made the hearts scrappy and adjusted the plain border to fit the amount of fabric in my stash. Also changed the applique arrangement and bias color.

Book Cover 2010

For the 2010 Women's Conference I was asked to make a book cover for a prayer book as a gift to the speaker.

Asked to choose "Distinctive Japanese" fabrics. I selected Kasuri from my stash. Dying the threads before weaving seems to be an extreme exercise in faith in that, what was intended matches the result. I was able to pick up a floral weave at the Tokyo Dome Quilt show and finished the cover with a hand crafted butterfly from Hinoki wood. 5" x 7" X 1" Were the dimensions requested. Never having made a book cover before, I made a practice cover for my old bible.

Toilet Paper Dispenser Cozy 2009

An end of the year series of small stuff. With a large quilt being held up while I look for fabric is a specific size and color, I began a few small projects for take along work.

First came a new pair of eyes to join the owl collection in the little room off the genkan.

Advent Calendar 2009

With Kimie's name on my Christmas list and Naomi's quilt finished, I began to think of something I could make and decided on an Advent Calendar. Earlier ones had not held up well. Felt was mother-eaten and ornaments fallen apart. I decided to try carving wooden ones and making the hanging of cotton fabric from my stash. I pieced the border instead of using ribbon. The cotton numbers on the pockets were a bigger challenge than felt. They looked a bit better lined and quilted. The green and red fabric was a bit darker than I might have liked, but it was what I had enough of in my stash.



I cut the wooden pieces and carried them camping where wood chips didn't make such a mess. Half a paper clip was glued in for the hanging loop. Panted with acrylic colors and varnish.

Completed 11-25-09
17 1/2" x 36" (44.5 cm x 91cm)

One piece I made (the harp) broke so I decided to make a Mejiro for my tori-doshi kid.

I felt bad half-way through because Julie has asked me to make her one for the last 9 years, but she told me not to worry. I'm glad I finished the project.

Naomi's Quilt 2009

Since Julie asked for something really "Girly" I found a lovely batik at Kinkado. Unfortunately there was not enough left on the bolt to cut all the sashings. After looking all over online, I gave up and bought a floral. However, after sewing together a number of blocks I didn't like the results so I un-stitched the parts.

During the summer trip to Portland, Julie and I found this pink batik at a fabric shop. I also bought the black alphabet print which I ended up using instead of 4 1 inch block.


Since my stash of 1 inch prints is getting low after Leia's and Irene's quilts I could only come up with 3 inches of blocks for the border. I found some beautiful prints for the border. I found some beautiful prints for the back, but ended up going for something a bit cheaper.

Table Cloth 2009

With pieces of fabric left over from a larger version, I pieced a table cloth that I hope might hide the constant spills. The first cloth was made to use when the table had all three leaves but will never be used in this tiny room. The fabric was purchased at Keepsake Quilters while spending a Mother's Day gift coupon. The cloth was promptly baptized with a cup of sauce. Luckily it washes well.

Paul's "Big Boy" Quilt 2008

Started in April as a carry-along project, I went through my stash of greens and blues. I assembled 3 sizes into a 5" block and those were again combined to make a 10" block.

Designed to be sewed together, they just didn't work when laid out on Sue and Pete's living-room floor in June. At Sue and Cyndi's suggestion, the navy sashing and a blue+green border were added and Kimie helped with the arrangement during her July visit.


It didn't look like much of a "kids" quilt so I decided to use the zodiac animal towels for the reverse side. Paul made a trip to Ginza to pick up a dragon for the top border since little Paul is a dragon. To make the backing large enough I added a strip of dragonfly yukata fabric.

The idea is to have the family members sign their names and birthdays on the animals. I drafted the quilting design and made the templates. The idea was to have and interlocking pattern. I hope this will make up for his baby quilt which had become too small now that he has a big bed. 76" x 86" (193cm x 218.5 cm)

Leia's Quilt 2008

After swearing off hexagons forever, here I am back going going crazy again. Norie liked the I Spy I had made for Julie's boys and I didn't have to do any fabric shopping thus an alphabet for the center. I thought it only fair to put the Hiragana around the edge.


The plans changed when Norie wanted the 1 inch pieces added because the border was now too small. Kato-san gave me some fabric out of her stash of a similar color and the 1-10 counting filled those areas along with name in the upper right and date of birth in the lower left.

Norie got the organic cotton backing. It is soft and shows off my crooked quilting. From a technical standpoint this is the worst quilt I ever made. I was ready to toss it at several points. I hope my darling granddaughter will look at the love and not the imperfections.

68" x 82.5" (173 cm x 210cm)

Lucciano's Quilt 2008

ASIJ Quilt 2008

Cherry Blossoms in the Moonlight, completed and hung at the ELC February 26, 2008.

Since the auction date was chosen earlier than other years, we three, Me, Kendra and Jacqueline, met in June and discussed plans to make a smaller quilt designed to be hung on the wall.  A 4 panel screen seemed to be a good idea because the panels could be worked on individually and joined at the end.  We met again at the end of September and word was sent out to enlist helping hands.  Piecing was begun October 23, first cutting and arranging the background fabrics.  By Christmas break, the aplique had begun. There were a lot of petals both silk and cotton. Jacqueline did the embroidery on each flower.

Maile's Quilt 2007

ASIJ Quilt 2007

Again Kendra, Jacqueline and I sat down to plan the projet.  The theme of the "Blue Dragon" had been chosen by the Auction Committee.  We through we would try a free style and I sketched out a plan.  After piecing the small sections we met to arrange them using a large piece of pink paper marked with a two inch grid.

This process made more work for the three of us but we were able to keep the volunteers busy.  With spring break coming, we began to get concerned about completing the quilting in time to hang the quilt so Kendra called a few all day sessions.  We met again at her house to finish marking the border and a good turn-out made quilting and bias turning go quickly.

I quilted the dragon and background on off days.

Completed 4-9-07.  The lucky bidder was Montana Griffin ar 1,2000,000 yen!

Anniversary Quilt

Double Crossed 2006