Kimono Quilts

I'm really enjoying my time off!! Yesterday I took Nathan to get a new ID card and drivers' license and shopping for clothes... as soon as we got back home, it took off to spend time with Ashley, of course!!

So I got caught up on some computer stuff, and then settled in at the sewing machine!

I had some little projects started, so I got those finished...



Rachel and Darryl Rice joined us Christmas evening for a traditional rousing game of Mexican Train. Rachel admired the kimono wall hanging in our entry way, so I had her pick out some fabric so that I could make one for them...





This little kimono quilt is fun to make and a great way to use small pieces of fabric... I like the way these colors came out...











My friend, Jan gave me some fat quarters of Okinawan prints for Christmas. I love the way they look in the Dancing Kimono pattern.










I finished this one for a Christmas present for a Greg and Sarah Sharp...

Merry Christmas!

My family wishes your family a peaceful and warm Christmas!!

Just in time for Christmas!! A Santa Quilt!

This guy has been done for awhile -- except for the button eyes.. and the red bead nose for Rudolf! It was Barbie's idea to make one of the reindeer on the background fabric into a Rudolf... kinda cute, I think!!

Edo Town -- a Quaint Japanese quilt

I have loved this pattern for awhile... It's a fun way to use small pieces of Okinawan fabrics!

A Snails Trail for a Baby!!

Darryl and Rachel's daughter Amber is having a baby!! It's their first grandchild. We've been friends for a lot of years so we got to watch Amber grow up.. so, of course, I'll be making a baby quilt!

As I was trying to decide on fabrics for Saturday's class, I thought that these fabrics would make a fun baby quilt and a great snails trail.

This one was really fun!!

Okinawa International Patchwork Guild: This Was Our Guild Project in September...

Okinawa International Patchwork Guild: This Was Our Guild Project in September...

Quilting on Saturday

Second Saturday of the month = Okinawa International Patchwork Guild workshop!!

Today we worked on a holiday Bell Table Runner -- a ThimbleBerries pattern. It was fun and easy!!

I got the quilt top all pieced today during class! So... it's another UFO to add to the pile!

Viv's quilts

There's a groups of us here in Okinawa who quilt together -- usually two Saturdays per month in class and sometimes on Wednesday nights at Barbie's house. Many of us also work together!! Working for the military, we're used to people moving away pretty frequently, but we still miss them when they go!!

Viv used to work for me and was part of the quilting group. She moved away a couple of months ago to Washington state. I was delighted when she sent me some pictures of her latest creations!! Thanks, Viv!! We MISS YOU!!

A Maple Leaf in Memory of Dad...

I finished this one this evening...

This quilt is a maple leaf design, and I decided to shadow quilt it.

This quilt is pretty special to me because I was working on it when my Dad died, 16 August 2006... and it seemed so fitting that it would be dedicated to him. One of my fondest memories of childhood was our yearly trips to Burton, Ohio to get maple syrup. My Mom and Dad continued to make that trip every year to get a supply of syrup for the family. When we lived in Germany and Korea, my Mom would mail me a half-gallon of syrup each spring... the postage was probably way more than the syrup was worth... but oooooohhh, it was good!!

A Quilting-Free Weekend...

I didn't do ANY quilting this weekend!! I was just too busy with other stuff...

On Saturday I spent the day with Anne. Anne arrived from the states on Thursday night to join our team at work. I like to try to spend some time with new staff members the first weekend they're here. It's a good way to get to know them a bit and to begin the process of helping them get acclimated to Okinawa.

Anne and I went out to look at an apartment -- one that belongs to a staff member who is leaving in less than a month... We stopped at The Housing Center (my favorite rental agent!) to see what Balinda had available for rent -- and picked up keys to look at a house out in Yomitan. Then we went to B.C. Motors where she found a car to buy. We had lunch at a little soba shop near my house -- Okinawan soba is the only thing on the menu... the noodles are made at the shop and everything is organic. It was yummy!!

After lunch, we drove around in Yomitan, out to Torii Station and down to the beach... waiting to meet Balinda at the house. We saw the house -- it's really way too big for Anne's needs -- and Balinda promised to do some more searching for a house or apartment for her.

Today, I promised Rebecca that we'd decorate the house for Christmas... so we spent a few hours moving furniture, putting up the tree, hanging lights and poinsettia garland.. the apartment looks great!!

I decided to make turkey soup so that I could free up some space in the freezer... Since I was cooking, I asked Barbie if she'd like to join us for dinner... that was fun!

Next weekend is the OIPG guild workshop, so I'll do a LOT of quilting!

I'd Rather Be Quilting!!

How can it be that after a four-day weekend, I’m still not ready to go back to work???

Oh well… it was still fun! We had friends over to celebrate Thanksgiving — the Rice family (we’ve celebrated most of our Thanksgivings together since 1994!!) and Greg and Sarah Sharp joined us for a pleasant afternoon of good company and great (and way too much!) food…. Greg and Sarah had to leave early, but Darryl and Rachel stayed for a rousing game of Mexican Train. I won!!

The rest of the weekend, I spent a lot of time quilting…. most of the time I quilted at home, but Saturday was our regular class at the Schilling Community Center. I finished a few projects this weekend… and started a few more!!

This one is finished! I'm pretty pleased with the results -- and I was amazed at how easy the stained glass technique is. Bernina's double needle makes all the difference!!


This is a paper-pieced kimono -- another Castelleja Cottons pattern. The pattern actually calls for 9 of these squares to make a quilt -- each of the kimonos uses different fabric. I think I prefer it as a smaller wall hanging. Can you see the detail in the quilting on the gold fabric?

This is a Bento Box pattern. If you google Bento Box,
I think you'll discover that it's a wonderful Japanese
concept!! It really puts the regular American "sack lunch"
to shame!!

This is a mini Trip Around the World... really fun to put together!

Adding to the UFO pile! More quilts!!

I've been on a kimono binge lately! I found some really lovely kimono quilt patterns and just had to get started on them!!


This pattern is a great way to use up scraps of Asian print fabrics...


Here's a paper-pieced Christmas tree... nearly finished!!





















And here's a stained glass wall hanging -- also nearly finished! This was the project in October at the Okinawa International Patchwork Guild...

Amy's quilt is finished!!

I finally finished the last bit of handsewing on Amy's quilt and cleaned up all the straggling threads!! This is a simple rail fence pattern -- really easy to put together!! As you can see, I decided to use two of the purples to form the wide border -- I really like the way that worked out!

It's quilted by stitch-in-the-ditch outlining the dark purple fence rail.... then the sections between those dark fence rails are quilted in free-motion that include some stars...



The "label on the back documents that the quilt is for Amy and her husband for Christmas 2006, and that it was made by me in Okinawa, Japan

A Busy Quilting Weekend!!

Saturday was our regular Saturday quilting class at the Schilling Community Center. Sensai Barbie had two pattern options for us as she always does. I had fabric with me for both patterns, but since I'd already made the table runner a few months ago, I decided to start with the Santa. Lots of little pieces to cut out, but as Barbie had promised, the cutting was the hardest part!!

By early in the afternoon I was done with the Santa block and just had to finish the scrappy border...

I spent a few hours today layering the quilt and then began quilting it. It's one of my UFOs right now... but I'll get it done soon!!


I still had a few hours of class left, so I decided to cut out the Christmas Tree Table Runner... I got the tree blocks pieced at class and finished putting it all together today. So.. another UFO!!

Off topic again -- Nathan is 20!

My youngest child is 20 years old today!!

It's hard to believe that so much time has past since I held that bundle in my arms for the first time... Nathan is the youngest of four children and arrived only 6 months after his oldest sister arrived in our family... (I guess that's a story for another post -- or even another whole blog!)

Nathan is a sophomore at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. After going through high school convinced that he wanted to go into computer engineering, he has made a pretty major turnaround -- and is majoring in kinesiology.

Nathan and Grandpa, June 2006

We moved overseas when Nathan was not quite 2 years old.... and he moved back when he started college. So that was quite a culture shock for him! He grew up in Germany, South Korea, Guam and Okinawa. His real passion as a teenager was soccer. He lived and breathed soccer! Now, he's really in to working out -- and told me today that he can bench press 250 lb!!
He'll be coming home for Christmas! We'll be glad to spend some time with him!

Happy Birthday, Nathan!!

Off topic - My shiisa

I thought you might like to see some of the shiisas that I've made. A few years ago I took some pottery classes from a GREAT pottery sensai, Jorge Itozaku. He teaches at the Arts and Crafts Center on Kadena. His classes are fun and you really learn a LOT!!



My first class was probably the most difficult -- we made mini shiisa... it was hard for me to work with the small pieces of clay. In Jorge's class you work with a clay mixture that he makes -- combining Okinawan clay with regular clay. It feels really great!




















The finished product!!

Quilted Rail Fence Reversible Quilted Bag

The Okinawa International Patchwork Guild met the first Saturday in November for our monthly workshop. This month’s project was taught by Yuriko. When Yuriko originally made this pattern, she did all of the work by hand, but many of us in the guild are too addicted to instant gratification to even consider hand-piecing and quilting!

We started with three coordinating fabrics and strip-pieced them into a rail fence quilt tops for the body of the bag, the handle, and the bottom. Then we layered the quilt tops, batting, and backing fabric and quilted each piece. Yuriko provided patterns for the pieces of the bag.

The most difficult part of this project for me was sewing on the bottom of the bag!

Happi Coat Quilted Wall Hanging

I've been on a "kimono kick" lately... this is the first of the kimono projects that I finished.

This was a fun little piece to do -- the Happi coats are appliqued. The quilt is about 16" by 16". The backing is the same carp fabric used in the wide border.

The pattern is by Castilleja Cotton

Fabric is all from Sanzo's here in Okinawa

My Scrappy Kitties Quilt

Scrappy Cats was the class project in October. At first, I wasn't going to make this one because I'm not overly fond of cats. But as I look at patterns to use the fabric I had recently gotten, I thought that it might be a fun thing to do.

My daughter told me that her Aunt Elaine likes "flip flops," so when I decided to make my former sister-in-law a quilt, I searched for fabric that would fit her theme. I found two "focus fabrics" that I thought would be perfect -- the multi-colored flip flops on a black background and the hot pink batik...


















Once I decided to use those fabrics for the Scrappy Cats, I invaded my stash and found some great brights to add to the quilt.




This was a pretty quick quilt to piece. By the end of the all-day class, I had the top all pieced, including the scrappy border! I still needed to applique the hearts, layer the quilt top with batting and a brightly colored backing, and then quilt it. Today, I finished hand sewing the binding.




...I really like this one -- and I think Elaine will LOVE it!! I hope she doesn't see it here before she gets it in the mail!!