Mrs. Furui's quilt

Yesterday I spent a quiet day with Mrs. Furui and Mrs. Ochiai. The rest of our patchwork group couldn't come so the three of us worked on the bazaar quilt and NEXT YEAR'S bazaar quilt.



Mrs. Furui finished her quilt for her oldest son! It is SOOO beautiful! Mrs. Furui's quilting is exquisite! This quilt has been in the making XXX number of years. Let's put it this way. She has thought about making this quilt for nearly 5 years and the actual making took a little more than a year. She has two more sons to make quilts for so she finally devoted her time to finishing this one so that she can start on the next.

Mrs. Furui does not do machine quilting and so ALL her quilts turn into heirloom quilts. I certainly hope her son will appreciate this! I worry about sons recognizing all the motherly love that goes into a quilt and then appreciating the beautiful masterpiece that graces the bed.

I think we determined that the pattern for this is called Darting Minnows though in some places it is referred to as a Star something. Mrs. Furui had considered turning this into a Storm at Sea but decided she didn't want more storms than necessary in her offsprings' life. Good decision because look at all that space to do her fantastic quilting! The thread she used is a dark blue-purple gradation thread and the colors sparkle on the various light colored fabrics. Mrs. Furui adapted some of the quilting patterns on her own, adding a swirl or loop, taking away a few circles and leaves. She used three or four different patterns so the eye moves from block to block to take in each beautiful motif.

I TALK about Mrs. Furui a lot on my blog but I don't know if you've ever really met her.

"No. Don't take my picture."

"But my blog friends already read all about you. They want to know who you are."

This is the way Mrs. Furui wanted to be introduced.

"Oh, come on. Smile!"






So here is Mrs. Furui, expert hand quilter, lover of soft colors and master of all types of fine handwork. (And she leads the mother's chorus, plays the piano and harpsichord, speaks German and English, drafts quilt patterns and makes great cakes!) She has been my good friend for 20 years. Take a good look because she is shy and probably won't let me take her picture again!