A good quilting day

Today had a great day though I think all of us are tired out. Went to Furui-san's and all together 6 of us showed up to make blocks for the kindergarten quilt. We worked until 3:00, some of us sewing (two sewing machines going) some cutting, some tracing (for the applique hearts). A major project and even with quite a bit of man power and all that time we only completed 6 blocks ( well, the others are only about an hour away from being finished). We each took one block home to applique and Furui-san, Harada-san and I will put together the other blocks. Next meeting on Feb. 15th! Here are a few of the blocks spread out and waiting to be appliqued. Everyone seemed to have a good time looking at all the fabric again although Furu-san bemoaned that all that cutting hadn't really put a dent in her stash. She and I gave a mini-lesson on Leader-Enders which was enlightening to the other sewers.

And here is a picture of Furui-san's beautiful quilt (still putting the binding on) that she is making for her mother's birthday. She's been working on it for over a year and had a spurt of energy to do most of the quilting in the last two weeks. Isn't that the way. We let a project sit forever and when we finally sit down to do it, it doesn't take nearly as long as we had feared (and therefore procrastinated about.) Furui-san does beautiful hand quilting and the colors are completely her. All delicate and loving. When I make a quilt it always is a hodge-podge of colors and nothing ever really matches anything else. One year, Furui-san and I and another lady made basically the same quilt. We even exchanged fabrics so that there was a lot of each other's stash represented and we only filled in the latice work and borders with our own fabric. Furui-san's was so nice and genteel. The other lady's was quite elegant (she also spent a lot of money for some great fabrics) but mine was crazy! It was made of odds and ends from someone's clothing making scraps and also some of Tetsu's old shirts. A quilt really reflects the maker's personality!