Lots and Lots of Hugs and Kisses!

I have TWO finishes to report today!  This may be a first!

The Hugs and Kisses quilt for Leiya and Tony's baby is finished!  All that was left was to make a label and so that has been in the planning.  In the meantime I've been quilting the Hugs and Kisses in Blue for Leiya's (our) friend's baby that is due in October and once that was done I spent yesterday making two labels and sewing them both on.

This is the Hugs and Kisses quilt for our grandson due in December.  I started it before we knew that Leiya was expecting a boy and at any rate, Leiya has specifically asked for gender-neutral baby gifts.  She is very practical considering ahead to maybe future children where the same things could be used again...  The yellow lattice is fabric Leiya and I had picked out a couple of years ago that I had considered using for a border on Leiya and Tony's wedding quilt but I don't think got used. I went a bit overboard with the hand quilting and it took a lot of time and to stencil it all in before quilting.  But it is done and full of love and lots and lots of stitches!

This is the Hugs and Kisses in Blue for our friend, Y-chan.  I had heard that she was expecting before Leiya ever made her announcement and I had asked Y-chan's mother if she wanted to make a baby quilt for the expected baby.  As it turned out it didn't seem that the grandmother was going to have the time and so when Leiya made her announcement I went ahead and made the Xs and Os for both quilts.  And then Y-chan specifically asked for blue when she too found out her baby was a boy, thus the Hugs and Kisses in Blue. 

For the quilting though, I was getting tired out from all the hearts on Leiya's quilt and I felt like I might run out of time if I got too involved on this one so I went for simpler lines.

The labels are from a stencil booklet I had and after tracing the design I colored in with crayons and heat set the color.  I questioned how to sign the label for my own grandchild.  Tanya seems a bit strange but we haven't yet decided what Tetsu and I will be called once the baby arrives.  In Japanese Grandma could be Baa-baa, or Obaachan, or Baachan.  I called my own Japanese grandma Baachan.  Grandpa would be Jii-jii or Ojiichan or Jiichan.  Or I could be Grandma Tanya or Grandma Tani I suppose...  I'm not sure how we'll decide...  So I considered leaving the label blank but Tetsu said since both Takumi and Leiya have always called us, Tetsu-san and Tanya-san (honorific form) rather than Mom and Dad, to just go with Tanya for now....  

Leiya and Y-chan are now in contact with each other again, recalling the days when our families traveled to California together to visit grandparents (Y-chan's grandparents also live in California).  In those days we all spoke Japanese to each other but once in California switched to English while there and then went back to Japanese when arriving back in Japan.  These days Leiya said her written Japanese was rusty (15 years of living in America) and so now she and Y-chan are corresponding with Leiya emailing in English and Y-chan emailing in Japanese and both expectant mothers are fine with the unusual language communication.  It is so fun that the girls grew up together, did lots of things together, got married last year in the same month, and now are having baby boys within two months of each other!