2020 quilts

In 2006 this blog started out as a quilting blog and for awhile I was doing pretty well about writing daily even though the posts were rather short and lacking much continuity.  And look where I've come to!  I only write about once a week now and it's all about babies and cars!  In case you and I had forgotten, I still quilt...

This is my quilt collage for 2020.  (The only trouble with this collage is you can't get a sense of what quilt is large and what quilt is of smaller dimensions.)  I actually had thought I'd done more but these are all the photos of quilts I can find in my files... 11 quilts.

Starting at the top left...  This is a quilt I started throwing together to use up the strings bin that was overflowing.  I called this the Hodge-Podge quilt and it was fairly large but simply quilted.  I spontaneously gave this to a friend who happened to be coming through town a few days after it was completed.

The yellow Hugs and Kisses quilt is baby crib size and I started making it for our grandson soon after Leiya told us she was expecting.  She asked for a non-gender specific quilt and this is what I came up with.  I find out later that she likes muted colors!  I have always thought of her as liking bright, vibrant colors!  I guess I'll have to make Luka a quieter quilt!  

That Kitty quilt was the first that got completed not long after 2020 New Year's though I worked on it most of 2019.  It is quite a large quilt and is lounging around a closet for now....

The Autumn Leaves and Flying Geese table runner turned out to be a bit too big to use as a table runner... it fits a narrow wall nicely...  The leaf blocks I must have made 20 years ago, the fabrics brought back memories!  And the Flying Geese were left-over triangles from some past project.  I discovered all the unsewn pieces in a box in the closet and realized the colors went together pretty well.  For an unplanned quilt, this one turned out very nicely!

The very large Log Cabin variation was the result of the quilting challenge that Carin, Julie and Cynthia gave ourselves this year when we met at the Tokyo Quilt Show in January.  I found a pattern I liked in one of my old books and I've worked on this for the second half of the year.  I don't know when we'll ever get to show our projects as the quilt show won't be held next year but I did complete my goal.

The Christmas candle quilt was from a pattern that I had been helping a friend to make and since I had enough Christmasy fabric in two colors I decided to make it myself.  It is wall sized and is the last quilt that I completed this year.

The Happy Village is rather small (wall sized) and I while instructing the young friend who I seem to be quilt mentoring I made one myself so that we could compare the differences that come about when two people follow the same instructions.

I think the Over-Under quilt (can't remember the exact name) was a quilt KIT that I gave to myself last Christmas.  I had admired the flannel fabrics in this kit for a long time and when I found it on sale I jumped on it.  It makes a nice throw quilt for a sofa and I have a recipient in mind (Tony's grandparents...) but as the postal system is still down between Japan and America I'm not risking mailing this yet.

The colorful Five in Five (again, I forget the name) was another attempt to use up fabrics in my leaders/enders bin and it was very satisfying to make.  It is a bed-cover size quilt and I gifted it to the friend who helped me make a dress from kimono for Takumi's someday wedding...

The blue Hugs and Kisses quilt I made at the same time I was making the baby quilt for Luka because the mother of the baby was Leiya's long time friend and the two girls seem to lead parallel lives on different continents...  I thought it would be nice for the two new babies to have the same quilt.

And the appliqued Today I Will Choose Joy quilt was made during the beginning of Covid here in Japan.  I was thinking that I would keep my spirits positive and focused while we all hunkered down and I added leaves and flowers and embroidery as the days passed.  I had really expected that Covid would be a thing of the past by the time I finished this wall quilt but alas...  Life is more limited than ever...  When I get the Christmas decorations down I think I need to have this quilt back up in my living room and get my mind back on positive thinking...

Unfortunately Covid is spreading rapidly in our community and the numbers are shocking.  Japan doesn't seem to be able to legally put restrictions on society and so we get these alerts such as,

"Japan is on red alert and the medical system is collapsing.  We ask your cooperation in limiting your outings to the bare necessities.  Please remember to wash your hands, wear masks, interact in small groups, keep spaces well ventilated and practice social distancing.  We thank you for your understanding."

It is the "cooperation" that the government is putting a lot of faith on and though Japan has always been a mask wearing culture, people are still eating out, going traveling etc.  (But the government did finally cancel their stimulus travel coupons this week...  How can they ask us to stay at home and at the same time offer travel coupons to stimulate the economy?)  The airports have also closed to arriving foreigners as of yesterday and returning nationals and permanent residents are asked to "cooperate" with quarantine guidelines.

We are "cooperating" by staying home and I have two sewing projects that I will be working on in the next couple months.  McKenna is still up on my sewing room wall, and the flower applique is being hand quilted while I watch TV.   I guess that makes me still a quilter!