M-san's quilting

Yesterday M-san came over and we worked on the latest block in our On Williams Street quilts...  I found this website earlier this year and suggested that the project would be a good way to practice machine quilting and overcome some of the fear of new challenges that would be offered.  

We are now on our 9th block and we are thinking of stopping here (instead of going the full 12 months).  I also asked M-san to bring over her latest quilts, the ones that she'd just sent me photos of, so that I could see them myself, photograph them and show them on my blog.

I am just blown away by M-san's skills and especially in machine quilting.  She has certainly surpassed her teacher (me).  As I photographed and raved about M-san's talent, we reflected on M-san's journey with quilting to this point and what she has learned and the things she has made.  There are actually too many quilts that M-san has finished to show all here though I think I managed to record all of them somewhere on my blog.

Can you believe, M-san is a new quilter!  She and I met in 2019 and when she showed an interest in handwork I gave her a quick lesson in tatting and told her to get back in touch with me when she'd mastered the basic knots.  From then on in we met occasionally as her tatting skills developed (she took to that very quickly and easily too), but the pandemic waylaid us for 4 or 5 months, when we decided not to get together.  

From 2021 M-san was doing hand piecing and hand quilting and somewhere in that time I started her on machine quilting.  The first photo that I can find of one of her freehand machine quilting projects was this diamond block quilt. 

This photo was of her first practice piece that she did with a bit of marking on the fabric to guide her.  She was so good even from the very beginning!

This is her most recent piece that she did at home by herself, practicing designs and trying out things that she found on the Internet.  I hadn't seen this piece before.

And this little piece is just amazing!  She said she found an article in one of the quilting magazines that I'd given her about a quilter and she just copied the design as well as she could.  I have certainly never tried anything so intricate and I marveled at her even and confident stitches.  M-san wants to give me this piece but I really think she should hang on to it as part of the journey that she is making in machine quilting.  For now it has been hung in my entry way but I think she should keep it to show more people who come into her life.  Who knows.  Someday she may be a famous Japanese machine quilter!

M-san also brought along a scrap quilt that she had made of the half square triangles that I had in a box from an earlier quilt I made this year.  This quilt is hand quilted, with gold thread no less!  

M-san really likes the meditative benefits of hand quilting and she added sparkle to the quilt's dark border.  Such a nice touch! 

I don't know if M-san's family is aware of her skill in quilt making.  She says they compliment her on the colors she's chosen and they are always happy to hang up another of her quilts, but being non-quilters themselves I wonder if they realize how good she is and how quickly she has taken to this type of handwork.  M-san and I talked about when I first started machine piecing and machine quilting, and I think I began in earnest after Leiya was born...  When I was about 35.  About the same age that M-san started...  I didn't really start machine quilting until 15 years ago... so think where M-san will be in 15 years if she's this good now!

Sorry for raving so much but I am a very proud teacher!