a baby quilt for Koyuki

Koyuki is a baby girl, born to a longtime Japanese friend. A few years ago, my friend and her family visited us in the summer, and I gifted her a quilt.  She received it with more joy, wonder and gratitude than I have ever received- it filled my heart.  So of course when she had another baby girl in December, I knew a quilt would be the perfect gift.

I really went to town with the pink.  I love it- so soft and soothing.  I did a bit of an I-spy combined with a scrappy wonky star, using the centers as a showcase for fun novelty fabrics (including munki sushi!).

On the back I used one of my favourite prints ever, by Megumi Sakakibara.  Going through a bit of hoarder's separation anxiety about this but it is just too perfect a compliment to the top to doubt.

As my arms are still not very strong and pulling even a small quilt sandwich around to machine quilt was uncomfortable, I hand quilted it with Perle cotton.  I love how it adds to the softness.  Just one pass around each star and centre square, and one line dividing each block.  I did a triple row around the outer sashing.  Pretty.  The binding is a print by Anna Griffith, hand bound.

This will be winging its way to Japan shortly along with this ruffled (and wrinkled!) onsie that I just adore.  Oh, babies!

Bloggers Quilt Festival: Heartstrings

Well, I finished up another quilt and decided to enter it in the hand quilting category in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  Welcome to any newcomers via Amy's blog, hope you are enjoying the festival!

Unfortunately, this quilt has a sad story.  It was made for a co-worker and her husband who recently suffered a late miscarriage of their first baby.  They had been trying to get pregnant for ages.  They were devastated.  I felt helpless.  I made a quilt.

I called it Heartstrings because, the situation pulls at my heartstrings, and, it is literally a heart made out of strings.  I decided to do a colorful heart, representing hope and love, against a dark, blank background.

For the quilting, I used a rainbow of Perle cotton.  I chain stitched on the words "love lives forever in our hearts" and then did echo quilting around the heart perimeter in a variety of different stitches.  It is simple, but effective (I think!) against the grey.

On the back, a cozy flannel that has been in my stash since before I officially HAD a stash!  The binding is a grey polka dot from the LQS, hand stitched in place.

Simple, but I hope this quilt provides some comfort.  Thanks for visiting!