Japanese Quilters and Comfort Quilts for Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami Victims

Our Nifty Fifty Quilting groups have also done international quilt block swaps.  Our Nifty Fifty swaps usually had 50 quilters but we thought 20 international quilters would be a more reasonable number of quilt blocks to manage. So we chose the name Twenty Plenty for our international swaps.

We eventually had a total of three Twenty Plenty International quilt swaps.  We had so many quilters for our second swap that we had to divided the groups into two.  The theme for our third Twenty Plenty swap was Sunbonnet Sue and our hostess was Suzanne Pratt.

Our international swaps included over 50 different countries and 135 unique quilt block designs.  We had several quilters from Japan. One of these quilters was Hiroko.  Hiroko participated in all three  Twenty Plenty Swaps.  She did many unique and beautiful quilt blocks.   

Hiroko's Quilt Block

Hiroko's Quilt Block

Hiroko's Quilt Bloc

Hiroko was contacted by our local newspaper when they did a story about our swaps called A Patchwork of Friends and she was quoted in the newspaper article....
"Hiroko Onozawa wrote from Japan to say: "I can’t find any suitable words to express my mind. I have
received 60 blocks from around the world." Later, Onozawa wrote to tell members that she would appear on television in Japan because of her participation in the project."


And sure enough Hiroko did appear on a Japanese television show...showing off her completed Twenty Plenty Quilts.  Hiroko sent me a copy of the television program.  It was great to actually "meet" one of our quilters from Japan even though it was on a taped television program. I loved being able to see the international quilt blocks that I had sorted and swapped out of my house in a completed quilt.

Hiroko'sTwenty Plenty Sunbonnet Sue Quilt

This is Hiroko's Sunbonnet Sue quilt from the Twenty Plenty Swap.  
I love the way Hiroko used the purple sashing and border to bring out the beautiful quilt blocks.

Hiroko's Twenty Plenty International Quilt

Hiroko took a different approach in sewing together the first set of Twenty Plenty swap blocks.  She used a more neutral sashing and border but added a spark to the quilt with a variety of colored stars in her sashing. 


I am happy to say that I have been in touch with Hiroko since the terrible Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan.  Hiroko still had the same email address even after all these years.  I contacted her and I received a response right away. She said that nothing is broken, fallen down and nobody is injured.  I am not sure how far away she was from the earthquake. I am glad to hear that she is safe.


We had three other quilters from Japan in our swaps.  But I have not been in contact with them.  Hopefully they are all safe like Hiroko.  Here are the other Japanese quilt blocks from our swap.

Misako's Japanese Quilt Block

Nancy's Japanese Quilt Block

Shizuka's Japanese Quilt Block

Maybe with this blog they will read about us inquiring about their safety and contact us.  We are especially worried about Nancy as her quilt block is signed Sendai, Japan. Our thoughts and prayers are to all of those in Japan living through this tragedy.  Quilters always come forward to help those who are in need and the Japanese people are in need of quilts to keep warm. 

 The Quilter's Newsletter has been in contact with the Patchwork Quilt Tsushin which is a leading Japanese quilt magazine.  The Quilter's Newsletter  will be collecting quilts for Japan and forwarding them to the Editor in Chief of the Patchwork Quilt Tsushin, Naomi Ichikawa.  Here is the information  copied from  the Quilter's Newsletter Blog
    
"Send quilts of any size from baby to adult to: Dana Jones
Quilters Newsletter
741 Corporate Circle, Suite A
Golden, CO 80401
•    Mark your box: “Quilts for Japan.”
•    Send quilts as soon as possible and no later than April 30, 2011.
•    Enclose your name, address, phone number, and email address with the quilts."

You can read more information about sending the quilts to The Quilter's Newsletter or you can contact them with questions by visiting their blog at http://networkedblogs.com/fA9SP


 

Looking back at September 11, 2001 Quilt Blocks

The weather is just starting to turn and it is just starting to feel like Spring. This week I spent the time updating some of the Nifty Fifty Websites.  I changed the main pages to a much lighter look.  This week a quilter from our Nifty Fifty 27 group emailed me to tell me that she had gotten her NF 27 quilt blocks and signature squares mixed up and now she does not know which quilt block belonged to which signature square.  The NF 27 swap was Red, White and Blue Patriotic Theme for September 11, 2001.

NF 27 Quilt without the signature squares

NF 27 Breast Cancer Quilt with the signature squares

  Each of these quilt blocks had a special signature square which had a heartfelt statement about 9/11 from each quilter.  I was so happy to give her our Nifty Fifty 27 website so she could match up her quilt blocks and start putting  her quilt together.  Here is her NF 27 California quilt block and signature square for 9/11. 

NF 27 California Quilt block and signature square

 Even though every state was represented in this swap. The four areas of the country that was affected the most on 9/11  were done by four of our original Nifty Fifty One Quilters. Wendy lived in Pennsylvania and did her quilt block to represent the state where one of the planes went down.

Pennsylvania 9/11 Quilt Block and Signature Square

 Marjorie who lived in New York did her quilt block representing the twin towers falling.

New York 9/11 Quilt Block and Signature Square

 I lived in Virginia and we had many people in our area working in the Pentagon that day and my Father had also worked there for many years.  We knew several in our community who lost their lives that day.  There was one survivor from our hometown who barely made it out of the Pentagon with her most of her body burnt....months later she visited my girl scout troop in her body cast to tell the girls of her experience. 

Virginia 9/11 Quilt Block and Signature Square

 Pam who also lived in Virginia only south of Washington DC did her block to  represent where the plane was originally headed.

Washington DC 9/11 Quilt Block and Signature Square

You can see the rest of our quilt blocks and signature squares on our Nifty Fifty 27 website at www.niftyfiftyquilters.com/nf27.html

Olympic Torch Quilt Block, Sharks Teeth and Memories

Suzy's Nifty Fifty One Quilt

One of our original Nifty Fifty Quilters contacted me through our website this week.  I was so excited to hear from Suzy.  She represented Georgia in our first Nifty Fifty Swap.  She designed her Georgia quilt block after the Olympics by doing an Olympic Torch.  It was always one of my favorite quilt blocks in our swap because it was so original and it represented the Olympics which were in Altanta Georgia the year of our swap. You can visit Suzy and her crafts on her blog. 

Suzy's Georgia Quilt Block

 

NF Georgia State Quilt Blocks

Suzy was one of the quilters in our swap who traveled to Virginia to help Wendy and I sort the 2500 Nifty Fifty One quilt blocks and to sew the first Nifty Fifty Breast Cancer quilts together.   

Stafford's welcome for our Quilting Group

 We had a great weekend of sewing, socializing, show and tell and laughter.  One of my favorite stories was about Jeri...our Oklahoma swapper.  She also traveled to Virginia for the weekend.  Jeri confessed to our group that she was a beginner quilter and she had bought and cut up enough fabric for 2500 quilt blocks. She thought she had to make 50 quilt blocks for each of the 50 states. Our other swappers jumped in and helped her out by buying her extra fabric squares.

Jeri's Oklahoma Quilt Block

We had so many memorable quilting stories from our first Nifty Fifty Swap.

Nifty Fifty Quilters from our weekend gathering.

Here is our group of quilters holding the Breast Cancer Charity Quilt. Suzy is on the bottom row fourth from the left.  Jeri is pictured on the top left holding the corner of the quilt.  I am in the top right row third in from the left.  We are holding my son's Nifty Fifty Signature quilt.  My son Sean swapped fossilized sharks teeth for signature blocks from our Nifty Fifty Quilters.  He collected these 15 to 20 million year old sharks teeth on the banks of an island on the Potomac River. My son Sean is pictured between the two quilts. Below is a photo of one of the sharks teeth and photos of the island  on the Potomac River in Virginia.

Shark's Tooth Island Potomac River

Shark's Tooth Island at Sunset

15 to 20 million old fossilized Sharks Tooth

 I would love to hear from other Nifty Fifty Quilters.

January Challenge Completed

 I finished several Mug Rugs in Blue for the month of January.  Here are my Snowflake Mug Rugs for the cold winter days.  The snowflakes, borders and binding was done in Glow in the Dark Fabric so they are easy to spot on those dark winter nights.  Great way to enjoy your coffee, tea or hot chocolate on a cold winter day and there is room for your snack too......which my first choice would be chocolate but you know us quilters and our chocolate.

I decided to make a Spring/Summer Mug Rug in hopes that warm weather will be coming soon.

I am not saying which Mug Rugs I sent to my secret buddy in the Mug Rug Swap but I also included a goodie in my packet to her.  It is one of my knitted 100% cotton Angel washcloth.  I hope these goodies will help warm her up this winter whether she uses them with coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

 You can find the pattern for the Angel at http://frogiezplace.blogspot.com/2007/12/angel-cloth.html
Now that is it Feburary, I must start thinking of a project for my Red scraps.  Valentine's day is coming up and my Granddaughter lives four hours away.  I wonder what quick project I could whip up for a 6 year old.  If you have any ideas for me please leave me a comment.
       

Quilting Motivation

I have decided to join a Swap and a Challenge this year to keep me motivated and quilting.  The first one is the Mug Rug Swap. I plan on revisiting my various totes of fabric for the Mug Rugs.
It has been a few years since I have gone through those totes.  Every time I sort through my fabric or pattern books whether they are my knitting, crochet, cross stitch or quilting books I get a rush of motivation.  Then I came across the 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge and immediately joined. This Challenge gives me a plan and a purpose while sorting my fabric totes.  It will make me sort my smaller scraps by color and use them for the 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The best part of the challenge so far is that the January project is making Mug Rugs!!!!  Here is the site for the Blue Mug Rugs for January  
I think I will be using some leftover snowflake blocks for my Mug Rugs.  They are on a blue background fabric.  These 4 inch quilt blocks are leftover from when I designed a snowflake  pattern  called Snowy Snowy Night

Snowy Snowy Night Pattern available through A Fabric Oasis

My Nifty Fifty 17 Snowflake Quilt

The idea of my Snowy Snowy Night pattern came from my Nifty Fifty 17 Snowflake Swap where we swapped 9 inch snowflake quilt blocks. Everyone used the same white glow in the dark fabric for their snowflakes and the swappers had a choice of a dark or light blue batik for their background.  I designed many of the snowflakes in our swap and used those designs in Snowy Snowy Night pattern but made them into 4 inch quilt blocks instead of 9 inch.  You can see photos of all the snowflake quilt blocks we swapped on our website at www.niftyfiftyquilters.com/nf17.html

 

Illinois State Quilt Blocks

I have all the Nifty Fifty Illinois Quilt blocks that were swapped in our 29 exchanges up on the Illinois state page.  We got a large variety of quilt block patterns representing Illinois.  The most popular pattern made was the Log Cabin quilt block which represented the one room log cabin in Illinois where Abraham Lincoln was born.  There is another log cabin that Lincoln's family moved to in 1830 but Abraham only visited this cabin since he had already left to start his own homestead.

Abe Lincoln's Family's Log Cabin 1830

We recieved some very original quilt blocks which represented Abraham Lincoln himself...not just of his home.  My favorite is the one which was done in Redwork... Another one is Sunbonnet Sue wearing Old Abe's famous hat.

Illinois Sunbonnet Sue in our Nifty Fifty 20 Swap

Illinois Quilt Block in our Nifty Fifty 19 Redwork Swap

And of course Chicago needed be represented since it makes Illinois famous with it incredible shopping and tourist sites.  What better way to represent Chicago then by having Sunbonnet Sue visiting the city as she did in our Nifty Fifty 25 Swap.

Sunbonnet Sue visiting Chicago in NF 25 Swap

Determined Cat Trying to Get Treats

Five years ago there was a stray cat at my in-laws house.  She was leary of us but very sweet.  You could hear her purring from across the yard if you talked very nice to her.  You could tell she was starving because my father-in-law threw out a pizza crust for her and she grabbed it and ran. She hid under the jet skis and I have never seen a cat eat anything sooo fast.  My husband had a lot of patience that weekend and was able to catch the stray cat.  We called her Tootie and within a few weeks this skinny little thing had four kittens. We had no idea she was pregnant!!!! 

Needless to say we kept two of her kittens.  One orange tabby we named Joey
 and one gray tabby we named Maggie.   They are real characters and they both LOVE treats and Quilts!! 

Laying on the Nifty Fifty One Quilt

Sitting in front of my "Old Man in the Mountain" Pattern

When they were kittens I received a treat jar from my sister.  They knocked it off the table tying to open it and it broke. I was so upset!!!  This week....I found the exact treat jar at a thrift shop.  Maggie immediately remembered it after five years and right away tried again to open it.  After Maggie spent a lot of effort with no results, I finally helped her by tipping open the lid.  Her brother Joey waited until he heard the lid open and then he came over to reap his sister's hard work.......Maggie patiently stepped back while Joey tried reaching in to get a treat but it was more difficult then he thought.  Finally he stuck his whole head in the jar to find one. Maggie also got her treat by sticking her head into the jar. 
Here is the video of their endeavor: