A gift quilt for cuddling

This gift quilt is finished and ready to be sent off to its new family home. I'm almost certain the recipients don't read my blog, but I'll be cagey about any more details just in case they do. For instance, the name of this quilt is a big hint about who it is for.

The pattern is called "Natural Beauty" and it was designed by Lori Mason. The focal fabrics are from a line by Makower UK called "Kimono." This is a adult lap size, about 61" square.

Kimono features gold, red and green Asian-inspired motifs like paper umbrellas, chrysanthemums, lanterns and um, kimonos. I added blacks, creams, reds and tans from my stash to make it a bit scrappy. I used a phone app that translates Kanji characters to scan some of the fabric. I wanted to make sure it didn't say anything weird in a language I don't understand! (If you're wondering, the Kanji seemed to be a list of addresses like 123 Main Street.)

To quilt this piece, I used my walking foot to sew diagonal lines about three inches apart. Then I did free motion quilting in those diagonal columns, using four different motifs.

I wanted there to be a nice variety of shapes in the quilting, so I chose loop-de-loops, a funky sort of fleur-di-lis, a simple Greek key, and ribbon candy. It shows up really nicely on the rather plain backing.

On the front, the quilting mostly blends in, letting the pretty fabrics take center stage. This is my favorite block; something about that sweet twiggy cream is just so appealing! You can see the stripe I used for the binding, which was sewn on the back first then flipped to the front and edge stitched by machine.

These are my new labels, which are bigger than my last set. They are a shiny synthetic (acetate?) that's quite hard to photograph.

They are large enough for writing on both sides of the fold, so I added washing and use instructions. That third line is what we quilters really want: use it often!