ABC House Block GRUPEN WALLPAPER

Hi all! So sorry for the longest absence ever on this blog! I have been sewing a lot recently, but I don't have very many projectsI can talk about at this moment! It's the time of the year with a lot ofsecret projects, right? Anyways, I am so glad to be back today withthis block I made last night for Leila for Patchwork 318 bee. Leila chose"Home Sweet Home" as her theme in November. In this bee, we useKumiko Fujita's Patchwork Pattern 318 book and our own stash to create blocks. This block is sort of a combination of 4 blockpatterns in the book - a house pattern and three alphabet (ABC) patterns.I saw Kumiko Fujita's work just like this in a quilt magazine at thelibrary and was so inspired to make one just like hers.



Here is how it looks like with seam allowances.I remembered Leila mentioned she finds quilt inspiration in song lyrics here, so when I spotted the musical note symbol fabric in my stash, I knew immediately it must be used for her block ;)
Speaking of Kumiko Fujita, I had such a great opportunity to  meet her in person at the International Quilt Week held last month
in Yokohama, Japan. Here is us in front of her quilt she made for her grandson - so so so cute!! (You can have a little virtual tour and see her and her students' works exhibited at the festival in this video.)


She was an absolutely amazing person - so kind, humble, and funny!She had no idea that her books (unfortunately out of print) and fabrics have inspiredso many of our sewing/quilting styles overseas. I told her that her Patchwork Pattern 318 book is especially popular that it is sold really expensively due to its rarity value.She said she feels terribly sorry for all of you who had to pay a lot to snatch a copy of the book and also for those of you who have yet to spot a copy.According to her, the popularity of patchwork in general has declined dramatically in the past three decades in Japan so that there are less and lesspatchwork/quilt books available here. Would you say the situation is completelyother way around in the US? I feel that there are more and more patchworkbooks introduced nowadays in the US. Maybe some of you need tomove to Tokyo for me so that we can start a modern quilt guild here, ya?
I have a lot of things I want to talk about on my blog, but it'stime for me to go now! Thank you so much for coming back to my blog aftersuch a long break ;) I hope you are having a great holiday.