Aotsuki

This was the last of my series of Japanese inspired quilts. The name, Aotsuki, means “blue moon.” This was designed for my husband and me, and is on our bed now. It is a king sized monster of a quilt, and is of strip quilt design. The most striking visual elements are blue squares with rabbit motifs. The squares were taken from another furoshiki, and cut into uniform sizes. It was so painful to cut the furoshiki apart, but I think the ultimate effect was worth it. I took these rabbit squares as my templates for squares of pieced strips and blocks.

I used a furoshiki that had a series of rabbit images.

I made long strips, and cut them down to the proper shape and size. I used these pieced squares, and offset them with the rabbit squares in different orientations, to give a random appearance.

Strips, like the ones I used for usagi and gourds

The back was pieced from two large pieces, assembled with a line of left over strips. I had some left over rabbit blocks, as well, and chose to incorporate them into the back.

It was so large, I pieced the back from extra strips and leftover blocks. The ginger cat in the bottom left was not part of the design.

Here is the nearly finished quilt. I hand sewed a dark blue border. I used a medium weight cotton batting, and this was the last of the professionally quilted projects before I started my adventures in free-motion!