My friend Yuki moved to West Virginia when her husband’s company transferred him here from Japan.  We met because we both volunteered at our local animal shelter.  I started a conversation with her and we found out our husbands worked together and that we had many things in common.  I offered to help her learn her way around and help out in any way I could, and we became very good friends.  I think I actually glowed when her husband once introduced me as his wife’s best friend.  :)

I don’t know how much help I was to Yuki, but she really helped me to see the world around me.  Her English skills are amazing, but she always had interesting questions and observations.  Have you ever thought about how you’d rank things that were “not bad,” “not good,”  “pretty good,” or “pretty bad?  (I think I decided it must be not bad, pretty good, pretty bad and not good, in order of best to worst.)  Or pondered how much fun “fender bender” is to say, even though it’s not fun to be in one?  And I never realized how perplexing a “PED X-ING” sign could be.  If English weren’t your native language, would you read that as Pedestrian Crossing and realize people would walk across the street there?

It’s a weird world.

Anyway, Yuki stayed in WV for a few years, then moved on to Texas where their family grew by a little boy and a girl.  Since the kids were both born here, they have the privilege of being both American and Japanese citizens.  (I love that!)

This quilt is a gift to both her children, so it has both boy and girl themed squares and is based on the “I Spy” game.  I hope Yuki will see things in the quilt that remind her of her time in America.  She made a lot of friends and got to see a lot of the country while she was here.  I tried to give it a sense of depth and an interesting look by placing the darker squares outside, moving to the lighter squares inside.  (And as a Mom, I appreciate the practical side of this color placement, as the darker squares won’t show dirt as easily and the quilt will be handled more from the edges.)

The backing is a fun print of the United States, scrambled, with the state capitals marked.  The binding is New York taxi cabs.

I hope they’ll all enjoy it and know that I miss them!