My new favorite red & white quilt….”Composition II” by Shoko Sakai, Japan

 

I “found” this red and white beauty at this years 16th European Patchwork Meeting 2010  in the Val d’Argent, Alsace (Region in France). It was part of the the “Nihon Vogue and JHIA (Japan Handicraft Instructor’s Association)  Exhibition in Liépvre at the Espace Exposition. For all Alsace Patchwork Meeting “pilgrims” that was Exhibition Site No. 20.

The quilt is 2 x 2 meters big and is pieced with “thousands” of little red and white squares. Shoko Sakai won a very well deserved gold prize in the traditional quilt category at the “10th Quilt Nihon Exhibition”, Tokyo. 

It reminded me of my “Little Elements of Fire” quilts, especially the" “all white” part. And as the red silk patches in  my quilt “deteriorate”  with every further washing I was thinking of making myself another version of my quilt anyway.  So this quilt definitely is a very welcome inspiration….

You will find some more pictures  in my flickr file.

I have to mention how Shoko Sakai quilted this. As you can (hopefully) see from the picture above she used red quilting and/or embroidery thread for the red blocks and white thread for the white ones. She quilted every big or small square block individually with sometimes very different patterns. I am not sure that everything is hand quilted but most of  it definitely is. It is perfectly quilted so there could be machine quilting on some of the blocks, i really could not tell.

Luckily (certainly no touching allowed) the quilt was not hanging plan on the wall therefore I was able to get a glimpse at the (all white) back of the quilt with some of the red quilting showing. 

Little Red Riding Hood (finished in 2008)

 

Chinese Red cotton for the wolf medallion, the little red riding hood's hood and the border, linen in five different shades of white for the appliqué one shade of white for every layer of the picture. 5 different shades of beige for the vertical linen panel and all the different shade of white I could find in my cotton stash for the horizontal panel of little squares.

In the end the details did not really show up in the finished quilt but as long as I know they are there….

White cotton, beige linen and the Chinese red cotton for the disappearing nine patch on the back. The quilting thread is red sulky thread 12w.

The little red riding hood appliqué is inspired by the the beautiful work of Patricia Zapata (www.alittlehut.com)

 

 

The beautiful work of Patricia Zapata ( a little hut) started this quilt, though it wasn't the best idea to work with linen for this appliqué adaptation of her paper wall art the fraying drove me crazy:

 

The finished top in front of my window with a sample block from the backing:

 

Big bad wolf embroidery white on red (upside down on my ironing board) with the patched back showing:

 

For the back I choose this simple pattern; it is called disappearing nine patch and very easy to piece. You’ll find the perfect pattern tutorial from Helen on her blog

 

Last but not least the quilting with pretty big stitches and not a fancy pattern at all. Just long even lines all over the quilt, except  for the appliqué part:

 

Little Red Riding Hood – end of story…

Nähen in den Mai – “Sewing into Mai”

A virtual sewing bee with the Quiltfriends started at 07:00 pm on 29. April and ended for me at 04:00 am on 01.Mai 2010 with a yet an unfinished “Nähbox” (SewingBox).

My “Dear Baby Jane Stuff–Nähbox” with handles….

We had two tutorials to choose from:

one was Nickel-Pickles Sewing Box - there is an English language version on Nickel-Pickles blog

and a life Tutorial fromPatchBea – one of the Quiltfriends – via forumposts for a little suitcase.

A funny night with lot’s of things to learn by trial and error… and I really hope we will do it again!

I wanted to make the sewing box and therefore I needed a really long zipper. As the only one I had was black I also choose black linen (by Ikea) and the rosé-ish fabric “City Girl” by Kitty Yoshida (a Bernatexfabric); oh and and an appliqué bambi I made from the City Girl fabric some time ago.

This is how the WIP looked like at about 04:00 am on Mai 1st – a “Nähbox” (Sewing Box) big enough to hold all my Dear Jane Stuff – the book, the small Clover ironing/cutting board, my DBJ File Folder with the finished blocks and all my sewing notion. As you can see I did not really follow Nickles-Pickles instructions to the point. And for a first trial it is a bit wonky…

WIP picture – Nähbox/Sewing Box inside

WIP picture – Nähbox/Sewing Box outside

In the end I decided to add some handles – now it looked more like the suitcase and the little bambi ended up on its side. Next time I will plan (think) a little ahead.

"Roses from the Heart" - the Bonnet Project by Christina Henri

 

I love conceptual art – is that what it is called? – where there is a story behind it; something that triggered the artist's interest to create something or to enable others to create, to bring people together, make people think and talk and in some cases act themselves, contribute to the art work, spread the word and make a change, challenge a myth or believe or as with the the Bonnet Project help remember and honor  - the 25.556 convict women Great Britain deported to Australia between 1788 and 1853.

Christina Henri's textile art project "Roses from the heart"  touched me when I first read about it in the "Inspiration" Issue No. 51 (an Australian embroidery magazine) in 2006. I went to the quoted website www.femalefactory.com.au read about the female factory's history and found the links to the convict files with all the women's names published to  make us and especially the convict women's descendants and Australians in general remember them. Remember their names, their suffering and cruel life in that then unknown county and most of all acknowledge  their contribution to help settle Australia.

It has been a different time then which might explains though it does not excuse what has been done to them, how they were treated and how many of them and especially of their innocent children had to die. Even more so as they have been shunned for all those years; that is what Christina Henri's project will change.

From what I read in this years July edition of British Patchwork & Quilting, 2 years later "Roses from the heart" has become an international project with people from UK, Ireland, USA and Canada as well as New Zealand, and from  Africa, and the European Countries Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden taking part. Not all of the 25.556 bonnets have been created yet. It shows what a vast number it really is.

If you want to take part and contribute Bonnets go to http://www.femalefactory.com.au/FFRG/fffdb.htm#Records find a relative among those convict women or "adopt" one and make a bonnet in her name. The free bonnet template and sewing instruction can be found on http://www.femalefactory.com.au/exhibit.htm#henri or on Christina Henri's website. There you can also find where to send them and when and where they will be displayed.

In 2010 an installation of at least 10.000 bonnets is planned for the "The Festival of Quilts" in Birmingham, UK  (aka Birmingham Quilt Festival).

Let "Roses from the heart" grow all over "blogland"…

Copycat Quilt Block Sampler

4 1/2" blocks of solid red and white fabric, not patterned, no batiks

 

The rules for myself – which I will try to follow as best as I can – are:

The "master" must be a red and white design; can be of any material, style etc. except it must not be from a quilt or an existing quilt block!

Any magazine ad, leaflet or flyer, painting, web layout, sculpture, building etc. will do, as long as it is

1. red & white
   
   
2. I like it ;-) and
   
   
3. it can be transferred into a quilt block – pieced and/or appliquéd with  a dash of Redwork now and then

Small alterations and layout changes are ok…

 

Block number 1 – DenkDramen

Based on a  flyer from the theater in Frankfurt  "Schauspiel Frankfurt"  from 2006

 

PDF: Block number 1 – DenkDramen