Saturday, May 17, 2008

Stained Glass quilt

Yesterday I had a great day chatting with my friend Noriko-san. I had called her the day before since I hadn't heard from her in awhile and she decided on the spur to make a visit.

Noriko-san and I met when our kids were in kindergarten and as our friendship developed we found that we shared an interest in handwork. Along with Mrs. Furui (another friend I write quite a bit about) we started doing patchwork together using a book written in English that taught how to piece by machine. Noriko-san was especially entranced with machine piecing (that was a new technique in Japan 20 years ago) and over the years she has perfected the technique and has also taught herself to machine applique and machine quilt (on a domestic machine). Not long after we became friends, Noriko-san became a Christian and in recent years she has used her skills to illustrate her faith and scenes from the Bible.

Yesterday when Noriko-san visited she brought along one of her most recent creations depicting the church that she belongs to. I think she said that she will be giving the quilt to the church on Sunday so this was the last chance to show it to me. Isn't it a beauty? Noriko-san does quite a lot of this stained glass work and she takes photos of buildings and places and then designs her own patterns. I think everything she makes is one of kind and though she has taught classes (and been featured in quilting books in Japan!) she doesn't sell quilts or patterns.

This is all machine appliqued using black bias tape and hand dyed fabrics. I see a few batiks in there too. I love the colors she has used in this quilt and could see this becoming a series of different churches of Japan!

I am so amazed at all the talent that surrounds me!

5 comments:

Shingen said...

I have arrived here, to this wonderful blog by accident, and I have remained made an impression of its words. I will remain this way, reading.

Dewa Mata ne Tani-sama

artfilstitch said...

Norika-san is a beautiful artist, her work is awesome. I love the border and the colors that she chose. Tanya, you and your talented friends are so blessed to have each other. Thanks for sharing them with me.
Liz

Mary said...

I've been away again so I had quite a lot of reading here tonight to catch up on.

The stained glass and village quilts look wonderful. I have the book on the village quilts and have had every intention of making one....now I just have to find out where the book is after the move.

So glad Choco was uninjured when he got out. I worried about Chesty and how snug his collar should be too but now he wears a harness and I don't worry so much.

Shelina said...

It's a beautiful quilt. I loved the look of stained glass. I have a pattern of a stained glass iris, but haven't gotten around to making it yet.

Marilyn R said...

Noriko-san's quilt is a beauty! She is a very tallented quilter!