Quilt & Sashiko
"Acceptance" - Quilt with less cutting & Sashiko Philosophy
Artist Statement
I practice Sashiko, Japanese Stitchery.
Among many similarities in Quilting & Sashiko, I find it interesting to see “precision” and “as is” as one significant difference.
With respect & following the Quilting Rules & Guideline, I made a quilt with one theme: “Less Cutting Fabric”.
All of the fabric pieces are the scrape of vintage Japanese fabric without additional cutting.
The Quilt Edge was my challenge because it requires precision & cutting the fabric.
Thanks to a piece of advice from my quilting teacher in Japan to use heat/fire to finish the edge,
I completed this quilt with almost no cutting.
Many quilters respectfully learn Sashiko & apply it to their quilting.
I wanted to do the same in reverse - Sashiko to Quilting.
While respecting the significance of Precision in Quilting,
this is my Quilt with Sashiko Philosophy - "Acceptance (of what we receive)".
Is this Quilting or Sashiko?
Features to explain about this Quilt, or/and Sashiko - or both!?
No Cutting the Fabric
I sincerely respect the "precision" Quilting require to the Quilters. "Precision" measure the quilter's artistry & professionalism, and it create beautiful Quilts. In Sashiko, although precision is also important, we tend to "let it go" more often. I do not really know any "Sashiko Artisans" who only care for the precision. Instead, we enjoy the "rhythm" of each stitching.
To illustrate this difference, when I do piecing, I decided to avoid cutting the fabric. I used the fabric scrap from Japanese Vintage Fabrics. I needed to layer them because each fabric have different shape. Therefore, it is not following the principal of quilting as being "Precise", I hope this will be one challenge to the Modern Quilting.
Edging without Cutting the Fabric
The most challenging process of this Quilt is "Finishing" such as binding or facing. Both binding & facing require the process of cutting the fabric... another important process appreciating to the "Precision". Umm. I thought of somewhat combining precise finishing & no-cutting piecing. However, I asked a Japanese Quilting Teacher for a piece of Advise. Then, I learned that there is a possible way to finish with "heat". She used a soldering iron, and I used... fire.
This is NOT tradition at all. Please understand that I am only doing this to follow the initial principal of "No-Cutting the fabric". For the process, the video is available below. (I filmed it outside because I activated the smoke detector in the house... yes, I burned it to close the layers).
Asanoha
So, No cutting the Fabric. Yes, then let's layer them. Another challenge was to actually "Quilt" it - stitching through the layers with batting inside. One part of this Quilt has 6 layers of fabric all together. Although it was challenging to stitch through, I also wanted to stitch something "Sashiko" - like.
I hope that this photo (which is meant to be the "back side" of this quilt) show the Asano-Ha patterns on left up. Many Quilters who learned Sashiko from me mentioned the difficulty to enjoy "Unshin" with Quilting. Yes, it is difficult... but hey, it wasn't impossible.
I hope to continue this journey to enjoy both Sashiko & Quilting.
