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Windows of Hope, a Journal Quilt for 2007

As I mentioned last month in my post about the book Creative Quilting: the Journal Quilt Project, this is the final year for this fantastic journey. Instead of making nine paper-sized quiltlets each month, this year’s assignment was to use three (or more) techniques used in journals in the book to create our 17×22 inch (vertical orientation) journal quilt. Here is my journal quilt for this year:

Journal 2007 full

For several years, I have had lurking in my brain a quilt about peace, and the horrors of war, and its innocent victims. The need to create that quilt stems from a visit to Hiroshima in 1996 when my mom invited me to accompany her on a trip to Japan. She had served in Japan in 1946-47 with the US Occupying Forces, and fell in love with the country, its people and its culture. This quilt is a test-run for several techniques which I hope to use on the large Peace Quilt one of these years.

Jnl 2007 detail 2 girl

Mom has a photo album from her two years there, plus her travels to mainland China (before the Communist Revolution, which came two years later), Thailand and Cambodia. One photo in particular, above, was riveting: a somewhat melancholy girl sat on a make-shift swing someone had fashioned from the rubble of a bombed-out building in Tokyo, 1946. Mom purchased the photo from a Western photographer, but doesn’t know any more about it. For my first technique, I took a digital photo, manipulated it to improve sharpness and give a faded “old photo” look, and printed it on fabric. If ANYONE has any idea who took this photo, please tell me!

That photo alone, though, wasn’t enough to carry the quilt, so I decided to include some of my photos of the ruins of the Hiroshima dome, the cenotaph to mark the deaths of all the victims of the atomic bombs and the Children’s Peace memorial.

Jnl 2007 detail 1

That memorial features an origami crane in the sculpture because cranes represent good luck and long life. That led to the second of my techniques: a thermofax screen.

A what you ask? Do many of you remember dittos from school, before we had photocopying machines? We the ditto masters were made with these machines that can also be used with a special plastic-coated mesh fabric and a carbon photocopy (or pencil drawing) to create a stencil. I ended up having to order away for the stencils (fabulous service from Pam Relitz of Flying Images, rockitz@tds.net), but can see that I need to save up to buy one of the antique thermofax machines so I can make my own screens! (If there is anyone out there in blogdom who has blogged the process with photos–Gerrie? Rayna? send me a link and I’ll add it here).

I made my origami cranes, photographed them, traced out the exact lines at the angle I wanted, and had several screens made, then used metallic and regular paints to screenprint onto the background batik fabric.

I was having trouble coming up with a coherent “whole”, however. In browsing the Creative Quilting book (while waiting for hubby who had just had rotator cuff surgery and was at post-op physical therapy), I spotted the ogival window shape in Larkin Van Horn’s piece and new I had my organizing element. I rooted through my sheer fabrics, intending to dye or paint something into which I would cut windows, when I came across a rejected but HUGE painted sheer piece (about 48×60 inches) that was the first attempt at one of the overlays for Tree Spirits 2: Song of the Solstice Grove (can be seen on my website here). As I tossed the piece over the batik the tree trunk landed on the left side of the quilt…PERFECT!

After sketching out the location of the windows on the quilt, getting a nice balance of large and small yet permitting the screenprinting underneath to be revealed, I made a paper pattern which I placed under an old storm window. I used a heat-tool (aka stencil cutter) to cut the windows in the sheer fabric. Since synthetic sheer fabric is notoriously wiggly, I lightly sprayed the sheer with basting spray to adhere it to the storm window before cutting; because the fabric was light, I could see the paper pattern underneath and cut the windows exactly in the correct places (a metal ruler helped on the straight edges!). I then placed the sheer over the background, couched (stitched) gold yarn around the windows, and quilted the entire piece.

The serendipitous placement of the treetrunk on the left led to the overall quilting design, with bark, grasses and leaves and branches. In the background of the overlay I used a basketweave pattern, while I used a swirly cloud motif inside the windows. Finally, I couched two twisted lengths of the gold “yarn” (more like a fine cord) to what would become the edges, added facings which were turned to the back, and stitched down the facings.

I hope you like it…and thanks to all who managed to read all the way to the end!

16 Responses to “Windows of Hope, a Journal Quilt for 2007”

  1. Marie Says:

    WOW SB:
    It’s a fantastic piece. Wonderful ! One of the BEST you’ve done yet !

  2. joyce Says:

    It’s absolutely gorgeous. I love the colors and also the sentiments you have expressed so well.

  3. Sandra Wyman Says:

    A beautiful quilt, truly moving: your work is getting soooooo good!

  4. cat stone Says:

    I also find this quilt to be very moving. The quilt itself and the story behind it touches something deep inside. Children are the real victims of war, I think.

  5. A. Carle Grant Says:

    Wow!! So soft,yet poignant!
    Says a lot with a little,
    Beautiful!!
    Happy to hear your son is hopefully done with surgery!

  6. Judith Glover Says:

    Seeing this quilt is timely since the man who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima just died. It is a delicate and lovely piece and reminds me of all the attention the Japanese people give to packaging things to give to friends.

    Judy

  7. Sue Andrus Says:

    Beautiful little quilt. The cranes really add to the piece. It really makes you think.

  8. Debby Harwell Says:

    OH MY GOODNESS!!! This piece is truly amazing! I just love your quilts and style, but I must say this may be my absolutel favorite so far! An I love your story and then description of how the process went for you in designing the quilt and the mechanics/techniques of accomplishing what you set out to do! This one must be seen and if you need to, develop it further because it’s definitely a winner in some big shows! Go for it! Enter it in as many things as you can find! Just awesome, it really flows and I think viewers would be hard pressed to tear themselves away from viewing it! I think I could look at it for hours and that’s just here on your blog. My family has no idea why I spend so much time on the computer! Love it! Debby

  9. Mary Emma Allen Says:

    Lovely! So much work and so much meaning. You’ve made a fabulous creation.

  10. Quilting Fitzy Says:

    You said many words with this quiltlet, it’s just lovely. Nice to see little pieces of you here that we’ve seen before too, like the cranes.

    Thank you for sharing, I’m interested in a thermofax link too, is it just a way to transfer images to the plastic? How is different from taking a line drawing and printing it to a plastic transparency on the copier?

  11. dee Says:

    My Oh MY! this piece just takes my breath away. Haunting & very beautiful. I just saw the piece on the news about the death of the pilot who flew the Enola Gay. Goosebumps moment.

    Also sending good wishes and prayers for Joshua and hoping the surgery makes life a bit more comfortable for him.

  12. natalya Says:

    This is lovely, I just had to come out of lurkdom to tell you…

  13. Nikki Says:

    Beautiful quilt. The juxiposition of the paper cranes and the images speaks to my heart. I remember as a kid learning in school about the bombing and the symbolism of the paper cranes. I think I have made thousands of cranes since that time. You have done an amazing job!

  14. Di Says:

    Your quilt is fantastic. My dad was with the British forces there in 1946 and I have his photos. What a wonderful idea to use them in such a way.

  15. Betty Finch Says:

    Sara, Your work just gets better and better. The thought process and execution that you shared with us is so wonderful. Your talent is a true blessing.

  16. Art and Quilting in Camden » Blog Archive » Windows of Hope in Houston Says:

    […] For more info about my 2007 journal quilt and the book about the journal quilt project, check this link and this one for the book review. For a link to many on-line images of the 2007 journal quilts, […]