A small quilt and more prints

Here's the small quilt that I made using four of my tree prints.

Last week, I did a demo about gelli printing at my guild meeting. I really enjoyed it and made of course lots of new prints while demonstrating. When I came back home, I had to put all the prints on my studio floor to let them dry. Here are some of them, waiting to be ironed.

I've been thinking a lot about Kyoto and its beautiful cherry blossoms these days.

I spent some time practicing my hiragana,

trying to write さくらのき (sakura no ki), which means cherry tree, as nicely as possible.

I burnt a few thermal screens from the best ones and started printing on fabric.

I'm working on a larger quilt using more gelli prints as the starting point. I'm almost finished with the top. I'm thinking of entering it in a show, so I'm not sure I can show it here yet.
It looks like the weather will be gorgeous this weekend. It's good news because the garden is in great need of attention after this very wet winter.

Searching for Roy G Biv

Here's my contribution to the Roy G Biv challenge initiated by Jennifer and Julie.
I had not heard about this challenge before today. I just discovered it this morning while reading Bridgette Guerzon Mills' blog.
There was no time left for a big search, but I found these pictures in my folders...

Mushrooms in the nearby woods

Back from the market, some day in June I guess

Two pictures taken in 2009, in the mountains North of Kyoto

たこ焼 (Takoyaki) lanterns, in Kyoto 

Next month colour will be Orange. I'll start looking for it tomorrow!

Some news from the studio

I'm doing fine.
Just a little bit immersed in all this... :-)

Now that I know my hiragana, everything seems much easier. No kidding!

In other news, I got myself this beautiful and very early Christmas present...

It's a Louet loom, a David. It's a new one and it arrived dismantled in a big box. But I must say it was quite straightforward to assemble, and in just a few hours, it was operational.
I first warped it with these colourful cotton yarns.

Here are the threaded heddles. I used only 4 shafts.

And here's my first sample.

I tried plain weave and some twill patterns to see how the tie-up and treadling are working.
I am really pleased with how easy to use this loom is, even for a neophyte like me. I've now ordered some thinner wool yarns and while waiting for them to arrive, I'm weaving a simple scarf with leftover sock yarn. Not the best choice I know, but it's all I had at hand.

On the quilting front, I'm working at getting a few pieces ready for an local exhibition, mainly adding labels and hanging sleeves.

またね。  See you.

Shibori to ori

This was not an easy theme. "Maverick" didn't speak a lot to me! I decided to forget "maverick" for a while and to think "different" instead. Much easier!
Some time ago, I started to teach myself to weave. It's always been a kid's dream for me. And now my new quest has become to somehow incorporate weaving into my art and to do something DIFFERENT from what I've been doing for the last few years. I really don't know yet where this will lead to, but in the meantime, I thought I would simply add a little woven piece to my quilt.
My Maverick quilt had to follow my self-imposed Japanese theme and fit in with the first three quilts of the 20x12 series. I thus used a shibori piece of fabric I had dyed when I was working on my "Mythology" quilt. This dyed piece in itself is a bit of a Maverick as it came out really different from my other shibori pieces, with very definite marks, strong contrast and lots of personality.
The small weawing was done with a paper yarn purchased in Kyoto last spring. At first, I only attached it to the quilt with some hand stitches, but it kept moving as it is rather loosely woven.

Thus, I added some machine stitching using the same variegated thread as for the quilting of the solid blue part of the quilt.

I also used this thread to quilt one square of the shibori fabric, to add a little layer of Maverick to my piece...

Two other squares are quilted in dark blue. I might quilt the rest of the shibori piece in the same way (i.e. blue), but I'm not sure yet it really needs it.

The title means "Shibori and weaving". Thank you to my dear Japanese friend for suggesting it.

Don't forget to visit the Twelve by Twelve blog to see the other Maverick quilts.

Of this and that

We had some really nice weather for a week or two. There was a lot to do in the garden, and I spent most of my time outside, mowing the lawn, weeding, and planting summer flowers...
and, from time to time, reading and sewing...
I got a little tired of all that pink fabric and I started to use more green and blue scraps.
I've got about 25 blocks like these. I need at least 10 more.
Now the weather is not as nice anymore. It's much too cold and windy to sew outside.
I'm back in the studio, working on my quilt and on a new shirt, and also thinking about the new Twelve by Twelve challenge: "Mythology". I have already selected a few inspirational pictures but I don't really know yet what I'm going to do for this theme.

And this makes me think that I still have lots of pictures to show you of my last trip to Japan.
This is Miyama, a small village in the mountains North of Kyoto...

Heian

Heian-kyo was the name of Kyoto at the time it was the capital city of Japan. It means something like "peace capital".
I knew at once that I wanted to make a map quilt related to Japan, especially since a fourth trip to Kyoto was planned at the beginning of April.
In March, I quickly made a little sketch and wrote down some ideas based on my former trips to Japan, but I decided not to start the quilt before this new trip.
When I came back, I drew a very rough map of Kyoto featuring most of the experiences of this trip.The two vertical light blue lines represent the Katsura and the Kamo rivers. The green areas are the parks, the gardens and the forests. I've added pink little spots to represent the amazing cherry blossoms. The three brightly coloured striped areas are there to remind me of these elegant women celebrating the beauty of spring by wearing their most gorgeous kimonos. Most red spots are shrines. The yellow rectangle is Kinkakuji. The shibori dark blues are there to feature the textile workshops and galleries we visited.
Actually, every piece of fabric in this quilt has a special meaning to me. At some point while working on this quilt, I began to think that it was much too busy. I like simple, almost minimalist, work. But on the other hand, each time I go to Japan, I'm overwhelmed by its beauty and the richness of my personal experience. Thus, I decided it was ok this time to squeeze many things into my quilt. Finally, I didn't resist the urge to add a little piece of the weaving I had done in Osaka.
I don't know if I really like this quilt from an esthetic point of view, but I certainly had fun making it and, in some way, it helped me to "digest" this trip and to come back to real plain old life in Belgium. ;-)
Here are a few detail shots of the quilt. (The colours of the quilt are a bit brighter and lighter in person.)

The quilts of the other Twelves will appear today on our blog.

More sakura

Here are a few pictures taken on the fourth day of our trip.
Beautiful sakura in Kyoto Imperial Palace Park...
We were very lucky to be able to visit the Palace itself...
The Kamo river, in the afternoon, looking north...
And more sakura...
I worked hard all this week to finish my Twelve by Twelve Map quilt. We had a little sun today, so I quickly took some pictures. The sky is grey again now, but here's a little peek at the back of my quilt...

Kyoto, Osaka and Saori weaving

Back to our Japan trip! On day 3, right after breakfast, we headed to Kiyomizu dera. It was still cold, almost freezing at night, and the sakura were just beginning their beautiful show...

The rest of the day was to be spent in Osaka. So, we hopped onto a JR train at Kyoto Station, we were joined by our Japanese friend at another station and we arrived together in busy Umeda.

Here's a picture of Osaka Station...

Now, one of the goals of the trip to Osaka was to visit the Saori weaving studio where our friend works.

Saori is a way of free-style hand weaving invented by Misao Jo, a Japanese lady born in 1913. In Saori weaving, there are almost no rules to follow. I think the main idea of Saori is that everyone has potential and creativity, and, if encouraged, has the ability to express oneself.

Saori weaving is done on Saori looms which have two treadles and are very easy to use. We had the privilege to have a look at the studio, talk to the weavers, and also meet Tetsuya Jo, Misao Jo's grandson.

Then, my friend asked me if I wanted to try weaving on one of the Saori looms of the studio...

Oh, this was so much fun. And I came back with my little piece of weaving. Too bad my suitcase was too small to bring back the loom too!

I urge you to visit the SaoriGlobal website to learn more about the Saori weaving program. (Be sure to click on all the little tabs at the top of the page.)

After the weaving studio, we still had time to visit Maruzen & Junkudo bookstore (gigantic!), and a craft shop, before ending the day in a nice little restaurant serving kushikatsu.
And finally, back to our ryokan in Kyoto, by train, and a short night sleep.

And on the quilting front, I am pleased to say that the top of my Map quilt is done. I "just" have to quilt it now. :-)