Image by Staindrop via Flickr
Greetings Quilter,
It seemed like centuries ago when my dad visited Japan. But
actually it's only been about 47 years.
My dad was a chemist helping to set up a chemical plant, and he
was over there for about six weeks. As you can imagine, he had
lots of time to explore the wonders of Japan, and he came home
with many fun and interesting things – which were especially
welcomed by a teenager.
One of the prized treasures was a small camera. Way back then,
cameras were fairly large and used 35 mm film. This one was a
shiny silver camera that measured about 3 inches by 1½ inches
by about ¾ of an inch high, and used 16 mm film.
Quite fun! Hundreds of pictures taken with it - - - I wonder
what ever happened to it??
Anyway, one of the other things my dad came back with were
instructions for paper folding – origami – and, yes, the
beautiful colored paper to fold.
I spent hours folding little shapes and decorating all of the
empty shelves in my room. Some of them even became special
treasures for my friends.
With fond memories of creating interesting animals and flowers
from paper, you can imagine how excited I was to find an
origami book when quilting daughter Stephanie was young – I
think she was about 8 when she got started with origami.
But it was all paper folding. It was only a few years later
that I invested in a book showing how to fold fabric in a
similar style to origami, and create gorgeous, 3-dimensional
quilts.
I loved to look at the pictures and dream of the quilts that
could be made using the technique. But, frankly, it took
years for me to have the courage to try to make one of those
beautiful quilts. They looked like they would take forever to
make, and I wasn't sure I would really like the finished quilt.
But, one day – with Stephanie's prompting – I chose one and
started cutting and folding fabric. It turned out to be very
fun, and really easy!
And now, many years later, there are several resources
available – not just the one or two that were around all those
years ago. The thing is, the folds in the fabric are easy and
pretty basic – not like the folds you think of when you think
of intricate traditional origami.
The quilt I made was a flower quilt using circles of fabric
that were folded and then stacked. It's difficult to describe,
but you can see a picture and more detailed description of the
technique and possibilities here:
http://www.how-to-quilt.com/articles/1165-fabric-origami.php
Happy Quilting!
Penny Halgren
www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com
P.S. You'll also find a link to an article that shows a
close-up of the flowers:
http://www.how-to-quilt.com/articles/1165-fabric-origami.php
P.P.S. For additional resources, check out my blog:
http://quilterpenny.wordpress.com/
You'll find all of the daily emails so you can search for
articles about tons of quilting topics!
www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com
www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com
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La Mesa, CA 91941
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