Quilt by Patricia Belyea
56" x 56"
The towering heads of sunflowers turn to meet the sun, making them a symbol of spiritual attainment in Japan. Also an emblem of good fortune, sunflowers are often given to someone working towards a goal or as a house-warming gift to welcome new opportunities.
My idea was to make the sunflower yukata cotton the superstar in this quilt design, with all the other fabrics as supporting actors. The palette is simple—red, yellow, indigo, and white—with red as the dominant color and yellow as the Unexpected Visitor. For quilting, I hand-stitched a gigantic mandala with orange perle cotton to mimic the floret spiral in the middle of sunflowers.
Good Fortune was featured in Patricia’s book, East-Meets-West Quilts, on the cover and inside as a project with instructions. Made with vintage yukata cottons, sourced in Japan by Patricia, plus contemporary solids.
The quilt, signed with Patricia’s applique´signature, comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and a custom linen bag. Shipping and insurance are free to a domestic US address.
Patricia founded Okan Arts—a family business that imports vintage Japanese textiles. Inspired by these found fabrics, Patricia incorporates hand-dyed yukata cottons into her quilt designs. An award-winning quilter, Patricia’s quilts have been exhibited at quilt museums across the country.
Forty years ago, Reiko Sudo co-founded Nuno Corporation with Junichi Arai. Although “nuno” simply means fabric in Japanese, Sudo’s textile creations are anything but simple!
The innovative textiles produced by Nuno, conceived by Sudo and her team, blend traditional Japanese dyeing and weaving mastery with advanced modern techniques.
Sudo has been recognized globally for her contributions to Japanese textile design. Her work includes collaborations with architects, fashion designers, and artists, as well as major museum exhibits.
The project was designed by Ed Marquand, Reiko Sudo, and Alfred Birnbaum.
All 140 textiles included in The Nuno Box were produced by Nuno: Reiko Sudo, Hiroko Suwa, Sayuri Shimoda, Kazuhiro Ueno, Yumi Yasui, Jun Mashiba, Yuki Abe, Gaku Masui, Tomoko Fujino, Fumi Ito, Masaaki Takekura, and Hiroaki Takekura.
The texts, translation, editing, and coordination were handled by Alfred Birnbaum.
The letterpress printing was by Steve Morgan, and the binding was completed by Maria Solorio and Teresa Martinez.
The Nuno Box was compiled and constructed at Paper Hammer Studios in Tieton, Washington.