Quilt by Patricia Belyea
56" x 64"
In contrast to the normally subdued palette of daily life in Japan, festivals explode with color. Elaborate floats, garish costumes, food stalls, carnival games, dancing, and fireworks celebrate a rotating schedule of summer holidays in every region.
Have you ever watched Project Runway? I, myself, have indulged in quite a few seasons. In each show, the participants visit Mood Fabrics in the Garment District of New York. On a trip to NYC, I bought most of the fabrics for this quilt at Mood. The calligraphic cotton used for the back sparked the black-and-white theme of Festival. As if this quilt didn’t have enough visual interest, I added 3-D orange wool ties!
Festival was featured in Patricia’s book, East-Meets-West Quilts, as a project with instructions. Made with contemporary designer cottons 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.