Sachiyo Maraki

[Phebe]

Sachiyo Maraki is a professional quilt artist from Japan. She is here in the
Seattle area, so she came to our guild to speak this week. What a privilege!
She designed her own style of reversible patchwork, and is affiliated with
NKH, the national television station in Japan.
Her patchwork is a series of folded pieces of fabric into which batting and a
contrast has been placed. The entire thing is completely stitched closed so
that you can sew it to the next unit. The best way I can describe it is to
compare it to Cathedral Window. You start out with a circle, and gather the
edge, like you would to pull it around a template for applique, and once the
edge is turned down around the circle, you insert a square piece of batting,
covered by a square of the contrast fabric, then stitch down the curve of the
circle, around the square, much like a cathedral window unit.
The magic comes in when she starts PIECING the circle unit. She whacks it
out of a piece of fabric that has been pieced together, so when you fold the
edges of the circle around the square, on the backside, it looks like half
square triangles! Or you can make the circle look like a Pac-Man shape (a
circle with a 1/4 wedge a different color) so that when the edges are folded
around the square, three curves are one color, and the fourth is the other
color. From the front, the color change is rather subtle, and from the back it
looks like a four patch unit with only one corner colored differently than the
rest.
She also folded the circles around different shapes! There was a triangle
shape, or a hexagon shape! Take your circle, get an insert of a hexagon
batting and fabric, and viola! You can make any quilt which uses a hexagon as
a unit. Are you still with me?
The next thing she did was to PIECE the INSERT. Back to the Cathedral Window
type unit. Piece the inserted piece to look like a four-patch, and then fold
the edges down over it, and you get these teardrop shapes. Wow!
On some quilts, she added applique details. On other quilts, she used
watercolor type techniques of selecting color to get different variations of
light and dark. I am telling you, this was incredible to see. Pardon my
geography ignorance, but one quilt was named after the sea that lies between
Japan and Russia. On one side, she had folded bright white pieces of cloth
around bits of colored fabrics, and much of the white showed. This side was
called " -Name of Sea- in the Winter." On the other side, she called it
"-Name of Sea- in Summer" for the back was mostly the back of the squares from
the cathedral windows, and it was lots of autumny hues. Really WOW! The
quilt was made up of 1000 handpieced units.
Okay, so I am sitting there trembling with inspiration. (What if you used
STRIPES and such? What if you did this with denim and let the edges fray?
What if What if What if) and I am kicking myself for not being better about
bringing a camera. No problem. This wonderful woman PASSES OUT to each of
our 120 quilting ladies in attendance a packet with two free patterns showing
how to do this, -okay, it is in Japanese, but I never READ the directions
anyway--and THREE full-color postcards of her quilts. Oh wow!
After the program, and boy was I embarrassed to show and tell my little
wallhanging after THAT, she stayed and showed anyone who wanted to learn, how
she does the block, and how she stitches her units together. To best explain
that, I would say she does a herringbone stitch, much like that which is used
to stitch together a baseball. You bring your needle to the center, and
stitch out on one unit, back to the center, then out on the second side.
Think about how you lace your shoes, that might help. Just do one lace at a
time, though.
Okay. I see it, I have directions, I just witnessed the ALL-TIME epidome of
show and tell, but I am going to forget all of this the second I go out the
door right? No WAY! All bows, and smiles, she then PASSES out to all 50 of
us groupies still watching, a package containing a completely hand sewn unit
and a second unit which has been completely blocked and basted. She hands us
EACH two needles, (one small for gathering, one more substantial for the
quilting) and two pieces of waxed thread. In order to make the waxed thread,
she cut off lengths a certain size, ran them through parafin wax, and then
IRONED them by hand. She walks us through how to do the stitch, and how to
quilt the block together. I cannot believe someone is handing out 100
handpieced units! Oh my! I am in awe!
She is sixty years old, and hand-pieced her original reversible dress. It is
truly remarkable. Her quilts are to die for.
I have my handpieced little units, and my directions, and my postcards. More
importantly, I have witnessed true generousity.
Truly unique woman, & what a privilege to meet someone like her!
Phebe

[Emily Blackinton]

Oh WOW! Phebe, thank you for sharing. This woman sounds absolutely
fabulous! I am completely inspired!

Emily in Seattle

[Herbert and Roberta Zollner]

Wow! I have a book (in Japanese) with lots of illustrations that seem to be
just what you described, also the pieced circles. Maybe she wrote it? How
does she cut out hundreds of circles without losing patience? No rotary
cutter, I bet. I tried a small evening bag made out of about 12 of those
circles, looked lovely when done, but definitely fiddly work. However, I
just love the idea of a fully reversible quilt-as-you go project that really
looks great on both sides. someday....
-Roberta in Denmark
Phebe wrote in message <35253EBC...@pipeline.com>...

>Sachiyo Maraki is a professional quilt artist from Japan.

> Her patchwork is a series of folded pieces of fabric into which batting
and a
>contrast has been placed. The entire thing is completely stitched closed
so
>that you can sew it to the next unit. The best way I can describe it is to
>compare it to Cathedral Window. You start out with a circle, and gather
the

>edge, (clipped)

[Marudico]

holy shazam, what an incredible experience! talk about your hospitality--she
puts southerners to shame. your description seems very complete, i'm going to
try this tonight. is there a name for her technique? a place or book where i
could see a sample? thanx again and babalu!

rowena___.
acme dance company
maru...@aol.com

[Denise]

WOW, Phebe... how lucky you are! Has this gal been featured in any
quilt magazines yet, that you know of? Certainly would be a treat!
I'll be looking out for her for sure!

Denise in Ontario

Phebe <ph...@pipeline.com> wrote:

| Sachiyo Maraki is a professional quilt artist from Japan. She is here in the
| Seattle area, so she came to our guild to speak this week. What a privilege!
| She designed her own style of reversible patchwork, and is affiliated with
| NKH, the national television station in Japan.

(Lots of good stuff snipped cuz my reader won't let me print it if
it's too long!)