Rachelle's amazing quilt construction

Rachelle had been talking about making a quilt for a while now. Her idea was to use antique kimonos that she brought from Japan when she moved back to Canada 12 years ago.

She spent several evenings with a calculator and graph paper figuring out the size of not only each square, but the size and shape of each piece that makes up the square.

Then each kimono was taken apart stitch by stitch. The workmanship was so imaculate and beautiful that Rachelle couldn't bear to use scissors to cut the fabric apart. Each seam was disassembled with the tip of an exacto knife and the panels were then ironed out to flatten them.

Obviously, the sleeves of kimonos are a different size than the fronts or backs. Also the inner pieces of the quilt squares are smaller than the outer pieces. She spent several more evenings calculating all these variables and decided how to divide each piece of kimono into the appropriate rectangular elements.

The committing phase then followed where she cut up all the kimonos panels to get the 504 pieces necessary to make it all happen.

At this point the square construction begins. Each piece is ironed onto a template so that they are all a uniform size. They are then hand sewn together to make the traditional log cabin pattern.


It is important to Rachelle that everything on this quilt is hand sewn. Since the original kimonos were hand built, their new incarnation should be as well.

Right now there are only 6 squares remaining to be built. They will need to be sewn together, a border added, a backing installed, and then the whole thing will have to be quilted. It's a long and sometimes tedious process, but the results are already absolutely stunning.

Here are most of the squares laid out on our living room floor. Some have already been attached to a border that runs between them. Take notice of the center of each square. They have all been hand embroidered, each with a different design.

The craftmanship and artistry of this project - and every project that Rachelle takes on - absolutely blows my mind. Each day is another lesson in workmanship and each day my admiration for her artistry grows.