It’s a Beautiful Day

This one would not be like any other. This one would stand out. This one would be maverick. When it comes to making quilts, one often thinks of calming colors, carefully crafted into a beautiful masterpiece. Each piece of thread is weaved intricately with love and care. Many hours of hard work, care, and dedication go into the final masterpieces that bring warmth to many homes across the nation. It all begins with the inspiration for the design. That is where this quilt is different. The quilt maker, Eiko Okano, wanted her quilt to represent a piece of her own background in its creation.

This quilt represents the true nature of the Japanese culture. Titled, “It’s a Beautiful Day,” each scrap of fabric makes that name come true. The vibrant colors dance across the quilt, bringing stories to life that only those living a life in Japan are able to interpret. The artist takes special care to include parts of everyday life that hold meaning to the people. While others use creative patterns or designs, this artist uses a common dish found in the Japanese culture. Sea bream, both raw and cooked, is a common ingredient in Japanese cuisine. 

The colors gravitate toward the main design. The vibrant pinks of the fish makes the center of the quilt grab all of your attention. Accents of greens, blues, and whites make the popular sea bream fish meal look real. The quilt sparkles with the whites dancing across the fabric. The greens hold everything together as if they were the plate the sea bream was being served on. The blues add an extra detail that swim across the pattern of the fabric. In the end, none of the accent colors or designs can completely take away from the giant fish, plastered across the fabric in the middle of it all. 

With the intentions of making this quilt stand out, the quilter achieved that and so much more. Capturing the eyes of her viewers was the first task she faced and including a Japanese culture was the second. Quilts like this will always be sentimental in the eyes of the creator, but passing on the meaning to others is something that requires a whole new level of skill. This is where quilters want to make their quilts stand out. Eiko Okano took a typical Japanese dish and made it into something that shows others that even a regular day can be a beautiful day. 

 

 

Author’s Note:

Initially I wasn’t sure what kind of genre I was writing in because I had some description, some background on the piece, and some cultural information. Coming to the conclusion I decided that this is really just an informative piece about the quilt of the month at the quilt museum in Lincoln. I wanted to get a taste of more of the art side of our community and seeing how people illustrate that through quilts is a unique way of seeing the culture that resides in Lincoln. Obviously you can see here that I was able to learn a little about the Japanese culture as well. I struggled having a good flow in this piece because there were so many different elements that I wanted to include that could all be done through different genres. I think that there were several times where I utilized good word choice, however there were other times that I could have gone into more detail. Either way, I hope that through this writing you are able to get a sense of what this particular quilt was like and how much care is put into each one of these creations.