“Wabi Sabi” 

• Special Exhibit Challenge #1

  for the 2027 Quilt Show

  The purpose of this challenge is to honor one of our Heritage Members, Eileen Gudmundson, who has moved to live with her daughter in California. She left all (hmmm- well, probably not “ALL”) her hand-dyed fabrics behind.

  Eileen was well-known in PQG for her simple piecing and quilting style even PRIOR to the development of the new Modern Quilting movement. She prefers dark, dramatic colors – eschewing any use of pink or pastel shades. She was sewing “improv” quilts before that word entered the quilters’ lexicon. She is heavily influenced by the Japanese concept of “Wabi Sabi”; and her favorite color is black! 

  Cindy Schober has accessed Eileen’s remaining stash of hand-dyed fabrics and will be selling them at the Jumble Sale in August. She has re-washed each piece she is going to sell. When Cindy suggested that we might honor Eileen by creating quilts in her style using her hand-dyed fabrics; I jumped on the bandwagon! I am a co-chair of Special Exhibits for 2027, and this is a great opportunity for us to play with new skills we have learned in workshops and programs this year.

  RULES:

• ·      Quilt finished size: 20’ x 20”. Eileen preferred square quilts.
•  
• ·      Inspiration: “Wabi Sabi” – the Japanese concept of living a calm unmaterialistic lifestyle that finds serenity and beauty in simplicity and quietness. The concept also cherishes the wear that time imparts on objects and finds beauty in the natural cycle of growth and decay. Think SIMPLICITY! 
• o   Consider wonky log cabins, curves, tessellations, circles and strings. 
• ·      Use only Eileen’s hand-dyed fabrics on the front of the quilt. The only additional color you may add to the quilt front is black. 
• ·      No embellishments, ornamentation or paint.

• There will be no fee to enter these quilts in the quilt show unless you wish to enter them into the pieced category. After “regular judging”, they will hang with the Special Exhibit. 

• A special ribbon (made from Eileen’s hand-dyed fabrics) will be awarded at the quilt show by a committee of her long-time collaborators to the quilt that most accurately represents the simplicity and color harmony that Eileen loved.

  
  

  The Meaning of Wabi – Sabi

  WABI

  Wabi originally referred to the loneliness of living in nature, remote from society. Over time, it evolved to mean a calm unmaterialistic lifestyle that finds beauty and serenity in simplicity and quietness. 

  Wabi denotes a kind of humble elegance that emerges from a mindful approach to life and an appreciation for the understated.

  SABI 

  Sabi, on the other hand, signifies the beauty that comes with age. It is about cger9shing the wear that time imparts on objects. Sabi is finding depth in the natural cycle of growth and decay, seeing the beauty in the old, faded, and weathered.

  The Wabi-Sabi Aesthetic

  The Wabi-Sabi philosophy is often characterized by three core themes: imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness.

• 1.    Imperfection: At the heart of Wabi-Sabi is the appreciation of the flawed. It is an acknowledgement that in the natural world, nothing Is perfect Wabi-Sabi finds beauty in asymmetry, trough textures, and the marks left by the passage of time.
• 2.    Impermanence: Wabi-Sabi reminds us that everything is in a constant state of change and that beauty is often fleeting. It teaches us to appreciate the here and now, to find beauty in the brief bloom of flowers or the slow decay of natural materials.
• 3.    Incompleteness: Wabi-Sabiu also embraces the idea of incompleteness or the notion that there is beauty in the unfinished.