Sunday 5 May 2013

May 5th - Let's celebrate our children

May 5th is a national holiday in Japan, Kodomo-no-Hi, Children's Day. I wrote about it here.

In that blog entry I forgot to add the flying carp streamers I stitched last year for the TAST stitch #16, Wheat Ear.
They were featured in my old blog, the iWeb based blog I had before I started using Blogger. iWeb is no longer and my old blog has disappeared into cyber space... Sigh! The price we pay for not being good at computers!

As I wanted to make a new decoration for this year I dug out some fabric origami. This type of weaving is called Iyo kasuri and is from the island of Shikoku. Each piece is appr 10 cm square with a stabiliser on the back.



I followed this pattern and folded and ironed a small Samurai helmet.

13 comments:

Julie Fukuda said...

Love your stitchery and that kasuri sure got my attention!

Cynthia@wabisabiquilts said...

I just love your embroidered Children's Day carp - fabulous, and so evocative of the streamers we see this time of year. Your piece also matches today's blue blue sky! I have never heard of fabric origami - very interesting!

margaret said...

what a lovely day to have Childrens day, we have Mothering Sunday and Fathers day but nothing for the children.
Your fishes are great fun and had not seen them before.
Did not know there was origami fabric, what a lovely idea and the helmet has turned out a treat Queenie

Queeniepatch said...

My iWeb (Apple) blog was easy to learn, get used to and run, but when they decided to no longer support it I changed to Blogger 28 May last year.
The carps were actually highlighted by Sharon: http://pintangle.com/2012/04/30/tast-week-17-highlights/, but there is no blog entry for them any longer.
I think there is origami wood as well, but very difficult to use. You can easily make your fabric version with a square piece of fabric, stabiliser or heavy starch.

Queeniepatch said...

Kasuri is sure beautiful!

Queeniepatch said...

The children are blessed with good sunshine and blue skies today.
I have even seen thin shavings of wood used for origami, and of course the bamboo leaves used to wrap 'onigiri' in the olden days. Home made fabric origami: heavily starched squares of fabric or backed with stabiliser. Easy peasy!

latha said...

Interesting..never heard of fabric origami. Look beautiful! Fishes are cute!

City Krafters said...

Love your helmet

Lis Harwood said...

Lovely carp flying in the wind, I hope all the children have enjoyed today.

carorose said...

I love the carp, it seems to be so free and happy. I have a grand nephew who is 8 years old and is an expert paper origami folder. (He can also solve a rubic cube puzzle in less than 1 minute.) I will send him some prepared fabric to see what he can do.

Anonymous said...

What a lovely day to celebrate the gift of children, you have done the day proud with your flags. The helmet is unusual, I have not come across this before.

Marjolein said...

I didn't know there was fabric with stabilizer on the back. So it doesn't fray out? Is that a specialty of Shikoku?

Queeniepatch said...

I have only seen this particular pack of 'fabric origami'. The weaving is a speciality of Shikoku, but not the stabilised fabric. You can make your own by ironing on e.g Sulky cut away stabilizer onto any fabric of your choice. http://www.sulky.com/stabilizers/index_stabilizers.php