Renske Helmuth: Quilt Artist & Teacher: Oriental Flavour

On one of my visits to California, I met Nancy Ota. It was she who introduced me to Japanese fabrics and sashiko.

She showed me some wonderful samples and this stirred my imagination of what I could do. She showed me what fabrics were suitable, what needles to use and what threads would work.

Once home, I began incorporating sashiko in my work and haven't stopped since!
Finally, finding the non-copyrighted book “Japanese Design Motifs” with 4260 illustrations of Japanese crest designs put it all together.

Something Old...

made by Renske Helmuth, 2010
Dimensions: 32"x28"
Techniques: Machine piecing, hand appliqué, sashiko, machine quilting

This quilt resulted from a guild challenge, where we were asked to interpret a saying.

Each folded kimono is made with special fabric. Something old (vintage kimono), something new (newly purchased), something borrowed (the first folded kimono I received as a gift from my friend Janet in England), something blue (blue fabric).

The kimonos are surrounded by sashiko and appliquéd circles cut out of a small piece of an old kimono.

Buttons

made by Renske Helmuth, 2010
Dimensions: 42"x42"
Techniques: Techniques: hitomezashi sashiko (one stitch), machine pieced, machine quilted

	This quilt shows a variety of sashiko techniques and designs. Most of my other pieces use sashiko as an outline stitch to make certain designs. The sashiko here is used in a grid. By following certain lines, different patterns appear. A quarter inch grid paper comes in very handy for this.
	The center in the pieced blocks consist of large buttons I received during a visit to the Mandarin Restaurant for Chinese New Year. It was difficult to find something suitable to attach these buttons to the quilt and close the hole. A friend found just the right Japanese buttons on her visit to the IQS in Houston.

Sampler

made by Renske Helmuth, 2010
Dimensions: 42"x42"

Techniques: sashiko, hand appliqué, machine piecing, machine quilting

	The sashiko designs are done in 2 colors, green and a coral. Years ago I bought a whole skein of this over dyed perle cotton and I have used every inch of it. A touch of green gave the designs a few highlights. The appliquéd circles came from a piece of old kimono silk. The border is also done in sashiko.