The Art of Quilting

Photo of two irises taken at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Photo by Josephine Niemann, SSND

Quilt designed by Regina Kabayama, SSND and Josephine Niemann, SSND. Photo by Linda Behrens

Clamshell, crazy block and cross hatching are just three of many styles used when creating quilts. Whether quilts are made from pieces of fabric cut into squares, rectangles, circles or triangles, they become works of art when completed.

Two School Sisters of Notre Dame – Sisters Regina Kabayama and Josephine Niemann – took quilting to the next level by creating a quilt inspired by a photo of two irises taken at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

They cut the photo into four sections and enlarged them to the size they wanted. Sister Regina made the first and third sections; Sister Josephine, the second and fourth. The background was pieced, and the flowers were appliquéd over the background.

They used a different method of appliqué in each section utilizing both hand and machine embroidery, and Sister Regina painted the white iris fabric for the colors and shading. The wall hanging was heavily quilted by machine to create more shading, a practice in quilt circles called “thread painting.”

Regina Kabayama, SSND

Josephine Niemann, SSND

They titled the 37" x 28" quilt “JoGina Fluer” and entered it in the Quilt Expo at Queeny Park March 21-22, 2015, sponsored by the Thimble and Thread Quilt Guild of Greater St. Louis. The piece won a purple ribbon. Because they intend to enter this quilt in more quilt shows, they had it appraised for insurance purposes. It was appraised at $11,000.

Sisters Regina and Josephine both sew original fabric creations for churches and other places of worship for Liturgical Fabric Arts on the Sancta Maria in Ripa campus in St. Louis. Sister Josephine is the designer. Her work can be seen in church collections across several continents, as well as in a number of books, quilting magazines and liturgical publications. She co-authored the book, “Raise the Banners High.”

For more information about Liturgical Fabric Arts: http://liturgicalfabricarts.com/

How do you express your creativity?