Yoshiko Jinzenji's Graphic Squares

Kyoto native Yoshiko Jinzenji has influenced modern quilting more than almost any other single artist. According to an interview by ModernDayQuilts, Jinzenji sews in silence, her favorite color is white, and her favorite time of day to quilt is at night. Her motto? "Truth is Almighty."

Another, more detailed interview with Jinzenji paints a picture of an artist whose work is truly international, with influences from Mennonite and Amish quilting, Japanese industrial culture, and the lush naturescape of Bali. At the same time, Jinzenji is evasive about where she fits in the world of modern or even Japanese quilting. What is very clear: Yoshiko Jinzenji does her own thing, and it is beautiful.

Jinzenji's work is displayed in museums in the UK and USA, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Art and Design in New York. 

detail of Star Connection, Yoshiko Jinzenji

Pictured here is her Optical Quilt "Star Connection" on display at the Museum of Art and Design:

Star Connection, Yoshiko Jinzenji

While browsing on Etsy one day, I came across a set of patterns by Jinzenji, sold by ZakkaWorkshopStore. The patterns were originally published in her now out-of-print book Quilting:  Line + Color: Techniques and Designs for Abstract Quilts (Interweave, 2011). For my introduction to Jinzenji's techniques, I chose a very simple pattern called "Graphic Squares", left.

The quilt top is made from only 40 pieces of fabric. Given that one of Jinzenji's quilts is entitled "10000 squares", this is minimal indeed. The power of the design comes from the combination of solid black squares with a variety of carefully chosen graphic prints, stripes, and textural fabrics.

The method for selecting fabric squares begins with creating a window-frame from white card-stock. I used an exacto knife to create mine. The window opening is the size of the finished square, in this case 8 cm x 8 cm. The frame itself is at least 3 cm wide. The frame allows you to isolate part of a print to see how it would look on its own.

Below is an example of using the window-frame to identify two different possible graphic squares from one large scale print:

 Because I did not have an 8 cm acrylic template for cutting, I used the square that I cut out of the window frame as my template. I applied a thin layer of basting spray to one side of the cardstock square. After identifying the section of fabric I wanted to cut, I placed the square inside the window-frame, sticky-side down, pressed it onto the fabric with my fingertips, then removed the window frame. I aligned the 1/4" line on my Omnigrid ruler with the edge of the cardstock square as I cut each side of the square, creating a quarter inch seam allowance on all sides.

Identifying the graphic squares to use was easily the most enjoyable part of making this quilt, and it began with collecting a set of bold, modern prints. The fabrics I used included a variety of Marimekko prints, including many from a vintage swatch collection, as well as a few newer prints by Etsuko Furuya for Kokka. Four of the white squares came from a recent low-volume fabric swap hosted by the Triangle Modern Quilt Guild. Thank you guild members!

Jinzenji's design used reds, greens, and yellows. I found I did not have a lot of greens to work with, so I substituted blues and aquas, and brought in complementary oranges to balance them. Jinzenji also used a beautiful muted water-color print. I didn't have anything quite like that, but added some grays to achieve a similarly muting effect.

My Graphic Squares quilt

The pattern calls for horizontal channel quilting spaced 1/4" apart. Because of the smaller size of this quilt, I decided this would be a great opportunity to try out matchstick quilting instead. Matchstick quilting creates parallel lines no more than 1/8" apart. Here are a couple of closeups of the quilting:

The technique creates beautiful texture. It also creates a stiffer quilt. To compensate, I used a wonderful strie velvet by Christopher Hyland for the backing. The subtle striping on the velvet provided guide-lines for the quilting, eliminating the need to mark lines on the quilt and allowing me to keep the lines parallel without a lot of trouble.

Velvet backing makes the quilt cuddly-soft

blind stitch to attach binding to back of quilt

The velvet did pose some challenges when it came time to bind the quilt: it's a slippery fabric, and I was not able to attach the binding neatly to the back by machine. This difficulty presented an opportunity to learn how to finish a binding by hand. Jinzenji's work frequently combines machine and hand techniques, so this seemed especially appropriate.

I used a blind stitch, shown left, with a single strand of hand-quilting thread by Gutermann. The hand-quilting thread is strong and is specially coated with a glace finish to resist tangling. It was my first time using this thread, and I was very happy with the choice.

I also finally learned how to make a "quilter's knot" to secure my thread. If you are not familiar with this handy little trick, check out Sunny Standing's video on how to tie a quilter's knot.

I am in love with this little quilt (which is now for sale in my etsy shop, BlueCanaryQuilts) and am eager to try out other patterns by Yoshiko Jinzenji. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the execution of this pattern, or how Jinzenji or other modern fiber artists have influenced your own work.