Tea Ceremony

The lovely Anairam over at fra(a)iing posted about her love of kimonos and a dream to have one, or to make one.

Anairam - recently referred to as a Papery Artsy Dynamo by one of her readers - is a whizz with paper crafts, a great recycler, lives in the land of rooibos (redbush) tea and enjoys a little sewing, so it reminded me of a beautiful piece that I saw at a quilt exhibition recently and have not yet blogged.

And so, in honour of this kimono dream and because I hope she will enjoy it and perhaps be inspired to give kimono-making a try - and I have no doubt she'd make something gorgeous if she did - I am going with this as today's post...

Tea Ceremony
Jane Rowlands

This beautiful kimono was the unanimously voted winner of the Quilt Creations category of the exhibition, and was described by the judges as such:

"A love of indigo and lots of recycled teabags lead to the creation of a kimono with connections to Japanese traditions.

Rooibos (redbush) stained and indigo-dyed teabags, joined with running stitch. Quilted with herringbone stitch to organza backing.

We loved the ethereal quality of this kimono, as well as the imaginative use of innovative materials, and the attention to detail, especially on the back."

Unfortunately it was positioned with its back to a wall (seemed a shame not to be able to walk all the way around it) but I stuck my arm in behind it and snapped this picture...


And this is the rosette detail on the front:

{Click all images to enlarge}

The whole thing made out of teabags... Awesome and beautiful!