Christine Alexiou, a multi-media artisan introduced painting on fabric in her class. My idea was to write on the fabric rather then paint. I decided to write “one hundred FU (福)” characters in Chinese Calligraphy.
“FU (福)” means good fortune, good health, richness and loving family. The character “FU (福)” is posted on the doors of Chinese homes during the Chinese New Year. It is a good luck symbol which will keep the “Goddess of Poverty” away from your home.
I handmade one hundred hexagons with navy blue for the top and used gold paint to write the characters on each of them. I also used different oriental designed fabric to make another one hundred hexagons.
Alexiou encouraged us to use different materials on the quilt when she taught the Fibre Art and Surface Embellishment Design class. I used the shining gold colour Chinese brocade to appliqué a bigger character of “FU (福)” as a focal point. I used the hexagons to build around the focal point. It is a good way to display the different oriental fabric and the Chinese Calligraphy. I wound like to thank Peggy Kwan for contributing some of the oriental fabric for this project.
I hope this quilt will bring “FU (福)” to all the quilters.
