Hasu

Hasu means lotus in Japanese.
As I said in an earlier post, this project underwent many transformations but the lotus remained a constant focus all the way through. When Gerrie gave us this theme of "Metamorphosis", I first thought of Kafka and Ovid, for obvious reasons, and also of Buddhism because impermanence is one of the main features of life in Buddhist thinking.
Lotus being a very important symbol in Buddhism, I quickly found myself going through my photo folders looking for images of lotus. I chose a few pictures taken in Kyoto and Arashiyama during my last trip to Japan.
With this quilt, I wanted to show the beauty of the lotus plant with its roots in the mud and its ephemeral flowers almost open and rising towards the sunlight.
Here are a few details...
Next is one of my source photos. It was taken in Kyoto in summer 2010.
There are so many amazing things to say about the lotus. Do you know that all parts of the plant are considered as edible in Asia? And have you heard about the lotus effect?
I could easily see a lotus-based series in my quilting future. I haven't used the roots (mmm... delicious!), the open flowers (gorgeous), nor the seed heads (so graphic) in this quilt. So much more to explore.
In the meantime, I am off to the Twelve by Twelve blog to see what the other members of the group have done!