Reiki Peace Quilt

This is pretty much the first art quilt I made. It was for the journal quilting project and was shown in Houston last fall. I experimented with new techniques and materials and was pretty happy with the way it came out. This is the artist statement that went with it:

A Page from My Book:
Journal Quilts 2007— Journal Quilt Project


Linda Edkins Wyatt
Sag Harbor, NY
USA


Reiki Peace Quilt

Creative Quilting techniques used: Tyvek painted with Lumiere and heat distressed (p. 175); stitching on metal (p. 223); hand-beaded embellishment (p. 245)

Late one February night, I couldn’t sleep, and was reading my monthly on-line newsletter from reiki.org. I read about William Lee Rand’s travels to the magnetic North Pole, where he placed the first World Peace Crystal Grid. He later traveled to the South Pole and to Jerusalem, placing grids constructed of copper, gold and crystals in the hope of magnifying prayer energy to facilitate world peace. They are designed in the shape of the heart chakra, and each petal has a symbol of one of the 12 major world religions. The inscription on the plaque says: “May the followers of all religions and spiritual paths work together to create peace among all people on earth.” Rand’s vision of world peace and religious harmony inspired my quilt.

In addition to tyvek, glass beads, sequins and 100% brass woven fabric, I used coffee-dyed and distressed waxed rice paper, Angelina fibers, polyester fabrics, hand quilting and machine quilting. I edged the quilt with coffee-dyed cotton. The hand-quilting is done in a geometric pattern to represent Earth’s magnetic fields. The three medallions are actual photos of the North Pole Grid, printed on cotton and over-painted with gold acrylic. The 12 sequins on each tip represent the 12 major world religions, and the four spirals represent elements—air, water, fire and earth. The distressed tyvek square represents our endangered planet Earth. I chose deep purple for the bottom background because it is the color used on the reiki meditation symbol, the Antahkarana, and light aqua for the top background to represent the sky.

Over the past months I experimented with many new materials. I like the contrast of silky fabric with metal and paper, the organic quality of hand-dying cotton and paper versus the man-made Angelina fibers. I used hand quilting on the background since the fabric was so silky and slippery. I have been sewing and painting for years, but I only began combining the two in September 2006 with quilted postcards, and first began journal quilting in January 2007. This quilt represents a major accomplishment for me, and is my first large piece. I feel I have finally found my artistic niche and voice as a mixed-media art quilter.