Chinese Lattices revisited

 I've been thinking about larger and more abstract pieces over the last few days, and have pulled this book from the shelves for another browse.

It's a collection of various lattice patterns collected by Daniel Sheets Dye, and I've found it intriguing and inspiring. The patterns come from Chinese windows.

Lattice windows, which have been used in China for at least 3,000 years, began to give way to glass in the early 1900's.  Many of the paper ones were destroyed in revolution and wars between 1911 and 1949, and weren't replaced.

The windows had paper pasted on them to keep out the winter winds. Brrrr is all I can say as I sit snugly in my centrally heated, double glazed house whilst the temperature outside drops to -10C!!

 Here's the inside of the book. It's just a collection of outline drawings, but there are hundreds of them.

I've made 2 quilts so far in my Chinese Lattice series, and am thinking of a third, using a central panel as an opportunity to do an oriental feeling naturalistic scene of some kind...currently I like the look of cranes and moons!






Below is a close up of the last Chinese Lattice piece - just to amuse!  It's squares of made material (vilene, brown paper, gesso, gel, paint, antiquing wax) sewn onto a plain stitched background.