Easy to see which Gua it is this time

Of course you guessed that this depicts fire. Sparks and sheaves brushing upward, spiral movement. I love fire. I wish we had a fireplace. -- In TCM it is associated with bitter taste, its color can also be black or deep red. The element embraces heart, circulation and the body warming system. It stands for enthusiasm and -- if overdone -- madness.

The Ba Gua "Water"

Water on the corners, too, flowing into the nine patch. Little waves and ripples. Water looks black if you look down on it, especially moory water like Loch Ness. This is why black and dark blue are associated with water, "kan", in Chinese mythology. Seen from afar, the water surface reflects the light which will bring us to the Ba Gua chapter "serene", "dui". This is metal element, due to its look like silver. None of these patches in my quilt will be free from the other elements because there is constant exchange between them. Here, added to white for metal, there is yellow for earth, light blue and green for wood, and a little red for fire.

First you create art quilts, then you learn to sew

Wonderful Heike teaches sewing in the same culture center where I showed my paintings,  she saw them and my quilts, and we got connected and started a conversation. I complained about my self-taught, rather poor ability of hand-quilting, and she said something nice about the art qualities of my quilts. So I enrolled for her sewing course to base my work on improved craft knowlege. She asked me whether this style of working might influence the spontaneous and creative side of it, but I don't think I have to worry, I rather see lacking experience as an obstacle to creative work. So I'm happy to learn from Heike. I chose a few fabrics from my favourite stash and decided to do a diagonal nine-patch with triangle corners in the quilt-as-you-go method. This is the start of a quilt I call Ba-Gua, referring to the 8 basic signs of the I-Ging Chinese oracle book. This one is "Water", connected to danger, black color, fish, kidneys, fear and pride.