My latest quilt project is ongoing but will take some time. I am calling it Illuminatio right now because I have adapted some old illuminated manuscript designs to applique. I am not making it as dense with design as those handwritten and hand painted treasures but it will have some fairly elaborate applique. I was intrigued by the work of the Irish monks who produced the Book of Kells which my husband and I saw in Dublin. Zena Thorpe has made a few very wonderful illuminated quilts but her tolerance for lots and lots of small pieces and lots and lots of detail is far greater than mine. Then there is her skill which exceeds mine as well. Her work is far more true to the classic but mine will include some of those classic elements. My colors are very bright and vibrant (surprise, surprise) as were the inks and paints the monks used but my background fabric is very bright where the monks' works were on parchment, sort of off white. I was fascinated to see that the ancient designs included what our family has always known as the family crest. My husband asked how the design made it from Japan to Ireland, or vice versa but I don't know that it did. Seems more likely that disparate people in many places simply had the same idea. I don't know of any trips between the two parts of the world in the time frame of the Book of Kells or even any other of the well-known manuscripts which were produced in the fairly long time frame before the printing press ended the need for that handwork. There is a very good book about some of the more famous works by Christopher de Hamel if you have any interest in finding out more or seeing the amazing and delightful drawings, not to mention the great calligraphy.
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