Trompe L'Oeil

Trompe l'oeil: French for "deceive the eye," this is how Marinda Stewart describes her kimono quilt, "Shimmering Kimono," made using the Shimmering Bouquets collection. 

Why? Because the quilt looks like the back of an actual kimono spread out, complete with the illusion of depth and a dimensional folded collar.

"Shimmering Kimono" by Marinda Stewart;
featured in Quilt Trends magazine, Summer 2013 issue

Marinda talked to us about her kimono quilt, a concept that she has used in the past for quilts, and one that we think she employed very successfully here!

Q. What inspired you to make this art quilt?

Marinda: I've always liked a kimono as an art object and I thought it'd be interesting to do what looks like a real kimono hung but is actually a 2-D quilt. It's a fun format to play with—you could do a whole series of kimonos.

Q. Talk to us about the Shimmering Bouquets fabrics.

Marinda: Shimmering Bouquets struck me as being kind of an Asian sensibility. With large-scale prints, the last thing you want to do is cut them up. The line has large tropical florals, and then a print that reminded me of a men's ties. Another print with bias curves reminded me of the work of Koos van den Akker. And then there were tonal florals. The kimono idea seemed like a perfect way to pull these prints together into a cohesive design.

Q. What makes the construction of this quilt unique?

Marinda: I prefer projects without templates. In this project, you're freehand drawing serpentine lines, laying one fabric on top of another, turning it under and topstitching. It looks more complicated than it really is. The hardest part is creating the triangular pieces [the ''front'' edges of the kimono]; you just have to align your edges so it looks like a kimono hung from the back with the front edges showing.

Q. What made you choose yellow as the background color?

Marinda: I've always loved gray and yellow—like pussy willows and forsythia. Or birch bark and daffodils—the cool/warm playoff. The yellow lightens and brightens the quilt up.

Q. How do you envision this quilt being displayed?
Marinda: When I designed it, I thought this quilt could be really handsome. I could see it hung in a very modern room as an art piece with a low table and a single orchid plant in bloom, plus a few pieces of mercury glass.

Find the kit for the project here.

See the entire Shimmering Bouquets collection here.

Find Quilt Trends here.