This week I completed another small quilt exercise.  I began by deciding to use some of my Japanese fabrics that have sat for too long on my 'stash' shelves.  I decided that if I don't cut into them, someone else will after I'm gone.  No fair.  They're mine.  So I cut.

Out of it all came "Nara Nine-Patch", machine-pieced and -quilted 'in the ditch.'  In the photograph, the negative space became positive, which I find interesting. I've always wanted to go to Nara, Japan.  My mom did decades ago, and came home with stories of temples and ruins of great beauty.  It's a VERY old city, about to celebrate its 1300th birthday!  UNESCO has designated it a world historic site, a treasure.  My 12" x 12" piece is a little treasured bit in my personal world, made with fabric perhaps as only old as 3/1300ths as the city for which it's named. And, I remember my mom when reflecting on Nara.