Wa no Sue and Emiko

Since last autumn I have been working on a wall hanging inspired by a project set by my quilting Sensei. The rest of the class and presumably people from some of Sensei's other classes are completing a project that is close to the idea that was presented.  My project, as usual, has morphed and mutated into something with elements of the original idea with a lot of other stuff thrown in. The original project had momiji (maple) leaves around the edge and a house in the center.  The leaves were machine pieced with half triangles and squares.  and the houses were paper pieced.  When the house idea was introduced, Sensei turned to me and said, maybe you would like to make a church instead, Georgia san. And then there was the whole saga of the tree not being quite what it should have been which I discussed in a previous post. The scene looked a little empty when the church and the tree were done and Sensei and I discussed what else I could do.  That's when she showed me a Japanese quilt artists concept of Sunbonnet Sue if she had grown up in Japan. I decided that the scene needed a couple of little girls walking out from church.  The scale had to really be reduced from the example in the quilting magazine and the only way I could think of representing these figures was to do them in needle turn applique. The stuff I get myself into!

At Class this last week I finally finished my two little Japanese friends, one with her Bible under her arm and the other pointing out as if to say, "Let's go and tell our friends what we learned today!" One of my classmates, Emiko, decided she would name Sue's friend after herself!  And the piece became "Wa no Sue and Emiko." (the "Wa no" part means "of Japan," so Japanese Sue and Emiko)

As you can see, I am not yet finished.  The border of leaves is lacking two which I still need to make, and the sashing between them is not decided.  I like the idea of continuing the blue sky, but it may be a bit too much.  What do you think?