2024 - 40”x66” - Machine pieced, Machine quilted without a frame (domestic)

At 16 years of age, my grandmother, Chiyeko Tajii, was incarcerated along with her parents and siblings in the “Poston Relocation Center” in Parker, Arizona. Despite being born in California, she was forcibly relocated and imprisoned by her government.

Amidst the harsh desert conditions, my grandmother and thousands of other Japanese and Japanese American internees worked tirelessly to make a life for themselves. Chiyeko attended and graduated high school in ‘camp’. As a member of the Home Economics Club she practiced her sewing and fiber art skills, a talent she would hone for the rest of her life and pass down to multiple generations.

This quilt represents a small portion of the map of Poston Camp 1 where my grandmother and her family lived from 1942 through 1945. Each block comprises barracks, men'‘s and women’s lavatories, laundry and ironing buildings, and a mess hall and recreation hall. I used prewar American and Japanese fabrics to piece together the barracks and the mess and rec halls are made from rice sacks my grandmother had saved. The quilting is the same dimensions as chain link fencing.

My grandmother is a huge inspiration to me, creatively and spiritually. She was 4 feet, 11 inches of bold, bright, and sassy intensity that brought our family and her community together. I am honored to share my middle name with her and I hope that she’d be delighted to know where life has taken me. She still regularly appears in my dreams.

Displayed at Crystal City Pilgrimage, 2025