Designer Baiba Ladiga-Kobayashi Restores Great-Grandmother's Silk Quilts

Designer Baiba Ladiga-Kobayashi is spending the summer restoring her great-grandmother's silk quilts. Five quilt designs have survived and have been digitized for embroidery. The process is financially and time-consuming – each quilt takes about a month of work. The quilts use Latvian-produced wool filling, but the silk is imported as it is not produced in Latvia. Interestingly, Baiba's husband, architect Reiji Kobayashi, is currently involved in restoring the old Riga "Silk Factory" where her great-grandmother once bought silk.

Her great-grandmother Anna Emīlija Rozinski-Koch opened a hand-embroidered silk quilt workshop around 1922 in Sniķes krogs, Jelgava. The quilts were true works of art. Baiba has engaged embroiderers, textile art specialists, and historians in the restoration. Museums, including the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design and the Jelgava Museum "Dauderi", have shown great interest.

Baiba also plans to create her own modernized silk quilt designs that can be incorporated into fashion. She notes that her family may be one of the oldest silk families in Europe. The story has attracted the attention of German television channel ARD, which produced a 45-minute program. Once the quilts are completed, exhibitions are planned.

Baiba's husband Reiji Kobayashi works at the architecture firm "Mailitis Architects" and is involved in the design of the new concert hall "Riga Philharmonic". The couple resides in Latvia and plans to travel to Japan in autumn.