Boro jacket detail “Tattered.” “Broken.” Hardly words of inspiration. But a new line of Moda fabrics honors the Japanese tradition of boro—the Japanese technique of creating beautiful textiles through repeated mending—and gives quilters the opportunity to create beauty of their own. The tradition of boro can be traced to the snowy north of the island of Honshu, an area associated with significant poverty, according to the Amuse Museum in Tokyo. Cotton was precious because it was too far north for it to grow, and many residents made do with scratchy hemp cloth they wove themselves.