Friends and a quilt show (part 1)

                  Where to begin?

What a wonderful time I had with my quilting friends!  The time since our last meeting seemed to have slipped away and we were back where we were long ago, telling stories and laughing.



We met at the home of one of our members who has opened a cafe in the lower front of her home. She prepared us a lovely meal  and delicious dessert.

These are the members whose friendship blocks I shared is the earlier post.

I took my paper diary and we shared the memories of those quilters no longer able to come.


After our meal, we all went to a quilt show. Yasuko Kuraishi, in the middle of the group in the upper picture, treated us all to the show.

Team Quilt Ten

As I understand it, this group show was begun by ten quilters who had won at the Tokyo Quilt Festival years ago. Nine of those quilters got together and this show features their winning quilts plus a number more they have created between that first show and today.

Many seem to have been created around a theme.

This is all hand quilted with embroidery on the rings . Made by Harue Yumoto in commemoration of planting of her favorite grape.

Hemp-colored hydrangea by Chieko Shiraishi, has plenty of embroidery too which gives the effect of lace.

These tiny compass points  are way too small to catch in one picture. Probably a close-up would have been better. "In Peaceful Sunshine"  (or something like that) by Suneko Shimura.

Princess Lily, by Chiyoko Umeda also combines tiny piecing and complicated applique along with tiny quilting stitches.

This quilt called "Doily", by Chieko Shiraishi had little crocheted doilies appliqued in the centers between the blocks and embroidered linked rings in the border. You may notice that many of these quits make use of what is called "Japanese Taupe".

Beautiful Spring, by Megumi Mizuno.  Full of tiny applique and embroidery.

Flowers bloom Proudly, by Taeko Shinosaki. (or Shinozaki)?  More applique and embroidery. 

And ... if you are getting tired of all that taupe ... this "Spring - my Primavera", is plenty colorful but just as detailed. 

What the Japanese call "Red Haired Anne" is all embroidered in redwork. Made by Harue Yumoto.

Dated July 2004.

Masquerade, by Toshiko Kurihara..  Can you recognize her style now? 

She told me she uses freezer paper to assemble these quilts. Her work is done by machine. Imagine making a machine behave this well!

Another of Kurihara's ... "Who ate my egg"?

And here she is, Kurihara-san, standing beside another of her masterpieces, "Dream II - on board the Milky Way RR." I asked her how long each quilt takes and she said about one a year. 

Many of these quilts were featured in quilt books and the central room had a table with piles of those books on display. Of course all those pictures were taken by  professional quilt photographers and much better than mine.

I have about 14 more quilts to show, although I hardly got half of them. My camera battery is saying it wants to be charged so I guess I need a break here.