International Quilt Week Yokohama 2013

What a wonderful way to spend a day!  Under the giant banner quilts, you may think the day was all about quilting. Indeed, there were so many beautiful quilts to examine that my eyes were practically spinning.

Compared to previous shows here. (this is the 21st), the viewing spaces seemed much better organized with areas large enough to accommodate
the hoards of viewers.

It was the second of three days (how it is called a "week" must remain a mystery of translation)

Certainly, this show was all about quilts, but it was also, for me, all about friendship. I often attend the quilt shows alone. Even if I attend with my quilt group, moving at the pace of the group, I come back later to spend more time studying the things that interest me.

Yesterday was not only an exception, but a lesson in the form of a blessing. Two sets of eyes can see more than twice as much!

After a few e-mails to coordinate, I met Carin at the train station (well, actually she spotted me before I got lost looking for the way out) . Have you ever made a blogging friend and met in person?  From my experience, every one has been even better than I had imagined. I don't know about other types of blogs and bloggers, but quilt bloggers are a cut above.

We moved through the exhibits in an orderly fashion and at a pace that seemed to suit us both. We noticed different things to point out to each other. We ran into other friends from my quilt group. Kuraishi-sensei was scheduled to teach a workshop in the afternoon and other members were attending her class. It was fun to see them, but then we were back to examining quilts. Not only looking but we had opportunities to talk with some of the quilt artists.

It was rather late in the day that I remembered that I had brought my camera and thought maybe a few pictures to post would be in the offing. Luckily, I have looked at Carin's post. Her pictures and information are far better than anything I might be able to put together.

Here she is with her camera, and you can see the wonderful pictures she has posted HERE.

I find we took photos of almost the same things.
Her first post is of the floral quilts and I only have a few that are different.

This is a detail of "Night Rose" by Yuko Hatano.

I found it interesting for the fabrics she selected as parts of the flowers and leaves ... not the usual solids one might expect.

This quilt with multiple cherry blossoms, by Noriko Tada, was also shown by Carin, who picked out the interesting blue petals in an upper section of the quilt.

This (Flower) "bed cover", by Yoshiko Ogawa
was very softly toned and hand quilted in great detail.

Indeed, though there were fused and machine-quilted pieces on display, the amount of hand-quilting was astonishing.

I can hardly imagine the time that some of these quilts must have taken. I haven't the slightest idea how someone can quilt through three layers with fifteen stitches to the inch. I don't think I could get stitches that small even through one layer.

 These "Field Flowers" (my rough translation)
were made by Shizuko Yoshizawa.

Those Xs in the border gave me a few ideas for a signature quilt I have yet to begin.

















Since Carin's pictures are so much better, I think I should wait for her next post before adding my two bits.

Since I have emphasized the friendship link, I have one more interesting occurrence to note.
One of the last areas we checked out was, as I understand it, Groups of small quilts, one each from 90 quilters from Japan, U.S.A., and France. Titled "14th Anniversary "World Painters" International Challenge Quilt Exhibition"
, each group had been given the name of a well-known artist, and created a quilted piece representing the style of that artist.

Having been a student and a teacher of art, I found the whole idea quite interesting and well done.
There was a table in the area with three women sitting there, so a rather natural exchange about the exhibit took place. Then, suddenly, the conversation stopped, and the person to whom I was speaking suddenly recognized me as the blogger who had posted a picture of her quilt from the Tokyo Dome show way back in January! Now, how in the world did she connect ME with my blog post? I am still amazed.

This morning, I came to my computer to find a lovely note from this friend.

Here is the picture I posted earlier in the  year.


"The Vines of Earth" is a creation of Chikako Ueno.

I have learned an important lesson through this quilt that has nothing to do with quilting and everything to do with blogging. I could not go back to my original post and find what I had put there because I am a lousy at adding labels!

Anyway, I was able to look in my cluttered picture file and re-visit her quilt.

The result Was a photo op. and a new friend. Here we are, me, Ueno-san, and Queenie, standing in front of her art quilt.  Now, how special is that? She will be at the Tokyo Dome show in January. Will I be able to pick her out of the crowd as easily as she picked me? For that kind of luck, I think I will have to team up again with Carin.

For the day of quilts and friendship, I give my thanks.