A special treat

Earlier in the week, I received a call from Yasuko Kuraishi, one of my long time quilting friends. She is a quilt "sensei" or teacher who is well connected in the quilting world, both in the U.S. and Japan. She told me of a quilt exhibit that was in my own neighborhood and, as we were having a meeting of our little group, suggested that before going home, we stop and take in the exhibit.

The exhibit was the work of Keiko Minato, another quilting "Sensei". (seen on the right)

The quilt behind us was exhibited at the Tokyo Dome show and it was a real treat to see these works up close and talk with Minato-sensei about the process.

We both share a fondness for kasuri and  the way she used it in her quilts is quite unique.

Several of these large quilts on display featured kanji but the lettering was not appliqued on or printed on. The entire quilts were made of small squares, a little over an inch in size. Minato-san had selected small bits of kasuri with varying tones and fussy-cut them to put darks and lights and shading in the proper place to create the design.

Notice the piecing in the border.


each of these designs is made up of squares.

All are made the same way, by cutting out square bits of kasuri.

What an amazing variety of blocks she was able to come up with!

I don't suppose the pieces were as easy as sewing regular squares together either, because in order to get the variety of patterns, the pieces were cut in a way that many were bias edges on all sides.

The gallery was set up in a most attractive way and there were not only quilts but lovely fashion pieces and bags for sale.

The exhibit itself was a treat but it was even more special to talk with such a creative artist ... even in my rather miserable excuse for Japanese... and share her enthusiasm for the process.

The walk from the gallery back to my home was only about 15 minutes.

Along the way there were daffodils in bloom.

Thunder was rumbling in the distance, but I had to try and get a picture.

How about these ...

Hiding among the dead grass.

And here is what waited outside my gate.


These are volunteers among my geraniums.

They seem to be taking over several pots but I can hardly pull them out, now, can I?

By this time it had begun to spit hail from the rumbling clouds. It is only four days into April and those showers are running true to the saying.

On the other hand, The March lion is still roaring and the May flowers are beginning to show something new every day. And, lucky me, Kuraishi-sensei brought me tickets to another quilt show ... next month at Mitsukoshi Department store. I hope you all had a great day too.

My love affair with Kasuri

I am not sure how many of my blogging friends are familiar with "Kasuri". I don't even know how much of it is being produced today. All my bits of that fabric have been picked up from shrine sales (the Japanese flea market) or used bins in stores carrying old stuff or picked apart work clothing.

The fabric is hand woven. The warp and weft threads are dyed before the loom is set up. The skeins of thread are tied off at intervals to resist the dye and left white ... but in some cases, dyed other colors.
The most common color is indigo and white but sometimes other colors are added.

The thread used is slightly heaver than ordinary cotton fabric and was commonly used for work clothing. I have bought several worn pairs of "mompei", long over-pants for working in the fields, and yesterday spent some time picking out the thread to return them to a usable fabric.

Here are some fine weaves that are a bit older. You can see that the color chosen is not always indigo but sometimes light blue, gray, or browns.

The whites are very old and hemp fabric rather than cotton. They were probably used in summer yukata or even night wear.

These whites are woven with brown or gray.

Sometimes the designs can get very intricate and amazing. It is hard for me to imagine measuring and dying a piece if thread so that when you put it to the loom, it would produce such an intricate design.

All that work for a strip of cloth about 13 inches wide which is then sewed into work clothes!

(well, probably not some of this fancier weave).

My #3 daughter has been wishing for a bigger bag for carrying her stuff and I thought this sturdy fabric would hold up pretty well and not show the dirt.

Yesterday I did a bit of un-picking and washed and ironed some of these kasuri pieces, cutting around the worn places into three inch blocks (and the scraps into one inch).

I thought I might sew them together alternating with nine-patches of other fabrics from yukata or tenugui.

I like the idea of nine-patch blocks for take-along work but I am not certain this is the best way to show off those kasuri fabrics.

A few years ago, I was asked to make a prayer book cover for a speaker at the Women's Conference. Before setting off, I tried my hand at making a cover for my own Bible.

This poor book was presented to me in 1944 at my confirmation. Those were war years and though the binding has held up well, the fake leather (cardboard) cover has completely crumbled.

Although I used one-inch squares of kasuri, I alternated them with a similar fabric made much the same way. The warp threads are one color. (usually indigo or black) and the weft are colored. The weight of this fabric is quite the same, as is the width of the piece.

I picked out a piece with a butterfly which was a symbol used by the "hidden Christians", as it represented to them the resurrection.  I chose the kasuri because, at least to me, this fabric represents a great act of faith ... that after all the work of dying that thread and stringing the loom, that when woven, the design will come out as planned.

Now that I look at this old piece of work, I begin to think that those solid colored fabrics might show off the kasuri a bit better than those nine-patches.

Thanks for any feed-back.

Book Cover 2010

For the 2010 Women's Conference I was asked to make a book cover for a prayer book as a gift to the speaker.

Asked to choose "Distinctive Japanese" fabrics. I selected Kasuri from my stash. Dying the threads before weaving seems to be an extreme exercise in faith in that, what was intended matches the result. I was able to pick up a floral weave at the Tokyo Dome Quilt show and finished the cover with a hand crafted butterfly from Hinoki wood. 5" x 7" X 1" Were the dimensions requested. Never having made a book cover before, I made a practice cover for my old bible.