Tokyo Dome quilts - Part 3

Wa quilts

If you are wondering, what is "Wa", 

It is not the exclamation when you see these wonderful quilts, but a word that has come to mean "harmony and peace".

Those who have been reading my blog a while know about my love affair with kasuri and many of these quilts contain LOTS of kasuri fabric.

I looked at kasuri fabrics in some of the shops and, judging from the prices, many of these quilts are worth a small fortune in material alone!

Kasuri Diamond Flower.

Toinie Nagano

Here is a detail of the same. 

All those hexagons!

(Irene, that would take a lot of Wednesdays)!

A close-up of "Our Beautiful Earth  North Ground I.

"Chrystal Snow"

By Akasugi-san

Kazaguruma, or pinwheels, by Motoyama-san.

The title of this was a bit too hard for my poor Japanese to figure out or my husband to explain. The kanji for the quilter's name could also be read more than one way ...("Soma ni mangoku").

See why we need names in romaji!! My guess is Tanida-san.   The whole quilt is stitched in Sashiko.

This one by Yamamoto-san also was quilted with sashiko stitches and some embroidery.

 By Endo-san. I didn't get the title.

"Flow of Time" by Ono-san.  This has some amazing detail and lots of kanji in applique.

This also has a time theme ... something like being thankful 365 days. It is made by Masukawa-san.

There is a lot of kasuri in this too and you can see the kanji for spring, summer, fall, and winter, along with pictures of rabbits with seasonal poses ... mosquito coil, blossoms of the season, kite flying, moon viewing and the like.

"Blown by the Wind" by Mawatari-san. (Another hard name to figure out)

I was more blown away by the quilts in this category.

And here is one more I failed to record but is too pretty to leave out. 

There is one lovely thing about all these quilts, they were all hand quilted. I feel that even though this kasuri had been cut into many pieces, the handwork showed respect to the hands that had dyed and woven that fabric so long ago.

More to come.....

Tokyo Dome quilt show - part 2

Sensei's quilts 

In the middle section of the display are quilts made by a number of featured teachers. This was the only section where quilter's names were were written in "romaji" or Roman letters. Some of the titles were also written in English  (and others I have translated the best I could).

The first I searched out was made by Yasuko Kuraishi who has been a member of my international quilt group for many years.

It is called "Country Road, Sketches of Country Journey"

It seems each section of the display had a different theme.

This quilt called "Encouragement for Travels" was made by Yoko Sekita.

Looking closely at the appliqued characters in the center is very entertaining. In the right front there is Little
Red Riding Hood holding the wolf.

This is a detail of a cat quilt made by Naoko Suzuki.

I believe she made a cat quilt last year too. As in that one, this is all fused and sewed over all by machine.


I couldn't get far enough away for a full view because of the crowd at the time I went first.

Colored Autumn
By Chinami Terai


I like the effect of these appliqued autumn leaves.

Again, only a section,
this is "Restart" by Chiyo Hosokawa.



I believe she also did something similar last year. Kind of a Hawaiian style applique of rather intricate designs, this looking like a wave design and people on surfboards.

Flower Garden in Early Summer, by Keiko Miyauchi.






Look at all that detailed applique

and the trapunto in the green areas. All hand done.

Detail of a quilt by Naoko Hayashi.

It seems one of the sensei categories was flowers.

This is another detail ... Didn't get close enough to get the name.

This is another detail.
I believe, "To Keep On" by Naoko Takeshita.

and another detail
by ???

Even the outer walls/partitions held quilts.

 These camellias were made by Ms Takeyama.

Another theme seemed to be circles.



This is Alphabet of Circle  by Kumiko Fujita.

I have made many alphabet quilts over the years but never one with letters like these. Very cleaver.

Emiko Toda Loeb always makes two-sided quilts.

This is named "Roundness" and has been specially hung so both sides can be viewed.

Floating in the Wind, by Mitsuyo Akita

There was a section for framed quilts and one for hand bags.

There may have been quilted clothing too.

Maybe another viewer will have pictures of those.
They seemed to be quite popular judging from the crowds viewing them.

Nearly every Japanese quilt magazine I have seen includes instructions for making bags.


More is yet to come. I hope your feet are less tired than mine were at this point in the show.

"Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival" 2013

Tokyo Dome show - Overview

The Tokyo Dome is really a baseball stadium most of the year. You enter from the upper gallery, walking down through the bleachers.

(And, at the end, walking back up all those stairs).

The quilts are displayed front and center, with the "quilt market surrounding on three sides.

Over the years I have discovered that the best viewing time is toward the end of the show and toward the end of the day.

Surrounding the display area are the group quilts. (called "Partnership Quilts").

These are made by different groups with a theme, each block by one quilter. The names of the contributors are posted on the wall next to each quilt.

Not sure what theme this was....

very coordinated...

And one more with a lot of detail applique.

The shops have plenty to tempt the quilters and to meet those friends you only see once or twice a year. 

Mary Cesar comes all the way from Hawaii and can be found at "B-30" every year.

This is the second year she is marketing her basting glue, perfect for holding Hawaiian applique in place with only a few touches, and washes out completely.

In the center behind the competition quilts, was an area occupied by about 8 well-known quilters.

This area had the work of Keiko Goke.

Some were manned by their "deshi" or disciples, and at some, the featured quilter was meeting with crowds of fans and engaged in demonstrations.

Kathy Nakajima is seldom in her display area but most often found in her shop, signing books for her loyal following.

She has her own line of fabrics. 

She has out many quilt magazines and videos demonstrating making bags and Hawaiian applique. 
I honestly don't know when she finds time to do all  the quilting.

Most of the areas allowed photographs.
(That is better than other years)

One area that did not, was the special exhibit,  
"Tales of Two Ladies", an exhibit of Tasha Tudor and Lucy Boston.


I have made two quilts inspired by a quilt made by Lucy Boston that I saw many years ago in a British Fair.

I was happy to see that quilt again. It as made up of elongated hexagons and I had drawn them in a sketch book years ago and drafted the pattern. I was interested to see after all the passing years, she had made her hexagons a much larger size. Maybe I need to re-visit my drawing with a larger scale in mind.  

 Yes, there is is, behind the ladies on the right.

Inspiration for "Star Crossed"  and "Double Crossed" and maybe another try???
It was nice to see in again!

Well, this was not taken in the exhibit but through the window with a zoom lens. Love it!




There was a lot to see here ... and if you are a shopper, a lot to buy.
Makers of machines had areas set up for demonstrating and trying.
Clover has tons of products, as do other manufacturers that cater to quilters. I took my karisma pencil that was having problems holding the white lead back to the booth and the gentleman kindly scouted out the cause of the problem and showed me how to fix it, should it occur again. (and I didn't have to buy anything)!

More to follow.... (Much more)!

Way too busy

It was a long weekend, beginning on Thursday morning. There were many things to get done before the Conference began.

I was not the brains of the committee but the person who helps with the tasks,driving, setting up the labyrinth, preparing the name tags, moving tables, hanging banners, setting up flowers and candles, etc. Thursday night I slept very well.

Friday, after lunch, the participants began to arrive and everything picked up steam. It was such fun to see old friends and make new ones.  The sign-up sheet for my workshop began to fill up and then overflow. I couldn't believe how many people wanted to try their hand at making that small quilted piece. All Friday night, my brain kept racing in circles as to how I could manage all those participants. I honestly wonder if I even slept at all.

The workshop went well enough. Many met with me in open time for extra help and a number actually finished. Very few had any sewing skills at all. Looking back, I wonder if I could have done something even more simple. I will have to study up on that. One hour is really short!

The conference itself was one of the best I have attended. The first timers mixed in well and many new friendships were formed. Sunday we reversed Thursday's activities, tying up loose ends, trying to fold up the labyrinth and get it back into the bags ... no easy task...taking down banners, loading up the car, and driving home in weekend rush-hour. We stopped to admire a beautiful view of Mt Fuji. I took my camera but not one picture!

Today's early rise into a freezing morning was for onigiri delivery. We returned home by 6:am and I went back up to my greenhouse to finish my sleep.

What did I see out me windows, but snow! Already coating the neighbor's roof. I'm glad it waited until I was back home.

By 9:am, though, It had stopped and the sun was making its way out .

Good thing too!





One of my Scout parents came by bringing thousands of packaged sweets to donate to the homeless. I'm sure they will be welcome in this cold weather.
My husband took her to my car parking lot to load the boxes into my van.
(Paul is in charge of the homeless ministry and will make sure they are used)

.

My in-box contained a message from the school that the girls want to learn how to quilt too. I had to hustle to prepare something for the class.

My husband rose to the occasion and made up a vocabulary list with some explanations in Japanese, and I gathered together some ideas for them ... I didn't really think they would want to make pot holders.

Four days away ... class prep ... bird cage needing cleaning big time ... (Piper must be the world's most messy bird, tossing apple and carrot bits against the window and on to the bureau). (Only to be exceeded by four days of dog hair on the floor).

There on the outside was a Brown-eared Bulbul wondering if he was getting fed too. Sorry fella, that orange juice is a bit old and diluted with melting snow.

Fine, I'll make it do.

Those nails sticking up through the board beside him usually have some fruit ... apples or orange halves.

Maybe tomorrow I will have some time. The feeders are all empty too.

The sky was beautiful as I left the campus. The girls were excited. Next week will come all too soon.


Meanwhile I have tickets for the Tokyo Dome quilt show.

There are only two days left.

Tomorrow morning I have to face the carp. at least they are together and there will be hands to help.

I hope I can get in at least half a day to visit the show. Then I can see the rest on Wednesday. I wonder why I was expecting things to slow down a bit when I got older.

Where did that day go, anyway???

Wrestling with a giant fish

I think I know how Jonah felt after wrestling most of the day with this big carp.

The fins and tail will get embroidery or quilting in black. The eyes on both fish will be black with a white margin.

I brought home some fabric scraps for the eyes but forgot to pick up stabilizer.

Tomorrow our group meets again. The golden carp is left to be assembled.



My other project for the week has been preparing for a class at the Women's Conference this weekend.

My class is, "When life gives you scraps, make quilts".

The theme for this year's conference is "Treasuring Our Gifts".The aim is to enable each of us to recognize our God-given gifts and to identify how we can better use and expand those gifts to glorify God and increase our joy.

I have been thinking how I can teach something in a one hour workshop that will be a learning experience and leave the participants with a small reminder.

Well, I cut squares from solid color fabric and triangles from different prints, a nine inch piece of batting and a ten inch piece of backing. The plan is to teach the process of sewing (by hand) the four triangles to the square. Then marking the center with a quilt design, baste top to batting and backing, quilt in the ditch, then quilt the small center design and turn the backing to make a binding.

The result could be a mug-rug or hot pad.

I am not sure how much learners can do in the given time but I can leave the materials out for finishing later.

I prepared 20 kits but I don't think there will be that many people who want to try the class so there will be a choice of colors and fabrics. One of my quilting friends thought what I can do in half an hour will probably take a lot longer for someone new to do. I haven't had anyone to try this out on yet, so will just go as prepared as I can and then fly blind.

I marked and cut the pieces from my plentiful stash and hardly made a dent. I still have to print out a selection of simple quilt patterns for the members to trace. I am also toying with the idea of making up felt pieces with needle and pins for each kit.

I have bought my ticket for the Tokyo Dome quilt show which begins on Thursday this week. Since the first few days are always jam-packed, I don't mind that I will have to wait until next week to go. I am also looking forward to meeting a few quilting friends in the coming weeks.

Tomorrow's weather report is more snow. That should add to the fun!