Friday 15 November 2013

International Quilt Week Yokohama 2013

The International Quilt Week Yokohama 2013 opened yesterday.

Today I visited with my friend Julie. We had a great time looking round and I am amazed at how much more one can see and notice when looking at a quilt with two pairs of eyes.

First let me show you the Grand Prix, the Best of Show.
It was entered in the Contemporary category, is titled 'A Beautiful Woman' and was made by Kyoko Ochiai.
A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN*落合京子

Second prize went to a quilt in the Wa (Japanese) Category made by Yoshiko Morita and titled 'Japanesque - Aka-'.
Japanesque ー紅ー*森田佳子


Most quilts were displayed with a white chain in front. Obviously to keep 'sticky fingers' away from the quilts, but that also makes it very difficult to take good pictures of a whole quilt.
私のテラコッタフラワー*酒井典子//十花十色*三好せい子//花集*船田チズ子

There were many small Suffolk Puffs (Yo-yos) on this quilt called 'Bara no Arch', made by Takako Yokohama.
バラのアーチ*横濱隆子

Not wanting to feature the ugly chains, many of the following quilts are therefore only shown partially.
'Lavender hatake no hinageshi', by Chieko Iwasaki.
ラベンダー畑のひなげし*岩崎千恵子
An unusual, but striking, choice of fabric for a flower.

 Any TAST participant will know that this is TAST stitch #11 Whipped Wheel!

One flower was made from a fabric with a lovely sheen. Julie spotted this and pointed it out to me;  the advantage of visiting a show with a friend!

Chikako Yamamoto calls her beautiful floral quilt, 'Sweet Memories'.
スイートメモリーズ*山本千加子

Here again Julie and I had to use all our eyes to determine whether this was hand or machine quilted. I had to give in, she was right, it WAS hand quilted. Compare the stitches with my index finger, and no I did NOT touch the quilt!!!

This is 'Hana iro no Melody', by Shino Tonoyama.
Here you have  a bit of everything; piecework, appliqué, bias tape, quilting and tatting lace.
花色のメロディ*殿山志乃

These are the borders of the quilt. Plenty of embroidery!

This quilt, 'Sai no kuni no saki hokoru hana', is the joint effort of Kazuyo Shono and her 50 friends. 
彩の国の咲き誇る花*正能和代 他50名

The quilt is made up of lots of 3-D flowers.


Another quilt made by a group, 35 ladies led by Kazuko Yabe, is called 'Quilt no Hanataba'.
キルトの花束*矢部和子 他35名

Yoshiko Takagi has made good use of the print on this kimono fabric in her quilt, 'Hana no sasayaki'.
花の音 (花のささやき)*高木良子

No quilt show in Japan seems complete without at least one cherry blossom quilt, they are that common. Here Noriko Tada has used kimono silk for 'Sakura no ki no shita de', and some of the blossoms were blue!!
桜の樹の下で*多田紀子

Let me end today's post with the quilt that won the Flower Quilt category: 'Watashi no Asagao zu byobu' made by Etsuko Iitaka.
私の「朝顔図屏風」*飯高悦子

For all of you who are now in a hot climate, wouldn't you want a screen covered in Morning Glory to give shade from the strong sunlight?

I will show other quilts from the exhibition tomorrow.

24 comments:

The Pied Pedlar said...

Amazing work thank you for showing

Stitching Lady said...

What abundance, richness and great, great workmanship.

JennyPennyPoppy said...

It's amazing the amount of work that went into these quilts! Looks like it was a wonderful show to go to that's for sure. Looking forward to seeing more pictures too. Thanks for sharing!

carorose said...

Those quilts are just stunning. I have forwarded your post to my quilting friends so that they can oOH and Ha as well.

Queeniepatch said...

And most of it is hand made! These Japanese ladies in their tiny houses producing such large and intricate quilts always amazes me!

Queeniepatch said...

I have just shown you the FLORAL quilts! Different ones to come.

Queeniepatch said...

Well, you can not call the Japanese quilters lazy! There are so many details to look at, tiny stitches and often challenging materials to use. It is not easy to stitch some of the vintage kimono silk, some of it is as hard as concrete and 99% 'needle proof'.

Queeniepatch said...

That is very kind of you, Carolyn! I was thinking of you and your Aussie friends when I saw the Morning Glory quilt. Hope to have some other summery quilt for you in my next post.

Julie Fukuda said...

Oh Carin, this is such a beautifully organized post. It would be a waste of time for me to duplicate your effort. I'm amazed at the detail you were able to get ... though I certainly shouldn't be, as you are an expert at posting all those intricate stitches each week. Thanks so much for sharing the day!

margaret said...

a lovely selection you have shared here Queenie some real beauties and more to come. Totally unable to pick a favourite. Colour is what hits me most as they are so much more bright and cheerful than those from the UK I think

Cynthia@wabisabiquilts said...

I just read Julie's post and then popped over here - what a delight! Keep the photos coming!

Queeniepatch said...

Ha, I just wish the show catalogue I bought had been as 'beautifully organized'!!! A waste of money! Next year they need to ask a professional librarian to do the work. Anyway, because I had my great quilting 'senpai' with me I could spot interesting things at the show and select what to blog about.
It was a most enjoyable day spent in your company and you have described our adventures beautifully. Let's have another fantastic outing soon.

Queeniepatch said...

I always find it hard to select MY choice for Best of Show. Colourful, yes, well that was my pick. Many Japanese quilts are made with taupe fabric, which is far from bright and cheerful, and as I am not too fond of them they do not feature on my blog!!!

Queeniepatch said...

I am glad you liked them; Julie and I just wish you had been present at the time and seen the quilts with your own eyes together with us.

Annet said...

Gorgeous quilts, thanks for sharing.

https://linsartyblobs.blogspot.com said...

I've enjoyed looking at the quilts, thanks for showing.

Queeniepatch said...

Japanese quilters have always been good at making floral quilts. I will post other quilts soon.

Queeniepatch said...

I am glad you enjoyed them.

J Honda said...

yes - truly amazing! these are so enjoyable to see, thank you Queenie!

Queeniepatch said...

You're welcome, and should you want to see more I have written another blog post with more pictures!

Lis Harwood said...

A stunning selection of quilts that you and Julie enjoyed. It could be your selections of course but it does seem to me that colour is becoming more dominant in Japanese quilting. Do you agree?

Queeniepatch said...

You are so observant! Certainly this was a colourful show. I flipped through the show catalogue and counted 8 taupe or bland quilts out of the 91 featured. (Not all quilts are shown in the catalogue - don't ask!) However, quite a number of them were black or dark.

Anita said...

Lovely quilts! Thanks for sharing.So many techniques to see and some are added to my very long to-learn list now :)

Séverine said...

Thank you so much for sharing these picture. The quilts are gorgeous.