The 18th Quilt Nihon Exhibition, Part 4

 This is a continuation of the Contemporary quilts.

小林良子made a Log Cabin flow of trickling water.

In 関谷みよ子's 'Time Slip' you can see some old Japanese houses. In real life, they are hard to find as most older houses are demolished and replaced with smaller, taller, and in my opinion, less charming buildings.

布谷郁子 makes blocks of a unique design. I think I have seen them in a similar quilt from a previous contest.

池畑真由美 calls her quilt 'Passion' and its all in purple hues. Both this, and the previous quilt, have a lot of movement.

South Korean quilter, Jeong In Suk, dyes her fabric with pieces of iron that leave rusty marks.

On a background of Slash Quilt, a technique I have not seen in a long time, she has appliquéd geometrical shapes like triangles, squares and rectangles.

If you want to look at different quilting designs, study 松原裕美子's machine-quilted wall-hanging.

Do you remember the waterfall quilt? In the following quilt, you will see other things tumbling down. Or are the circles floating in the air? Maybe they are red and white blood cells in your bloodstream. 

The answer to this magic hoovering or downward flow is tulle.

'Live' by 野畠玲子.

The Swiss quilter Edith Bieri-Hanselmann calls her creation 'Out of Joint'.

If you want to go to Paris, why not play 伊藤培美's board game 'Sugoroku' and step by step you will reach the goal of the Eiffel Tower. 

If I were to walk my way around the streets of Paris, I would NOT wear those high-heeled shoes, though!

Can you name the other sights and flavours of Paris?

Here is a title that puzzles me: 'Que Sera Sera', which I think is translated into English as 'What will be, will be'. I wish I could ask the maker, 菊池郁美.

There are many houses, trees and the word LOVE spelt in all directions....

'Sunlight through the trees' by 近藤容子.

I think this is a very suggestive piece of art. Place it in a waiting room and sit and look at it for a long time, I am sure you will see many other things than rays of sunshine through the canopy of leaves. For example, if you had recently seen a forest fire on the TV news, wouldn't this quilt remind you of wild flames eating their way through the undergrowth? 

Here is another quilt that gets your brain working, 'Night Factory' by 竹脇幸子. Why is there a monkey climbing the ladder? In my ignorance, I think I have missed something of the meaning. Commercial espionage, an escaped zoo animal, a challenge on Social Media among the young and wild or is it King Kong reincarnated?

And with this puzzle, ends the tour around the Contemporary quilts. Next up are the Miniatures, in Part 5.

The 18th Quilt Nihon Exhibition, Part 3

It's time for the Contemporary Quilts.

This is an imaginary route map of the Tokyo Metro with some landmark buildings in embroidery by

岩本栄

Tokyo Tower

Gabrielle Paquin from France contributed with this 'Join the Dance'.

高野かづ子

The quilting mirrors the piecing/appliqué.

I loved standing and admiring the fabric strips. Once again I was wondering how many kimonos you need to collect to get all the different shades of purple and blue...

Maybe I should ask the maker, Ms 河邊福子?

Many quilters love to depict the morning or evening sky with its spectacular sunrise/sunset and moonlight.

桑原みい子

Isn't the Sun charming?

A delight in colour by 薬師寺恵美子.

In front of this wallhanging, my friends and I struck up a conversation with a young man. He poited out that the fabric had been dyed with dried onion skin. I wouldn't have noticed (please read, I had been too lazy to read the label) unless he told us. It made me look more closely, and surely there you have all the shades of an onion. The quilting is great, too. In the bottom left corner, there is also a hand-embroidered recipe for onion soup!

The quilt was 'cooked up' by 大澤惠子.

When I look at 児玉美貴子's quilt, I think of winters in the North of Sweden.

The next quilt, however, takes you right down to Africa. The title is 'Rhinoceros and Kitenge'. The latter is apparently the kind of colourful fabric often seen in African ladies' dresses. See how much you can learn from visiting a quilt show in Japan!

Quilt made by 松本友美子

Look at the 'Blackwork' embroidery!

須藤修子's statement 'The things I like the most' must be fashionable frocks with wide skirts!

What 野村紀子 likes best must be Komaki City in Aichi Prefecture. 

I came to this conclusion after a bit of online research, followed up by consulting my friend Pamela of Hokkaido Kudasai. Pamela has visited many of the abundance of castles in Japan and can spot details and locations. Komaki Castle sits proudly on a wooded hill high above the city.

The Italian quilter Teresa Gai contributed another of her unique quilts. She won the Contemporary category in the last show, 2024 with a similar quilt. 

Her method is to take a long strand of thread and wind it up into loops, which are then stitched down with a few stitches. After that,  the entire quilt is covered with tulle or netting. This is then 'quilted' with a single stitch in the middle of each circle of thread.

Mt Fuji is in pieces! 齋藤札子 patched it up! 

The title of this quilt is 'Destruction and Creation', and was made by 能登和子。

屋部志津子's made an abstract design in the Mola technique.

Here is a cheerful quilt for you, full of vibrant flowers and small hearts.

赤田千恵子

Let's take a break here, as there are more Contemporary quilts to write about. I will do that in Part 4.

WIPW - Two More Rows Ready

Here is a quick Work In Progress Wednesday report about

Hexablooms

where two rows of 27 blocks each are now assembled and ready to add to the flimsy.

Gifts

Here are the two completed pot holders/oven mitts I started on last week.

The 18th Quilt Nihon Exhibition, Part 2

 Let's continue our walk through the exhibition of Traditional Quilts.

It is a long time since I saw one of these beautiful quilts, where a gradation of indigo gradually seeps into grey and finally becomes an area of milky tea. 

If you stand and look at this quilt for a long time, what do you see? I see a thundery sky over a sandy beach where white foamy waves roll in...

I wonder if that is what 松岡一美 saw when she stitched the quilt.

In 高見裕美子's quilt, you got it all - basic Log Cabin blocks, sweeping meanders of stems and flowers, a Mariner's Compass in the centre, double binding and intricate quilting.

柳澤貴美江 made 'Mimosa Fluttering', so unlike the mimosa tree near my house...

On the other hand, the floral quilt 金澤陽子made looks familiar. She made a similar-looking quilt in 2023 for which she won the Grand Prix.

星野弘子 has added a lot of delicate details to her quilt.

樋田みち子

I must admit that this is my favourite quilt. When I saw it from a distance, I was sure it was made with velvet or velveteen - it glowed, it shifted tones and shades as velvet does when you see it from different angles.

but it turned out there is no 'magic' fabric,  just plain cotton.

大谷眞知子 calls the quilt 'Ah! I found it! I wonder what she found, a flower growing out of the asphalt, or how to trick the eye to make plain cotton look like velvet!

Fabric with a colour gradation is often used for Hawaiian quilts. Is that what 菅谷由希子used for this very feminine floral quilt.

Look at the close-up of the machine quilting.

If you haven't got enough striped fabric for your quilt, why not make some with ribbons? 大野恵子did!

橋田民恵　calls her quilt 'Flower Diamond'. 

We've seen the moon before, we've seen dancing rabbits before (in the previous blog post).

Here is also a multitude of quilting patterns.

Quilt made by 桂川池はる

At one time, black quilts were very popular in the US, but Japanese quilters did not take to them. So this quilt by 鈴木美智子 is rather unique. Can you see that she used hexagons to build the Baby Block pattern?

This was the second Baltimore Album quilt. Made by 鈴木久江.

'My Red Letter Day' by 川﨑あずさ

This was the last of the quilts in the Traditional category. The next post, highlighting Contemporary Quilts, will appear on Thursday.