TAST #91 - Straight Sided Feather Stitch

This time Sharon of Pintangle, who is giving us these wonderful TAST (Take A Stitch Tuesday) stitches, handed out three stitches at the same time but I will work and post one at a time.

Here is TAST #91 which is called Straight Sided Feather Stitch. Actually it gives the basic Feather stitch a more geometric and stiff look.

I made two lines, one wider, one a bit more narrow.

Although this is a simple stitch I think the possibilities are endless, e.g. two rows in mirror image, extremely long or short stitches, or a combination.

I can tell you already now that the next stitch is combination stitch. How I will work it you'll see next week!

WIPW - Ready to quilt

Joining Work In Progress Wednesday (WIPW) helps you finish your needlework projects. Why not take part? Read about it at Pintangle.

This is a busy time of the year but I have made some progress.

Kafferepet

The quilt top is ready, it has been pressed and marked for quilting, sandwiched and basted. It measures 1m square.

When I joined TAST in 2012 it was to learn embroidery stitches that I could use in quilting. That is why I will now make use of some of those stitches on this quilt, instead of only using the traditional running stitch. Watch this space, as they say!

Swedish cushion

On the Swedish cushion I have added a mirror image of last week's. The stitches here are Chain (TAST #8) and Detached Chain (#7) with a long tail.

TAST #90 Twisted Satin Stitch with Beads

Have you ever wanted to learn new embroidery stitches? Then head over to Pintangle and join TAST, Take A Stitch Tuesday.

TAST #90 is called Twisted Satin Stitch with Beads.

This is a version of the last Twisted Satin Stitch, and a bead has been added.

The longer the stitch, the more the beads move along the stitch. That undulating line of beads is quite nice, I think.
Angela at Princess Bubbles Creates made a great observation; the beads sit very snug and show their nice side. So now I know how to avoid beads that turn their hole upwards. Thank you, Angela!

The back of the stitches look quite good, too. Don't you agree?

TAST #89 Twisted Satin Stitch

TAST is an abbreviation for Take A Stitch Tuesday, a great challenge at Pintangle.

Stitch # 89 is called Twisted Satin Stitch and is easy to do, quick and has a nice look.
The light green has one twist, the light blue two twists.
I took up Annet's idea and changed to a different thread in the lower black and white row…

WIPW - Double TAST stitches!

WIPW stands for Work In Progress Wednesday and is a great progress challenge at Pintangle. Read more here.

Kafferepet

I was counting the stems on the border of this quilt. There are 48 which makes the border stems complete.
However, I found that I have used the Palestrina stitch #24 twice. I don't want to have double stitches and removed one stem and re-stitched it with Buttonhole Picot v2 (with Chain Stitch) #88.
Before:

After:

When looking at the flowers I thought the blue star shaped ones looked so bare and bland. I stitched some Stem stitches #14 around them and think they look better for it. There are four clusters of flowers and I gave all of them the Stem treatment.

I also added a running stitch in each of the leaves of the roses. (no picture of such a small progress).

This means that the border is now complete. The top needs a light wash, press and then I have to think up a quilt design, mark, sandwich and baste the quilt before the actual quilting can be started.

Swedish Cushion

The Swedish cushion has been adorned with some Portuguese Stem stitches #73 and Pistil stitches #34.

Yokohama International Quilt Week 2013 - Miniature quilts

One part of the Yokohama International Quilt Week is the Miniature contest. The quilts should measure 50 cm x 50 cm, and be entered under either the Traditional, Contemporary, Wa (Japanese style) or Pictorial category.

This was a good year with more Miniature quilts than I have seen in a long time.

Let me start with the winner: Akemi Tajima's 'Shoka. Yureru Poppy'

田島明美*初夏。ゆれるポピー

I got a comment from my friend Lis that the quilts were very colourful this year. It is true also about the miniatures so let's ooze out some more orange:
'Sekijitsu' by Kinue Ishigame

昔日*石亀絹恵

'Australia gensan burashi-no-ki wo anata ni puresento' made by Sanae Funabashi

 More and more embroidery is being used in quiltmaking.

オーストラリア原産ブラシの木をあなたにプレセント*船橋さな江
There is embroidery and a tree in the next quilt, too!
'Jingle Bell ga naru toki' by Tomiko Hiramatsu

 How about this way of using our TAST stitches?

ジングルベルが鳴る時*平松トミ子
Many want to celebrate that Mt Fuji has been added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites and here is Taeko Hanae's 'Fujisan 2013'

富士山 2013*花枝妙子
'Ribbon and ribbon' by Yoshiko Koguchi

Ribbon and ribbon*湖口佳子
'Sensu' by Tomoko Kuniyoshi is in the style of orderly crazy quilt.

扇*国吉那子
Another crazy quilt is my own 'JET BLACK', heavy with TAST stitches. The picture is a bit blurred, but you might have seen better pictures of it when I worked on this quilt last summer, autumn and winter. The last blog entry is here.

'FROM HAWAII' by Yoshiko Kinoshita.

FROM HAWAII*木下佳子
Another summer flower,
'Summer Flower' made by Mariko Hayasaki

Summer Flower*早崎麻利子
Several groups of quilters had made one quilt each on the same theme or design. One set was, what I guess is shadow quilting over a crayoned base fabric. One of the quilts is
'Kibo' by Mariko Tanaka.

希望*田中麻里子
'Kibo' means hope so let us hope that there will be another quilt show at Yokohama next November filled with good quilts.

International Quilt Week Yokohama 2013 - More quilts

They talk about armchair travelling, I hope this report can be a bit like armchair quilt show visiting.

I find it hard to do the quilt show in just one day, which is why I made a second visit, even though I saw so much more in the company of my friend Julie. Do head over to My Quilt Diary and read her take on the show.

I have some more pictures for you today.
Julie showed the giant quilts that are displayed high up near the entrance.

They are double sided and watch over visitors, exhibitors and traders alike. I have not yet been able to find out how they have been made or by whom.

Unlike the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival held every year in January at Tokyo Dome, this show in Yokohama is not so crowded; there is plenty of space between stands and visiting is therefore stress free and most enjoyable.

An annual event is the Mini Mini quilt challenge. The participants are given three pieces of fabric that must be included, even in the tiniest amount,  to make a basket quilt of the size 20 x 20 cm. 784 quilts were submitted this year.

 Sometimes it is easy to spot the fabric, in other quilts you need to look and look and look. Spot that print! Great fun!

Ms Morita made a traditional mini quilt.

Did Ms Yanagiya/Yanagitani (uncertain about spelling, sorry) portrait her sewing basket?

 我妻-san　(Ms Agatsuma?) made this charming picture, there is even some slash quilt technique in it.

Two quilt categories that feature more in Japan than I think in other countries are Bags and Wear.

The award ceremony is rather formal with speeches, fanfares, hand clapping, bowing and handing out of diplomas and prizes.

Now let's look at some more quilts from the contest.

Wa-quilts, that means quilts made on a Japanese theme or with Japanese fabric.

'Murasaki no yukari', a friendship quilt hand stitched in purple kimono silk by a group led by Masako Masukura.

紫の縁*桝蔵昌子　他

Fashion of all sorts has always been of great interest and even in Wa-quilts do costumes feature.

'Koiki ni yosou Edo Mood' (or something like that!) by Yoshiko Takagi. The quilting line is also very Japanese, don't you think?

小粋に装う江戸モード*高木良子

'Wakoyomi (kimono de juni ka getsu)'. Mieko Suzuki and her friends made a block for each month of the year with an appropriate kimono, flower and celebration. Here you can see camellias and a thick kimono for January, plum blossoms for February, cherry petals are falling onto the sake picnic in April and in May, Boys' Day is celebrated in a light purple kimono (with iris pattern) among the blossoming iris flowers...

 和暦（着物で十二ヶ月）*鈴木三枝子　他

Cats, dogs, one's home, food and travelling are also very popular themes in Japan, as is text. Here are a few examples:

Home

'My Favourite Things' by Yuka Kimura (Contemporary category). Can you spot the Swedish wooden horses (Dalahäst) and the cat?

My Favourite Things*木村由香

There should be no problem spotting the cats in this quilt: 'Uchi no nyanko' by Junko Inui

家のにゃんこ*乾順子

Dogs

What do you think of this life like pictorial quilt? The dog is almost about to jump at those soap bubbles:

'Chasing Bubbles' by Hiroko  and Masanobu Miyama

Chasing Bubbles*深山公子*深山雅庸

Food, or in this case, sweets:

'Sweet! Delicious! Very Happy!' by Yoshiko Kuroyanagi and of course she has included some text for accent.

'Sweet! Delicious! Very Happy!'*黒柳佳子

Travelling

'Akogare no Istanbul' by Yukiko Ishiduka

あこがれのイスタンブル*石塚由紀子

So what about quilts with a modern touch.
In celebration of the fashionable eyelashes? or just a plea to 'open your eyes and look', 'Youku miru to' by Miyuki Moriyasu
Please note that the black and white background is PIECED! By HAND! No wonder you need to 'open your eyes and look'!

よおーく見ると*盛安美幸
Let us end with an entry from Australia, 'Beyond Art Deco Glass' by Patricia Reid

If you read yesterday's post you know all about the white chains that make it so hard to take good photographs. My apologies for not showing whole quilts, but mainly details.

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.