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.