Friday, 6 June 2014



NHK Partnership quilt 2015

Last night, NHK (the Japanese state run broadcasting company) announced the theme for next year's Partnership quilt project, to be held at Tokyo Dome (Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2015) some time in January 2015.

You can read what I have written earlier about NHK Partnership quilt here.
Here are some pictures from the show at Tokyo Dome this year.

Last time it was Flower Language and I contributed with this block.

For 2015 the theme is SWEET.

In Japanese 'sweet' could mean: cake, dessert, ice cream, candy... or something charming, pretty and cute ('kawaii'), like a teddy bear, kitten, pink ribbon... anything that a 'girl' would like. As many Japanese ladies really are little girls at heart, they will find it easy to make a block on this theme!

Should you wish to participate, then these are the rules:
  • one block per person
  • 22cm x 22cm with a seam allowance of 1.5cm included
  • flimsy block, i.e. no wadding, no quilting
  • your name should be written with pen in the seam allowance of the lower right hand corner
  • your block should have reached NHK by 31st August, 2014
  • enclose a note with your name, address, tel no, email address
  • send to:
Partnership Quilt
NHK Sutekini Handmade
2-2-1 Jinnan
Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-8001
Japan

Your block will be joined with other blocks into large bed size quilts and quilted by volunteers. These quilts will be displayed at Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival in January next year, where they will be raffled off.


A link (in Japanese) to NHK's website for this event is here.

20 comments:

Cynthia@wabisabiquilts said...

Thank you for this information Queenie. I regret that I didn't submit a block this year - perhaps I will have more luck (or discipline!) for 2015. It's nice to see another glimpse of your peace dove. Your work is so beautiful!

Tanya said...

I didn't get to the TV last night (or should I say that Tetsu got to the TV before me) so I didn't see the NHK broadcast. Sweet... Hmmm.... Now what can I do with that? It might be fun... I've never participated in a partnership quilt and last year I pleaded off because I didn't have time... Now the problem will be an idea... Keep me motivated!

Pamela said...

Thanks for the information. I'm going to post about it tomorrow and I'm already thinking about what I'm going to make!

Queeniepatch said...

The programme with be re-run twice, next week Tuesday 10 June, 10.15-10.40 on NHK channel 1 and Wednesday 11 June, 10.30-10.55 on NHK channel 3.
There are some ideas and all the information (in Japanese) on their website:
http://www.nhk.or.jp/kurashi/hand/quilt/index.html

Queeniepatch said...

Thank you for your kind comments, Cynthia. How have you been? If YOU can't make it back to Japan, maybe some of your WORK (I mean a Partnership block) can! I will be happy to go Cynthia block hunting among the 10,000 of blocks!

Queeniepatch said...

Good, the more the word is spread the better! I, too, will have to give this theme a good think. Can I make something that is sweet in both meanings...?

Annet said...

Thanks for the info. Love the theme, so I'm tempted to submit a block this time!

Queeniepatch said...

Great! I will be happy to go around looking for it among the many quilts. I wonder what is 'sweet' in Holland? Sweet cheese? Sweet tulips? Cute windmills?

J Honda said...

woohoo! thank you Queenie! am going to do it this year!! - your Japanese is better than mine, 「スイーツ」does not mean SWEETS ? as in candies, cookies, mochi etc - but also means かわいい ? I thought スイート was also かわいい ? I am eager to try to keep up with Japanese - thank you for your help!!

kippyssomature@gmail.com

Queeniepatch said...

You know your Japanese!
Yes, スイーツ=confectionaries, and スイート=pretty, cute (かわいい). When Japanese expressions are formed based on foreign words they get 'fuzzy' interpretations.
The quilter in charge of Partnership quilts 2015 is Akane Sakamoto (http://okanarts.com/general/its-huge/attachment/ancestry/) and in the TV programme she suggested blocks of cakes, cats, bows, girls etc, so I think the theme can be either スイーツ or スイート.
It will be lovely to see your block in Tokyo!

J Honda said...

wonderful! thank you :D

Anonymous said...

A nice theme for next year, I can see ther being lots of entries!

Lis Harwood said...

Thanks for the information, I'm going to give it a go this year. It was so exciting to see the quilts from last year when you posted photographs. At the moment I'm dyeing fabric with rose petals so I'm thinking "pink" which might be appropriate!

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

I will give this some thought. I looked at the website, Japanese writing is so decorative.

Queeniepatch said...

Usually there are over 10.000 blocks submitted, and I am sure they will go over that mark this time, too.

Queeniepatch said...

Yes, pink is a 'sweet' colour in Japan and much liked by 'girls' so it would be appropriate. I hope to have a long list of overseas blocks to look for.

Queeniepatch said...

Linda, you have a great eye for design and beauty so I can appreciate you like looking at the 'decorative' Japanese writing.

Koala said...

Hello Queenie, does that mean that all the entries will end up in the quilts? Or it is a competition? I am a beginner, but very interested in making an effort :-)))

Queeniepatch said...

Hi Koala,
Yes, every entry will be used to make quilts. The more blocks sent in, and donated, the more quilts. At the show there is a ballot box next to each quilt. One then buys a raffle ticket and places it in the box of the quilt one wants to win, keeps one's fingers and hopefully wins the quilt. The proceeds go to the reconstruction work of the tsunami hit areas.

Koala said...

Thank you for the explanation!! That is a great cause, I will try to make it .