Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival - Part 7 - VIP Quilts

Now that we have covered most of the quilts from the contest, let's move on to the VIP quilts. Quilts made by heavy weight established quilters.

An annual section is the works of 50 or so famous quilters. It is interesting to see what they have made since last year. They all usually have the same technique, style or fabric type, so it is easy to recognise their creations.

古池裕子＊Hiroko Koike is smart! She makes a new trapunto quilt every year and joins them together. The large one is the Sun, the smaller ones are the Earth, Moon and the Universe. All impeccable!

白石千恵子*Chieko Shiraishi is celebrating Polish embroidery and folklore with this colourful beauty.

丸山米子＊Yoneko Maruyama is the Queen of Boro - rag quilts. I don't think you need a close-up to see the strips of torn fabric.

 秋田光代＊Mitsuyo Akita made a Tree of Life quilt.

村田美代子＊Miyoko Murata sees the world as ONE. Can you spot Italy, Japan and Scandinavia?

 村上光子＊Mitsuko Murakami played with shadows in this quilt made mainly from batik.

三島仁美＊Hitomi Mishima created her charming quilt with  the same Japanese Patchwork that I used for the bag. Then she added these fantastic loops of kimono silk.

 Don't the loops remind you of marshmallows?

森下圭子＊Keiko Morishita could have joined Julie, Tanya and me in the Circle Challenge, don't you think?

Beautiful indigo cotton and shashiko stitching.

If 齋藤禎子＊Teiko Saito had waited until next year to display this quilt, she could have joined us in our Log Cabin Challenge!

 By adding thin slices of folded silk, like a piping, she added a new touch to the traditional Log cabin.
It is all worked in kimono silk although you can't see it in the picture.

 Here is a quilt with a modern look. 沢田淳子＊Junko Sawada

One of my favourite quilters is 栗原淑子＊Yoshiko Sawada. Her geometric figures of the human form, always dressed in something fashionable or stylish, stand out far away. Her quilts can not be mistaken for anyone else's.

The next quilt must have been EVERYONE's favourite. 水野めぐみ＊Megumi Mizuno made a real crowd stopper. There were always people standing in front of it and trying to find a difference between the pieces.

Here it was easy to find the darker pink bow, the bird with the flower in its peak,

but where is the difference between these four Dala horses? Well, three of them can absolutely not SEE the difference!!! That's the hint for you!

And you will have to count the beads to find the odd turnip. 

Here is another quilt with lots of details to look at. 若山雅子＊Masako Wakayama celebrated someone's birthday.

佐々木文江＊Fumie Sasaki added very colourful feathers to her border.

野沢典子＊Noriko Nozawa makes these fantastic machine stitched quilts. We always stand and wonder in front of her meticulous work. The Cross Stitch function on her embroidery machine must be set to the smaller possible stitch, and with it she fills in the white areas on the purple background.

 

 Here is a close-up taken from a quilt of a previous year.

If some quilters are obsessed with Cross Stitch others are with buttons. 岡野栄子＊Eiko Okano has many trademarks: buttons, embroidery stitching, kimono shape...

中山冨美子＊Fumiko Nakayama made another beautiful Mola.

Finally let me show you an appliqué quilt by 宮内恵子＊Keiko Miyauchi. No one, NO ONE can do appliqué like Ms Miyauchi, and can you believe it, she never uses pins to hold the pieces in place when she does the needle turning, just a simple basting stitch.

 Have you had enough of quilts now, or do you want to see some others tomorrow?

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival - Part 6 - Wa Quilts

Wa (和) is the name given to describe things of Japanese style. When it comes to quilting it might be that old kimono silk or indigo cotton has been used, or that the motif is of cherry blossoms, Mt Fuji or sushi. Or the technique is 'Japanese', e.g. folded fabric, similar to origami, the traditional craft of folding paper into objects.

These were the Wa quilts in the contest that I saw.
柴田千恵子＊Chieko Shibata

龍山千津子＊Chizuko Tatsuyama cleverly used the Baby Block to make this Cherry Moon quilt.

This quilt, made by 満代由美子＊Yumiko Mandai, has elements of folded fabric.
From a distance the fabric looks crumpled, as if it was left too long in the washing machine.
Study the close-up photo and you will see that a very narrow line has been stitched along a folded edge, this folding and stitching has been repeated in a crosswise way across the fabric. Pieces of this 'manipulated' fabric have then been cut and pieced together.

In this quilt you see, no, not dancing jelly beans, but a number of Daruma. It is a lucky charm in the form of a roly-poly doll. Read about Daruma Dolls here.

半よしゑ＊Yoshie Nakaba (?)

須川明子＊Akiko Sugawa played with another toy - the kite. All these kites have pictures of symbolic things. Can you see the Daruma Doll? The gold fish? The Japanese puffer fish? The rabbit?

A modern version of Mt Fuji with a red sun. Any Japanese can instantly see that this is not a lampshade, but the famous volcano and the sun, which is always pictured red. The pattern at the foot of the mountain could be a mountain range, clouds or waves in any of the lakes nearby... I guess.
堀岡雪江＊Yukie Horioka tugged the heartstrings of her fellow Japanese.

The Log Cabin is a foreign element in this quilt, the rest is all 'Wa' - the kimono silk, the cranes flying over the harvest moon, the pampas grass swaying in the wind... you can imagine the haiku poem and the sake.
横川れい子＊Reiko Yokokawa stitched poetry.

In four panels on a large quilt 松本紀代子＊Kiyoko Matsumoto celebrates the seasons with these flowers.

Now, I will break the rules here, and show two quilts from the Original category, that I think should have been entered in the 'Wa' category of the contest.

南久美子＊Kumiko Minami's red chrysanthemums and butterflies.

大浦京子＊Kyoko Oura's Japanese hamlet in snow.

They are certainly both original, but Oh, so Japanese.

Finally I will add the quilt that won the Grand Prix, obviously a Wa quilt, with vintage fabric.

永見州樹子＊Sumiko Nagami