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?