Saturday, 1 February 2020

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2020 - Part 8 - Partnership Quilts

This quilt show is always crowded. Many of the visitors have come to see their own work. Now I am not only talking about the large scale wall quilts, the bags or even the smaller framed quilts. No, I am especially referring to the Partnership Quilts.

Anyone is welcome to contribute a 15cm x 15cm block, on a theme announced in May. This year it was 'My Favourite Animal'. The blocks have to be sent to the quilt committee by July 31st, where they will be sorted and arranged into quilts of 154 blocks each. An army of volunteers will then piece the blocks together, sandwich and quilt them.
In previous years more blocks were sent in, but the 8.721 blocks received this time was still an impressive number. So it is my guess that thousands of visitors came to see their own block, and brought with them a friend or two or three...

This is quilt no 1, always a 'showcase' of creativity, skill and originality.

A close-up of some of the blocks. In the tiger block the black markings actually make up the kanji (Chinese character) that reads TIGER.

Tanya pointing to her block, a clever Mola of a cat and a dog.

Julie with her owl and cardinals.


Self with 'The Armchair Cat'


Pamela and her pandas.

As you might have noticed, many quilts had collections of the same animal, others were a mix.


Following are some examples:

A Mola fish


A chirimen (kimono crepe silk) jelly fish.


 A rocking horse

A Swedish Dalecarlian Horse.



A Japanese folklore fox or Nessie of Loch Ness?

A Kappa, the Japanese water creature

Sunbonnet Sue's true identity - a squirrel?










A very rude crow by the name of Kiyoe-chan and Chiko-chan, from the NHK TV quiz 'Don't Sleep Through Life'.

A penguin in school uniform.

A polar bear eating a shaved ice dessert.


A Japanese snow monkey taking a hot mineral bath.



A Hanging Hina Goldfish Doll
This reminds me, I have to make some new Hina Dolls for my mobile before the Girls Festival in March.






5 comments:

Isadarena said...

Thanks Carin for posting these quilts with lots of cute and fun little animals. It must be very funny to collaborate in these national projects.
Have a sweet night,
Take care,
Isabelle

Rachel said...

What a wonderful variety!

Tanya said...

It is always amazing what people can do with a 15 centimeter square block. So many ideas and inspirations!

Cynthia@wabi-sabi-quilts said...

Part 8! I am loving all your posts. The Partnership quilts were fun to see, especially those with a lot of variety. Your block is so sweet and I love that you incorporate a Swedish flag each time. I wonder what next year's theme will be??

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

Clever ladies, love your chair block.