Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2019 - Partnership Quilt project - House

This is the block I made for the Partnership QuiltProject in 2005, when the theme was School House. 

It is time to make a quilt block for NHK's Partnership Quilt Project at Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2019, to be held in Tokyo Dome in January next year.

More information can be found on the official website. Sorry only in Japanese.

Under the tag NHK, above, you can read about this project and see my previous entires.

The theme this time is HOUSE.

In tonight's TV program and on the website, the suggestions are many and free. 

When I discussed the theme with a friend I reflected that there are a lot of different houses - human dwellings or workplaces - igloos, tents, tree houses, dollhouses, churches, garden sheds, bird houses, garages, summer houses, shops, log cabins, boat houses, house boats, or houses on stilts, temples, sand castles, caravans, corner shops, telephone booths, and why not a band stand in the park or a bus shelter…. I mean a bus shelter is often the only house a homeless can find to ‘live' in.  

Then there are the parts of a house - Santa stuck in the chimney, a cat in the window, an open and welcoming door, the ruined remains of a castle or a heap of plank being what is left of a house destroyed by the tsunami, or a heavily graffitied wall...

The rules are, 

• size 15x15 cm + seam allowance of 1-2 cm
• no quilting,
• name in lower right corner,
• enclose a self addressed 62yen postcard, if you live in Japan and want to know in which quilt your block has been added
• DEADLINE: 31st JULY 2018, when the block must have reached NHK
• send to: 

Partnership Quilt
 NHK Sutekini Handmade
 2-2-1 Jinnan
 Shibuya-ku
 Tokyo 150-8001
Japan

Now what house will I make?

The 16th Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2017 (Quilts by 'sensei')

This fantastic quilt show is now on at Tokyo Dome, a huge baseball arena here in Tokyo.

I will post tidbits from the show bit by bit.

Today I will show you work by some of the professional quilters, so called 'sensei'.

Plumeria by Yoshiko Kurihara 栗原淑子

To You by Yoko Sekita 関田陽子

Polish Pottery by Chieko Shiraishi 白石千恵子

 

Detail of the same quilt. Can you see all the crochet?

Be Happy by Megumi Mizuno 水野めぐみ

 Detail of the same quilt

 Field Sketch 'Cornflower' by Noriko Nozawa 野沢典子

 Detail of the same quilt

 Ainsley's Garden by Kazuyo Kanno 菅野和代

 Following the Sweet Scent by Harue Yumoto 湯本晴枝

 

Detail of the same quilt, fantastic variety in the quilted background.

 The Night Garden by Misaki Okabe 岡部美咲

 Rond of the Flowers by Chinami Terai 寺井ちなみ

 Detail of the same quilt, the bias tape is made from velveteen and the mimosa so fluffy.

In this section I and my two friends, Julie and Tanya, had some complaints:
1) the ghastly wallpaper with black and white leaves, a most unflattering background for most of the quilts,
2) the unfortunate lightning. Above the quilts were beams that cast ugly shadows over the quilts by the strong spotlights of the baseball field. The shadows are very obvious on the quilt above and the one with the cornflowers. So sad, because those quilt were both stunningly beautiful, but did not photograph well.

However, I have to take my hat off to the organizers of The festival for paying such attention to displaying quilts well in another section, by building scenes for some of the quilts.

Yoko Saito, who is famous for her taupe quilts, also has a love of Scandinavian design. In recent years she has made a series of quilts and quilted items in misty blue, and they were displayed like this:

A Swedish falu red house had been built.

Real trees and live flowers had been planted in the artificial grass of the baseball field. The perfume of the daffodils was almost overpowering!

In the dining room there was a set of antique furniture and real potted geraniums showing off the quilted table cloth, tea cozy, cushions, lampshade and the hooked rug.

More goodies from the show another day.

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2016 - Part 4

In this last post about the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2016 I will show an odd selection of pictures.

First is a detail of one of the framed quilts:

 'From now on, enjoy' by Kayoko Kubo＊「これから楽しみ」久保佳代子

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This was my absolute favourite:

'A gentle moment' by Ms Itoh (whose first name is read in either of these ways: Hiroko, Sachiko, Yoshiko or Masako, I think)＊「優しいひととき」伊藤祐子

Isn't the quilt design just perfect?

Here is a quilt I liked, with the moon reflected in water:

 made by Chizuko Takiyama＊「水画(みなもも)の月」瀧山千津子

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As you can see, this is not a quilt. 

It is paper poster for a 'poster quilt', featuring none other than Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit. 

So why does it say 'poster quilt' and Yoko Saito?

Well, Yoko Saito and her group so successfully made the Moomin quilts two years ago. This year they took up the challenge of making quilts for  'The World of Peter Rabbit' to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Ms Potter's birth.

Yoko Saito, herself, made this quilt:

and it was featured on the official poster for the quilt show

Pretty good, don't you think?

To see more quilts from Beatix Potter's designs, check out Michelle Hill's report.

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I end this report with a quilt called 

'Kiitos' by Chikako Ueno＊上野知佳子

Kiitos is Finnish and means Thank you.

Chikako Ueno is a master quilter and apart from wall quilts makes beautiful bags (you can see one on the floor). She is a friend of my friend Julie, and told me she got the Finnish Marimekko fabric used in this wall quilt from a friend in Finland. 

Talking of friends, Tanya made me this beautiful tatted bookmark.

Kiitos, Tanya!

So on this note of friendship I leave you with a big 'Kiitos' for reading my report. 

PS. Tanya has just posted lots of beautiful photos of Log Cabin quilts. Don't miss them!

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2016 - Part 3

In this post I will show you a number of quilts with houses.

This quilt has such fine details and a great variety of buildings all set in a beautiful  townscape.

 'Town walking' by Rieko Miyamura＊「街歩き」宮村理恵子

In contrast, these houses are from a Swedish village in the northern district of Dalarna. On a dark, cold and snowy day in December, the red timbered houses stand out.

 The May Pole is left standing after the June festival.
'SWEDEN HOUSE' by Mikiko Miyoshi＊三好美紀子

To celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary, this quilter made a house with houses or treasures inside each room. By sticking to few colours and keeping the red in the same value, the quilt is calm in spite of all that is happening in it. I love the nest building activities on the roof.

 Wedding Anniversary 25 years by Yasuyo Kon(?) Chik(?) (I'm sorry I don't know which pronounciation the quilter uses for her surname)＊「結婚25周年」均康代

This is truly international!
Japanese fabric has been used for the American school house quilt design to make a small town of German half timbered houses

 'Fachwerkhaus' by Satomi Tominaga＊富永聡美

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2016 - Part 2

Every year a good number  (64!) of famous Japanese master quilters and quilt teachers are invited to make a quilt each on a specific theme. For this year's show they had to interpret 'Log Cabin Sensation'.

 'Buddy' by Yoshiko Kurihara＊栗原淑子「ふたり」

The Queen of Crazy Quilting,

 Machiko Miyatani made 'Crazy Bow Tie Quilt & Log Cabin'＊宮谷真知子『クレイジーBOW&ログキャビン」

 She is obviously playing with words, but I think she has recycled ordinary neck ties rather than bow ties to make this quilt.

 'Jack in the Box' by Keiko Ike＊池敬子の「びっくり箱」

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From the Creative Quilt category of the contest, we have this colourful

'Ornamental Kale' by Yoshie Mizutani＊「花キャベツ」水谷よし江

Ornamental Kale is a special kind of cabbage, and here is a special kind of stationery

 Look at the close up and you can see they are

 vegetable pencils, evidently packed with vitamins!
'23 pieces (pencils) of vegetable vitamins!!' by Fumiyo Fukushima＊「23本のベジタブル・ビタミン!!」福島文代

You don't need to have a lot of colour in a quilt, just put small blobs on a bland background and the colours pop out

 Tiny pieces of gold ribbon draw your attention to the colourful centre

 'Floral Arabesque' by Nobuko Miyake＊「花唐草」三宅信子

In the next post I will show you some houses. Tanya has written up a post about her trip to the show and the Partnership Quilts. Click here to read it, you won't regret it!

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2016 - Part 1

January is the time of the quilt show in Japan, Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival.
As it is such a crowded event I usually try to visit more than one day and then write up several reports. Lack of free time is hindering me from keeping up this tradition, but I'll try to show you some titbits from the show.

..........

I was joined by my friends Julie and Tanya. Walking around with friends  you see so much more, and are seen by so many people! We were stopped by fellow bloggers (Thanks for stopping to chat, Jenni!)  and quilt masters (Chikako Ueno-sensei), apart from all the visitors who just had to look at Julie's beautiful patchwork jacket and bag.

The first thing we did was to check out our blocks on the Partnership Quilt Project.

Here is Julie with her charming Cardinal. Read her amusing account on the making of this block.

My block had been worked into this quilt. I really like the four sections of various musical instruments. If you know that blue and yellow are the colours of the Swedish flag you will easily find my block with the key harp:

Tanya made a crisp block and as you can see she was not the only one to settle for a clef!

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Every year TIGQF features something historic, be it Amish quilts, Swedish wool embroidery or Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House on the Prairie' quilts. For 2016 it was time to showcase the design genius William Morris. I am sure you can recognise some of his beautiful designs from these posters.

A model room with William Morris wallpaper, tiles, curtains and upholstery had been made:

 Japanese quilters showed how they have made WM inspired quilts.

Filtered Sunshine, by Isako Murakami＊村上勇子

Taeko Watanabe used the print 'Strawberry Thief' in this quilt＊渡辺多恵子

Some five years ago I took a design class at Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, UK, with Michelle Hill.  This Australian quilter is William Morris' biggest admirer and makes the most fantastic quilts in his honour, in a very different style from the ones at this show. I had read on her blog that she would be in Tokyo and was looking forward to seeing both  her and her quilts. Unfortunately I saw neither; her work was not represented (NHK made a great mistake by not including her work!!!) and I did not see her in person either. However she has posted several reports on her blog,  there are plenty of photographs for you to look at. Enjoy!

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Something you do see at Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival, and probably not at any other show, are framed quilts. These are rather small and are often heavily embroidered.

母の秘密ガーデン/Mother's Secret Garden by Iwen Liu from Taiwan

 Casablanca Lily by Keiko Morita＊森田佳子

 Good Morning by Harumi Mukoyama＊向山晴美

元町通6丁目Rainy Days by Kushiko(?) Hosomi＊細見久視子

More quilts in a later blog post.