Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival - 7 More quilts?! And more things?!

By now you are probably fed up with Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival.

Yes? Stop reading now.

Don't know? Well, here is a summery for you; this post contains:

• the winning quilts
• other quilts
• kogin
• whitework
• boutis
• Japanese embroidery

No? Then read on.

The Grand Prix, Best in show, went to

a quilt in indigo blue

三坂悦子＊Etsuko Misaka

Second prize went to this absolutely STUNNING quilt - a masterpiece if ever I saw one!

渡辺章子＊Akiko Watanabe

The prize for handmade quilt

川上亜矢子＊Ayako Kawakami

This quilt needed a lot of planning and fussy cutting

鬼塚美佐子＊Misako Onitsuka

Here a sample of the clever use of kimono fabric, to dress the lady in - a kimono!

市村静子＊Shizuko Ichimura

Every quilt show has some indigo quilts

古谷敦子＊Atsuko Furuya

A charming village quilt

植松章子＊Akiko Uematsu

Red and white is always striking

出家晴美＊Harumi Shukke

Amish quilts are popular, even when they are machine quilted

小圷サト子＊Satoko Koakutsu

Look how you can use the Buttonhole stitch on the machine for a nice accent.

池敬子＊Keiko Ike

A Japanese quilt show is not a show without a taupe quilt. This one features Tokyo Station, in celebration of the station's 100th anniversary.

内藤千鶴子＊Chizuko Naito

Handquilted Baltimore Album quilts are also popular

上坂和美＊Kazumi Uesaka

A lot of perfection and work has gone into this quilt.

清田澄枝＊Sumie Kiyota

Here is a quilt to inspire my friend of Hokkaido Kudasai! 

How many Mondays' worth of count would you need before you finished this quilt, Pamela?

田中福子＊Fukuko Tanaka

This famous artist never fails to amaze the crowds with her charming, lively and witty quilts.

関田陽子＊Yoko Sekita


NHK (the TV broadcaster) has recently shown a series of documentaries about Japanese fabric. In one of the programmes they focused on Kogin, the embroidery used to reinforce farmers' clothes in Aomori prefecture of northern Japan. At the show there was a display of such clothes and stitching. Some of my readers will recognise these items once on display at the Amuse museum in Tokyo.

If you want to try your hand at Kogin, Carolyn Foyley of caro-rose-creations has worked an impressive number of patterns and kindly made them accessible on her blog.

Famous embroidery artist Ayako Ohtsuka had some of her beautiful items on display

So did boutis expert Kumiko Nakayama Geraerts

Finally, a display of impeccable Japanese embroidery by

A word of warning, there will be one more post from Tokyo International Great Quilts Festival, but it's about things you take home, such as shopping!

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2015 - 6 Bags

Have you ever looked in a Japanese quilt magazine? There is bound to be at least one pattern for a quilted bag. Bag making is extremely popular, and if you look at the ladies queuing up to get into the Tokyo International Great Quilts Festival, you feel as if you are already at the exhibition! A fashion show of bags right there in the queue! Many stop to admire others' bags; indeed my friend Julie has a bag that is a real crowd stopper.

By the way, Julie has posted pictures from the Children's Book Quilts at the TIGQF. Check them out here.

Back to the bags. Here is a handful of the bags entered in the Bag Contest.

The winning bag

菅原真弓＊Mayumi Sugawara

This was made to resemble a Penny Rug (!?)

高瀬美季子＊Mikiko Takase (?)

These red bags were made entirely of Suffolk Puffs (yo-yos) and beads.

 Sorry I missed the maker's name.

Don't you think this bag is quite original?

出本正彦＊Masahiko Demoto (?)

The bags need to be secured with wire so they don't 'walk out of the show'. That's popular for you!

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival - 5 Building quilt scenes

NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai), the state run public broadcasting organisation of Japan, that is the main organiser of this big quilt event, are good at building quilt scenes. Maybe because they produce a lot of high quality drama series, they can whip up the Moomin house (last year), and before that, an Amish house, Anne of Green Gables' room, orchards with patchwork apple trees, Alice in Wonderland's tea party..., among many things.

This year was no exception. The theme was The House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I hope you have already looked at Tanya's blog post with a picture of the quilted wagon; if not, check it out here.

Notice the props.

The grass and flowers, the plums on the tree - made of fabric by quilt teacher Reiko Washizawa and her team of volunteers.

There was also the family's log cabin built by NHK,

and decorated by Yoko Saito and her team.

Then there was the general store. Suzuko Koseki and her followers had filled it with lovely goods.

 Even outside on the porch there were some chairs and a table. A felted tin of lobster held a single 'cotton' flower.

I know of no other quilt show where a whole scene is built up like this. Do you?

There were also a number of quilts depicting some scenes of Laura Ingalls Wilder's stories.

Family's Pleasant Time

志村恒子＊Tsuneko Shimura

 The Very First Day of School

寺井ちなみ＊Chinami Terai

I hope you have enjoyed US pioneer scenery in a Japanese baseball stadium!